The city of Guerneville is an outdated logging outpost on the Russian River in outer Sonoma County, deep within the redwoods and equal components funky and fecund. Whereas there are many rental properties of various high quality obtainable, and much more campsites within the woods, what the city has lengthy palpably wanted is a contact of luxurious. And the opening of The Stavrand ushers in a welcome new period with gracious hospitality and a contact of historic gravitas.
The Stavrand, a 21-room luxurious inn in Guerneville, California, is about on a wooded six-acre property.
Proprietors Emily Glick (previously the GM of the Kimpton Buchanan Lodge) and visitor providers aficionado Santiago Ripley, who acquired the property in 2020 (a dicey yr for enterprise ventures of all variety, so a transparent leap of religion), go away no element unattended at this oasis of aesthetic abundance set on six acres, together with an apple orchard.
The Stavrand brings a brand new stage of luxurious to the Guerneville are of the Russian River.
With 21 visitor rooms — the unique 11 within the 1922 “Belden Home,” constructed by Bay Space architect John I. Warnecke in Mediterranean Revival fashion, with the remaining rooms added in 1985 and 1999 in separate buildings — the property has as soon as once more come into its personal with a restoration overseen by EDG Inside Design and Structure with preservation because the core mission. So, the character of the unique constructing is maintained, and the additions are trustworthy to it: textured stucco siding, low-pitched, hipped roofs with terra cotta tile, arched home windows and doorways, and balconies looking onto the courtyard and the woods.
A big, peaceable visitor room at The Stavrand.
There’s a pool (and poolside bar cart), outside yoga courses, in-room therapeutic massage, and complimentary nightly aperitifs by the hearth pit. We took a tour of the grounds after sundown and have been supplied with lanterns to gentle our approach. It was chilly, and Santiago introduced out heat apple cider spiked with Japanese whiskey — the right drink for that second.
The apple orchard at The Stavrand dates again to the early Twenties.
The culinary side of a go to right here can’t be sufficiently underscored. Chef Jeremy Clemens and his crew develop a lot of what they use onsite, and he cooks — the way to put it? — in an totally natural and eccentric approach. You by no means know what would possibly seem on the menu every night time, however you all the time need to discover out. (The restaurant is simply open to friends, which supplies the expertise much more cachet.) Emily and different employees open a handful of bottles of wine to go together with the night time alternatives, and so they roam round all night generously topping off glasses. It’s clear that the chef has full management over the kitchen’s path, which, regardless of a variety of press releases on the contrary, is a reasonably uncommon phenomenon, and it’s downright thrilling. Breakfast is simply as fascinating, although it’s a proven fact that the chef has a approach (some ways, actually) with potatoes.
A hamachi crudo appetizer at The Stavrand resort in Guerneville.
The city of Guerneville is a 10-minute stroll away, and it was on that winding path — previous the dilapidating mini-golf course that has seen higher days and throughout the bridge over the river — that it struck me simply how particular The Stavrand is, in the midst of nowhere and within the coronary heart of the whole lot.
The Stavrand is a welcome new luxurious oasis in Sonoma County’s Russian River space.