Bowie Home lodge evaluate: Footloose and fancy-free in Fort Value

Getting there

Reserving particulars

Bowie Home has simply 106 lodging whole — 88 rooms (known as studios), 12 lofts and 6 suites. Studios begin at 445 sq. toes whereas lofts and suites begin at 700 sq. toes and vary as much as 1,900 sq. toes for the most important pad within the place, the sprawling Goodnight Suite.

Lodging on the road facet of the lodge have massive home windows overlooking Camp Bowie Boulevard, whereas these on the opposite facet have both balconies or small patios overlooking the pool deck.

Charges begin at $387 per night time for normal Bowie King rooms. The Balcony King Studio I stayed in, which was really on the identical stage because the pool, begins at $594 per night time.

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You possibly can snag offers by reserving immediately on the Auberge Resorts Assortment web site, together with current packages which have included $150 on-property credit or a 30% low cost for reserving early.

Standout options

• Comfy rooms embellished with cowboy-inspired aesthetics.
• Probably the greatest bars on the town attracts a well-booted crowd with its customized cocktails.
• The spa proffers state-of-the-art therapies and partnerships with well-known wellness manufacturers.
• Artwork aficionados will recognize the proximity to Fort Value’s excellent galleries.
• The second-floor pool and bar present an oasislike getaway throughout good climate.

Drawbacks

• Auberge devotees aware of the model’s lavish resorts in locales like Napa Valley, California, and Los Cabos, Mexico, may want a second to regulate to this city-focused outpost, which is true subsequent to a CVS.
• Whereas well-meaning and all the time pleasant, service was not all the time immediate or thorough.
• These searching for nightlife may need to keep in Dallas slightly than Fort Value.

The vibe

Bowie Home is in contrast to something Fort Value has seen earlier than; it is equal components down-home hacienda and up to date artwork gallery due to works from proprietor Jo Ellard’s idiosyncratic assortment sprinkled all through the general public areas.

However that is what makes the lodge distinctive; it is a spot the place everybody, from enterprise vacationers on the town for his or her newest deal to cowboy-booted ranchers coming to see the newest prize animals on the Fort Value Inventory Present & Rodeo, feels equally relaxed — particularly as soon as night hits and people begin hitting the sport tables (backgammon, checkers, billiards and even roulette) within the teal-tinged Billet Room.

And if you happen to’re curious in regards to the varied eye-catching pictures, work, sculptures and knick-knacks on show —together with monumental works by underground avenue artist Hijack, colourful prints by Thandiwe Muriu and mind-bending avenue scenes by Max Zorn — find time for one in every of artwork director Emily Gregoire’s complimentary property excursions, that are provided 3 times per week.

The room

My Balcony King room was actually extra of a patio king, due to its location on the second ground, adjoining the pool deck. However that did not detract from the up to date Western decor. Stepping inside, I wanted I might packed my nattiest 10-gallon hat and leather-based boots (and thought of shopping for a classic pair from the Chieffalo Americana pop-up boutique within the foyer) simply so I may use the hat rack-boot jack combo subsequent to the door.

Hardwood flooring, natural-fiber rugs and a bandana-patterned throw pillow on the white-sheeted mattress backed by a pressed-leather headboard accomplished the look.

There was additionally an outsized window-side chaise for languid lounging and a stone-topped two-seat desk below a framed flat-screen TV that doubled as a workstation and eating space.

The minibar contained creature comforts like a Nespresso machine for DIY cafe au lait and connoisseur treats like Eatable tequila-caramel and lemon-salt popcorn and Chuza spicy dried mango.

The toilet, tucked behind (appropriately sufficient) a barn door, contained a deep-veined marble sink with brass fixtures. Simply past, an iridescent, green-tiled bathe beckoned with herb-infused Wild Mare merchandise.

Exterior the big French doorways, I had a semiprivate patio with a seating space to myself, although I largely stayed inside and saved the sheer curtains drawn for privateness from passersby on their approach to the pool or Whinny’s tree-shaded terrace.

Foods and drinks

Though you is likely to be hankering for Fort Value’s well-known barbecue washed down with an ice-cold beer (and it is best to completely patronize among the well-known barbecue joints close by), it is price spending a full day taking within the eating choices at Bowie Home to get the scope of its progressive culinary programming.

Mixing basic chophouse delicacies with a extra delicate gastronomic streak, Bricks and Horses is the principle restaurant at Bowie Home, with menus highlighting Texas ranches, seafood and produce (the saddle-shaped serviette rings are additionally crowd-pleasers).

Breakfast may embody avocado-pesto toast with sunflower seeds and confit tomatoes ($14) and a prickly pear-beet-lime juice combo ($11) to supply a wholesome counterbalance to heartier delights like juicy wagyu sausage ($8) and fluffy nation biscuits with cultured butter, native honey and blackberry jam (complimentary).

Noon, chew right into a crisp salad and sip a good crisper rose wine on the poolside bar, Whinny’s, earlier than a sunning session in one of many cabanas.

Then clean up and head again right down to the foyer for a whiskey-forward aperitif just like the Previous-Common with Ghostwood bourbon, Dr. Pepper syrup and sassafras bitters ($18) at The Bar at Bowie Home.

The salvaged, 150-year-old carved picket bar, full with ornamental mounted steer horns by artist Caroline Vaughn Jarosz, lends the area a distinctly saloonlike really feel. If you happen to’re fortunate, you may snag one of many seats by the fireside or within the book-filled Mulberry Room.

It is again to Bricks and Horses for dinner, the place you possibly can tuck into Gulf Coast crabcake Louie ($28) or a playfully offered roll of Ritz crackers with pimento cheese and smoked salmon ($14) earlier than slicing right into a signature steak from one in every of six native ranches, like a 6-ounce filet mignon ($56) seared within the Mibrasa charcoal oven and accompanied together with your alternative of sauces and a facet just like the creamy cauliflower casserole ($10).

Depart room for dessert, although, since you may actually be tempted by the roving pie cart tendering candy showstoppers like a chocolate-pecan mud pie topped to order tableside with Chantilly cream, whiskey-caramel sauce and glazed pepitas ($17), amongst different choices.

Facilities and repair

At a lodge like Bowie Home, you come for the scene as a lot because the lodging, and serving to set that scene is the serene second-floor pool. One facet is lined by cushioned, umbrella-shaded loungers in addition to a couple of curtained cabanas obtainable for rent. There’s additionally a small Jacuzzi on the jap facet, near the health club.

Talking of which, the health middle is surprisingly expansive with a full vary of Technogym cardio and weight machines, free weights, stretching apparatuses and even a Pilates reformer.

Simply subsequent door, the Ash Spa is a tranquil retreat proffering distinctive therapies with merchandise from magnificence strains like Codage and third Ritual. The rejuvenating Qi Magnificence Facial, as an illustration, makes use of magnets plated with pure gold (50 minutes; $195).

Earlier than and after therapies, company can take pleasure in an natural infusion within the coed lounge, or retreat to males’s and girls’s locker rooms for an infrared sauna session or a salubrious steam.

The lodge additionally hosts a full calendar of social occasions starting from reside performances by native musicians to vigorous mahjong tourneys and line-dancing tutorials. Company obtain the calendar of happenings upon check-in.

Out and about

Though you would spend your keep admiring the lodge’s artworks, Bowie Home can also be the best base for exploring Fort Value’s super cultural scene. It is a five-minute stroll to the Amon Carter Museum of American Artwork, whose assortment spans two centuries. Stroll a couple of minutes farther northwest, and you may occur upon two of the nation’s premier museums.

The Kimbell Artwork Museum, with its twin galleries — one with a design based mostly on classical Roman ideas by Louis I. Kahn and the opposite a colonnaded masterpiece by Renzo Piano — accommodates over 350 masterpieces by artists together with Isamu Noguchi and Henri Matisse.

Subsequent door, the austere Fashionable Artwork Museum of Fort Value has an unimaginable everlasting assortment of works by artists like Andy Warhol, but additionally places on spectacular exhibitions with items that span the globe.

Resort company also can mosey to the close by Will Rogers Memorial Middle for varied sporting occasions and theatrical performances, take within the reveals of the close by Fort Value Museum of Science and Historical past, or enterprise (barely) farther afield to admire the crops on the Fort Value Botanic Backyard.

The Fort Value Stockyards, the place you possibly can take within the twice-daily cattle drive earlier than saloon-hopping and tapas-traipsing, is only a 10-minute drive or journey away.

Accessibility

Bowie Home has a wheelchair-accessible driveway and entrance in addition to valet parking. Elevator buttons are inside attain of these in mobility units and there are accessible public loos on the bottom ground. There may be additionally a chairlift into the pool and a seize bar for assist in coming into the Jacuzzi.

The lodge presents quite a lot of lodging for vacationers with completely different wants. These embody wheelchair- and hearing-accessible studios with maneuverable spacing, roll-in showers and bathroom seize bars in addition to visible alarms and TTY telephones. As with all lodge, name on to make a reservation to make sure your room has the options you require.

Trying out

Shrugging off the high-gloss vitality of close by Dallas in favor of a extra homespun vibe, Fort Value continues to be one of many nation’s most intriguing cultural locations due to its focus of artwork galleries and efficiency areas in addition to culinary choices starting from finger-licking barbecue to upscale worldwide delicacies.

Though there have been already a couple of high-end lodges on the town, the arrival of Bowie Home, full with a full program of arts- and music-driven occasions, indicators a brand new period for Cowtown, and guests may need to cease by for a couple of days to find simply what they have been lacking.

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