Bal Harbour

C O U R T E S Y R E L A I S & C H ÂT E AU X ; P H OTO BY B O N J W I N G L E E , C O U R T E S Y R E L A I S & C H ÂT E AU X ; P H OTO BY B E N F I N C H , C O U R T E S Y C ATA LO O C H E E R A N C H rchards groaning with fruit ready for the kitchen to turn into cobbler and pie, and forests filled with forage-ready morels. Homey, overstuffed rooms with four-poster beds, and a leatherbound book to browse, filled with activities from fly-fishing to clay-pigeon shooting. Free-roaming chickens and sheep, with a potential playground of more than 4,000 rugged country acres. It's a scenic, seductive offering, and the signature of a mold-breaking resort in the foothills of Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains: Blackberry Farm. The property was first built as a family home with a small inn in the 1940s, but it wasn't until 1976 that it emerged in its current form. That's when the Beall family–whose patriarch made his fortune founding the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain– opened a six-room retreat on the site. It was an instant sensation and soon expanded into the sprawling luxury hideaway the Bealls still operate today. (Today, the family operates other properties, too, including Blackberry Mountain, seven miles away, as well as High Hampton, another countrified resort in North Carolina.) Blackberry Farm, though, is more than just another five-star hotel; its model for hospitality realized a template that other luxury properties around the country have rushed to emulate in the decades since. It's rugged and rural, yet indulgent and friction-free. "I don't know if Blackberry Farm invented this, but it's an idea that they perfected," says Amanda Belarmino, a hospitality professor at UNLV. What, then, was the unique recipe that proved so irresistible? One key ingredient: combining upscale with unstuffy. It was almost counterintuitive to approach luxury hospitality in that way, notes Christine Kaculis. She's a branding expert with a deep well of experience, including stints on LVMH's hospitality team. America's youth, and youthfulness, offered a blank slate to reinvent the model of a country hotel, versus the centuries-old protocols revered in Paris or Rome. "We have so much more license to define and have fun with it here and be less intimidating. The rules are still being written." Blackberry Farm's rates include meals, too, in what feels more like staying with a friend for a relaxing weekend than never signing a check at the end of dinner. Just don't dare call it all-inclusive. Dubbing a country hotel a farm is a regular branding trick now but was a mold-breaker when the Bealls dared do it. "They were the first: Blackberry capitalized on what they do, and used that vernacular to their advantage," says Kevin Jackson, who runs the high-end travel agency EXP Journeys and regularly books clients to stay there. "And the farm is interwoven into the experience." You can visit the kennels where Lagotto Romagnolo dogs are bred to help snaffle out truffles in the cultivated orchards, for example, or forage for those morels with a guide. Of course, there's ample farmstay-style accommodation in Europe, notes UNLV's Belarmino, but such options, like Italy's agriturismo program, offer overnight accommodation as an addition to their core business. Blackberry Farm, though, is both a working estate and a luxury hotel, with both strands of its business intrinsically interwoven. Perhaps the most distinctive element of Blackberry Farm's mix, though, is its subtly retro affect: call it Little Hotel on the Prairie. "It's a romanticized idea of what that simple life was—though in reality we have it simpler now, because I don't have to make my own ketchup," Belarmino jokes. She points out that commercial farms and dude ranches in the 21st century are determinedly high-tech, embracing whatever shortcuts AI et al will offset the grueling work. What resorts like Blackberry Farm offer, though, is an idealized, storybook-like version of country work. "You're not just going to see a farm, but one working the way you'd expect it to a hundred years ago," she continues. "Every generation has a desire to return to something simple. A lot of people know they can't go run a farm, but going on a farm vacation gives you the escape without the compromise." Kevin Jackson agrees. "Even the decor is almost intentionally antique, such as in the main room with old maps. People absolutely love it, almost as if you feel you're in a Western movie. It doesn't feel modern by any means." And our love for such Americana isn't ebbing away, either: Jackson adds that he'll regularly be asked by clients booking such country retreats for the same experience. "They say I want to have my Yellowstone moment." There's no word whether Taylor Sheridan ever stayed with the Bealls, but he's certainly tapped into many of the same resonant impulses with his megahit. Yellowstone Farm, anyone? O back to the land Ready for more? These resorts will please anyone who's a regular at Blackberry Farm. The Swag and Cataloochee Ranch, North Carolina Owners Annie and David Colquitt are close friends of the Bealls, who make ideal consultants for their sister resorts, which border the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Choose between the 18-room former potato farm, The Swag, and the working ranch, whose Black Angus cattle supply the onsite Switchback steakhouse. The Lodge at Blue Sky, Utah, and Wildflower Farms, New York Auberge goes agrarian at these properties: Visit the female-led Gracie's Farm at the Lodge at Blue Sky's 4,000-acre ranch in the Wasatch Mountains, while across the country at Wildflower Farms, in the Hudson Valley, guests can explore the organic farm's beekeeping programs. Lone Mountain Ranch, Montana This Big Sky site was first homesteaded in 1915 and now operates as a guest–ranch, with high-end options like horseback riding, guided Yellowstone backcountry excursions, and a Western-cowboy feel, even in its ultra-exclusive members club, the Auric Room 1915. Fifty years ago, a farm-forward, yet luxurious, resort nestled on Tennessee's Chilhowee Mountain forever changed the blueprint for five-star stays. Mark Ellwood explores the legacy of Blackberry Farm—including a clutch of resorts that have followed in its footsteps. FROM TOP The lake at Blackberry Farm; a dish of crudités with sheep's milk cheese made on site Cataloochee Ranch BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M

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