All-American

Last week, I wrote about the AAA Five Diamond Awards, and I promise not to overplay that hand. But I thought it would be interesting to highlight the closest hotel to Minnesota to have earned this distinction, The American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin.

Of course, not much exists in Kohler—a village of some 2,000 people near Sheboygan—other than a large collection of resorts, all of which are affiliated with The American Club. You might ask: How can he write about a single destination? You would only ask this question if you have never visited Kohler.

Hotels, spas, golf courses, sports clubs, hiking trails, restaurants, classes . . . You name it, this place has it. Hotel accommodations are varied. Standard rooms in the main building are excellent. Carriage House Suites offer a bit more privacy than rooms in the Club, as well as more space. There also are 10 Immersion Suites; I confess to not having a clue what the term means, but it sounds relaxing, doesn’t it? No matter what type of room you choose, of course, each one features only the best in Kohler plumbing fixtures.

The American Club offers a decent choice of food types at its five restaurants. My personal favorite is the Horse & Plow, which captures a whiff of “pub-ness.” The pub grub is tasty, and they put a nice local twist on their menu offerings, including a deliciously simple Wisconsin meat and cheese tray. Plus, they serve freshly pulled beers at about the right temperature, unlike many wannabe pubs.

I would be skewered by golfers if I didn’t mention the four courses in the area, two each at Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits. Two of the courses has hosted major international competitions, and all of them are . . . challenging. The good news is that each hole features a number of tee boxes, so you should be able to find a less discouraging way to play the course. I absolutely love the second hole on the Irish Course at Whistling Straits (“Giant’s Leap”); if you erase the memory of where you are, you’ll feel like you’re in Ireland.

While this part of eastern Wisconsin is dominated by The American Club and sister properties, a few other attractions are on offer. The Kohler-Andrae State Park actually comprises two parks and covers about 1,000 acres. It’s one of the few extensive protected areas along Lake Michigan, and yet it is not overly crowded. The sand dunes are particularly surprising and beautiful.

As a weird sidebar, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the namesake of the village that is home to The American Club. My first cover story, many years ago, was in the thrilling publication, Toilets Today (revived as Bathroom Today a few years ago, I believe), about a new offering from Kohler Plumbing Co.

Photos by Dan Perry

Diamonds in the Not-So-Rough

Last week, AAA announced the hotels and restaurants that won coveted Five Diamond Awards for 2010. Just 113 hotels made the cut (out of 31,000 rated), while 52 restaurants (out of 27,000 rated) were recognized. California and Florida have the most Five Diamond properties, with 20 and 13, respectively; no other area has more than eight.

Sadly, I have not visited all of the recognized properties. However, and perhaps somewhat embarrassingly, I have enjoyed what’s on offer from more Five Diamond recipients than a guy like me probably deserves. This week, I will focus on the three hotels and one restaurant that have made the cut every year the AAA’s program has been around, each of which fall within my experience.

The Restaurant

The only restaurant to maintain Five Diamond status for 22 consecutive years is The Inn at Little Washington Dining Room in Washington, Virginia. In the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, about an hour outside of Washington, D.C., both the inn and restaurant are superb. However, the food and wine set this place apart; Chef Patrick O’Connell is self-taught and an inspired talent.

I don’t even like beets, but I tried the “Beet Fantasia” at The Inn at Little Washington and was converted. I love crab cakes and was transported by them. And the potato pierogi as a main course seemed like an odd choice, but it was SO right. Sorry, I had to step away to wipe away the memory-induced drool.

The Hotels

Three hotels have maintained Five Diamond Ratings for 34 consecutive years: The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona; and The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

You may recall that I wrote in May about The Greenbrier, so I won’t say more about that idyllic spot. But it is nice to be proven right once in a while!

Located in the foothills of the Rockies, The Broadmoor enjoys a rare location. But the proprietors do rely on just that to get people to come back. As is often the case, it comes down to the people and, despite the grandness of the place, the staff manages to make you feel at home . . . in a pampered style not exactly familiar in the Incidental Tourist’s household.

You really can’t go wrong with any room at The Broadmoor, but those dubbed “Intermediate West Tower” offer the best value in my book. For as little as $220 per night—less if there are specials—you get an excellent room with great views, in a stellar hotel.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Camelback Inn. It’s one of the few places out west with a history, yet it has kept up with the times. Again, the place is pretty grand and exudes sophistication, but the people who run it aren’t too in love with themselves. The rooms are spacious and comfortable, and if you like to golf, Camelback offers two courses, each of which offers Arizona’s unique experience of playing a game on lush grass in the middle of the desert. And the sunsets are not to be missed.

Hallowed Ground

I’m writing from Washington, D.C., this week. It has been a while since I visited, and the city remains impressive and stately and all that, but it’s also mildly depressing.

Maintenance of the sidewalks and Metro stations seems to have slipped, and the unsightly security barriers on virtually every block are truly hideous. (On the other hand, the ability to walk all the way around the White House is a step in the right direction.)

On the way into town from Reagan National Airport on the Metro, on a whim, I decided to get off at Arlington National Cemetery. I was prompted by a couple of interesting facts that I had read recently about the place, and I wanted to “connect the dots.” It has been a very long time since I visited Arlington, and it is an awesome and inspiring place, at once somber and hopeful.

Yet Arlington was not always a cemetery. It was the family home of Robert E. Lee—more accurately, it was the historic home of the family of his wife, Mary Custis Lee. She inherited the 1,100–acre estate from her father, George Washington Parke Custis, whose grandfather, by adoption, was George Washington. During the Civil War, the Lee estate was rapidly overtaken and subsequently seized by Union troops, and it served several purposes during the war.

The land did not become a cemetery in any thoughtful way; rather, in the heat of the war, and the heat of the boggy summers prevalent here, many people died in the area. It was simply a field expedient to bury them close to where they fell, and Arlington was centrally located.

Union General Montgomery C. Meigs pushed to create Arlington National Cemetery, using a variation of eminent domain and wartime powers to take ownership of the land. Through a variety of legal and other battles after the war, ultimately ending up in the Supreme Court, the Lee family wrested ownership of its estate back from the federal government. Of course, by that time, thousands of people had been buried there, so the place was slightly less desirable than it once had been. The government bought the property back from Lee’s son, and the rest is history . . . literally.

In the City

I revisited a place that I used to frequent when I was in D.C. regularly, Kinkead’s.

Housed in a refurbished brownstone, it’s a nice place to get away from all the craziness in the district, with quiet nooks and crannies conducive to conversation. And, unlike most high-end restaurants here, prices are not over the moon, especially for lunch. (I’m not usually a big flounder fan, but I tried it on the recommendation of the waiter, and I’m tearing up just thinking about it. Fantastic.)

In closing, I recommend that everybody, at least once when they visit D.C., make a pilgrimage to at least one of the great old hotel institutions in town. The Mayflower is the lesser-known, but more accessible of the two. Within a couple of blocks of the White House, The Willard is famous for its political past, having served as Abraham Lincoln’s home for a time. At both hotels, maybe enjoy late-afternoon tea, and you might see some famous politicos, and you can eavesdrop on the political deal-making that’s undoubtedly going on there.

Swiss Cheese and Wine

Actually, the title is slightly misleading. Swiss cheese, everybody knows about. Swiss wine? That’s a little bit of a surprise.

After a visit to the International Olympic Museum in Lausanne (a disappointment, really), you are dangerously close to the beginning of the Lavaux Vineyard Trail. This 20–mile trail takes you from Lausanne through some of the most picturesque Alpine scenery you’ll ever see to the famous and austere Chateau de Chillon. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can hike the well-marked trail from beginning to end.

I tend to subscribe to the old saw among traditional wine-makers, which says that “white wines would be red if they could.” But this part of Switzerland is famous for its Chasselas, a crisp, usually fruity white that wakes up your mouth with every sip. The wineries are fairly early in their exploration of red wines, but I did enjoy a couple of pinot noirs that were quite good, in a less-than-complex way.

Some excellent wineries dot the trail, including in Chablais and Vully. My favorite, though, is not on a lot of maps. Pierre-Andre Larpin & Fils in Bursinel offers excellent white and red wines that are obviously hand-crafted with care. But what elevated my visit was the friendliness and openness of the proprietors. They spoke no English, and my French is only passable, yet we managed to communicate. A young man explained that he had just taken over the vineyard from his father, who was retiring after making wine for many years. His mother insisted on feeding us lunch, while his wife thrust dessert after dessert upon us. It was a superb way to spend an afternoon—drinking wine with fourth-generation winemakers, reveling in an elevated view of Lake Geneva.

Last time I was there, I stayed at the Hôtel Real in Nyon, an outstanding “base camp” just across Lake Geneva from Evian, France. The hotel is a little modern for my tastes, but the rooms offer good value and copious space, and the views over the lake are spectacular. Plus, the back of the hotel faces onto the Old Town, the medieval part of the village. You can wander to your heart’s delight on cobblestone streets, past old horse fountains and up to the local chateau. Look out for traces of the original Roman settlement of 2,000 years ago.

Switzerland is one of my favorite places, so I could go on and on. But I’ll stop here so I can write about the famously neutral country (with some dark secrets!) in the future.

Side Note: If you ARE interested in Swiss cheese, visit any auberge in the Alps and get them started on the topic of local cheeses. You will learn a lot about how different the flavors are depending on where the cows are grazing, how they are treated and the like. Fascinating for the uninformed like me.

U.S. Oxford

I have written several times about the United Kingdom, partly because I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Anglophile, and partly because my work takes me there regularly. However, this week’s post is about “the other Oxford” . . . Oxford, Mississippi, (which was named for the famed British institution).

One tends to conjure up a variety of clichés about the Deep South, but “Bohemian” would probably be pretty far down the list for most people. Yet Oxford manages to be that, probably because it is home to Ole Miss—the University of Mississippi to the uninitiated—which mashes up young people, arts, academia, and football-mad alumni.

Given the town’s pride in its literary bent, you might consider a visit to Rowan Oak, William Faulkner’s home. It’s just south of The Square, which is adjacent to Ole Miss. I’m not sure the place would make most towns’ lists of attractions, but in addition to its literary connection, it is a beautiful example of plantation architecture.

If you have just a couple of days to spend in Oxford, the good news is that—for a town with a population of 19,000—you will find a good selection of places to eat. In fact, you could satisfy your food needs without ever leaving the influence of James Beard Award winner John Currence.

• The Big Bad Breakfast certainly is the former adjective but not the latter. I asked about the bacon, which is superb, and the secret appears to be Tabasco sauce . . . but should we trust a chef who gives away his secrets?

• The newly opened Snackbar offers a nice bridge between breakfast or brunch and dinner, with a casual bistro feel.

• Finish the day at City Grocery, where you can drink and enjoy comfort food until they pour you back into your beret and send you on your way.

BE WARNED: Oxford has some strange blue laws, including one that makes it illegal to sell refrigerated beer. If you’re hankering for a cold one, or if the Oxford establishments are closed, it’s a fairly short drive to Waterford, where you can enjoy killer ribs at the Betty Davis Grocery—a dive and a half. (Unusually, Betty Davis has neither phone nor Web site, so just get to Old Oxford Road and follow the staggering masses to 3359.)

For a traditional weekend pastime, it’s hard to beat an Ole Miss clash. With four home games left, including tilts against perennial powers Tennessee and LSU, you should be able to make a game. The Grove is the on-campus green where tailgating begins Friday night for Saturday games and continues into Sunday. Despite the rowdiness, you are expected to show up wearing a collared shirt, tie, and sport coat, or end up feeling low-brow. Pip, pip dude!