Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, widely regarded as one of the world’s best places to play golf, is home to a new restaurant, Ghost Tree Grill, designed by Scott Edwards Architecture. The resort’s rugged coastal cliffs, rolling sand dunes, and towering evergreens make it a unique destination.
Design and Context
The design of Ghost Tree Grill fits the building into the surrounding setting and the resort’s existing architecture, informing a path forward for potential future development. Elements like an asymmetrical gabled roof and cedar cladding contribute to a contemporary design style reminiscent of historic coastal influences.
The restaurant’s careful placement within the site seamlessly integrates it into the fabric of the resort. Ghost Tree Grill is nestled into a hillside and visible down the fairway from Old Macdonald’s 18th hole, a welcome sight for golfers as they complete the course.
Architecture and Experience
The architectural approach deliberately contrasts subtlety with awe to create an experience. The entry brings to mind a portal—visitors enter the restaurant through an understated, cedar-clad wall, and as they move further into the building, the space opens up to show a dining room, a central bar, and expansive views of the golf course beyond.
The restaurant features indoor and outdoor spaces for dining, relaxing, and socializing, and offers views of the course and the restaurant’s iconic namesake, Ghost Tree, a 50- to 60-foot Port Orford Cedar that is no longer alive but still stands on a ridge overlooking the third fairway.
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Like the exterior, the interior’s material palette is rooted in place, with traditional steakhouse booths expressed in mossy green and mushroom leather, and an earthy, warm palette continuing in the end-grain Douglas fir flooring, leather bar seats, and wood tabletops.
Organization and Experience
The restaurant is organized to offer different experiences even for the most frequent visitors, inviting guests to sit at the bar, in comfortable booths, next to the fireplace, or at tables large or intimate, depending on the occasion. Staff experience is prioritized in the restaurant’s organization, with thoughtful arrangements of dining zones and substantial back-of-house spaces incorporated in the design to support the delivery of exceptional fine dining.
Ghost Tree Grill’s design creates a hospitality experience worthy of the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and the unmatched natural setting surrounding it. The golf resort’s unique setting and the restaurant’s thoughtful design make it a notable destination.
It is a unique destination.
