Oceanside Country Club’s General Manager Dave Main describes the club’s renovations that have been designed to meet the needs of the growing and changing membership.  Fast-casual dining with a white cloth menu has been one of the keys to success for this storied club located in Ormond Beach, Florida.

The post Part 4: Fast-Casual Dining with a White Cloth Menu appeared first on GM Corner.

For decades private club fare was mostly non-descript and treated as a loss leader by private club management. Occasionally, golf and country club members might get a memorable dining experience at their country clubs, but it certainly wasn’t known for being destination dining.

In the heyday of the old Milledgeville Country Club, some of Joni Smith’s fondest memories as a member of the central Georgia club was simply having a “good eating experience surrounded by friends.”  In recent years, however, those once-memorable dining experiences began to steadily decline as the club struggled to survive and threatened to go out of business.

Three years ago, Joni Smith and her husband Ted Smith purchased the distressed asset in an effort to save a community institution that opened in 1957 and once thrived with 600 members. As Joni Smith likes to describe it, her family investment was predicated on being good business stewards to the greater Milledgeville-Baldwin County community that has blessed her family for decades.

When the Smiths acquired the club and immediately invested an estimated $5 million to transform the place, they had no expectation of making any money on their latest investment. Rather, they hoped the newly branded Club at Lake Sinclair would manage to do just well enough to pay its own bills. One thing Smith knew, however, was the future success and overall health of the club was going to hinge on having a “very good restaurant.”

With the strategic help of longtime club industry veteran, Mike Kelly, a new approach was hatched to incorporate the idea of destination dining.  The club’s answer was local restaurateur Jason Medders and his hugely successful downtown Milledgeville restaurant, Aubri Lane’s, a place the Smiths liked to frequent.

So, the two parties struck up a partnership and created a newly branded dining experience now called Aubri Lane’s at the Club.

As it turns out, not only did Lake Sinclair manage to “pay the bills” with this unique food-and-beverage concept, the club operated in the black in its first year of operations after closing for a year and getting completely reimagined under the guidance of  Kelly and his years of experience at nearby Reynolds Lake Oconee . Not a bad start for the Smiths, considering Kelly advised them to expect a couple years of likely operating at a loss after completely renovating the clubhouse with expanded dining and banquet venues and building a resort-style pool complex with separate family-friendly and adult sections.

It is a remarkable success story for a club that was on the brink of financial ruin. Kelly, who handed over the club reins to general manager Jeffery Allbright in June 2018 after the club exceeded its membership goals of 350 by 2021, credits the club’s turnaround to not only the Smith’s capital commitment, but their vision to reposition the club into a multi-functional family-friendly setting that matches the formula at numerous other successfully recapitalized private clubs throughout America.

And one of the trends within this greater trend is the innovative marketing being put into branded private club food-and-beverage operations.

Medders, who operated the highly popular Aubri Lane’s restaurant for 10-plus years in a more intimate downtown Milledgeville location, also is exceeding his wildest expectations under the same signature brand named after his daughter and son, respectively.

For instance, in the first two years of operations at the club, Medders, who also controls all catered club events to members and non-members, is close to almost doubling his business after evolving from a fine-dining experience to one that is now described as “casual elegance” where patrons can come several times a week and not feel like they’re “breaking the bank,” as Joni Smith describes it.

“We always wanted to grow our business and we felt like we had maximized our location downtown because it was such a small footprint,” says Medders, who moved back to Milledgeville with his family in 2008 after working in Atlanta’s restaurant scene. “When Ted and Joni purchased the club and approached us with the idea about moving, this was the larger footprint we’d been looking for and a good opportunity to expand our business. We also loved it being on the lake.”

Medders also enjoys the “larger more diverse group of people” he now gets to serve, not to mention a much larger food-and-beverage footprint that encompasses:  140-seat signature restaurant;  main bar with four large-screen televisions; member’s only lounge;  private dining room called The Wine Room; outdoor covered porch, and of course, a ballroom with capacity for 250 guests.

All of the unique hospitality spaces come with sweeping scenic views of Lake Sinclair and the 18-hole course, and future plans are in the works for a “tiki style, cabana pool  bar/kitchen situation” at the pool, which Medders says should further enhance the member experience in a positive way.

“When I first came up with the concept of Aubri Lane’s, something to offer people the type of food and atmosphere Atlanta restaurants provide, it was a restaurant I always wanted to be on the lake,” Medders adds. “So being able to be out here on the water and maximize business out here in the summertime was something we were always looking for.”

Apparently, it also was something nearly 400 other Milledgeville-Baldwin County resident members were looking for in a new place they now call their new private club home.

The post Part 3: Food and Partnership Are Keys to Success appeared first on GM Corner.

 “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.” – Mark Twain, as quoted by William L. Phelps in a book published 80 years ago titled, “Autobiography with Letters.”

I truly believe Mark Twain had it right. Long before Twain’s wisdom on the nature of aging, civilized humans as far back as Alexander the Great roamed the planet in search of age-defying secrets and solutions. Now, more than any previous generation, people are doing everything they can to try to remain forever young.

To be sure, there is no ‘fountain of youth’ in Florida or some mythical fantasy land where you ‘never’ grow old, but there is a place where men and women are seemingly living younger. That place is the ever-changing modern private golf and country club.

Places like Lake Toxaway Country Club in North Carolina, where general manager John Schoenbeck oversees a historic private club community overlooking the largest man-made lake in the heart of the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, is such a place.

More than a century ago, Lake Toxaway Hotel (and its namesake lake) was considered one of the most luxurious places in the country and quickly became an exclusive escape for many of America’s privileged class after the five-star-caliber hotel opened in 1895. Among the famous turn-of-the-century regulars were Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, the Vanderbilt’s and Thomas Edison.

More than 100 years later, Lake Toxaway’s man-made ‘fountain of youth’ is positioned to be even more popular – and youthful — once the private club begins construction in August on a multi-million, family-centric pool complex that connects to the famed lake. Picture a setting where families can pull up on their float boats, walk a few steps and enjoy pizzas made to order, craft cocktails poolside and children are equally as entertained swimming in the resort-style pool or hanging out in their private entertainment room.

This is just one striking example of how the country club today looks nothing like the clubs of yesterday. Indeed, where private clubs once were the bastions of mostly golf and card-playing men being boys a generation ago, today’s clubs have the look and feel of some of the trendiest restaurants, coolest nightclubs and family-friendly Four Diamond resorts where men, womenand children are cavorting together – all being kids again.

Yes, this isn’t your father’s or grandfather’s country club anymore. In many respects, it’s Neverland in North Carolina. We are seeing requests for clubs like this more and more at Kuo Diedrich Chi, as we are asked to envision and design the changing look and feel of 21st-century private clubs.

Part of my philosophical approach is to “declub” the club. Or simply put, it’s about embracing inclusive leisure places and spaces where modern-day members – not to mention the current generation of parents – can create experiences and memories for multiple generations that last a lifetime.

The dramatic shift in leisure-time lifestyles at private clubs is also pronounced inside Lake Toxaway’s newly renovated $7.1 million clubhouse. In working with John Schoenbeck, we imagined the newly created Firestone Bar & Grille to be symbolic of this new-age dining space.

Featuring an expansive indoor and outdoor bar, casual grill area and a sweeping covered dining porch with scenic lake and golf course views, we’ve already seen the success of the dining venue, which includes being named 2018 Golden Fork Club award as the most improved private club restaurant by Golf Inc. magazine.

More importantly, in only one year after it opened, the Firestone Bar & Grille, brought to life in part with award-winning interior designer, Traci Rhoads, is paying real dividends back to the club.  In fact, Lake Toxaway experienced an unprecedented 60 percent increase in their a la carte food and beverage business.

“That kind of volume increase was more than we ever hoped,” Schoenbeck said to me in a follow-up conversation. “Everybody is just piling into the new area. We still get one to two requests for tables inside the older dining room, which was also completely revamped and tends to be a little quieter, but everybody else wants to be joining the party.”

Schoenbeck also told me that as a result of our design that doubled their outdoor seating, “It’s so beautiful up there. Everybody just wants to look at the mountains because it’s a great vibe with the craft beers, the cool specials, TVs in the bar and more.”

When I asked Schoenbeck what other GMs should consider as they embark on transformative club  renovations, he said, “Clubs need to hang onto some of the traditions and golf is obviously still very important, but you’ve got to evolve and be a place where people want to hang out and have fun.”

And on some level, remain ‘forever young.’

The post Part 2: Private Club of the Future appeared first on GM Corner.

When The Landings Club was being developed in the early 1970s on Skidaway Island, Georgia, the original plan called for a private community of upper-scale homes situated amongst 27 holes of Arnold Palmer-designed golf in the pristine maritime forest 12 miles from Savannah.

After the developer started acquiring additional land, The Landings quickly expanded to 36 holes of Palmer- designed golf by 1979, and now offers 108 holes at six championship courses designed by some of the industry’s top course designers. For decades, The Landings was considered the consummate private golf club community.

Today, The Landings still holds the distinction of being one of the largest master-planned single golf-course developments in America, but it’s certainly grown to be much more than simply golf. Indeed, fueled by the club’s ambitious $26 million multi-phase capital improvements plan started in 2017, The Landings is a mere shadow of its former self some 40 years ago.

In many respects, as the member-owned club wraps up the final stages of reimagining the flagship Marshwood clubhouse and introducing more family-friendly aquatic complexes and distinctive new dining venues, this community of 4,400 households is now the quintessential private club of the future.

Leave it up to a person like Landings Executive Director Steven Freund, who came from a non-traditional hotel and resort background, to lead this transformation encompassing destination dining, top-notch aquatic and wellness facilities, and a host of other family and lifestyle-centric hospitality one would expect at world-class resorts.

For instance, one of the popular new attractions for members and guests is the newly designed family-friendly Franklin Creek campus that debuted at the end of 2018 with the addition of the club’s first fast-casual dining venue, The Deck, and various aquatic amenities designed for members of all ages.  It was a vast upgrade from the previous venue featuring a non-descript poolside snack bar and nearby café for tennis members.

When it was initially proposed, members rejected the concept of one dining outlet serving all community constituents. After further design consultations with the board and a second attempt at selling the members on the vision of something more in tune with food-and-beverage trends at many clubs today, not to mention society as a whole, The Landings membership bought into the new plan.

According to Freund, the club is reaping huge dividends at the come-as-you-are Franklin Creek campus with revenues likely doubling the original $1.5 million forecast. To hear Freund describe it, that’s a lot of breakfast muffins, burgers and pizzas. Meanwhile, the club’s new Marshwood clubhouse will also be designed for multi-generational use, but plans call for a more sophisticated resort-style setting in both the dining and aquatic facilities.

What’s important to Freund about all of these thoughtfully designed clubhouses and amenities is creating them in such a manner that they ultimately attract the segment of members the club wants to bring to each venue. Meanwhile, by being mindful of the changing attitudes of the more youthful and active modern-day member, yet sensitive to the community’s legacy members typically retired from northern states, the Landings Club is poised for future sustainability and relevance. So, what exactly are the ingredients that compose the consummate modern-day club?

Freund will tell you it’s a club first and foremost focused on being family-friendly and multi-generational in its culture, operations and design intelligence.  It’s also a club delivering distinctive or ‘branded’ dining experiences worthy of patronage rather than one that members just feel obligated to support. Lastly, it needs to be an inviting place with an edge of timelessness without being overly formal. In the end, it’s a place that’s welcoming and warm to all members of the family and all generations – both current and future. More simply put, it’s a place some 6,400 family members now call home: The Landings Club.

The post Part 1: A Place to Call Home appeared first on GM Corner.