Masseuse stays busy with clientele at 2 county resorts
Tapoco – Fontana Village Resort and Tapoco Lodge are nearly seamlessly connected by a 9-mile journey through Rhymers Ferry and Meadow Branch roads in the northeastern corner of Graham County.
It is a corridor that features a winding, two-lane road that perfectly accents one of the county’s main draws: stunning views that serve to put the problems of the outside world into perspective.
The roads also share another common trait: they link together two locations where residents, visitors and guests alike can allow those real-world problems seem like nothing more than a fleeting thought.
Behind the experience is Tiffany Duke, who operates “Massage at Tiffanys” in two separate rooms that can be accessed by two different pathways: Fontana and Tapoco. While others daydreamed of careers like beautician, dentist and doctor, she had another pursuit in mind.
“When I was little, I always gravitated toward massages,” Duke said. “When I would have friends over, we would take turns massaging. I knew by the time I was 17 I wanted to go to massage school.”
A native of Fredericksburg, Texas, Duke put her dream on the back-burner as the reality of adulthood set in. Soon, Duke found herself married, and to earn income she waited tables at various establishments for 20 years.
It took a relationship change for Duke to realize her dream was not as out of the cards, as she feared. She is a member of the town council at Fontana Dam; her husband is Rob Hardy, the mayor. The two met after her marriage ended and, quickly enough, Duke enrolled in the now-defunct Asheville School of Massage & Yoga in 2018 and received her Massage & Bodywork license from the Federal of State Massage Therapy Board in 2019.
“I was there for six months, and it was incredible,” said Duke. “You got up and did yoga from 8 (a.m.) to 5 (p.m.) every day; it was intense.”
Duke had barely started building her dream career when the COVID pandemic struck in March 2020. For obvious reasons, massages were not at the forefront of people’s minds then. As statewide and federal restrictions on social distancing eased, so did those who shied away from one-on-one stress relief. Massage at Tiffanys – a nod to the classic 1961 Audrey Hepburn film Breakfast at Tiffany’s – began to slowly build a client base, with Duke setting up a room in Fontana Dam Town Hall. She also expanded her reach by making house calls.
In March, Tapoco Lodge General Manager Valerie Frapp heard about Duke’s new profession – one of the restaurants where Duke used to work was Tapoco, so the two were familiar with each other – and knew she could be the missing piece of a component Frapp had always wanted to make available at the resort.
“I had been promoting the spa, so I called her to come over,” Frapp said. “We talked, we looked at the space here and she gave me a massage – it was amazing. Plus, the yoga instructor we had quit the day before Tiffany came, so it was fate.
“She has been amazing; she has not missed any appointments. Everyone that Tiffany’s hands have touched have just bragged about her. I have servers here who are trying to switch shifts so they can get a massage from her.”
Anyone who visits Duke for yoga is in for a high-energy workout; her massages are the polar opposite, with soothing music and the relaxable virtues of lavender.
“I love music and I love to dance, so the yoga will have that as an underlying theme,” Duke said. “It’s the same thing for the massage: I go with the music. I want clients to come out of it feeling an enhanced energy; I want people to view it as a healing, relaxing, therapeutic session.”
Massages at Tiffany’s can be reached at (828) 735-4667.
Duke is at Tapoco Lodge for massages and hydrotherapy from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Yoga sessions are held at the lodge on Saturday mornings. For details, call (828) 498-2800.