Unique Dining Experience

By Laurie Bailey

Photographs courtesy Polymath Park

With the intent to break loose from everyday chaos, Tom and Heather Papinchak moved to rural Acme, Pennsylvania, and transformed their home into a magical forest retreat for others. Their TreeTops Restaurant with its indoor and outdoor dining— and additional “treehouse village”—offers guests a Frank Lloyd Wright–influenced nature immersion.

“It’s a labor of love,” Heather Papinchak says.

Open since 2008, TreeTops is a dining getaway offering brunch, lunch, tea, tapas, or dinner. The adult dining environment enhances a tour or stay at one of the four homes located in the couple’s adjacent Polymath Park. Void of Wi-Fi or television, the buildings include the Wrightdesigned Duncan and Mäntylä houses and two other 1960era homes designed by Wright’s apprentice, Peter Berndtson, that were originally built on the property. For more on the homes, turn to page 17.

The seven private cedar treehouse “pods,” designed by Tom Papinchak, are connected by a canopied boardwalk and measure from 4 to 10 feet above the ground. Their open-air design with low, overextending rooflines, naturally directs the eye outward into the woodland surroundings. And—no pun intended—the treehouses and the restaurant “have very elevated menus,” says Tom Papinchak.

Featuring the culinary expertise of Heather Papinchak, the restaurant’s “5-branch,” chef-designed dinner experience consists of an appetizer, soup, salad, entrée, and dessert. Entrée choices are left up to the guest and can feature specialties such as scallops, salmon, or filet mignon with signature gorgonzola or cabernet sauces.

The restaurant has been awarded several OpenTable diner’s choice awards.

“It’s about the guest experience,” Heather says. “I want to make people happy with food.” She adds that all the staff, including servers, housekeepers, and tour guides welcome visitors as they would if the location were their own homes.

Flowing beyond a guided tour or overnight stay, there’s also an educational component to each meal. Staff are trained to explain the origins of the restaurant and architectural park and how the Papinchaks converted it from their home (from 2000 through 2008) with a passion for conservancy.

After purchasing their home and the adjacent 200-acre property that became Polymath Park, they bought Wright’s Duncan House, originally built in Lisle, Illinois.

“It is the first house in 30 years that the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy stepped in to save,” Heather Papinchak says.

When plans fell through for it to be rebuilt in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Tom Papinchak and a small crew from the Conservancy moved it in pieces and rebuilt Duncan House in the park. By 2007, they were offering overnight lodging and tours in all three of the property’s homes.

“Our first guests were from Tel Aviv, and they wanted a better culinary experience,” Tom Papinchak says.

So rather than send lodgers and touring customers out into the rural surrounding areas, the couple fed them from their own kitchen, creating 12 to 14 daily meals while maintaining their daytime careers.

By 2008, they moved out of their home and established TreeTops to serve their already on-site guests. The lower level of TreeTops is the gift shop.

“I always thought the space had a commercial feel; it’s open,” Tom Papinchak says.

To create the restaurant’s intimate feel, he designed the tall, wide-backed chairs, giving the feeling of a personal booth and dining comfort that adds to the room’s ambiance.

In 2016, the couple acquired and relocated Wright’s Mäntylä House through a donation from the McKinney family of Cloquet, Minnesota.

“From the beginning our sole purpose at Polymath Park has always been to provide a space for guests to disconnect (from technology and the outside world) and reconnect with one another,” Heather Papinchak says. “Just like with Mr. Wright, it’s about having the space that connects you with nature.”

Tours of the four Polymath Park homes are available every day but Wednesday. TreeTops Restaurant is located at 187 Evergreen Lane in Acme and is open from March 17 through November 30. The treehouse village dining pods are open April 20 through October 31. Reservations are required. Visit the website for more information, www. treetopsrestaurant.net.