If Deer Mountain Inn in Tannersville resembles a lodge designed for European nobility, it’s no accident. Owner Danielle Gortel and her husband come from the mountains of Poland: It was only natural that these two avid skiers settle in Catskills ski country and that they keep an inn that resembles Spala, the ancient hunting seat of Polish kings.
Built as a private residence, the circa-1900 mansion stands in a 15-acre wooded enclave. This place is lushly packed with mountain ambience—moose heads, boar heads, bearskin rugs, ram’s horn candleholders, paintings of European mountain villages, and heavy, overstuffed furniture. It is said that the house was once owned by the notorious gangster Legs Diamond.
|