Tastemaker Travels

What does Karen Hatfield bring home from her travels?

My husband and I are kind of coffee fanatics. So I suppose that would always be something on the list to check out: what the best coffee is in that city. We go to small local markets and hope that something catches our eye that we can take with us.

Sometimes you’ll find other non-food-related items, like tapestries. Handmade local products are definitely a huge part of traveling to these places, besides seeing the landscape or the architecture. I think seeing what people are making there is really important, whether that’s food or clothes.

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Boutique Spotlight

Which shops are located near The Hermitage Hotel?

Shops located near The Hermitage Hotel include Rachel’s Gifts, which is the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star hotel’s boutique and gift shop. The shop attracts both visitors and locals for its jewelry, apparel and more.
 
Fire Finch Boutique on Church Street offers an array of home accents, jewelry, clothing and items from around the world. The boutique has a second location in Nashville’s Hillsboro Village, a shopping area not far from The Hermitage Hotel that boasts a number of inviting boutiques and shops, including A Thousand Faces (art, jewelry and other goods), Pangaea (clothing, jewelry and gifts), Bookman/Bookwoman (new and used books), POSH (designer clothing and accessories) and Retropolitan (home goods).

Travel Guide Inspector

Windy City Eats

What is the chef at Graham Elliot's food philosophy?

Chef Graham Elliot’s philosophy is to create a “bistronomic” atmosphere based on contemporary American cuisine. In his Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star eponymous restaurant, Elliot tries to combine bistro décor with top-quality, seasonal dishes. He insists on using humor, spontaneity and accessibility to deconstruct and reconstruct dishes out-of-the-norm diners are accustomed to at mainstream restaurants. His relaxed personality plays true in the atmosphere in the dining room, where servers wear jeans and can speak at length about the chef and the thought process going into each dish while hip, lively music plays in the background. Listen to that soundtrack closely: The melodic acoustic tracks in the background were composed by the multi-talented and musically inclined Elliot.

Travel Guide Inspector

FROM THE BLOG


New Beginnings Arise in New Zealand

Following a devastating earthquake, the Re:Start Village is proof positive that Christchurch is a city on the rise, one shipping container at a time.