Hello and welcome to a special edition of Good
News York. I'm your host Mike Brindisi. Matt
is not with us and that is his own fault because
he's missing out on a good one. This is not our
new studio. Yes, if you've heard we are moving
to a brand new 17 ,000 square foot facility soon.
Our new studios and hopefully they're as beautiful
as this. Where am I? I am in Skinny Atlas, New
York at the Skinny Atlas Fields Resort and Spa.
And I am sitting with a very special gentleman.
Good morning to Kyle Hares, the GM of this beautiful
place. Thanks for sitting down with me. And thanks
for the coffee. Of course. It's a pleasure to
have you in as a guest. I mean, I guess I'm technically
a guest. But I mean, I sat down to do this interview.
And all of a sudden, you have people waiting
on us. And you run a tight ship around here.
Service forward. Service first. Absolutely. Well,
obviously this place is just gorgeous. Skinny
Atlas itself has always been gorgeous. So it's
a perfect spot. If you don't mind, talk a little
bit about your background and how your journey
to get here as the general manager. Yeah, absolutely.
So I actually grew up in Auburn, New York. So
my household growing up is 12 minutes. driveway
to driveway. So I take a lot of pride in this
area, this community, if you will. For me, right
in my yearbook, I put that I want to be a general
manager or resort down south. I checked two of
those, the down south piece. One, I guess, could
say it's relative. Maybe I'm a little south of
my house. There you go. Went to school for hospitality
management, spent some time in Orlando, Florida.
Was fortunate to work for Gaylord Palms, now
Marriott Brand. And 1 ,406 rooms really understand
things very directly. And for me, it opened my
eyes to a new world, a hospitality world, one
that was very service -forward, where the guests
were important. Worked my way through and back
to Syracuse, New York. Worked at the Crowne Plaza
as Director of Sales and Marketing and General
Manager there. Did that for about 11 years. I
had to be part of this project. I had coffee
with Tom. I've been with the company three years,
but I had coffee with Tom. And I said, I want
to be a part of this from the beginning, from
ground up. So I was fortunate to be here through
the construction phase and really see it from
dust to what it is today. That's amazing. And
so getting it on the ground floor is always...
you know, best case scenario for situations like
this. Were you involved in any, did they allow
you to be involved in any of the planning process
or the building process? Absolutely, ownership,
Woodbine Hospitality, fantastic company to work
for, a family company. rooted here in the community
and very open to ideas. It was their vision.
I was executing and assisting with the construction
side. So, you know, from a design phase, obviously,
that was done in a different, you know, through
teaser wood designs and some of the design firms.
But at the end of the day, it was, you know,
small operational tweaks. Obviously, we were
very able and capable to make those changes throughout
to make sure that, you know, right down to, hey,
does this plug make sense here? Does this plug
make sense there? Type of changes and making
sure that it makes sense for our guests. Yeah,
and that's, I'm so glad that they leaned on you
for that because with your extensive background
in hospitality, going to school for it, you want
that kind of input from somebody who is Literally
like where should we put the phone chargers that
stuff matters and especially in a place like
this now This is also a I don't want to make
sure I say you're a curio How do I say curio
resort curio resort by Hilton, which is a very
well -known name. Talk about that a little bit
Yeah, absolutely. So we wanted to be part of
a larger. We are a franchise of Hilton We went
with the Curio brand because of what Curio encompasses.
Curio is food and beverage focused, and it's
a lifestyle brand, so it fit well with our focus
of wellness. So we also strive to be a Curio
resort. We are the only resort, Hilton Resort
in the Northeast, and the only Curio Resort north
of Key West. So we're very fortunate to be a
part of that. And again, you said you wanted
to go down south. I mean, so you're not in Key
West, but... You know, you're in a resort that
would be in Key West. Let's look at it that way.
We'll talk about all the amenities, which are
incredible here in a second. Was Skinny Atlas
always the target place for them to build something
like this, or did they kind of have to come here
and see the beauty for themselves first? Yeah,
so ownership is local. So they've had wonderful
hotel establishments in Syracuse, New York, previously
the Genesee Grand, Hotel Schuyler, which is a
tapestry, Parkview Hotel, and currently the Tailwater
Lodge Resort up in Altmar, New York. So all of
those kind of stepped into what their passion
really became, which is this wellness. service
-oriented facility which every detail is hyper
-focused. And the guest is the important piece
of the equation. So the experience kind of stepped
them from Syracuse into the skinny Atlas market
because they saw a great opportunity, especially
pre -COVID and into post -COVID. The leisure
traveler is wellness driven. They care more about
what their wellness is. They're more mindful
of when they get away. And they also travel with
families. So we're a family friendly resort,
which was an important aspect for ownership.
Because again, staying with those trends, people
are traveling with their family as they should.
Absolutely. You know, you hear that word wellness,
and we hear it a lot in society these days. And
you said it's a primary focus of this place.
Talk a little bit about what that means to you
and what it means overall. What is the focus
on wellness? Absolutely. I'm glad you asked.
So wellness for me is specific to the individual.
So the wellness journey. could be simplistic
in one's mind or it could be very complex. They
could have no experience with it or they could
be very well experienced in wellness. We have
every aspect of that. So as a resort, we give
the options and we help. We're happy to create
a journey for a guest, but ultimately we want
them to come and experience it as they see best
fit. Some of those amenities could be as simple
as snowshoes and mountain bikes to get out into
nature. We have walking trails. Obviously, we
have spa and our various spa treatments. We have
a partnership with Teproot Fields that infuses
a wonderful growing practice into our produce
to give us a local flair. with our restaurant.
So yeah, so the wellness piece I think for me
is specific to the journey of the guest and the
individual. See, this is so unique and I'm not
just saying this, it's not like I'm paid to say
this stuff. Everything I talk about on air is
from the heart and from the mind, which can be
scary. But you're talking about wellness and
how it's really an individualized experience.
I've been to resorts and spas and... It's hard
to complain about a resort and spa because it's
incredible no matter what you experience there.
But it is very unique in the way that you guys
say, hey, it's not like here's package one, here's
package two, here's package three. Here's what
we offer, let's customize it to you. And I think
that is so unique and I commend you on that.
Let's talk about some of those amenities because
it's absolutely incredible. The first part, you've
got rooms and suites, obviously, which include
hot tubs, fire pits for s'mores. You've got your
leisure activities. You can do weddings and events
here. You also offer, you know, the town itself
is kind of an add on, you know what I mean, for
no charge. You could go downtown and have an
incredible experience on its own. Talk a little
bit about. Oh, and then the culinary aspect that's
the big one I want to talk about after too because
you guys are very unique in that way But talk
about a little bit a little bit about you know
some of the amenities the packages the experience
And the details on yeah, so so many things done
rap here, but I know things that we're very excited
to bring to this community I'll start with the
community. We've forged some wonderful community
partnerships. Local Branch is a shop in town.
They help to curate our pantry, which is our
little gift shop, if you will. We have our partnership
with Taproot Fields. Taproot Fields is where
we get our produce for our farm -to -table, fork
-to -seed, whatever buzzword we want to use concept.
And we also have Scan Strength, which is a recreation
company, a family -owned small business. And
they help assist with curating our activities
throughout. So when the guest gets here, there's
the natural activities. I say the natural activities.
We have seven different vessels of water. We
have an outdoor pool that is heated year -round
to 90 degrees. So you could go for a swim today.
It's not too cold out for Central New York, but.
I mean, we're Bill's fans. I can handle the cold.
Exactly. I'll take a dip. Jump through a table
and then jump in the pool. Yeah, just jump through
one of your tables. I'll pay for it. And then
I'll jump in the pool. Absolutely. So we have
our outdoor pool. We have two outdoor hot tubs
for guests to enjoy. And then we have our indoor
pool, if a guest prefers. And on the spa side,
we have an indoor hot tub, outdoor hot tub, and
we have a cold plunge. So speaking a little bit
about the spa, we've got some unique amenities,
cold plunge being one of our differentiators.
We also have a salt chamber. There are some great
benefits to inhaling salt, and it is a salt therapy.
It's a ritual, so it's a small room where it
dispenses salt into the air, and then obviously
it's breathed in for lung health and circulatory
health. We also, on the spa side, I talked about
the cold plunger, talked about the salt therapy.
We've got saunas. We have two barrel saunas outside.
We have two saunas on the inside. So our spa
is really a class act, and we take a lot of pride
on the treatment is important, but the experience
overall, I think, is what really differentiates
us. We have a large lounge area. We've got private
nooks. They can order lunch in. They can really...
come and enjoy themselves in whatever manner
they think is best. You nailed it, because looking
on the site and doing research with the place,
there's all those amenities and services that
you listed. But what I really keyed in on is
the culinary aspect. You've got the Fields restaurant.
You've got a lobby bar. You've got a pool bar.
You've got that pantry. Farm to field, field
to fork, whatever you want to call it, that's
really unique in itself. Talk a little bit about
that and the unique kind of process in which
you guys take care of your... Very fortunate.
So, Taperu Fields, local farm. Literally, you
could throw a baseball three times and be there.
And our walking trails will eventually connect
over to the farm. We're going to start doing
tours of the farm, and they already do tours
of the farm. They take a lot of pride in their
regenerative growing practices. They grow in
living soil, for example, and they have... healthy,
above organic type thought process in their growing.
Great partners, basically we have the farm operator
that works directly with our executive chef,
Esperenza. And they're basically saying, hey,
we should grow this. Hey, we should grow this.
You know, your carrots are purple. Why? Because
that's the natural color of carrots. So it's
just really high end. It's produced the way that
it should be. It's not bulk produced. And literally,
it comes out of the ground from this community,
which is just part of our story and our charm.
You don't hear about that. When it comes to,
let's be honest, when you hear of a big company
coming to an area and building a plant, like
this you think corporate you think okay it's
gonna be beautiful but it's not community this
is so unique that this really is community involved
in every step of the way even even the food is
supporting local farmers I just I think that's
absolutely absolutely wonderful and I did notice
when I came in one of the your employees mentioned
something about a Fox and I'm knowing noticing
a Fox on your Is there some sort of relevance
that I missed with the Fox? Yeah, this is Scout.
Scout is our resident Fox. During construction
and in the area, we do have Fox in the area.
During construction, this is kind of a fun story.
We had a passive security system, if you will,
that any sort of movement would call me in the
middle of the night. Well, there was a Fox that
used to love to play about 2 .30 in the morning.
And that same Fox was the reason I got a handful
of calls. Obviously false alarms. Deer and Fox
were the biggest threat up here. So, originally
had a different animal for the logo, but we kind
of diverted to Scout, the Fox, and it's kind
of grown from there. We have different renditions
of Scout. We really feel that Scout embodies
a lot of what our brand is. Agile, witty, fun,
curious. And really friendly and cute in certain
aspects too, right? So as you walk around the
resort, this is... sitting fox. So our standard
is our curious standing fox is what you see on
the sign. We've got a jumping fox by our fitness
center, a swimming fox by our pool, a curled
up fox on our robes that kind of show the comfy
side. So, you know, we really leaned into Scout
and I think it's been fantastic. There's even,
you know, on the hand painted murals, there's
a small scout back there. So we, you know, kind
of interject them everywhere. So this is again,
this is another tip of the cap to you on just
the that you put into everything about this place.
Okay, a fox comes every night at 2 .30 and you
find a way to incorporate that and embrace it.
I love that. Before I moved to our new house,
we had fox in our backyard and my children used
to get scared and I would go... I don't know
if you have, I don't know anything about Fox.
I was like, I don't think you have to be scared
or maybe you do. Do Fox, they don't attack people,
right? They're pretty, they just kind of exist.
It's part of the chain, so to speak. Yeah. And
I think, you know, we have a local artist, Chris.
that did some of our photos on our art wall,
and he had a barn here. One of his family members
has a barn, and he had a group of fox, and he
has a cool picture, so again, we leaned into
it. We've got a local artist that we're going
to showcase his artwork, and the fox just kind
of worked. And I'll tell you, the decor here
is unbelievable. The New York Times, I'm not
quoting them. I don't remember the quote. But
basically, it was like, this place is an incredible
gem. And it's a perfect mixture of modern and
rustic. Was that kind of the idea when the build
was originally happening? Lodge was a modern
lodge feel I would say would be the best description
I would give it. We own and operate the Tailwater
Lodge up in Altmar, New York. They are on the
Little Salmon River. They're very good about,
again, a similar feel. But they're a little more
lodged. They're a little more remote. Snowmobiling
and fishing is huge for that property. For us,
we kind of have a modern twist on the Lodge,
but we kind of lean into that. You'll see some
of our white oak, or white birch rather, accents
that was actually cut from Altmar, New York on
the tailwater property. Amazing. So kind of again,
it's from an ownership side, an intentional detail
that was interjected that really has some meaning
behind it. That's great, man. A couple more questions.
I want to be respectful of your time. I know
that every experience here is individualized,
which is just amazing, but let's say I'm coming
for the weekend and I say, listen, give me one
thing that I must do or I must experience here.
What would you say? I know it's tough. I'll let
you do two or three if you want. No, that's a
good on the fly. For me, I lean into, I have
a 12 -year -old daughter. I lean into families.
Me too. And I think we're a family -friendly
Finger Lakes Resort. We have a wonderful family
package that we sell online. That package includes
resort credits for breakfast, resort credits
for the facility, as well as a game room. We
have a small arcade downstairs. So the game room
itself, again, family -friendly. But I think
the family piece is what I would want to interact
with, whether it be, you know, putting at our
executive putting course. You know, toasting
us some more by the fire at nighttime, you know,
jumping in the pool outside. So for me, it would
be just a family, you know, staycation, I think
is the best way. And I think... We've already
seen a lot of it. Over our December break, before
Thanksgiving, we had people in town that were
booking rooms just so the grandkids could come
here and swim. So I think the family piece for
me would be the, and really the activities that
we provide would be what I would lean into. I
have a wife and two kids, and one of our favorite
things to do are to do staycations. We'll come
to Syracuse or somewhere not too far away from,
I live in Ithaca, and... I mean, when you're
thinking of doing stuff like that, you don't
think that a resort would be family -friendly.
That's kind of unique in this industry, right?
Absolutely. And especially in the Finger Lakes
region, having that area, we have a specific
suite called our family suite. Awesome. And it's
got a bedroom with two queen beds and a common
area with one king bed. And the thought process
there is you can put the kids to bed, and mom
and dad could have a glass of wine in that common
area, enjoy some of the flair of Finger Lakes.
And so, yeah, I think for us, you know, our restaurant's
very family friendly. We have a kid's menu, if
that's necessary. Or, to be honest, kids nowadays,
let's call it what it is, they're ordering off
the adult menu. They're getting into some of
those wonderful dishes as well. Oh, I know. My
kid eats sushi. I'm like, who are you? You're
six. Elevated palates. Elevated palates. For
me, it was hot dogs and mac and cheese when I
was at age. Before we go though, I do want to
make sure I mention, you also do events. What
kind of... facility do you offer like is there
a conference room event center like what kind
of events and and how do people Kind of book
that. So our main focus is our wellness leisure
traveler. However, we have a partnership. We
own and operate the Allen Lodge, which is literally
across the street. It is the largest northeast
timber structure. So again, a cool lodge feel
that really almost perfectly fits what we're
going after in some of our field. So the Allen
Lodge is an event meeting space with plenty of
ballrooms and meeting areas, 30 ,000 plus square
footage. events over there and then they could
stay over here so some of the thought would be
you know some of these corporate meetings are
going a little bit of leisure a little bit of
business we can do both sides of that so you
know they could you know have their meetings
over there their general sessions their their
high -end elevated dinners and then maybe they
have a cocktail before after here at our bar
so our partnership at the Allen Lodge we see
is a key opportunity for that Sunday through
Thursday business. Amazing before we go obviously
give us some plugs do you have any of coming
up or how can people contact you and find you
guys? Yeah skinnyatlasfields .com is the best
way to get a hold of us all of the resources
will be at your fingertips there you can book
your spa appointments on there you can book your
restaurant reservations here for Fields restaurant
you know coming up you know we're leaning into
the busy season and really just really expanding
our activities. So coming up, we have an expansion
where we're going to start getting into some
hot yoga classes and really focusing on how do
we elevate and enhance the stay at no additional
cost to the guests. So these amenities that we're
going to bring forward at the end of January
into February, I think are going to be some key
elements that are going to spring us. And you
said busy season. What is busy season? A busy
season would be your typical Lake Town. So I
would say Memorial to Labor Day would be our
quote unquote busy season. You know, things slow
down a little bit, although again, you know,
we have these amenities outside for a reason.
Yeah. You know, you can jump in the pool even
if there's 12 inches of snow on the ground. Absolutely.
So it's, you know, for us, you know, the staycations
are gonna be big but people kind of hunker down
a little bit. Obviously in the summer once school
gets out, kids, family. Leisure travel couples
and we're also pet friendly. I should really
that as well because from a we've had a couple
of actually very famous pets stay with us a couple
that have been I can't remember them by name,
but there was one that was like written on USA
Today came and experienced. So yeah, so even
even pets are all -stars So, you know if you
were questioning if they've thought of everything
they even have celebrity dogs I mean, what don't
you have here? Listen Kyle. Thank you for your
time from the box Bottom of my heart, I mean
this. Just in this small experience of just coming
in, asking, you know, to speak to you and your
staff taking care of us. I mean, everybody is
so friendly, so welcoming. And it's absolutely
gorgeous here. But more importantly, everything
you've talked about is so unique and I'm wildly
impressed. And you have my word, my family is
going to be here. I've already made that decision
up here. Any last words? Anything else you want
to get out there? Like I said, we just we want
to welcome the community. We want to welcome.
our guests, we want people to come and try us
out. I think there's a lot of opportunities coming
up, so challenge yourself to... Put wellness
first, and more importantly, come visit us. If
I bring my kids, can we at night come out and
look for Scout? Not actively go out there, but
just kind of. Absolutely. Yeah, I want to see
him. Even some stargazing. We've got some stargazing
stuff, but yes, Scout does live in the tree line
as you drive up. It's absolutely amazing. Skinny
Atlas Fields Resort and Spa Acurio Resort. And
in Skinny Atlas, New York, you need to come see
this. It's absolutely amazing. Kyle Harris, you
are wildly impressive. Well, you were impressive
when you told me you were a Bills fan. Automatically
points right off the bat. But on top of that,
you're obviously very good at what you do. Thank
you for your time. I really do appreciate it.
This was great. Thank you so much. It is Mike
Brindisi saying goodbye to you on this Wednesday
edition of Good News York, sponsored by Ads on
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