Let’s Make Places That Make Us Feel Alive! (Part 2)
By Isaac French
After getting a ton of encouraging feedback from last week's newsletter about the art of placemaking, I thought I'd follow-up with a case-study!
As I told you a couple weeks ago, I made a thread on X that got 16.3 million views in just a couple days. That post was about an old train car that my dad stumbled across and bought for $2,000. During the pandemic, my brothers and I completed restored it and now it's a one-of-a-kind destination rental in the mountains of north Idaho.
Well, posting that gave me an idea...
A few days later I made a post about an old Ford garage that we'd bought a few years before and turned into an outstanding bakery, cafe, and artisan creamery. And a ratty-old appliance shop which became a world-class, old-fashioned crafts and fabric store. Plus another brick building which was also completely redone and is now a butcher shop and soon-to-be mercantile!
Hundreds of thousands of folks saw that post.
And finally last week, I made a third post about an old hand-hewn barn and farmhouse we took down, restored, and reassembled as a stunning venue and destination rental.
Millions more saw this. Crazy!
All of these projects are in or around the tiny town of Deary, Idaho. Deary has a population of 550, and is two hours from the nearest interstate or major city (Spokane, Washington).
When our family moved there in 2009, it was just another run-down Idaho logging town, full of old buildings that didn't have many years left before they would completely crumble or collapse under the burden of too many seasons of snow and general neglect.
But with the help of friends and neighbors, we've been able to breathe new life into the town, and one-by-one restore these keystone buildings with vibrant businesses which all complement one another.
Adding the train car, depot, caboose, farmhouse lodging was the cherry on top of a total town transformation.
But first, we needed a great place for folks to eat when they came to visit, whether for a day or a week! I present to you The Pie Safe!
A typical Saturday line at The Pie Safe
This town is way off the beaten path, and if we expected guests to take time out of their busy schedules to come visit, we wanted there to be an entire ecosystem of life for them to see and experience.
And, of course we wanted to honor the town, the locals that've lived there their entire lives, and the surrounding community.
How many other towns just like Deary are spread all across America? Each with a unique story, and each with unique potential for explosion of life and hospitality.
Forgive me for spending time talking about this, but I can't help but get excited just thinking of all this potential waiting to be unlocked, and how perfectly it dovetails with this massive trend of experiential—of experiential hospitality!
Experiential hospitality goes beyond unique stays! It includes retail, restaurants, lifestyle—the whole fabric of life!
The gift room at The Pie Safe (everything made by hand by (mostly local) artisans)
When you come to Deary, you're not just coming to stay somewhere. You're coming to experience something! To experience a reinvigorated American town. To experience a slower pace of life—and a truer sense of community.
This is what placemaking is all about to me—creating places for people to live, work, play, visit, and experience! Places full of life—where people naturally want to be. Places that naturally tell a story!
Breathing life back into forgotten places is one of the best ways to create this kind of place and story. And it's time to think of experiential beyond just accommodations!!
The experiential hospitality revolution is truly just beginning, and opportunities to experientializeabound!
Time to think big... Why not take on a whole town?!