Since 1970 the Seasons Lodge and Conference Center has sat on top of a hill off of State Road 46 East overlooking rolling farmland, but now when guests walk through the restaurant doors they will find themselves in a new and modern atmosphere.
Rafters Food and Spirits opened at the Seasons in September, complete with a new menu, a new look and a new concept.
Owner Kevin Ault and his partners started talking about renovations in February of 2020 then the world — and their plans –virtually stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020 the plans started coming together again for Ault and his team.
Completing renovations in the middle of the pandemic allotted time that may not have usually been there with the Brown County Music Center closed, no conferences or banquets and no holiday buffets. The timing was “really perfect,” Ault said.
They had originally hoped to be open May 1, but there were delays with receiving materials and supplies for the new space, like furniture, equipment and dishware. Items that were ordered in January still have yet to arrive.
“We’ve all learned from the project,” Ault said. “It was a chore sometimes, but then again, we’re not sure what would’ve happened if it (the pandemic) didn’t allow us the time.”
They did demolitions themselves, using staff from the kitchen and bar to keep them employed in a time when restaurants were closed.
They tore out block walls, windows, carpeting, doing everything they possibly could before the contractor started, Ault said.
Despite having Jerry Benton with JL Benton Contracting as a contractor, Ault said it was difficult to get onto a schedule with many taking advantage of building projects during pandemic shutdowns. Official renovations started on Nov. 30, 2020.
Diana Paxton is the designer of the project and Miller Architects was involved in some of the outdoor renderings.
Paxton stuck with the original rustic feel of the Seasons, keeping the old wood almost as a focal point in the spaces. Going from a dark brown stain on the wood rafters to dark gray paint gives makes it almost look like steel, a nod to Ault’s business partner Don Galbreath, who is in steel manufacturing business.
Tables, chairs, barstools and decorations mix the use of wood and metal, adding a deep contrast and rich atmosphere. They changed the old plywood-type siding on the building to board and batten and added new windows, which Ault said make “a big difference.”
A large round table in one corner of the bar is steel and weighs about 750 pounds. Iron railing in the space is made by local artist Brad Cox.
More modern
With all new lighting, new windows and doors, Ault said their goal was to bring the restaurant and lobby area into a more modern time. In addition to lobby spaces and the restaurant, the 20 original rooms received patio door replacements, new TVs, bathroom vanities and the hallways are being redone.
Plans for the whole west end of the hotel are in the works as well as for the conference center, Ault.
Ault said the restaurant needed a major overhaul — a new menu, new look and new concept.
The new menu is very diverse, he said.
They offer an apple butter burger, a tenderloin, fish tacos, flatbreads, special cocktails and desserts — and fried biscuits, of course.
Ault’s son and daughter have joined in the management of the restaurant. His son works as the food and beverage manager and daughter as the catering manager.
Both bring experience from the corporate world.
“And they’re young,” Ault said. “They know what the younger people want. Hikers, bikers, mountain bikers, people that want craft foods and distilled beverages. I’m not up on that, but (they) are.”
One of the hurdles that Ault has encountered is hiring staff. Rafters is currently open four days a week because they do not have the help, Ault said.
“We have a really great staff,” he said. “But to add another day, we’d have to add a whole other staff. We’ll get there.”
Outdoor dining will be available right outside the restaurant and a 10,000-square-foot patio replaced the original pool and its overhead structure. The patio will be available for events, seating and more once it’s complete.
Being across from the music center played into what the owners chose to do. They wanted to draw attention to the front of the building as people exit Maple Leaf Boulevard. The steel and concrete deck overlook State Road 46 East as a way to invite visitors in for food and drinks after a show at the music center.
The name for the restaurant was inspired by the beams in the space, towering above the dining room.
Before it was Rafters, it was Seasons Dining and it was Accent Dining in 1984. Rafters just “hit,” Ault said.
“It’s different. We tossed it around and didn’t want to toss around anything else,” he said. The logo, a diamond divided into four parts with changing seasons, plays on the different times of the year.
The restaurant has been busy. Ault said what they have been hearing is that the Seasons has “the wow factor. “
“People are walking through the front door like ‘Wow, what a change,’” he said. “Having the new menu, all the new beverages, the new staff, gives it a whole new appeal. People who came occasionally are starting to come a lot.”
Some of the project has been what Ault called an “as built,” not knowing what they’d be getting into as they moved farther into the project. The hotel first opened in April of 1970 as a Ramada Inn.
Ault’s first job was in Nashville at 13 years old, working for Larry Hawkins at That Sandwich Place. At 15, he was working at the Brown County Inn. Now he owns two hotels of his own, working with business partners to operate The Seasons Lodge and Conference Center and Hotel Nashville.
Ault went to Hotel Nashville from the Brown County Inn. Andy Rogers called Ault in October of 2016 with an opportunity for Ault to purchase the Seasons.
After closing the deal on the Seasons, Ault and his business partners Galbreath and Darlene Jaehnke knew they wanted to do renovations on the building. To what extent, they weren’t sure at the time.
“After October of ‘16, buying the place, hitting the ground running, getting to the know the business, then we saw what we needed to do,” Ault said.
Their first large expense was replacing the HVAC system on the entire property, redoing some plumbing and installing a new hot water boiler system.
“I always said our first million dollars was spent in the basement,” Ault said.
Of the 50 rooms at the hotel, 30 were fairly new, after being reconstructed due to a fire in 2007. They reopened in 2009.
“It was state of the art,” Ault said. “In 1970, this was it. You had this and the Abe Martin Lodge and some other little motels in town.”
In 1984, it became the Seasons. Despite the cosmetic changes inside and the rebranding of the restaurant, Ault said the hotel’s name will be a constant.
“People ask us why we didn’t change the name, but we like it. It’s a Brown County icon,” he said.
“People know the Seasons, we’re just making it ‘the new Seasons,’ bringing it into modern times.”
