Tommy Bahama Unveils First Branded Resort in California

Tommy Bahama is able to take the wraps off its subsequent large concept.

On Nov. 1, the 30-year-old Seattle-based model will formally unveil the Tommy Bahama Miramont Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, Calif. The model finalized a deal round a 12 months in the past to put money into the prevailing property and rebrand it as a part of a partnership with Lowe, a nationwide actual property funding, improvement and administration agency, and its CoralTree Hospitality subsidiary, which is able to proceed to handle the property.

Because the deal was signed, the resort has undergone an in depth renovation and redesign to create “Tommy Bahama within the desert,” in accordance with Rob Goldberg, government vice chairman of resorts, eating places and bars for Tommy Bahama.

“It’s sitting on 11 acres of superbly landscaped property in Indian Wells — smack dab between LaQuinta and Palm Desert, the place we’ve had a profitable restaurant for 20 years and the place a legion of loyalists come each seasonally and year-round. We even have a Marlin bar in Palm Springs and a house retailer on El Paseo immediately throughout the road from our restaurant and retailer. So we’ve acquired fairly a presence there. The placement attracts loyal followers from Orange County, L.A. County and San Diego County.”

The resort boasts 215 visitor rooms, villas and junior suites that common some 420 sq. ft and now characteristic a customized tropical design that speaks to each Tommy Bahama’s signature aesthetic in addition to the resort’s Mission-inspired historical past.

The resort is ready amongst olive timber, citrus groves and flower gardens, there’s a 12,000-square-foot spa with remedy rooms and outside cabanas, 35,000 sq. ft of versatile assembly and occasion house and three saltwater swimming swimming pools, additionally with cabanas. There are additionally bocce courts, fireplace pits and a 24-hour health middle.

The resort incorporates a new restaurant idea, Grapefruit Basil, named after one of the vital in style drinks served on the fleet of Tommy Bahama eating places. “The opposite factor about this restaurant that makes it distinctive is that it’s going to be brunch and dinner,” Goldberg mentioned. “We’re serving brunch seven days per week, which we predict is akin to being on trip and having a leisurely breakfast or lunch with mimosas or Bloody Marys or stay music.”

From Santa Barbara smoked salmon and beef from a Santa Carota ranch in Bakersfield to Rancho Gordo beans harvested in Napa Valley, dishes are complemented by citrus and herbs grown on the resort.

Contained in the restaurant are two stay Meyer lemon timber which might be constructed into “cozy cubicles” which were created. The restaurant might be open to the area people in addition to resort company. “We wish to generate some vitality and activate the house to make it really feel such as you’ve walked into anyone’s home celebration with a whole lot of the design parts that really feel extra residential and never like a giant company resort,” he mentioned.

There’s additionally a Chiki Palms pool bar, which is able to now be serving “enjoyable sorts of tiki drinks and frozen drinks served in baggage that seem like grownup Capri Suns,” Goldberg defined. Gentle bites might be served in melamine bento containers and can embody an All-American Burger, Poblano Hen Quesadilla, Ahi Poke Bowl and quite a lot of flatbreads.

Within the foyer, the spa and the retail space are murals which were hand-painted by the artists who create the model’s attire prints to present a “Tommy Bahama contact that feels very genuine,” Goldberg mentioned.

Though the model has constructed its fame over the previous three a long time across the island way of life and making life one lengthy weekend, Indian Wells is nowhere close to the water, so why did the staff select a desert location for its first resort?

Doug Wooden, chief government officer of Tommy Bahama, defined: “Rob and I’ve been scouting all potential areas — from Key West to San Diego — and what we discovered is that they’re not simple to come back by.” Whereas the presents they obtained may work for a fifth or sixth location, the primary Tommy Bahama resort needed to be spot on.

“It’s acquired to essentially take the company someplace particular,” he mentioned. “After which when the visitor reveals up, we wish to make certain they didn’t say: ‘Wow. Miss.’ That is even more durable than our eating places as a result of, not like a restaurant expertise, the place you’re making an attempt to thrill a visitor for a pair hours, now we’re going to thrill a visitor for 3 to 5 to seven days. So we have been virtually too affected person, nevertheless it actually got here collectively.”

Goldberg mentioned when conceiving the rebranding, the corporate seemed to the Tommy Bahama retailer and restaurant on Fifth Avenue in New York Metropolis, which is housed in an Artwork Deco-inspired constructing, for instance.

“In New York, we went into this historic Deco constructing and leaned into a few of its design cues. We’re doing the identical factor right here. We’re not on the seaside, we’re not on an island, so we felt like this was an analogous type of mission and we needed to provide you with a design that felt prefer it belongs there. And it could function a stake within the floor for what a Tommy Bahama resort is perhaps.”

The resort sports activities a brand new retail idea. Known as the Rosa Boutique, it incorporates a new design, fixtures and furnishings to supply an upscale really feel. It’ll promote resort-specific objects resembling a Grapefruit Basil candle and signature scent, choose attire items, equipment and presents. The attire is an assortment of prints and logoed merchandise in linen in addition to activewear and swimwear. There might be a signature print — Calypso Palms — accessible in a girl’s gown or prime, a males’s camp shirt and a swim trunk/cabana set. There can even be Tobago Bay knitwear with the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa brand, together with caps, baggage, golf tees, a branded yoga mat and signature print baggage.

“We’ve got shut to five,000 sq. ft of retail house about three and a half miles away,” Wooden mentioned. “So what we wish is a high-end boutique with curated product you may solely get right here to make it possible for our collectors have one thing they’ll take residence that reminds them of their trip.”

If the resort is as profitable because the staff hopes it will likely be, it may be the primary of a number of.

“There’s no rollout plan per se, however there’s positively going to be a second and hopefully a 3rd,” Wooden mentioned. “And that’s as a result of we actually imagine all of it begins with this. Individuals are going to need us to do extra.”

Goldberg mentioned the staff is “in discussions now” with potential buyers and companions for future resorts who’ve been ready for the primary one to open. “That is a lot about making a body of reference for the model at giant.”

Wooden believes there’s substantial alternative going ahead for such a idea. He mentioned that way back to 2016, the corporate commissioned focus teams and requested what Tommy Bahama ought to be doing subsequent. Almost each respondent mentioned they need to open a resort. So he reached out to Tom Chubb, the CEO of the corporate’s father or mother firm, Oxford Industries, with a “loopy concept” about opening a Tommy Bahama-themed trip spot, and acquired the inexperienced mild.

Different potential areas embody “tremendous scorching spots” the place the Tommy Bahama buyer travels resembling Palm Desert, Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Fort Lauderdale or Boca Raton, Fla., and Wailea, Hawaii. However increasing the concept will solely be possible if the Miramonte is successful.

“If the primary one doesn’t work, there received’t be a second one,” Wooden mentioned.