A star-studded escape to Trilith.
It wasn’t two minutes into my visit to Fayetteville, Georgia, the home of the Trilith movie studio, that I spotted a celebrity. My sister-in-law, Chris, and I had just pulled up to the valet stand at our hotel, the Trilith Guesthouse, when we spotted a tall, curly-topped fellow standing across the way from us. We immediately looked at each other and said, “Hey, isn’t that the guy from ‘Saturday Night Live’?” We waivered for a minute whether it was really him or not, but soon concluded it was Martin Herlihy, one of the comedians noted for the “Please Do Not Destroy” skits on “SNL.” Our hunch was seemingly confirmed later that day when we took a tour of Trilith Studios and discovered that Herlihy was a cast member in a movie called The Breadwinner that was currently in preproduction at the studio.
We never spotted Herlihy again during our stay, but the Trilith Guesthouse still proved to have plenty of star power. The 193-room property, which opened in January 2024, is a member of Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio of independent boutique hotels and features a street-level restaurant, rooftop bar, exhibition kitchen with hands-on classes, multiple event spaces and an outdoor pool. Our cozy, modern room looked out onto a small park and across to a back portion of the Trilith Studios lot.
That afternoon, we took a guided tour of the studios that began with a video chronicling how Trilith Studios came to be. It turns out that one of the largest film production facilities in the country was the brainchild of Dan Cathy, the chairman of Chick-fil-A. We also learned that since its opening 10 years ago, Trilith has been the backdrop for movies such as Ant-Man and Passengers, and TV shows like “The Walking Dead.” One particularly amusing anecdote from the tour was how Cathy once used his own tractor to mow a field on the property that was, unbeknownst to him, being left wild to serve as an African savannah for the film Black Panther.
Cathy also envisioned the Town at Trilith, the bustling community that’s grown up around the studio. Chris and I strolled its main square after the tour and found lots of interesting restaurants and shops, including the Nourish + Bloom Market, an employee-less grocery where you just scan and go. The Town at Trilith residences are interesting, too, as the architecture was inspired by planned communities like Rosemary Beach, Florida. The hotel has bikes for rent in case you want to go exploring.
That night, Chris and I dined at the hotel’s in-house restaurant, Prologue, where our feast included the summer berry and arugula salad, crawfish and sweet corn fritter, peach-glazed pork belly and a juicy, perfectly medium New York strip. We then headed to the fifth floor and grabbed an outdoor table at Oliver’s Twist rooftop bar, where we enjoyed a view of the main strip below and a couple of tasty strawberry margarita mocktails.
We reluctantly checked out the next morning after an alfresco breakfast back at Prologue. Our time at Trilith was short, but who knows? The next time we go to the movies, it might just have been made at Trilith Studios, and the stars might have stayed at the Trilith Guesthouse.
TRILITH GUESTHOUSE
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