Outside, you’ll find plenty of locals and college students walking, jogging and cycling around the meticulously landscaped 54-acre property. Now an 85-room hotel owned by Wake Forest University, Graylyn is filled with architectural elements inspired by the couple’s travels, from the carved stone doorway and antique mantel from France in the front hall to hand-painted, carved wood panels from Istanbul in the Persian card room. Reynolds Tobacco executive Bowman Gray and his wife, Nathalie, built the Norman Revival property in the late 1920s, one of the last of the great American country homes. This country estate-turned-hotel offers an authentic Winston-Salem experience. The Katharine at Kimpton Cardinal Hotel Hotel Indigo Whether you’re in town for the day - Winston-Salem is an easy 1.5-hour drive up Interstate 77 from Charlotte - or plan to make a weekend of it, here are a few ideas for your visit. On a recent weekend in the Twin City (Winston and Salem were, until 1913, two separate towns), I revisited a few old favorites and made some surprising new discoveries. Reynolds Building, there are reminders of the city’s illustrious history everywhere you turn.įor as long as I can remember, I’ve had an affinity for this Triad city with a deep appreciation for the arts and historic preservation. Whether strolling through Reynolda Gardens or sipping cocktails at The Katharine in the iconic R.J. Home to a half-dozen colleges and universities, including Wake Forest University and UNC School of the Arts, there’s a real sense of place here. While tobacco is no longer the celebrated industry it was a century ago, the same families that benefited from it - the Reynolds, Grays and Hanes, to name a few - also invested deeply in their community, with a lasting impact. Today, former downtown factories and warehouses have been transformed into offices, research labs, apartments, shops and restaurants. It’s dubbed the Coal Pit, a reference to the space’s former life as a coal-fired plant powering downtown factories.įor nearly a century, tobacco, textiles and banking were the lifeblood of Winston-Salem - which, it’s worth noting, is also the birthplace of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. A light rain is falling, but that doesn’t stop the crowd from the restaurant and the brewery from spilling out onto the patio outside. Next door at Incendiary Brewing, started by two locals in 2018, the crowd sways and sings along with the band playing in the corner - it’s standing room only at the bar, where patrons line up to order porters, pilsners and American IPAs. The line to order stretches about 20-deep, with customers scanning the busy warehouse-like space for an open table. On a Saturday night at Bailey Power Plant in downtown Winston-Salem, wide-eyed children watch as pizza chefs at Cugino Forno toss dough high in the air before turning their attention to the spinning rainbow of Italian gelato in the rotating freezer by the register. A short drive north of Charlotte, Winston-Salem is rich with history, art and an emerging culinary scene.īy Cathy Martin | photographs courtesy visit Winston-Salem
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