British Inspiration

Our inspiration for creating a certain kind of locally inspired, design infused hotel in the country derives primarily from the tradition of the country house hotel in England and its Irish cousin. Not the dark country house hotels of the past, but light-infused, color-rich properties of a type you now find inhabiting the landscape in an easy-going way all across the U.K. Below are a few of our current favorites.

It must be something about Britain's small scale--and thus the relative proximity to London and its population--base that make this possible economically. Some of the finest in recent years can be found across the southwest, from Somerset to Dorset and Cornwall. Each of the best of these doesn't forget where it is in the world even as it puts forward design to savor. And great food is never lost in the equation!

Two Brands That Get It Right

There are two brands I wish I could hate but I can't, because frankly from a design point of view they get it right pretty much all the time. The first is the Soho House, a standout for me because of the quality of their design work in outposts such as the Soho Farmhouse near Great Tew in the U.K. (where, coincidentally, I once lived in a sweet cottage--in Great Tew's unchic days) and in Istanbul. Both continue to riff on the industrial chic vocabulary, with a wonderful touch of decayed grandeur thrown in in Istanbul. The second is the Ace group, whose property in New Orleans is a smashing combination of scale, color, and textures in a mashup that gives you that special frisson on arrival that so many properties strive for but don't reach. Now if only the attitude at the Soho and Ace properties was as truly friendly as the greeting in New Orleans we'd have something extraordinary.

A Hothouse of an Idea

Of all the memorable dining experiences I've had in recent years, one that stands out is a long, late lunch at Petersham Nursery in Greenwich, England. A long and congested ride outside of London, at first the journey seemed unpromising but then we arrived at a truly singular dining environment in the long greenhouse of an active and sought out garden nursery. Plants filled the space; the furniture was mismatched shabby chic industrial; retail offerings were interwoven with the restaurant space. The ground was basically that of a greenhouse environment, as were the slightly humid smells, but somehow it was all the perfect environment for a true farm-to-fork experience. Our vegetables might literally have come out of the hothouse next door--and probably did.

When we find the ideal country house hotel candidate that might be lacking in a properly scaled restaurant space, I'd love to try this in North America and create our own version of a hothouse restaurant.

Inspiration in the Catskills

I often say that I'm shameless about borrowing a good idea--and certainly this is true of drawing inspiration from the hospitality sector. What's inspiring me today is the work of one couple in the Catskills region of New York State who are singlehandedly transforming the lodging and restaurant scene there. Catskills native Sims Foster and his wife, Kirsten Harlow Foster, are using his hospitality smarts and an “I’ll do it” work ethic to breathe new life into the area by opening three inns: The Arnold House, which opened with a restaurant in 2014 atop a mountain just outside Livingston Manor; the Nine River Road, in a renovated old home overlooking the Delaware River in Callicoon; and the North Branch Country Inn, also with a restaurant, in North Branch, which was just named one of the “Best Bed and Breakfast Inns in America” by Time Out New York magazine. Next up is the DeBruce, set to open next month--and if it's even half as good as the beautiful trailer video produced by Bullrush Films https://vimeo.com/211406224 it should be terrific.

The best in experiential travel

I've been traveling since I was three months old--or so says my mother, who strapped me to her front and took me from the U.S. to India, with stops all through Europe en route, to rejoin my father. I doubt that was the origin of my love of travel, but it can't have hurt that travel was always a part of the tapestry of my life.

In adulthood, two or three experiences whetted a long-held desire to not only experience the world but to shape the experience of travel for others. The first was the experience of remaking a long-cherished ancestral manse into a country house hotel--one that survives (under another identity) today. But I wasn't ready yet to give up my first career path, so once the property was ready to roll I stepped aside--having shaped for it a distinct personality. The second was a kind of informal apprenticeship alongside the great food visionary Alice Waters, who reshaped my understanding of what food and a great restaurant should be and gave me a new commitment to the pathways of the food I eat (and serve). In the mid 1990s, this wasn't yet commonplace, but today's farm-to-fork concepts resonate. And I shall never forget some of the lessons I learned from Alice--from the importance of training every staff member in the art of proper tea making, to the beauty or vegetables so fresh they were still warm from the fields.

Through a 25-year career in the arts, I've had extraordinary travel experiences and discovered too many intimate hotels and restaurants to begin to name them here. But cumulatively these experiences have shaped my idea of what should define the core identity of Blue Hill Properties. I've taken a little from each experience, and more than a little from a few: The Clifton Inn outside Charlottesville, Virginia. The Hotel Fauchere in Milford, Pennsylvania. The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia. The Covent Garden Hotel in London. All of these inspire me and haunt my memory in ways small and large, and provide the foundation for the work ahead for Blue Hill Properties.