Restaurant 17 sits at Hotel Domestique, the boutique hotel George and Rich Hincapie built into the Blue Ridge foothills a few miles north of downtown Travelers Rest. The dining room looks out toward the mountains, and the property carries the European-countryside feel the Hincapies brought home from years of travel and racing abroad. Getting here means leaving the Upstate's busier roads for a quiet stretch of Road of Vines, which is part of the draw.
The kitchen, led by chef Haydn Shaak, works a seasonal menu rooted in the land around it, with a European and Mediterranean lean rather than anything fussy. Much of the plate is grown close by, drawing on Stage 22, the hotel's own farm along the North Saluda River, plus neighboring farms and nearby streams. Because the menu follows what is in season, it shifts through the year, so two visits months apart rarely look alike.
That local sourcing is what reviewers keep returning to, along with a setting that stays relaxed rather than stiff despite the polish. If you go, leave time before dinner for a drink at the hotel's Bar 17; starting the evening there, then moving to the table as the light drops over the foothills, is how people who know the place tend to do it.