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Experience 'Wooded Bliss' at Mendocino's Brewery Gulch Inn By
George Medovoy, Editor What do you get when you combine a love for old wood, the lure of California's Mendocino Coast, and the magic of romance? For Arky Ciancutti and his many guests, it's the Brewery Gulch Inn, a very special Mendocino coastal hideaway perched above Smuggler's Cove. Like so many inns I have discovered over the years, this one has a unique story tied to its owner - let's call him "Arky" -- who built the inn on the edge of a peaceful meadow, where I exchanged furtive glances with several deer grazing in the cool of the evening. Arky's luxury, 10-room Arts and Craft-style lodge, with its high ceilings and airy, open feeling, is made of 150-year-old virgin redwood, which lay buried away under Big River until the good doctor stirred it from its slumber. (Arky Ciancutti stands next to the big copper pot in front of his inn. The pot once was used as a beer still, evidence of the name Brewery Gulch).
And wouldn't you know it, Arky never actually dreamed he would open an inn. A physician who practiced pediatrics and then emergency room medicine in the Bay Area, he simply decided to start a consulting firm to teach organizations the how-to's of building a culture of trust. One of his first clients was located in Mendocino -- but once Arky got here, well, he knew that this was where he wanted to live. "Originally," he recalls, "I thought, well, it would be nice to have a conference center to be able to do my work right in my backyard." The idea of a conference center metamorphosed into the Brewery Gulch Inn, located on Highway 1 about a mile south of Mendocino village. (The charming village of Mendocino, with its mix of quaint shops, cafes and restaurants, is a carbon copy of a New England village..and it is just up the road from Brewery Gulch Inn).
Today, Arky does a few seminars at the inn, but mostly he does one-on-one coaching with CEO's. And in his unorthodox style, he tells corporate leaders, 'Hey, let's take a canoe up the river,' or 'Let's take a bicycle ride.' Mature
pine trees and redwoods act as a backdrop to Arky's vegetables, 600 rhododendrons
and 1,000 ferns here at the inn. Then one day, as workers were retrofitting the bridge above Big River, he got his "first clue" of the redwood logs long buried in the tributary's silt. Looking Back at the Early Days of Logging In
the early days of Mendocino logging, large numbers of these logs sunk to the bottom
of the river as they were floated down to the mill. The logs used for Brewery Gulch Inn contain historic "DNA" of Mendocino logging history: many of them precede 1878 - when trees were felled by axe rather than saw. Arky knows this from the axe marks on the wood. A lifetime lover of wood, Arky salvaged, traded and bought over 100,000 board feet of the virgin redwood, ranging from 40 inches to 12 feet in diameter. The entire project took him almost 20 years to complete! The eco-salvaged wood is used throughout the inn, including some of the structure, all of the doors and around the windows, for the vanities, and some of the furniture and paneling. Each timber reflects the subtleties of color, with subtle reds and purples to blonde tones. You get your first introduction to all of this lovingly restored wood from the inn's pitched entryway and the tall, handcrafted wood entry doors, which lead to the paneled Great Room, with its natural light and soaring glass-and-steel, wood-burning fireplace. The stone floors here, stained deep red, give off radiant heat in the winter. (The Great Room has natural light and a soaring glass-and-steel, wood-burning fireplace).
From the Great Room, I walked through a pair of tall French doors to the open deck and watched a lone raven gracefully ride the wind, soaring high above Smuggler's Cove -- where liquor was dropped off during Prohibition. If you really want to get fancy, you can use the Great Room telescope to view many of the other native birds in this area…and jot down what you see in the diary. Breakfast in the Great Room Morning in the Great Room is where we experienced Chef Jeffrey Neumeier's memorable breakfast, served on long, quarter sawn oak tables crafted in North Carolina. We started off with freshly squeezed organic Valencia orange juice and then selected Neumeier's Egg White Omelet, which was made with organic eggs, wild mushrooms, spinach and sun dried tomatoes. Most of Neumeier's ingredients come from the inn's own organic gardens - something else that bears Arky's imprint. "Both Jeffrey and I like organics," Arky says. "We're the only California certified organic farm that is also an inn or a hotel in the entire state of California. "So we grow a lot of what we prepare. We even raise the chickens. We hatch them ourselves from our own eggs, raise them organically all the way up, and then those are the eggs you eat here. "Most people have never tasted a fresh egg. The yolk actually stands up - it's not one of those flat things. It's a different animal. It tastes like an egg…it's really good." Mendocino Cooking Means Local Items For Neumeier, Mendocino cooking means that you can take advantage of "back door vendors who offer local items like wild mushrooms and berries foraged from local woods." "I use certified organic products and free range meats," he says, "that are raised humanely without hormones. Our breads, muffins, coffee cakes, and pastries are made in-house." Wine and hors d'oeuvres in the afternoon feature more delicious items by Neumeier, like fava beans, prosciutto wrapped around mozzarella cheese, assorted cheeses and breads, and, of course, a selection of Mendocino County wines. The host for the afternoon fare is Glenn Lutge, the inn's bearded manager, who used to co-own a 1927 Mission Revival theatre/restaurant showcasing repertory cinema and live music in Palo Alto, California. As we walked outside, Arky showed me a piece of the inn's history near the entrance - a big copper pot once used as a beer still -- clear evidence of a brewery that occupied the property in the nineteenth century. With the brewery long gone, the still is now a large "planter" filled with creeping vines! (Eight of the inn's 10 well-appointed guest rooms have private views of the water from decks).
The inn's 10 well-appointed guest rooms sit on three levels and feature gas-lit fireplaces and private baths. Eight of the rooms have private views of the water from decks. Each room includes comfortable leather chairs with chenille comforters, phones with data ports, cable TV and clock radios with CD players. Bathrooms include terry robes and hair dryers. All have tub/shower combinations; three have Jacuzzi tubs for two, and two others have oversized soaking tubs for two. One room has been especially designed to accommodate a physically limited guest. For Arky, work on his dream inn seems never-ending; he is currently restoring the wetlands on his property to grow water herbs for the inn's breakfasts. It's all part of the good doctor's philosophy of hospitality, which he sums up thusly: "When people come to stay here, its like they're coming to stay at your house. So you want to offer them things they can't get anywhere else…." IF
YOU GO… For reservations and more information, call (800) 578-4454. Visit www.brewerygulchinn.com. The inn won the AAA 2003 Four Diamond Award and was selected in 2002 by the American Historic Inns as one of the Top 10 Most Romantic Inns of the Year. The concierge will help you arrange for special activities, including canoeing, kayaking, scuba diving, tennis, golf, spa appointments, etc. Picnic lunches are available. The inn has a small library with books, magazines, board games and CD's as well as a gift shop with unique items made especially for the inn. Don't forget the Mendocino County Wine & Mushroom Festival Nov. 11-21. Brewery Gulch Inn will feature hors d'oeuvres and Anderson Valley wines on November 13. Price: $55. From January 21-30, Mendocino County celebrates Crab & Wine Days, and the inn will offer hors d'oeuvres and Anderson Valley wines on January 22. Price: $55. To find out about the many other wine, food, arts and ecology events in Mendocino County, check the events calendar at www.goMendo.com. For tours of Mendocino County wineries, contact Mendo Wine Tours at (888) 805-TOUR or email to: info@mendowinetours.com. The quickest way to get to the Mendocino area is north on Highway 101 and then the Highway 128 or Highway 20 cut-off heading west to Highway 1 on the coast. Some people say it's a toss-up, but I prefer 128: it seems to have longer stretches without curves, and numerous wineries are located along the way. You
can also opt to take Highway 1 all the way and experience dramatic ocean views
from the cliffs, but expect to spend more time on the road…and also a good
deal of twists and turns. (All photos in this article, except for Arky Ciancutti and Mendocino village, ©Jay Graham). (Click below for more travel).
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