The large organic farm at Castle Hot Springs produces more than 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables, including over 30 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, allowing resort chefs to create incredibly fresh flavors in the resort’s restaurant, Harvest. in the garden and greenhouse on-site directly into the food and drink menus. As a result, the food is “seed to table,” as Sampson puts it, and the bar is host to a wealth of spirits infused with plants grown on-site. “The story has become the food and beverage,” he said. “The chef we have and what he’s doing, as well as with the farm and with the mixologist upstairs — it’s becoming this culinary mecca. If you get a salad for lunch here, everything has been picked in the last couple of hours.” Castle Hot Springs is a lot to unpack, and it deserves to be seen in person — but if you want to, you’ll have to pay a bit. The property is not open to day visitors, and rooms start at about $700 per night for one of the four rooms in the main lodge and $1,400 to $1,600 for the cabins and bungalows respectively. The prices are inclusive of all meals, activities and gratuities, but not alcohol. But, if you act quickly, the resort is providing a special for Arizona residents that knocks a couple hundred bucks off the price, good between now and when the resort closes for the summer on June 9. And there’s a lot more to the story as well. The Castle Hot Springs team is brewing beer with the spring water and thinking of opening a brewery. They’re about to expand the garden/farm space to increase its output for the food and drink. They’re marketing to groups in places like New York and Hollywood as a destination wedding location. But if the goal of Castle Hot Springs is to create the premier luxury experience in the region, the big question is, will it work? Well, it does have a few things going for it. “It’s one of the most unique places in the world,” Sampson said. “You can go to a Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton and have this luxury experience, and it’s great. You come here and it’s unlike any other place you’ve ever been before.” Tom Evans CONTRIBUTING EDITOR @TEvans927 30 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | MAY 2019

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