BENEZETTE — Thousands of visitors flock to the little township of Benezette each year to see the elk. With the new Visitors’ Center opened in 2010, the numbers of visitors has exploded. Busloads of people visit weekly.
Brian Kunes is the owner of the Benezette Hotel, along with Matt Castle. Friday was the grand opening of the newly renovated hotel, which is located in a prime area, at the bottom of Winslow Hill where everyone must turn to reach the center, as well as the prime viewing areas. They had noticed a steady increase every summer by at least 10 percent, but since the center has opened, they’ve had an almost 50 percent increase in visitors and they haven’t even hit their peak season yet, according to Kunes.
“Since then we’ve grown by leaps and bounds,” Kunes said. “We work closely with the Visitors’ Center.”
When tourists ask for recommendations on places to eat at the Visitors’ Center, families tended to avoid the Benezette Hotel because it looked like the neighborhood bar and not a place to take children.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
With the new siding and brick work, the Hotel looks like a cozy little place to stop for a good meal. And, Kunes said, plans are to keep on making improvements.
“Last fall we were turning people away and people didn’t want to stay because there’s no place to sit,” Kunes said. “Our issue this year, there’s no parking. If you can find a place to park, you have a place to sit. We hope we have planned for additional work. We removed the outside patio for more parking. Once we do more renovation, we will include an outside patio.”
Besides the changes to the outside of the restaurant, “We’ve moved the bar out of the dining area, but we find that most people want to sit out there now,” Kunes said. “Upstairs there’s additional seating. It can be used as a small banquet room or a private party room.”
With the renovations have come additional hirings. “Right now, we have roughly 14 people and we have definitely added on. At this point, new kitchen help, waitresses and bartenders,” Kunes added.
The severe weather and flooding in surrounding area has put a damper on their official opening weekend, but it’s a nice drive, beautiful countryside and if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll see one of the ships of the woods, otherwise known as an elk.
