By Georgeanne Brennan
Northern California's famous Wine Country encompasses Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. California Highway 128 traverses all of them, from the eastern border of Napa to the Mendocino Coast on the Pacific Ocean. Here, Highway 128 meets Highway 1 at the edge of the continent, and a decision must be made.
A right turn will take you north along Mendocino's well-known coast, populated by elegant coastal inns and the historic town of Mendocino itself with plentiful shops and restaurants, north to Fort Bragg and its working Noyo Harbor, home to fishing boats and outfitters. The left turn dips down through a bit of forest, then takes you along Mendocino County's lesser-known south coast to the small, quirky, under-the-radar towns of Elk, Point Arena and Gualala.
All of them are located on the ocean, and the drive alone, edged with fields and forests on one side and dramatic rocky cliffs, beaches and boundless ocean on the other, is worth the trip. However, each of the towns boasts fascinating accommodations, unusual restaurants and local wines, making the towns themselves worth exploring.
Founded in the 1850s, Elk, called Greenwood until 1957 and named "America's Best Small Food and Wine Town" for 2024 by Travel and Leisure, has become a place of pilgrimage for food-lovers. The Harbor House Inn is an understated, Craftsman-style building surrounded by lush gardens overlooking the Pacific.
The restaurant, guided by Chef Matthew Kammerer, has earned two Michelin stars for good reason. Kammerer and his team bring new meaning to locally sourced — they harvest and sun-dry their own salt and several types of seaweed from the pools below the inn. The house vegetable garden, which slopes toward a small beach, is full of lettuces and root vegetables, flowers and herbs. Wild mushrooms are gathered in season from the forest, and the ocean yields sea urchins, shellfish and fish. The 11-course tasting menu with paired wines is one of the most interesting and delicious to be found anywhere in Wine Country. The inn's 11 rooms, most with ocean views, are welcoming and cozy.
On the other end of town is the historic Elk Cove Inn and Spa. The innkeepers are a husband-and-wife team, with the husband an international chef and his wife a sommelier. In addition to innkeeping, they provide the dinners served in the main building's dining room. Accommodations range from the main historic building to newer guest rooms built alongside the property's rambling, romantic gardens with a path down to the beach below.
The small town of Point Arena is best known today for its lighthouse, but in 1866, with a new wharf at Arena Cove, the town was a bustling port. This was due in large part to the region's booming lumber industry, which used the port to ship its products to San Francisco. By 1915, the heyday was over, and the town gradually dwindled as the lumber industry declined. The lighthouse still stands, however, and a visit there includes an optional climb of 115 feet to the top.
Today Point Arena's Main Street is lined with family-run coffee shops and cafes, has a movie theater with live music, a hardware store that serves the coastal towns and a popular Japanese izakaya, or tavern, the Izakaya Gama. Like the Harbor House in Elk but on a more modest scale, the restaurant draws visitors from Wine Country as well as from the greater San Francsico Bay Area. A wide selection of sake is available, and the skilled waitstaff will lead you through the choices as well as the thoroughly Japanese menu.
Just around the corner from Gama, Port Road will take you directly to the Wharf Master's Inn, where, if you wish, you can book a stay in the original 1877 home of the wharf master or in one of the inn's other rooms, many of which overlook the harbor and pier below. You can even rent a fishing pole from the inn and use it to fish off the pier. In any case, don't overlook a walk on the pier and a stop at Pier Place for their excellent fried oyster sandwich on ciabatta and a glass of local wine or beer on tap. Order at the bar, then take your meal outside on the upstairs deck, where you can watch the seagulls and fishermen below.
If something wilder interests you, try a visit to B. Bryan wild animal preserve, just inland from Point Arena.
A wander around the small town of Gulala tells the visitor this is a special place. The Surf Market, a relatively small market right on Highway 1, specializes in organic foods and local artisan products. The array of fresh-caught local fish and shellfish is worthy of a high-end fish market, and the wine selection is two aisles long, populated with both well-known and obscure wines from northern California vineyards.
On a Saturday morning in February, the market's parking lot was set up with a huge grill. Music from the 1960s was playing, and a couple of men were grilling slabs of pork ribs and roasting whole chickens on spits while patrons, local and visitors alike, tapped their toes to the music and chatted, no one in a rush.
Farther south along the highway, on Old Stage Road, is the Gualala Arts Center. Tucked on a slight rise at the edge of a redwood forest, the beautifully crafted building is the heart of the small community and features performing arts and lectures as well as visual art and galleries. All of that and a wander through the center's peaceful gardens are worth a visit.
For accommodations, it's hard to resist St. Orres Inn and Restaurant with its construction inspired by the Russian roots of the region's early fur-trappers. Onion domes sit atop the glass and redwood main building, and eclectic cottages are scattered along the property's creek, meadows and hillsides. The elegant, high-ceiling restaurant in the main building serves multicourse meals featuring foraged foods such as mushrooms and wild berries, as well as local fish and game, creatively prepared and served with aplomb.
WHEN YOU GO
Harbor House Inn and Restaurant: theharborhouseinn.com
Elk Cove Inn: elkcoveinn.com
Izakaya Gama: izakaya-gama.com
Wharf Master's Inn: wharfmastersinn.com
B Bryan Preserve: bbryanpreserve.com
Pier Place: pierplacepointarena.com
Gulala Arts Center: gualalaarts.org
St. Orres: saintorres.com
Gulala Art Center: gualalaarts.org
Georgeanne Brennan is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The Point Arena Wharf illustrates to visitors what coming to California's northern coast is all about. Photo courtesy of Visit Mendocino County.
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