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The WINE WRITER: George Medovoy
THE HARBOR HOUSE INN - TIMELESS ELEGANCE & FINE WINES ON THE
MENDOCINO COAST
By George Medovoy
ELK, Calif. - In all these years of traveling the Mendocino coast,
what is it that keeps pulling us back?
Surely it's the
timeless, enchanting landscape, but I'm just as convinced that it's
also the free spirits, lending their imagination to lodging and
food, alternative farming, and now, of course, to winemaking, like
the great zinfandels that come off the Mendocino Ridge near the
Navarro River.
But nowhere does it all
synthesize more harmoniously than at the Harbor House Inn, an
elegant 1915 Arts and Crafts-style redwood house named this year by
Sunset Magazine as one of the West's Best Small Inns with a
restaurant.
The inn sits on the
ocean side of a quiet village called Elk, just south of the
community of Mendocino.
Our footsteps made
crunching sounds on the gravel pathway as we walked to the front
steps of the old house, designed as the executive lodge for early
lumber company executives.
Miss Dizzy, the inn's
mottled brown cat, issued a welcoming meow from the broad porch.
The wide windows of the
Harbor House dining room offered views of the lower cove, where
workers once loaded redwood onto schooners moored off a jagged
outcropping called Arch Rock.
In the morning, we took
the wooden stairway down the side of the cliff, past a mysterious
waterfall half hidden behind thick foliage, to the inn's private
beach.
There, the waves hitting
the rocky shoreline represented the only sounds now since the demise
of the lumber mills in the Great Depression.
The builders of the
house had planned it as a large-scale replica of the "House of
Redwood," which was showcased at the 1915 San Francisco Pan
Pacific Exhibition to demonstrate the enduring characteristics of
redwood.
Now, some 85 years
later, its newest guardians are two hospitable Southerners named Sam
and Elle Haynes.
"Once we began to
refurbish the property," said Sam, "we realized what a
treasure we had. Protecting its integrity became our first
priority."
In the cozy warmth of
the living room, we snuggled into a brown leather sofa after dinner.
Old magazines, a Scrabble game, and an oversized folder with
historic Harbor House documents covered a coffee table. A piano sat
near the fireplace, waiting for anyone who could play, said
innkeeper Ken Krauss.
The wood floor seemed
freshly polished, and overhead, bands of redwood crossed the
ceiling.
The inn's lovely
bedrooms, on the first floor and up the carpeted
staircase on the second floor, reflected Elle's eye for design. True
to her sense of marrying modern luxuries with classic Arts ands
Crafts style, Elle did not hurry to purchase the first bed or even
the wallpaper.
"It's impossible to
be a purist and at the same time provide guests with luxuries they
have come to expect," she said.
"For example, there
were no king-size beds in 1916, so we searched nationwide for beds
that complemented the grandeur of the Harbor House and also
satisfied our discriminating customers."
The inn's 10 enchanting
bedrooms and four adjacent cottages come with private baths,
luxurious bathrobes, and CD players.
Like the lovely,
second-floor Harbor Room in the main house, featuring a dramatic
king-size feather bed with five heavenly pillows, a thick, white
down comforter to match the white walls, a mahogany antique dresser,
and a gas fireplace.
As ocean breezes wafted
into the room through the open windows, we surveyed the view from
one of two big lounging chairs: dramatic gardens, the ocean, and
seagulls circling above a stand of cypress trees on a lone ridge.
Out beyond the shore,
the tunnel in Arch Rock seemed large enough for a small boat to sail
through. One could really understand Sam Haynes' feelings about
"an impulsive enchantment with a spectacular property…."
The smaller Lookout Room
next door, a kind of doll's house with French country wallpaper, has
a doorway that leads to a rooftop "lookout" with two
Adirondack chairs for ocean gazing, reading…or listening for sea
lions.
At some point, you'll
want to steal away from your room and lose yourself in the Harbor
House gardens.
The work of designer
Barbara Faulkner, the gardens feature large groups of similar
plants, which, Faulkner said, "create a serene atmosphere and
allow the view to be the dominant feature."
Splashes of color owe
their magic to sunset-colored Gazania and purple Cineraria, the
latter of which, Faulkner said, are "happy to re-seed
everywhere" in these climes.
By day, deer graze in
the hills across the road, but at night they can make a
"dessert" of Faulkner's tasty plants!
In the chicken yard,
Sam's prized Silkeys, Cochins and Mille Fleurs strut their stuff for
amused guests and provide fresh eggs for breakfast. On the ocean
side, herbs and vegetables in planter boxes soak up the sun and the
saltwater air.
And as if one didn't
need a reminder of the purpose of it all, the word IMAGINATION just
happens to be carved into a nearby rock on a pathway.
It's a fitting link to
the work of chef Paul Ciardello, who infuses the
flavors of Tuscany and Provence into his four-course, prix-fixe
dinners-for-two, with entrees like fresh Pacific salmon, seared ahi,
beef tenderloin, and slow smoked pork chops.
The extensive wine list,
recognized by Wine Spectator magazine, is well represented by
California labels as well as French and Italian wines, and reflects
the careful attention of both Sam and Ciardello.
Of note, the list also
includes organic labels like Sinskey and ZD, whose vineyards eschew
pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, thriving instead on 'natural'
ladybug protection, for which the young Ciardello can't find enough
praise.
"When you walk in
their fields," he said, "there's lady bugs everywhere. You
see life in their fields. It's good to see somebody do it right…and
still manage to keep their land alive…without having to pump
chemical fertilizers in the grounds. It's the best of all
worlds."
Ciardello enjoys pairing
wines and food.
"I search for that
pairing," he said. "When I start making my menu, I start
with the entrée, I pick a wine, and then I try to pick an
appetizer, salads and desserts that will follow a natural
progression.
"You can't start
out heavy and go lighter, you've got to be able to have that wine…the
best are the wines that are kind of tight when you open them…the
younger wines, because as the wine opens up and progresses itself,
your meal can progress right along with it."
When the inn features
its popular "Winemaker Dinners," it does four, multiple
wines with the entrée.
Against a
crackling fireplace, breakfast chef Lynn Derrick serves
everything from Eggs Benedict to oatmeal, but, oh my, the signature
item is something called Banana Cloud Cakes, made with fresh
bananas, sour cream and eggs, and served with real maple syrup and
sweet butter!
At dinner, one of our
favorites was Ciardello's chilled heirloom tomato soup, a
marvelously silky mixture that practically re-defined tomato soup
with its nine kinds of tomatoes, different in color, shape and size
- and all organically produced and un-hybridized for at least 35
years.
"So these are tomatoes that weren't bred for
the supermarkets," Ciardello explained. "They're the old
type that have the sweetness and the acid. It's something that I
believe in strongly - the best produce was the way it was originally
done."
Ciardello's desserts are
just as wonderful. We just couldn't get enough of his Chocolate
Budino, a warm, light flam, set on the plate with a sweet splash of
contrasting raspberry sauce - in his own words: "It's to die
for."
After all that dinner
symphony, a kind of quiet descended over the dining room, as the
ocean and the sky seemed suspended in a fragile Mendocino moment
before evening turned into night.
Another timeless moment
at the Harbor House Inn.
IF YOU GO…
The Harbor House Inn is located at 5600 South Highway One in Elk,
about three hours north of San Francisco. For more information, call
1-800-720-7474 or visit www.theharborhouseinn.com
As of August of 2001,
rates in the main house are from $300, and in the cottages from
$225, double occupancy, and include full breakfast and a four-course
dinner for two.
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