BROWN COUNTY INN continued from 21
She said Curtin has also been a key player.
“ What would we do without her? She’ s just so professional and she’ s been here doing this for nine or ten years,” Gosser said.
“ So we got to keep all three of them and most of the staff, who truly run the show,” she said.“ This is like their building— it’ s their house.”
It was Courtney’ s parents, Barry and Deborah Herring, who heard that the familiar Nashville landmark was for sale
and forwarded the idea of taking it on as a family venture.
“ They were really looking to retire, but they had always thought about owning a hotel, and had always wanted some kind of family legacy project,” Gosser said.
The Gossers moved here from Madision, Wisconsin with food service experience. Husband Dietrich has a background as a line cook, butcher, and cheese monger. Courtney had managed a restaurant before pursuing an accounting career.
He will run the kitchen while she handles the ordering, banquets, staff management, scheduling and all the other details of running a bar and restaurant.
The kitchen has been totally refurbished, with a lot of new equipment installed.“ We’ ve created more space back there,” Gosser said. One of the tennis courts was turned into a walk-in garden with raised flower beds with raspberries, blueberries, and herbs which“ wintered okay.”
“ We want our guests to be able to walk in it and eat a raspberry if they want,” she said.
“ One of the first things we did was plant a bunch of tomatoes out front and we served those tomatoes to our customers,” she said.“ We can’ t get everything from it, but, anything we can use, we will.”
“ We have had good responses and everybody has been really, really nice to us.”
“ Some people miss the old antiques, and it wasn’ t that we didn’ t like the antiques, it’ s just that we needed to look different to be considered or thought about in a different way,” she said.
“ But I think even the people who miss the old look truly do love us and will stand by us and give us a chance.” The Brown County Inn is located at the intersection of State Roads 135 and 46 in Nashville. You can make reservations by calling( 812) 988-2291 or visiting their website < www. browncountyinn. com >. Lookup their Facebook page“ Brown County Inn.” •
22 Our Brown County March / April 2016