An Elevated Dining Experience

     It was just about 5pm when I arrived in Tryon, NC at the Pine Crest Inn, the former Thermal Belt Sanatorium.  Constructed in 1906 as a facility for those with tuberculosis, it was converted to an inn 11 years later and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  I brought in my luggage and quickly changed out of my traveling clothes to dining attire.

     With an elevation of 1,102 feet Tryon, The Friendliest Town in the South, is in a thermal belt as it is known, free of dew and frost with a consistently warm climate year round.  But it can  also be very hot.  So my dinner plans were to head up to The Orchard Inn at a cooler 2,103 foot altitude.  I followed the winding road that parallels the famed Saluda Grade of the now defunct Norfolk Southern Railroad.  It is the steepest standard gauge railroad line in the United States.

     The Orchard Inn was built by the Brotherhood of Clerks of the Southern Railroad in 1926 as a summer retreat for members' families and was known then as the Railway Clerks Mountain Home.  It was transformed into a bed & breakfast and restaurant in 1981 and is currently under the watchful eye of Innkeepers Marc and Marianne Blazer.

     I had made a reservation for the prix fixe dinner in their Newman's Restaurant and was greeted warmly by the staff and Executive Chef Stuart Partin when I arrived.  The setting was at the same time grand and elegant yet relaxed and inviting as I  sat on the front porch enjoying the appetizers that had been prepared and presented in the lobby.  There was an overwhelming sense of peace and tranquility that pervaded this mountain top retreat as I sat at my table overlooking the gardens and the valley below with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance catching the last rays of the setting sun.

Tomorrow:  My 4 course meal selections