VOGUE VOYAGE
Redefining Luxury Travel
Men's Issue
There’s something about a men’s issue that feels different this year.
Maybe it’s because the conversations around men are becoming more honest. Less about perfection and more about what actually matters: purpose, health, friendship, adventure, connection, and learning how to carry the weight of life without losing yourself in the process.
For this issue, we leaned into all of it.
Yes, there’s golf, because few things bring people together quite like a great course, a weekend away, and the kind of conversations that somehow happen easier side by side than face to face. Golf trips have always been about more than the game. They’re about slowing down long enough to reconnect, laugh, compete, and breathe.
Men today are navigating careers, fatherhood, relationships, financial pressure, and the constant expectation to hold it all together. Mental health is no longer a side conversation. It’s an important one. Strength is not just ambition and resilience. Sometimes it’s self awareness, vulnerability, and knowing when to ask for support.
We wanted this issue to reflect the modern man in full: driven but grounded, successful but human, adventurous yet intentional.
You’ll find travel inspiration, wellness, style, local stories, and people doing meaningful things throughout our community. But hopefully, you’ll also find a reminder to enjoy your life while you’re building it.
Take the trip to Africa.
Book the tee time.
Call your friends.
Prioritize your health.
Be present.
Because the best lives are not just successful from the outside. They feel meaningful on the inside too.
Welcome to our Men’s Issue.
JENNIFER KAUFMAN, PUBLISHER
June 2026
PUBLISHER
Jennifer Kaufman | jennifer.kaufman@citylifestyle.com
EDITORIAL COORDINATOR
Sophie Brock | sophie.brock@citylifestyle.com
ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Stephanie Krejci | stephanie.krejci@citylifestyle.com
Brooke Houser | brooke.houser@citylifestyle.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Jennifer Kaufman, Caroline Shirley, Sophie Brock
Corporate Team
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
President Matthew Perry
COO David Stetler
CRO Jamie Pentz
CoS Janeane Thompson
AD DESIGNER Jenna Crawford
LAYOUT DESIGNER Meredith Wilson
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Anna Minnick
The
It's
Smashing
AN EXCERPT FROM EPISODE 6 OF SHARE THE LIFESTYLE, A CITY LIFESTYLE PODCAST
Photographer: Brittany Dawn Short
Creative Director: Jen Birn
Stylist: Stephanie Coultress O’Neill
Location: Hotel Saint Cecilia, Austin, TX
MIKE JOHNSON HAS BUILT HIS LIFE AROUND ONE QUIETLY RADICAL IDEA: THE STANDARD YOU SET PRIVATELY IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS.
After eight years in the Air Force, a celebrated run on national television, and a health crisis abroad that sent him deep into supply chains and ingredient certifications most founders never touch, the result is Oshun — a luxury ritual brand built on provenance you can trace and integrity you can verify. In an exclusive conversation for the Share the Lifestyle podcast, Mike shares what it actually takes to build something worth putting your name on. Read the highlights below, then scan the QR code for the full episode.
Q: YOU BECAME A FAN FAVORITE ON THE BACHELORETTE AND THEN LEFT THE SPOTLIGHT. YOU MOVED TO MEXICO, LEARNED SPANISH, THEN COSTA RICA, AND BUILT A COMPANY. WHAT DID THAT EXPERIENCE TEACH YOU ABOUT HUMAN BEHAVIOR?
A: “If you’re a good person going in, that shows. If you’re not, that shows too. I also learned that people form this parasocial relationship with you — they assume things about you. When in all actuality, different circumstances bring out different parts of who you are. I was on TV trying to find love. The kindness people were showing after felt a bit fake, because they wanted to be a part of something that isn’t who I am individually, but a part of what they saw on TV. And so I had to get away from everybody and everything and the noise.”
THE QUIET STANDARD:
MIKE JOHNSON
“Too many people have prayed for me. So I’ve got to get up and do the walking.”
— Mike Johnson
Q: YOU JOINED THE AIR FORCE RIGHT OUT OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE. WHAT WERE YOU ACTUALLY RUNNING TOWARD?
A: “There was something in me that was saying: I’m not living up to my full potential. I was being a follower. My uncle said, ‘What’s going to make you become an adult the fastest?’ I said, obviously, the military. The Air Force broadened my thought process more than anything. We’re so caught up in our own perception — when you learn to understand different people’s perspectives, it adds to you in so many ways.”
Q: WITH OSHUN, YOU OWN YOUR MANUFACTURING, YOU EMPLOY A CHEMIST, EVERY PRODUCT HAS A BATCH NUMBER TRACEABLE TO ITS ORIGIN DATE. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO GO THAT DEEP WITH THE BRAND?
A: “The EU bans 1,100 ingredients in personal care products. The U.S. bans nine. That’s my starting point. Oftentimes, it might be the same ingredient, but it comes from a place where it doesn’t have the highest purity. And 60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed. Every product Oshun makes carries a batch number that goes back to the exact day it was created — I can show you every single supplier, the date, the origin. I own more than one part of the supply chain because that’s the only way I can stand behind what’s in the bottle.”
This conversation is just the beginning. Mike goes deeper into why he’s buying land up north, the family in the Philippines who prayed over his factory floor, and what he’d tell every person ready to stop performing and start building. Scan the QR code for the full, exclusive City Lifestyle interview on the Share the Lifestyle podcast.
MIKE JOHNSON
Where the Fairway Meets the Mountain
HE KEEP AT MCLEMORE PAIRS CLIFFSIDE
DRAMA WITH ELEVATED RESORT LIVING.
ARTICLE BY JENNIFER KAUFMAN
Some courses you play once; others you immediately start planning a return trip to before the round is over.
At McLemore Resort, perched along the eastern edge of Lookout Mountain in Rising Fawn, Georgia, the newly opened Keep feels designed for that second category. The course, created by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones, officially opened in October 2025, giving McLemore Resort, Stay & Play guests, and Keep members access to one of the most talked-about new golf experiences in the country.
For Nashville golfers, the draw begins before the first tee. Cloudland sits just over two hours from Nashville, close enough for a long weekend, yet far enough to feel like a true escape. The road climbs toward a mountaintop resort where fog settles into McLemore Cove, ridgelines stretch into the distance, and the language of the property starts to make sense: golf above the clouds.
The Keep is a par-72 championship course that can stretch beyond 7,700 yards from the tips, with five sets of tees that allow the round to shift from playable to demanding. Its setting is what gives it soul. Five cliffside holes overlook McLemore Cove, bringing the drama of the mountain directly into the rhythm of the round. Bergin and Jones used the site’s elevation, rock outcroppings and natural movement to create a course that feels both polished and wild, equal parts strategy and spectacle.
That balance matters. The Keep was built to challenge skilled players, but not punish the everyday golfer simply for showing up. Each hole has its own personality, yet the course holds together as one experience: walkable, scenic, and quietly intense. It asks for thoughtful shots. It rewards patience. And every so often, it asks you to stop, look over the edge, and remember where you are.
The arrival of The Keep also deepens McLemore’s identity as a serious Southeast golf destination. The resort already includes the Highlands Course, known for its dramatic elevation changes and unforgettable cliff-edge 18th hole, along with The Cairn, a six-hole short course designed for a faster, looser round. Together, the three courses give guests several ways to play the mountain, from a full championship test to a relaxed loop before dinner.
It is an ideal setting for a men’s getaway, a couples weekend, or the kind of father-son trip that becomes family lore. You come for the course, but the mountain does its part too. The views slow you down. The spa and pool make a second day feel earned. Dinner tastes even better after 18 holes.
In an era when so many golf trips feel overbuilt or overprogrammed, this one feels grounded in place. The luxury is there, but the landscape leads. That is the part: The Keep does not compete with the mountain; it listens to it.
For those who love golf, The Keep is reason enough to go. For those who simply love a beautiful place, McLemore makes it even easier to say yes.
Make a weekend of it at Cloudland, McLemore’s mountaintop Curio Collection by Hilton hotel. After a day on The Keep, the resort gives guests plenty of reasons to stay put: a full-service spa, cliffside infinity pool, library, fitness center, Peloton room and four dining concepts with views that rival the golf.
Start the morning at The Pocket Café with coffee and a croissant before your tee time, then end the day with cocktails at Skyside or dinner at Auld Alliance, where Scottish and French influences meet in a polished, cliff-edge setting. Croft offers a more relaxed option for breakfast, lunch or dinner, with hearty, fresh dishes made for lingering.
CONTINUED >
“It is an ideal setting for a men’s getaway, a couples weekend, or the kind of father-son trip that becomes family lore. You come for the course, but the mountain does its part too.”
“For those who love golf, The Keep is reason enough to go. For those who simply love a beautiful place, McLemore makes it even easier to say yes.”
The property is also built for groups. With 245 guest rooms, including 21 suites, and more than 20,000 square feet of indoor event space, Cloudland works as well for a corporate retreat as it does for a milestone birthday, golf weekend or guys’ getaway. Outdoor adventure is close by too, from hiking and waterfalls to Chattanooga excursions.
Beyond the luxurious hotel, choose to stay throughout the resort property in a private home rental ranging in size from 3-5 bedroom homes. With mostly new construction throughout the property, enjoy all the comforts of home with the benefit of resort amenities just steps away from your private escape. Private homes are ideal for groups, couples trips, or a guys getaway providing access to shared common space, the golf practice facilities & short course, and resort swimming pool, and all resort dining outlets.
For Belle Meade readers, the sweet spot is the distance. In about two hours and fifteen minutes, you can trade traffic and calendars for mountain air, championship golf and a little room to breathe. It feels elevated, scenic without feeling remote, and refined in a way that still leaves space for muddy shoes and post-round stories. Pack the clubs, book the room, and let the weekend rise above the clouds.
A Beautiful Kind of Wild
South Africa is the unexpected gift. The physical scale, the bush, the wine regions, the vast dramatic landscape all of it challenges the everyday.
Nestled within Kruger National Park, Lion Sands Tinga Lodge is your base. You’re living on the edge, but fully protected. Hotel staff escorts you to your room because you’re THAT close to the animals. You’ve seen the images. The reality is quieter, more elemental than you expected.
The morning begins with a knock at 5:30am. The game drive is silent by nature. You move through the bush face to
face with the Big 5 nothing between you and the wild but air. At sunrise, a breakfast spread appears mid drive: coffee, tea, morning snacks. For one brief moment, noise is permitted. Then silence returns.
Back at the lodge, lunch waits on a terrace overlooking the Sabie River. You spend the afternoon in your suite open air shower, plunge pool, the landscape stretching past the railing. Time stops being something you track.
Dinner is South African cuisine paired with wines from Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, served open air as the bush
“Hotel staff escorts you to your room because you’re THAT close to the animals. You’ve seen the images. The reality is quieter, more elemental than you expected.”
comes alive around you. The stars here are something you have no reference for a brightness that doesn’t exist at home. An Amarula nightcap, and you sleep the way you’ve forgotten you can.
The next morning, the helicopter rises.
Above the Lion Sands Game Reserve, the canyons and waterfalls fall away beneath you, the land impossibly vast in every direction. You step out onto a mountaintop. A private picnic lunch. Nothing between you and the horizon. It’s the kind of stillness that rearranges something.
You came for the experience. You’re leaving with something harder to name.
A trip to Africa asks something of you the hours, the distance, the commitment to get there. It gives back more than it takes. It’s a trip he’ll never forget. Neither will the person who gave it to him.
Caroline Shirley | Founder, Vogue Voyage | voguevoyage.co | inquire@voguevoyage.co
Caroline Shirley
Founder, Vogue Voyage
Caroline is the founder of Vogue Voyage, a Nashville-based luxury travel advisory built on one belief: travel is about what lasts. Excellent execution is a given. The real work is crafting experiences you actually carry home.
Having grown up in Malaysia and spent six years living in Sydney as an adult, her relationship with travel is intrinsic. She has been exploring the world since childhood and never stopped — that accumulated depth of experience informs every itinerary she builds.
Vogue Voyage serves a clientele who want more than logistics. They want experiences built entirely around who they are and what they want to walk away with. Not what the designer would create for themselves, but something shaped by how the client actually travels, what they love, and what they're chasing. Her network and relationships open doors that simply aren't available through conventional booking: after-hour Michelin dinners at a museum, closed-venue experiences, moments that don't appear on any website. Her clients aren't buying a trip. They're buying her expertise and eye.
Based in Nashville, Caroline works with travelers across the country who understand that the best journeys aren't generic. They're deeply, specifically yours. Caroline Shirley | Founder, Vogue Voyage | voguevoyage.co | inquire@ voguevoyage.co
ARTICLE BY ROD JONES
Leveling Up
Smashing stigma around men’s mental health
“Face your challenges head-on” is sage advice most American men receive early and often. Unfortunately, when it comes to mental health, the unspoken expectation has been the polar opposite.
As a career educator, coach and therapist, over the past 20 years I have seen countless boys and young men struggle to find their purpose and reach their potential. While most would be diagnosed as mentally stable, few had embraced mental fitness. Just as living a physically sedentary lifestyle leads to atrophy and disease, neglecting one’s mind and soul is a costly choice.
Today, stigma around men’s mental health is receding – thanks in a large part to pragmatic, results-oriented approaches dominating the zeitgeist. From bestsellers like Atomic Habits to groundbreaking research on grit, happiness and achievement, personal growth is no longer taboo.
My own work in male development across the lifespan sits at the center of this shift. I think of what I do as coaching clients in mental fitness, pursuant of mental health. My clients range from adolescents in chaotic, identity-forming years to men navigating complex – often lonely – terrain, from growth to grief.
Your doctor would tell you to start that fitness program before the heart attack. A dietician would encourage you to eat well before you pack on the pounds. I’m telling you to deal with your challenges and train your mind before a crisis.
In pursuing mental strength, men and boys develop the capacity they need to handle life's heavy lifts. Leadership, marriage, parenthood, change – even good things require
strength and stability. Conversely, loss, stress, depression and anxiety will only get worse if left unaddressed.
My work is distinct in its dual focus. As a lifelong academic and coach, I bring a therapeutic lens and a results-oriented approach to my practice. I meet each client exactly where they are. Most often, we get to work dismantling the mental and emotional blocks keeping them suffering, stuck or adrift. Whether I'm working with a teenager or an executive, my practice always combines psychological insight and actionable guidance.
In twenty years, I have seen the many shapes of male struggle. Middle schoolers paralyzed by social pressures. Teens numbing their confusion and anxieties with drugs and alcohol. Young men shirking responsibility and missing out on meaning. Accomplished men quietly carrying the weight of their worlds, yet feeling empty.
Questions of meaning are central to my work. I help clients understand the meaning their lives hold every single day. Small choices, quiet moments of integrity, and big decisions all shape who you are becoming. The most rewarding part of my work is watching a client move from a state of wandering to one of intentional living, grounded in hard-won clarity.
Ultimately, men of all ages should know that working on your mental health is far from a sign of weakness. It’s a mark of strength.
I welcome families, adolescents, and men of all ages to my practice at Brentwood Counseling Services in Maryland Farms. To learn more, schedule a consultation by emailing admin@brentwoodcounseling.com or calling (615) 377-1153
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Stay ITK for Belle Meade Opening June 2026
THE HAND HOLDING the Brush
BENNETT GALLERIES HAS ALWAYS CHAMPIONED ARTISTS WHO TELL A STORY — FRANK BAGGETT TELLS TENNESSEE'S
ARTICLE
BY
SOPHIE BROCK | PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED
Take Me Home - 60" x 36" - oil on canvas
For nearly five decades, Bennett Galleries has been more than just a place to buy art; it has been a cornerstone of Nashville’s creative community, built on the relationships and collaboration that define the city’s thriving art scene.
Among the artists they work alongside and proudly highlight is native Tennessean Frank Baggett, who understands the depth of Tennessee’s beauty in ways others often overlook, and captures it on canvas with quiet elegance.
“Long before I was aware of Frank Baggett’s artwork, I walked the paths and dirt roads he paints,” said Miranda Herrick, curator at Bennett Galleries. “Frank is deeply inspired by growing up in Tennessee. His love of his home state shines through in paintings of rivers, fields, creeks, and paths. When he reached out to us, seeking representation in Nashville, seeing his paintings was like a visit from old friends. I knew immediately that we should add him to our roster of artists. I knew that our clients, who often ask for artwork that ‘feels like home,’ would be delighted with Frank Baggett’s paintings.”
Baggett’s connection to Tennessee runs deeper than subject matter alone; it is the foundation of his entire artistic philosophy.
“It is not the quality of the brush that determines the outcome of the painting, it is the hand holding the brush,” Frank explained.
Spring - 40" x 30" - oil on canvas
Frank Baggett
A country boy at heart, he spends his days outside, tending his garden, fishing the river, and staying close to the small community he calls home. The same man known to haul in 60-pound catfish is equally at home in his backyard studio, channeling that same patience and grit into paintings that walk a delicate line between traditional and contemporary. Working in oil, he brings landscapes and cityscapes to life with a command of color and light reminiscent of the Impressionist masters, not because he’s chasing a style, but because it’s simply how he sees the world around him.
“Frank isn’t following trends or playing to an audience,” Miranda said. “He is painting what he loves and has a true appreciation for. That shines through in his work and makes it timeless.”
It is exactly that kind of authenticity that has built Bennett Galleries’ reputation. That reputation has been built over generations, and the gallery has always had an eye for artists whose work doesn’t just decorate a wall but tells a story. Knowing which stories deserve to be told is what sets Bennett apart. Featuring Baggett’s work is, in many ways, a natural extension of that legacy. The gallery doesn’t simply display his paintings; it champions them, presenting them to a clientele that has come to
trust Bennett Galleries as the definitive voice in Nashville’s art scene.
“Our relationships with local artists like Frank are very important to us,” Scott Kinman, Bennett Galleries’ marketing director, says. “The whole art scene is built upon collaboration and mutual support. We need them, and they need us. Additionally, many art collectors, both local and traveling, prize work made by locals of regional scenery, and Frank is one of the best that there is in that niche, so we are grateful that we can offer his work to our customers.”
“It is not the quality of the brush that determines the outcome of the painting, it is the hand holding the brush.”
Beyond the art on its walls, Bennett Galleries also stands as Nashville’s premier custom framing destination, offering one of the city’s largest selections of high-quality moulding alongside archival, museum-quality materials — ensuring the pieces you love are protected for generations to come.
For a gallery rooted in the belief that great art tells a story, Frank Baggett is exactly the kind of storyteller Bennett Galleries was built to share with the world.
Bennett Galleries is hosting an upcoming exhibition featuring Frank Baggett and Sheryl Hibbs with the opening reception on August 22nd from 6-8 p.m. To learn more about upcoming exhibitions or to see Frank’s art, visit their website.
bennettgalleriesnashville.com
Meet Leslie Shores
“Autumn Leaves” by Frank Baggett
Nice? Is Whiskey On Ice
In speaking to Whiskey lovers (most happen to be men, but do accept me in their brethren as a fellow enthusiast, writer, and educator), I’ve learned a great many opinions on how to drink Whiskey. Specifically, preferences on adding water and ice vary greatly.
A brand ambassador that I had the privilege of listening to recently said the obvious: both dilution and temperature change when you add ice, so if you are going to add something, a little water is best. I personally prefer to use a water dropper, so I can add one drop at a time until I get to the desired taste.
THE BEST WAY TO ENJOY YOUR WHISKEY: ON THE ROCKS, ROCK, NEAT, OR WITH WATER
HERE ARE THE DIFFERENCES:
Rocks: Provides the highest rate of dilution as a lot of ice melts quickly. If you are drinking a barrel proof Whiskey, it kind of defeats the purpose as the distiller didn’t add water as they do in every other type of finished Whiskey.
On the Rock: The single rock, cube, or sphere is the slowest to melt and thought to be the most aesthetic. It’s nice if you want to stretch out your tasting. I often order on the rock if I want my drink to last longer.
Neat: This is the way single malt Scotch is served at a tasting event, in a branded Glencairn or Neat glass so that proper nosing for aromas can be achievedand a dram of Scotch, smaller than an ounce, fits in them perfectly.
Water: As I mentioned above, quoting the brand ambassador, a little water is better for a fine Whiskey over any kind of ice. Often, if ordered with water, the water is served in a separate vessel on the side so you can add in as much as you want.
Quoting another expert on the subject, Richard Paterson of The Dalmore famously and enthusiastically demonstrates in his Scotch classes how to drink single malt Scotch Whiskey: Paterson fills a lowball glass to the rim with ice, adds Scotch and then ceremoniously throws it over his shoulder onto the carpet of the classroom –because that much ice makes the drink worthless. One more quote, never “add green tea or milk to Whiskey. You can add a little water, but not a lot of ice.”
Ultimately, the reason we add ice can be for aesthetics, to stretch out the time spent on one glass, for cooling, and for dilution. However, the number one reason enthusiasts add water is … drumroll please … because adding a little water actually opens up a Whiskey to show more aromas and flavors.
The June Gentleman: Refined by Season, Defined by Style.
This data is a sampling of sold properties from April 2026 in and around Belle Meade.
The Perfect Steak
ARTICLE BY CASEY WEBER, TALL GRASS MEAT COMPANY
Nothing describes summer better than a good cookout! And what is a cookout without a good, quality steak and the perfect grilling recipe?
1. Thaw and acclimate the steak. For searing to occur, the proteins in steak need to be heated to at least 310°F. Tossing cold meat onto a hot grill lowers the temperature and can prevent a crust from forming, so it’s important that any frozen steaks are thawed completely before cooking.
2. Salt your steak 30-45 minutes before grilling. This causes the salt to draw moisture from within the steak up to the surface, where it dissolves the salt and creates a brine that gets reabsorbed into the steak where it breaks down tough connective tissues.
3. Oil the grate on the grill, not the steak. Use tongs and a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil to lube your grates.
4. Manage your heat well. Remember that your grill needs to be hot for your steak to get a good sear. But if it’s hot enough to cause your oil to smoke, it’s too hot.
5. Use the 60/40 rule. The best-tasting steaks are seared on both sides and cooked evenly in the middle. The simplest way to do that is to only flip your steak once. The 60/40 rule suggests that 60% of your cook time should be spent on one side, and 40% on the other.
6. Keep the lid closed. It may be tempting to peek, but trust the experts and keep it shut! Opening the lid makes your grill lose heat, which makes steaks cook unevenly.
7. Check for doneness. A meat thermometer will give you the most accurate temperature reading:
• Rare: 120°F
• Medium Rare: 130°F
• Medium: 140°F
• Medium Well: 150°F
• Well: 160°F
8. Let your steak rest. Pull your steaks from the grill once they’re cooked to 5-10 degrees below your target temperature and rest for 10-15 minutes.
