The Swag Resort is almost a mile above sea level at the summit of the Great Smoky Mountains.  They offer a variety of private cabins or rooms in the main lodge to stay in with all meals included in your stay.  Built in the 1970s by Dan and Deener Matthews, it was a potato farm when they bought the spot at the top of the bald mountain.  No road accessed the property as the farmers had hiked to harvest the potatoes that were rolled down the hill.  They fell in love with the view of all the mountains from the hilltop and simply hiked up and camped there when they first bought the property.  They began to buy old log buildings and after building a road began to use these reclaimed logs to craft the buildings on their property.  It was a private residence until the 1982 World’s Fair came to Knoxville and the organizers asked if they could use the place as a hotel.  Guests liked it so much that they wanted to come back and thus the inn was created.  It’s called the Swag as that’s the name of the dip between the mountain ranges.  In 2018 the Matthews sold the property to Annie and David Colquitt, who spent their honeymoon on the property.  It joined Relais & Châteaux in 2020.  We were able to stay a couple nights and the next 3 posts will cover our meals there.  It’s a beautiful place and the staff are superb so visit if you can.

Set-Up

 

Food

The amuse bouche was cauliflower with a golden sultana (raisin) and a tofu cheese sauce.  It was a nice combination of flavors and textures.

 

Bread was a house made Montenegro focaccia which was chewy and good.

 

Local Kohlrabi Soup was made with fennel, local apples, coconut milk and caraway.  The kohlrabi was locally grown  and the soup was accented with yuzu slaw and toasted caraway.  The slaw added a nice texture to the creamy soup.  It was good.

 

Local Apple Salad also contained sliced Marcona almonds, greens, goat cheese and a tahini vinaigrette.  The greens were grown at the Biltmore gardens and the apples were shaved into thin slices.  It was very lightly dressed.  Good textures helped but it was nice not great

 

Tne Guniea Hen was plated with pommes puree, greens, local mushrooms and sauce Robert (brown mustard demi-glace sauce).  The mashed potatoes were very smooth but not overly buttery and the several types of mushrooms (one was Lions mane) were in larger pieces and lovely.  Some bacon was mixed with the greens which was tasty but made it somewhat salty.  The hen was nicely done.

 

The New York Strip was served with local Candy Roaster squash, roasted cauliflower, turnips and chimichurri.  The beef had been dry aged 30 days but still was on the dry side and cooked more medium rare than rare.  The squash was super sweet and good and the small turnips were fabulous.  The cauliflower was well caramelized and the chimichurri tied it all together and brought out the flavor of the beef.

 

Cookies and Cream was house made ice cream on a hot cookie.  The cookie was not totally baked and if that’s your preference than this would have been great.  No nuts were in the cookie but it had a nice chocolate chip flavor.

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake had a gingersnap crust and was topped with Chantilly cream.  This one had a lot of pumpkin flavor and a light layer of cream which blended well with the spicy crust.  It had a smooth filling and was the better of the two desserts.