Montecito Journal – Winter 2019 – Jeanne Thayer

montecito JOURNAL W int er/ Spring • 2019/ 20

Your Home.

Our Mission.

Tim Dahl — 805.886.2211 tim@timdahl.com timdahl.com DRE 00894534

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Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. License number 01991628. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only.

Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed.

Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage. Compass Concierge rules and exclusions apply. Compass offers no guarantee or warranty of results. Subject to additional terms and conditions.

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©2019 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.

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montecito JOURNAL Volume 12 Issue 2 W i nter/Spri ng • 2019/20

Publisher & Editor Tim Buckley tim@montecitojournal.net Art Director Trent Watanabe Guest Editor Nicholas Schou Copy Editor Lily Buckley Harbin Administration Christine Merrick Diane Davidson Account Managers Tanis Nelson: tanis@montecitojournal.net Susan Brooks: sue@montecitojournal.net Contributors: Hattie Beresford, James Buckley, Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Chuck Graham, Steven Libowitz, Lynn P. Kirst, Eva Van Prooyen, Nicholas Schou, Jack Thayer, Megan Waldrep, Briana Westmacott

Edward Anthony 805-453-5637

1759 South Jameson Lane Montecito, CA 93108

Montecito Journal (glossy edition) is published by Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC. Corporate Offices located at 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H Montecito, CA 93108 For distribution, advertising, or other inquiries: (805) 565-1860

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CONTENTS 34

LOCAL PEOPLE

Montecito’s Daniel Gibbings is a master jeweler and metalsmith with decades of experience in the ancient arts. But before all that he was a reluctant soldier in apartheid-era South Africa.

Gibbings recently shared his incredible story for the first time with Montecito Journal contributor Nicholas Schou.

The Oak Cottage of Santa Barbara A unique approach to memory care . . .

The Oak Cottage of Santa Barbara is home of the signature Vibrant Life program, specializing in unique activities such as gardening, walking clubs, scenic drives and more. Designed to connect residents with family, friends, and the local community, our Vibrant Life program truly inspires.

Oak Cottage is specifically designed for residents with cognitive impairment including Alzheimer’s disease and age-related dementia.

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48 MOSTLY FAMOUS

Life has certainly changed for the internationally renowned visual artist Metrov. Just for starters, after decades in the Big Apple, he’s traded in his Manhattan studio for a one-story house in Goleta. But one thing remains the same: he is still creating iconic portraits of (mostly) celebrities, from Mick Jagger to Santa Barbara’s own Katy Perry. Contributor Steven Libowitz reports.

60 A MOST MEMORABLE LIFE At 104 years old, Montecito resident Jeanne Thayer has a few stories to tell. The onetime New York fashion model survived the tragic loss of a husband to the Japanese during World War Two, when she joined the ranks of some of the first American women to serve in military intelligence. But that was just the beginning of an amazing life of accomplishments, writes her grandson, Jack Thayer, who recently discovered her unpublished memoirs and now lovingly brings her life story to the printed page.

cover photo courtesy of : Jeanne Thayer

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CONTENTS 76 PARKITECTURE

150 MONTECITO WINEMAKERS Montecito’s Sonja Magdevski pays homage to her Macedonian grandmother with Los Alamos craft beer mecca Babi’s Beer Emporium, a sister business to her highly successful Casa Dumetz Wine label.

Thanks to the United States National Park system, the American West

Magdevski talks to Montecito Journal contributor Eva Van Prooyen

is home to some of the most beautiful protected landscapes in the

about how she and her husband Greg Brewer (of Brewer-Clifton and

world. But if camping in a tent and cooking freeze-dried food that

Diatom wines) have brought “radical inclusion” to the Central Coast

would be more palatable during an apocalypse isn’t your idea of fun,

wine scene. Pro tip: Never, ever, ever, be afraid to try a new blend.

consider the fact that some of the most beautifully designed hotels in the world happen to be located within the parks. Montecito Journal

156 YOUR DINNER TABLE

contributor Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr. gives you the compass points to

Getting fresh seafood from the ocean to your kitchen in the quickest

plot your next tent-free wilderness vacation.

possible time has always been a tricky proposition. But it’s never been

116 THE WAY IT WAS

easier thanks to Get Hooked Seafood, a subscription-based service that allows you to choose your fish literally the moment it leaves the

From haute cuisine to oyster saloons (yes, that was a thing), Santa

water. Company founders Kim Selkoe and Victoria Voss tell Montecito

Barbara has a long and fascinating culinary history. Montecito Journal’s

Journal contributor Megan Waldrep how they manage to pull off the

in-house historian, Hattie Beresford, guides you on an in-depth excursion

impossible.

into the annals of dining in the capital of the California Riviera.

138 ART & ARCHITECTURE

166 FAR FLUNG TRAVEL Ever since learning about Africa’s legendary Mountains of the Moon

When Bobbi and Ken Hunter, a pair of Bruce Springsteen superfans from

– the rumored source of the river Nile – Chuck Graham had always

Santa Ynez, traveled to Australia to see him perform, they took a quick

wanted to explore Uganda’s rugged Rwenzori range. From jungle mud

jaunt to Uluru, aka Ayers Rock. That’s where they encountered a solar

to icy glaciers, and monkeys – lots of monkeys – the Rwenzoris have it

art installation by Bruce Munro and immediately realized they wanted

all. Graham returned with a newfound appreciation of the wonders of

to replicate the experience closer to home, at Sensorio, their property in

nature – and lucky for us, he took photographs.

Paso Robles. Years of effort later that dream is now a spectacular reality.

142 JUST PLEIN MAGIC

178 WEEKEND GETAWAY Although most Montecitans tend to head north or west in search of a

Before she opened her gallery in Montecito, Jordan Pope learned how

weekend getaway, Montecito Journal founder James Buckley recently

to paint landscapes the old-school way, as in “en plein air,” or painting

did the unimaginable and braved Los Angeles traffic to reach the pearl

outside in a natural landscape. Now Pope’s Portico Art Gallery on Coast

of the Orange County coast, the Monarch Beach Resort. (Okay so he

Village Road offers an unsurpassed collection of California artwork.

shortened the trip by taking a toll road.) After a $40 million renovation,

Contributor Brianna Westmacott speaks to Pope and gets a special

the resort has never been more beautiful, but as Buckley found, it still

peek at some spectacular views.

hasn’t lost its laid-back “chilluxe” charm.

24 |

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Incredible ocean views span the horizon of this gorgeous 2.5 acre estate. Together, the design team of Don Nulty and Christina Rottman have reimaged Mediterranean architecture for how we live today.

Nestled below the foothills Ynez Mountains, and with Pacific Ocean and Channel sits one of Montecito’s most romantic estates.

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MONTECITO | 640 EL BOSQUE ROAD Price Upon Request

This Mediterranean masterpiece designed by renowned local architect Don Nulty and built by master craftsman Rich Coffin in 2013 sits atop a 3.2 acre knoll with unparalleled views of the harbor, coastline, islands and mountains.

Casa Bene. International Architecture created by Donald Sharpe AIA. This very private estate is central to all that Montecito and Santa Barbara have to offer. Unparalleled ocean, city and mountain views from this commanding knoll top property.

Romantic French country architecture that fuse an entertainer’s dream with a luxurious yet relaxed retreat in the Upper Village. Exquisite stone wine cellar with a 4k bottle capacity, plus guest house, gardens, Boule court and more!

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MONTECITO | COVETED BIRNAM WOOD Offered at $4,950,000

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Set in a stunning Montecito location with expansive ocean and island views, this highend, Modern Farmhouse style home has been extensively remodeled with the highest level of attention to detail and luxurious finishes.

This elegant contemporary home is located in the coveted golf community of Birnam Wood.

Grand formal living room with fireplace and French doors to patio. Formal dining room with French doors to outdoor dining area.

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MONTECITO | 1 MIRAMAR AVENUE Offered at $4,950,000

MONTECITO | 107 OLIVE MILL ROAD Offered at $4,750,000

MONTECITO | 2180 ALISOS DRIVE Offered at $2,395,000

Live Aloha at Miramar Beach. Rarely do you find such a spacious and private home that is just a stroll to the beach, Rosewood Miramar Hotel, surf spots and more. Also short term rental possibilities.

Blending sweeping ocean views with the iconic Spanish Colonial Revival style for which Montecito is known, La Manzanita Estate calls to those with a reverence for both history and adventure.

Connecting with and experiencing the grandeur of nature is vital to our wellbeing. Windswept stones carry the weight of pre-history and hundred-year-old oaks bow their branches with peaceful serenity.

DORÉ & O’NEILL REAL ESTATE TEAM 805.947.0608 | DRE 01806890

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LOCALLY OWNED | GLOBALLY CONNECTED All information provided is deemed reliable, but has not been verified and we do not guarantee it. We recommend that buyers make their own inquiries.

CONTRIBUTORS Megan Waldrep is a freelance writer who

recently traded life on a 34’ sailboat in Mexico for a vintage 20’ airstream in Carpinteria. She also writes a relationship column under the pen name Elizabeth Rose and is working on her first book. What does this all mean? Find out at www. meganwaldrep.com.

Briana Westmacott – A lecturer for writing

Jack Thayer is a freelance writer who hopes to one day make a stamp in journalism. Jack graduated from the University of Puget Sound, where he majored in English: Creative Writing and further developed his passion.

Originally a Los Angeles native, Jack currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist as well as former editor of OC Weekly in Orange County, California. The author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger, the latter of which was made into a Hollywood film, his writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic, and other fine publications. In his free time, he lives with his wife, son, and an overly-gregarious poodle in a cabin located in the wilds of Montecito’s hedgerows.

Eva Van Prooyen is a licensed marriage and

courses at UCSB, her alma mater, Briana has been a columnist for the Santa Barbara Sentinel for seven years and a Santa Barbara local for over 20 years.

When she isn’t teaching or writing, she loves to spend time on the beach, in the mountains, or anywhere with a good book. Summer is her favorite season, typically dedicated to traveling the world with her husband and two daughters.

family therapist, writer, relationship specialist, and self-professed wine geek.

She moved from Truckee to Santa Barbara in 1989. Since then, she has been managing editor of Montecito Journal (weekly), became cofounder and co-owner of the Santa Ynez Valley Journal, worked for and received her master’s degree in clinical psychology and now runs a busy private therapy practice.

She continues to write for various publications, enjoys her time on the yoga mat, and is in constant pursuit of a good laugh.

Hattie Beresford is a native of the Netherlands

and retired teacher of English and American history for the Santa Barbara School District. Besides writing a local history column for Montecito Journal for more than a decade, she has written two Noticias and co-edited My Santa Barbara Scrap Book, the memoir of local artist Elizabeth Eaton Burton, for the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. Her most recent book, The Way It Was ~ Santa Barbara Comes of Age, is a collection of a few of her nearly 300 articles written for the Journal. When she is not immersed in some dusty tome, she can be found on the tennis courts, hiking paths, or on the nation’s rail trails peddling with her husband, former Dos Pueblos volleyball coach Mike Beresford.

Chuck Graham is a freelance writer and

Jerry Camarillo Dunn’s Curious Traveler column

Lynn P. Kirst returns to her “Art & Architecture” series

Steven Libowitz has reported on the arts

in Montecito Journal won the gold medal from the Society of American Travel Writers.

His wanderlust began as a 22-year-old vagabond with a backpack, listening for the Oracle at Delphi (Greece) and acting as an extra in Bollywood movies (India). It has continued through 34 years with National Geographic, 11 books, and 600plus articles – work recognized with three SATW Lowell Thomas Awards, the “Oscars” of travel writing.

28 |

with a visit to the Field of Light. A fourth generation Californian who grew up in Montecito, Lynn holds a degree in Art History from the University of Southern California and a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation from the USC School of Architecture. An awardwinning writer and photographer, Lynn has written her “Trail Talk” column for the Montecito Journal since 2006. Her freelance articles on art, architecture, travel, history, food, and other topics have appeared in numerous publications, both local and national.

photographer living in Carpinteria. When he’s not leading kayak tours on Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands, he’s freelancing for publications such as Backpacker, Canoe & Kayak, Sea Kayaker, Trail Runner, Living Bird, and Surfer’s Journal.

and entertainment for more than 30 years.

He has published his work in daily and weekly newspapers in New Jersey and California, as well as in Santa Barbara Magazine and a nationally syndicated news service.

When not at his computer or out on the town, you’ll often find him playing volleyball at East Beach, just a short jog from Montecito’s famous Butterfly Beach.

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE LOOKING AHEAD WITH 2020 VISION

W

hen we (and I’m using the royal “we” here, as I couldn’t have done it alone, certainly not without my friend and longtime Layout and Design Manager Trent Watanabe) launched the first issue of this glossy in 2008, we were operating in the dark. The Montecito Journal had only gone from bi-weekly to weekly a short time before, and here we were pushing ahead with a full-on semi-annual glossy edition. We really didn’t know what direction we’d head, though we knew we didn’t want

to be just another “lifestyle” publication. Oh sure, we’d concentrate on Montecito as we’d always done, but we’d have people who lived in this beautiful little town write for us rather than us writing about them.

That first issue featured a lead story by then MJ Managing Editor Guillaume Doane about The Ride, three Santa Barbara musicians who’d prepared and organized a trip to England for would-be or wanna-be musicians to record at Abbey Road Studios and play at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. For a price, of course, but the arranged tour was a unique opportunity for any dedicated Beatles fan.

In another story, my dad, MJ founder James Buckley, recounted his extraordinary trip the year before to the Indy 500 with Andy Granatelli. Among those joining him were Santa Barbara philanthropist Michael Towbes and ‘50s heartthrob Tab Hunter, Montecito residents all. Racing legend Mario Andretti was behind the wheel to take them around the track (twice) in a specially fitted two-person-in-tandem Indy car at speeds approaching 200 mph. Another article in that first issue was written by ballooning innovator and record-holder Julian Nott, a Santa Barbara resident with many Montecito connections. Not only did we have a great time putting that first issue together, but people seemed to like what we wrote.

We were off to the races.

And, so, here we are 12 years later and 25 years after the birth of our community newspaper, both publications continuing strongly.

But, after nearly two years of negotiations, a new group of owners led by screenwriter and all-around talent Gwyn Lurie will be in charge as of next issue.

I’m not saying goodbye, as I am staying on as Publisher, but I will be handing over the reins to our new Editor-in-Chief, Gwyn. We think you’ll like the new crew; I know I do.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Tim Buckley Publisher

30 |

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Extraordinary results.

Helping to optimize your financial success.

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BY NICHOLAS SCHOU PHOTOS BY EDWARD CLYNES

FROM RELUCTANT SOLDIER TO GLOBETROTTING JEWELER, DANIEL GIBBINGS’ LIFE HAS BEEN ONE WILD RIDE

U

nless you’re familiar with the early life of Benvenuto Cellini, the legendary Florentine goldsmith and sculptor, the word “soldier” is probably the

last one you’d associate with “jeweler.” Thanks to Cellini’s famous Renaissance-era autobiography, we know that before he became the most celebrated artist of the period’s Mannerism school, he helped fight off a Bourbon attack on Rome, personally dispatching a pair of French royals in the battle.

Then there’s the case of Montecito’s own master jeweler Daniel Gibbings, who, if he hadn’t served as a soldier in South Africa decades ago, might never have arrived in Montecito, where he opened his gallery on Coast Village Road twelve years ago. Gibbings sat for an interview for this story in his shop last month, his iPhone’s Pandora station softly playing classic rock tunes in the background while his dog, Jack, a rescued terrier mix, sat attentively at his feet.

34 |

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35

FORGEDBYFIRE

SOUTH AFRICA

world. We didn’t know what was going on. Everything was censored.”

After training with the army’s Special Services Bureau, Gibbings

D

shipped off to civil-war-wracked Angola, where he patrolled the bush

coast, where Gibbings was born and came of age in the 1970s. It was

around Europe for a year, but upon returning home, he went back

a rather inopportune time to be a young white man in apartheid-era

into uniform. As it happened, soldiers were then required to perform

South Africa, unless you had no problem being drafted into either

three months of reserve duty per year for eight years following their

the army, which was then waging bloody wars against various African

initial service. The first reserve camp, on the border with Mozambique,

guerrilla groups in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique, or worse, the

Gibbings describes as “not that bad, pleasant actually,” since it

pariah nation’s notoriously repressive police force, which was constantly

happened to be on the bank of the Limpopo river. “We didn’t do that

called upon to quell township uprisings led by black South Africans

much,” he says. “Just kind of controlled the border.”

aniel Gibbings was born in 1958, the child of a British-born

for 18 months in a three-person armored vehicle and battled against

father and an Israeli mother who met in Palestine during

Cuban-backed MPLA militants. “I just wanted to do my military service

the Second World War. After a few years in England, his

and get out,” he says.

parents relocated to Durban, a beach town on South Africa’s eastern

angered at their lack of opportunities, particularly the one to vote.

“I joined the army,” Gibbings recalls. “We didn’t really have a

After completing his tour, Gibbings left the country to backpack

Unfortunately, Gibbings’ next camp was back in the dreaded Angola, where Gibbings contracted Bilharzia, a rare disease caused by

choice, but there is no way I was going to join the police. This was

swimming in water infected by parasitic worm-carrying snails. Upon

apartheid-era South Africa. We were so isolated from the rest of the

falling ill, Gibbings went AWOL, albeit in the slowest imaginable way.

36 |

FORGEDBYFIRE “They sent me to get treatment, but all the hospital beds were full,” he explains. “So I kept getting bumped further and further away from the border.”

Ultimately, the army dispatched Gibbings to an overcrowded military hospital in Namibia and then finally the South African capital, Pretoria, but there were no empty beds there either. “One morning I just woke up and said, ‘I’m out of here, man,’” Gibbings says. “And I left.

ISRAEL

A

s a child, Gibbings had always been fascinated with tribal art, especially intricate Zulu carvings and bead work. Both his parents were skilled artists, his mother a seamstress, his

father an optician who crafted lenses in a workshop. By the time he was

I hitchhiked home, bought a plane ticket and left the country. And then

a teenager, Gibbings’s leatherworking talents were such that he could

of course I couldn’t come back.”

earn pocket money making belts and other accessories in his spare time.

After fleeing South Africa to tour the museums and marketplaces of Egypt and Israel, Gibbings set his heart upon learning the ancient trades of metalwork and jewelry design.

First, Gibbings traveled to Israel, where he took a year-long silversmithing class in Tel Aviv taught by an old man from Yemen who instructed his students how to craft every object by hand, a pretechnological tradition going back millennia. The first metal Gibbings learned how to cut and shape into rings and bracelets was nickel. “It was good to learn on because it was quite hard,” he says. “Then we progressed to silver. You buy it either in sheet or wire and you just start working it, shaping it, soldering it together, shaping pieces and joining them and adding elements, and making settings for the stones.”

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37

FORGEDBYFIRE Because Israel enjoyed an abundance of relatively cheap, ancient artifacts – everything from Roman coins and glass to shards of sculpture and other found objects – he began to develop what has now become one of his trademark techniques: building beautiful handmade jewelry around pieces of antiquity. “I would start with the coin or the stone and the shard or whatever and then build around it,” he explains. “And then I started making chains and bracelets.”

Upon completing the course, Gibbings settled in Tzfat, an artist’s

ENGLAND

W

hile at school in Tel Aviv, Gibbings had the fortune of making the acquaintance of Tony Laws, the director of the art department of the City of London Polytechnic

(now known as the London Metropolitan University or London Met).

“He walked into the school one day, just showed up and looked around

colony high up in the pine-covered mountains of Galilee, in northern

and introduced himself to me,” Gibbings recalls. Gibbings told Laws

Israel. “I shared a studio with a woman from Morocco who was a weaver

that someday he hoped to travel to England to continue his studies;

and an Englishman who was a painter,” he recalls. Tzfat, the home of

Laws gave him his contact information and urged him to look him up if

the Kabballah mystical tradition, was a beacon of peace in a volatile

he ever came to London.

part of the world, but because Gibbings was Jewish and had a military

“So I did,” Gibbings says. “I showed up, but the school was

background, he was approached to volunteer for Israeli military service.

closed; it was like the first day of the holidays or something.”

There was no chance of that happening, though, he says. “I said no. I

Undeterred, Gibbings marched upstairs to the art school and

am done with war and guns.”

followed the signs to the head of the department’s office. But when he attempted to explain himself to the secretary, she brushed him off, telling him to come back next session. Fortunately, Laws happened to be in his office and overheard the conversation. “He opened the door and said come on in.”

Gibbings had brought along a portfolio of his work; impressed, Laws told him to fill out the necessary paperwork to enroll immediately. Gibbings had just scored himself a mentor, and more importantly, a spot in one of Europe’s most hands-on art programs.

Moreover, because he’d recently obtained a British passport, the coursework, which consisted of a year of general art studies followed by three years of specialized courses in metalsmithing and jewelry making, was completely free.

It didn’t hurt that Gibbings could spend weekends at the British museum sketching any of the countless thousands of ancient objects in the building. “Everything just lined up for me out of the blue,” Gibbings says. “I think he saw my enthusiasm and that I was serious, and I wasn’t just there because my parents sent me or whatever. He kind of took me under his wing, and I am forever grateful to him for that.”

38 |

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FORGEDBYFIRE

AMERICA

A

fter completing the program, Gibbings moved to Boston in the late 1980s, where he met the woman who would become his wife. He got married, worked

at a shop in the city’s Italian quarter for a year and then moved to his wife’s hometown of Portland, Maine. “My first shop was there, the Fibula, down in the old port,” he recalls. “It was good, but I couldn’t deal with the weather, so I went to Santa Fe and set up a studio.”

Santa Fe was already renowned across the world as a destination for art and jewelry aficionados, home to famed artists such as the Morocco-born Luna Felix, who shared Gibbings’ passion for ancient jewelry. “I set up a little studio there,” Gibbings says. “I had private clients and wanted to open up a retail shop, but I couldn’t do it in Santa Fe because it was too saturated.”

In the early 1990s, a fellow South African who was living in Santa Barbara at the time urged Gibbings to try his luck farther west. “I came and I loved it,” he recalls. There happened to be an open space in a recently retrofitted building on De La Guerra Street just off State Street. “It had a huge window and was a perfect location for a shop, so I called the agent, signed the lease there and then, put down the deposit, went back to Santa Fe, packed up, and came here.”

Gibbings operated out of the De La Guerra location for 17 years until he divorced his wife and lost the shop in the bargain.

He opened a new one on Coast Village Road beneath the UPS store, but because he signed a non-compete clause, his wife’s attorney showed up one day and demanded he shut it down.

Gibbings tried to fight the order in court but lost; he ultimately reached a settlement with his ex-wife allowing him to reopen, and ten years ago, Gibbings set up in his current location, where he has just signed another eight-year lease.

40 |

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FORGEDBYFIRE

MONTECITO

D

aniel Gibbings’ elegant and cozy storefront on Coast Village Road is much more than a workshop and gallery. It is also, even to the casual observer, a

shrine to his globetrotting lifestyle, all in obvious pursuit of the elusive materials of his trade. His jewelry is displayed behind glass in hand-carved, aged-wood Moroccan cabinet, the decks of which are adorned with African tribal art collected during his many travels. “I used to travel a lot to find stones from the source,” Gibbings says, pointing at his displays.

As an aspiring jeweler one half a lifetime ago, Gibbings says, his two favorite precious stones to work with were tourmaline, a translucent semi-precious stone found in a variety of colors, and the more well-known sapphire gemstone. “I also have always loved the color of sapphires and I used to go to Sri Lanka to get them, and Burma also,” Gibbings recalls. “I would find tourmaline mostly in Africa, in Namibia, and the same with aquamarine. I’d go to the mines and buy directly from the guys who mined it.”

According to Gibbings, the trips were “hit or miss,” but generally speaking not dangerous. “In Sri Lanka you had to be careful, because at the time there was the war going on in the north with the Tamils,” he explains. “You had to be careful where you went. You couldn’t move about freely, but I would go with the guys to the mines and come back to Colombo where the cutter was, have him cut the stones there and then go back to the U.S.” Traveling to mines in Africa, on the other hand, was a somewhat trickier proposition. “I did go to Namibia to try to

was looser but you still had to be careful.” Gibbings admits that he could have

find diamonds and that got dicey,” he says. “And South Africa? I

just as easily bought his stones from gemstone conglomerates like DeBeers,

didn’t even want to go there. You get locked up right away if you

but he enjoyed the extra legwork. “You know me,” he explains, laughing. “I like

are caught with uncut stones; they don’t even ask you. Namibia

to go and get my hands dirty and go where the stones are from.”

42 |

FORGEDBYFIRE Although many of Gibbings’ most beautiful creations feature

“Oftentimes, it is a stone that they have or a particular piece they

gemstones such as sapphires and diamonds, his favorite working

want, so the first thing is drawing it out for them, getting all the sizes

materials remain 22 karat gold and pure silver. “Twenty-four karat is

and proportions. Proportions are really important, thicknesses and

pure gold,” he elaborates. “Twenty-two karat is just alloyed down a tiny

widths and all that.”

bit so the gold is rich and malleable; you can do almost anything with

After determining the scale of the work, Gibbings provides the

it. That is what they worked with in antiquity. Pure silver is very soft

client with an estimate, takes a deposit and starts the work, which

and fine, but it hardens very quickly when you work it. And it doesn’t

typically lasts a month. He works with Hoover and Strong, a Virginia

tarnish; it has that rich beautiful sheen, almost like mother of pearl.”

based gold company that helps him cast pieces, all of which are made

While sitting at a simple work desk festooned with wood-handle

from recycled gold, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the job.

chisels and other tools, Gibbings pulls out a small box full of coils of

Gibbings has worked with the company for 25 years and sees no reason

metal; like all jewelers who work by hand, he buys all his silver and gold

to stop. “If I was to do anything different, I would do my own casting

in coils or sheets, depending on the job. Handcrafting both metals

and just keep the molds,” he reasons. “But I don’t have the time or space

is relatively simple but requires intense focus, Gibbings argues. It

to do it. I am a one-man show; I can’t do everything.”

involves constantly heating the metal with an acetylene torch while

To wit: Gibbings also works with a Goleta-based diamond setter,

simultaneously bending and shaping the metal. “You have to heat it up

and for diamond-based projects, he partners with a company called

all the time or otherwise it will crack or distort,” he says. “So you heat it

Forever More, which is part of the DeBeers group. “I get all my diamonds

up and soften it, keep working; it hardens again. You apply heat, let it

from them,” he says. “There is no funny business. You know the origin of

cool down, put it in the acid to clean it, and keep on working. A lot of it

the stones, the history; there are no conflict stones, no messing around

is trial and error.”

with synthetics. You know what you are buying which is really important

In his earlier years, Gibbings became adept at combining 22 karat gold and fine silver. “I am going back to doing it because it looks good and feels good and is not as expensive because of the silver content,” he

because there is so much fraud in the market. I have to be one-hundredpercent clear about what I am selling and where it comes from.”

For six years, Gibbings donated award statuettes to the Santa

says. “If it is only twenty-two karat gold it is expensive. And people like

Barbara Film Festival. Because the screenings took place at the

the look of it because you don’t see it that often. You didn’t even really

Arlington Theatre, he used the roof of the building as inspiration for

see it in antiquity. People say, ‘No you really can’t solder it together!’

the design; each award was made in pewter and then gold-plated

And I’m like, ‘Yeah you can, why not?’ And I did. Some people are doing

with a black marble base where the names of the recipients were

it, but it’s not common.”

engraved.

THE FABRIC OF LIFE

G

Since 2018, Ashely Krueger, a former sales associate for Gibbings, has helped manage the shop. “Daniel’s dedication to the art, combined with his history and passion for travel, is what makes his work so unique,” Krueger says. “Nothing compares to a piece created by Daniel.”

ibbings often handles custom jobs. The first step is

Customer Christina Rottman agrees with that sentiment. “Once you put

to meet with the client in person and literally sketch

a piece of Daniel’s jewelry on, you never want to take it off.”

out (with pen and paper) a satisfactory design.

Over the years, Gibbings has received some peculiar requests

|

43

FORGEDBYFIRE from clients. “I’ve been asked to do some strange stuff,” he recalls.

new baby and making what is known as a push ring for a woman giving

“This woman came in who had been buying jewelry for a while. She had

birth, from that to making something for someone who is passing away.

cancer and said, ‘Listen, eventually I’m going to pass, and my body is

You get the whole spectrum and it’s all word of mouth.”

going to be cremated and I’d like you to make me an urn for my ashes.’

Most rewarding to Gibbings is the notion that the jewelry he makes

I had to pull a lot of resources to put it together, but I did all the detail

will become family heirlooms, and thus, part of the intimate fabric of

and engraving and stonework. She was thrilled.”

life. “To create something of beauty is a gift,” he says. “It’s from the

Recently, another woman whose daughter had passed away asked Gibbings to make a locket with a butterfly design and a piece of clear quartz on the back placed over a lock of her daughter’s hair.

“It was an honor to do that, you know, but it’s also sad. I mean, you go from making something for somebody getting married or having a

44 |

earth, organic, not man-made. To make something that people cherish is cool, because when people walk out the door, they’re happy.”

Daniel Gibbings Jewellery is located at 1143 Coast Village Road, Montecito, California, 93108. (805) 565-1284. Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm. Danielgibbings.com.

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FACE TO FACE WITH

METROV

O

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ

n the surface, it seems the painter

O’Brien. “I’m simply infatuated, or even in love, with faces, which is

Metrov is right back where he started

arguably one of the most complex designs in the universe.”

almost half a century ago, painting

Metrov’s story began in the early 1950s in Ontario, California,

portraits mostly of famous people on

only 150 miles away from the converted garage studio at his current

commission, having merely changed

home. Born Douglas Anthony Gervasi to a father who was a

his base from a Manhattan studio to a

professional photographer and filmmaker and a mother who worked

one-story house in suburban Goleta. (It was rock star Mick Jagger back

as a photo tinting expert, Metrov has been an artist for as long as he

then, pop star Katy Perry today.)

can remember.

There’s been a whole lifetime of experiences in between often at the epicenter of the evolving art world and the exciting environs of the

Or actually even earlier.

“I came out of my mother already drawing,” the artist wisecracks,

entertainment industry, including a series of successes and setbacks,

albeit with only the slightest of smiles as we sit at the dining room

and an evolution in approach organically integrated into his work.

table. “I just loved to draw and did it everywhere.”

But faces still fascinate him.

“I still get a great deal of joy and satisfaction from doing a person’s

At age three, his mother bought him books by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci and suggested that he copy their drawings. “The

portrait,” Metrov says, sitting comfortably at the dining room table

Renaissance masters became my first teachers, and they’ve influenced a

of the Winchester Canyon home he shares with his wife, Maureen

lifetime of art. I just never stopped.”

48 |

METROV IN THE METROPOLIS

W

hen he turned 18, Metrov moved to New York City to launch his career, bringing with him a nickname acquired as a student in both art and film history

at UCLA: Metro, because of his fascination with the story behind MGM Studios, the “V,” which is silent, coming later to sound more cosmopolitan in his new city. He quickly hooked up with major players in the city, including Push Pin Studios, the famed graphic design house co-founded by Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser, the latter the creator of the “I <heart> NY” logo and DC Comics logos, and the co-founder of New York magazine; Push Pin is the only graphic design studio to ever show in the Louvre Museum.

But it wasn’t just luck.

“They were my heroes,” Metrov said. “I made a point of trying to meet all of those guys. I even had a book that had their group photo and after I met each one, I would color it over with a felt marker. Then they took me on. It was a very exciting way to start my career.”

After half a dozen years of working in illustration, albeit with the most innovative of designers, Metrov found himself once again drawn to the fine arts, and the oil painting of his earliest childhood inspirations. He returned to the Renaissance masters via studying technique with Prix di Rome scholar Gilbert Stone, then moved to Rome to encounter his heroes’ paintings firsthand, sobbing when he gazed at the Sistine Chapel.

Upon returning to New York, Metrov received his first portrait commission from Margaux Hemingway, having met the top Manhattan model on her way to an acting career through a mutual friend and business associate. That led to work painting images of other celebrities, including Ben Vereen and comedian Jimmy Walker. The Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger discovered Metrov’s work when he submitted prototypes for the Stones’ 1975 world tour poster. The charismatic Jagger commissioned Metrov to paint portraits of himself plus ones of his then-wife, Bianca, and the band’s lead guitarist Keith Richards.

|

49

FACE TO FACE

Meanwhile, Metrov was also mingling with the A-listers of the downtown art world; Andy Warhol’s Factory was across the street in Union Square from Metrov’s studio. “I’d see him and his entourage walking up and down the block all the time,” he recalls, adding that the gallery owner/art dealer Ivan Karp was nearby as was Chuck Close, the pioneer of photorealism.

“That was a very, very exciting time and place,” said Metrov, recalling drug-filled parties with rock stars in hotel basements, the details of which will remain undisclosed.

So exciting, in fact, that Metrov found himself merging with Manhattan’s glitterati at Studio 54, the famed disco club with the absurdly exclusionary door policy.

“I went there once and they had these big bouncers and they wouldn’t let me in,” the painter recalls. “So, the next time I went with Margaux Hemingway. We got out of the car and the huge crowd parted like the Red Sea. She was much taller, and I just trailed her into Studio 54 and got to experience the whole thing.”

HEADING FOR THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS FOR MASTERS IN MOTION

T

he 1970s was a very heady time for Metrov. The artist was painting portraits of celebrities and socialites while also exhibiting his fine art works in New York galleries and

around the world. But another transition was on its way. Despite adding experimental techniques to his portraits – arcs and swirls indicating motion – he grew restless with static work. Hollywood beckoned.

“Film seemed to be the art medium of our time, the logical progression for a contemporary artist,” Metrov explains. “I thought that if Raphael and Michelangelo and those other Renaissance artists

50 |

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FACE TO FACE

were alive today, those big murals they would be moving, with sounds and talking and music… There were so many new technologies coming out. You could buy a digital camera and edit it on your own home computer. How could you not do that?”

The catalyst came when he learned that his friend, the underground film director Abel Ferrara, had made a movie for $90,000. “The biggest reason I didn’t go into movies straight out of film school was because I didn’t have a clue as to how to raise the millions of dollars I thought you needed,” he says. “But after seeing what Abe did, the lightbulb went off.”

Incredibly, Metrov’s first project, Solarbabies, sold to Mel Brooks’ company and the cult film is still in distribution today. But maybe that was a curse in disguise, the artist admits. Metrov spent most of the next three decades immersed in Hollywood, teaching himself every aspect of the movie business, writing screenplays and novels and eventually producing and directing a couple of indie experimental films. But despite his obsession, none of his other films ever reached mass audiences.

“Many of my friends had won Academy Awards and made millions of dollars and I thought I could too. But it was very stressful.

There were so many rejections for so many years. But I was so hardheaded I just stuck with it, probably because I had such great luck right off the bat. Why couldn’t I do it again?”

But then the stress took a terrible toll.

Even though Metrov had already moved to Santa Barbara to be close to his wife’s aging parents, the stress finally came home to roost.

Metrov was diagnosed with a rare and almost always fatal form of cancer. “I had been so determined for so many years to be recognized as a filmmaker. You’d have to shoot me before I’d stop my battle. All it did was get me sick. It almost killed me.”

Metrov’s book, Conquer Thyself, chronicled his brush with death

paintings, which integrate digital technology and mixed media with

and the road to recovery that brought up long abandoned spiritual

an ongoing strong influence of classical oils, are rendered by applying

practices. Back to health with more energy than ever, Metrov began

layers of paint, varnishes, washes, and over glazes atop the photos. The

to officially accept portrait commissions again in 2012. The new

work represents a lifetime’s evolution.

52 |

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FACE TO FACE

“I went through different phases and stages, from realism,

when asked to explain what it is that draws such successful people

to primitivism, to total abstraction,” he says. “At some point, the

to commission him for portraits. “I think they see something that’s

paintings devolved from the classic Renaissance look to these

original with unique beauty, spirit, and soul. I’ve always had the

expressions of that stress, very emotional, frantic, angry, crazed

ability to capture the deeper, more inner side of a person... Their

pieces. But I got a lot of that out of my system. Now I’m going back

mask has come off, maybe just for an instant, and I capture that good,

to the classical look that involves real artistic aesthetics that come

loving side of them, the compassionate human side. No matter how

from nature.”

successful, wealthy, or flamboyant they are, I know that deep down

SANTA BARBARA

inside they’ve gone through pain and suffering and anguish just like

CELEBS SEEK METROV

the rest of us. Somehow that all adds up to who they are. And that’s

O

what I love to capture.”

from Hollywood, Hutton-Parker Foundation president Tom Parker,

I understood exactly what they meant intellectually, I wouldn’t bother

fellow mixed-media artist and Arts Fund CEO Nancy Gifford, and

painting them,” he said, this time sans smile.

ver the last couple of years, locally based creatives have become his most popular subjects, including Oscar-

every portrait series, ones inspired by the person and things they’ve

winning director Robert Zemeckis, his old colleague

accomplished, although even the artist can’t explain how they arise. “If

Patricia Bragg, the author and health consultant who is also Metrov’s neighbor in Goleta. Santa Barbara-born pop star Katy Perry, who has known Bragg since birth, saw Metrov’s work and commissioned the artist for a series of her own.

It’s clear that today’s celebrities and local heroes see the same humanistic qualities that four decades ago had Hemingway sobbing for an hour when Metrov unveiled her portrait in his Manhattan studio.

“I take risks. I don’t make safe, pretty pictures of people,” he says

54 |

Metrov also adds background mixed media elements to nearly

Similarly, in the end, Metrov doesn’t need to fit together all the

FACE TO FACE

facets of his career, the balance of synchronicity and determination

“My experiences have led me to take more risks because at this

that frequently found him over the years in the right place at the

point, I really don’t [care] if anyone buys them or not. I will make a

right time with the cutting edge crowd, and that has now made him

clay doll or pencil drawings or Crayolas on the sidewalk as long as I can

a modern version of a Renaissance man. He doesn’t need to explain

do something creative. Because it’s really an energy that drives you and

or even fully comprehend how it shows up in his art. He just knows

you cannot avoid it or you go insane or die. So, you have to go with

he has to do it.

that flow – the muse driving you. You have to let that creativity out.

|

55

FACE TO FACE

“I know that by staying true to my heart and what I really felt

anywhere in the universe. Only for us it is like life and death. The

I needed to do, I may not be recognized in my lifetime… My ego

ancient Hindus thought of people as entertainment for the gods and I

still craves recognition and reward. But I’m at the point in life where

think they were right. I know now that my primary mission in life is to

I can’t imagine that everything we do here on this planet as human

bring beauty to the world.”

beings is really taken that seriously by any other entity or consciousness

56 |

www.metrovportraits.com

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A Most Memorable Life

by Jack Thayer

Jeanne Thayerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s adventuresome memoirs cross four generations (and counting) of American history

A

lthough it is one of the first words that comes to mind, the last thing Jeanne Thayer would ever want would be to have her life described as prolific.

She never felt comfortable on a pedestal, ever since she was a young girl, too tall and lanky to feel like she belonged at the center

of attention. Modesty followed her like a shadow, from her self-perceived awkwardness of youth into the awareness of her own privilege as a young adult. She has lived a remarkable life and it took 90 years of reflective thought and emotional processing to get her to admit that.

Growing up, Jeanneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence commanded reverence to those around her, a notion unthawed like permafrost in our family. She would bring unruly children to heel and cut curse words from wayfaring tongues before they could be uttered. She did this all without lifting a finger

60 |

A Most Memorable Life or raising her voice, but simply by radiating an unspoken orb of contemplative dignity.

She was an authority; though no longer as autonomous, she still held the matronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seat. Despite her position in the center, if I asked Jeanne about her life, she would tell me about the past, the way the world used to be. She would tell me about what she thought was important for me to know: how people used to live, events that structured my present reality, and how things have changed.

The values my grandmother instilled upon me came down from a long line of curious and adventurous minds. All her life, those around Jeanne encouraged her to chase her passions and Jeanne always did the same for those she loved. I always tried to make her proud, to

Jeanne with her mother Helen and sister Kathleen, 1924

not disappoint, to live up to the prestige, but she would never hold it against me if I failed in those efforts. That was not her way. She was more interested in fostering the future than promoting the past, and she was at her happiest when we would fall into long conversations

A very determined looking Jeanne and parents, early 1900s

Jeanneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother, Helen, early 1900s

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61

A Most Memorable Life vertigo, as well as by vision impairment and hearing loss. Her shortterm memory has begun to dwindle after a century of use, yet her ability to recall events of decades past still remained unparalleled. (As recently as last year, she was able to recite verses of Shakespeare across eighty years of memory.)

Jeanne began chronicling the significant events of her life, as well as all the impressions she had retained. This, in 2011, amalgamated into a 200-page memoir. It was the first time I would have access to such a rich and comprehensive account of her life. Each memory seemed to spring from her as vividly as the day it was formed. Aside from her uncanny ability to recall the name of every address, town, port, highway, and model of car sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever been in, she also managed to retain fresh details that helped to explain how each of these moments had become so special for her.

Even today, as the stories mesh into one single narrative laced with hyperbole, delivered to an increasingly jaded and shrunken audience, I can still refer to this memoir as a source of objectivity.

Age has many definitions, one being the degradation of dignity. This notion encompasses the surface view of aging as a concept, observed only by the degraders themselves. The rest remains beneath. The silent reverence always returns.

Jeanne and furry friend, mid-to-late-1920s

about books and painters and thinkers, flowing over the endless expanse of human knowledge and back into the present moment.

Hawaiian Islands

with me, and the way her memories were organized, to be recalled as

M

if in alphabetical order, that left me almost envious. And she always

in 1917, near the end of the First World War, at the end of the age

knew what was most important. All her life, she focused on what

of empires and the dawn of a globalized modern era. The Ottoman

nourished the soul and passed along those little snippets only if they

Empire still existed as a world power. During her childhood, she would

sparked marvel and carried wisdom.

get a chance to explore many cultures, as her family finally enjoyed

Listening to her was like pulling crystal-clear water from a well too deep to fathom. It was that sobering sense of clarity that always stuck

About 10 years ago, her mind began gradually drifting into the

y grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life wove together three long generations of American history, and now, as the current quarter of the 21st

century nears its end, it is still spilling into a fourth. Her life began

peace after a terrible war. My great-grandfather, Kenton Cooley, was

past. I suppose that is what happens to the brain at a certain point

conscripted into U.S. Army service and remained as a career officer

in life. Jeanneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to experience has been severely limited by

after the end of the war. The military would relocate Kenton often

62 |

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A Most Memorable Life and his family would move with him, allowing them to lead an abnormally adventurous lifestyle.

In 1924, Kenton Cooley sailed his family to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where, as a first lieutenant, he reported to Schofield Barracks, a sizeable military base near Honolulu. The voyage took seven weeks and involved shipping south through the Atlantic Ocean from New York, cutting through the Panama Canal, which had been constructed just ten years earlier, and then up to San Francisco. Jeanne would never forget the experience of passing through the Canal. Witnessing such a monument to human achievement seems to have been the first of many great wonders she would come to experience as a child.

Hawaii proved placid, her family’s time there a blissful combination of exploration and creativity. Her parents considered Hawaii to be a safe place for the children to explore on their own. Jeanne and her sister, Kathleen, along with a childhood friend, would often travel to an orchard in the coastal village of Wahiawa, where they would lie beneath the trees and eat guavas in the shade. While the children had their pleasures, Kenton and his wife, Helen Cooley, had their own respective hobbies as well. Helen was an avid pianist and would perform often around the island. Jeanne remembers her as a remarkable piano player and attributed much of her family’s opportunities and good fortune to her mother’s musical talents. While in

Jeanne posing in front of a traditional dwelling in Hawaii, circa 1925

64 |

A Most Memorable Life Hawaii, Kenton took up guitar in his spare time, but found more solace in gardening and landscaping. His talents were recognized by his military superiors, who commissioned him to renovate the grounds around the barracks.

Jeanne also attributed a lot of their fortune to their good health.

While the other American nationals ate canned food from American ships, which lacked sufficient nutrition, the Cooleys preferred fresh food. Jeanne’s mother Helen had grown up on a farm, and the idea of canned food seemed lifeless to her. When Jeanne’s brother was born, his nurse fed him poi, an unappetizing yet nutritional paste mashed from the bulbous fruits of taro or kalo plants.

In her memoir, Jeanne recalled her parents as independent thinkers, conforming to their own tastes. Helen Cooley didn’t associate with the other officers’ wives, but instead explored the local markets with her children. She befriended many of the local Japanese merchants and purchased exotic fabrics to make pillows with which she decorated their small house. Jeanne believed this set them apart from many of the other families. She felt that this made their home more welcoming than most.

Jeanne witnessed the landing of the first trans-Pacific flight, flown from Oakland, California and landing on a field transformed

Jeanne, ready for her Hollywood close-up, late 1930s

Stateside

land. He explained to her how important this event would be in the

M

history of aviation. Jeanne never forgot that moment. Mostly, she

stretched between the two coastlines. At a time before paved highways,

remembers Hawaii as her first taste of a culture other than her own,

they drove over two thousand miles across the country on dirt roads

and how this rich experience gifted her with a sense of wonder at

toward Columbus, Ohio. The car could only travel around 40 miles

such an early age.

per hour, and Jeanne recalls that theirs was often the only vehicle in

into a makeshift airstrip in Hawaii. She recalled how her father woke her in the middle of the night so that they could go watch the plane

For the rest of her life, Jeanne would continue to cultivate

ilitary life rotated the Cooleys back to the United States but allowed Kenton some time to give his children a solid taste

of genuine Americana, to see the seemingly endless swath of land that

sight. They had to carry extra gas and water given the general lack of

a curiosity for other cultures. Most significantly, she would turn

reliable filling stations. They were on their own in the middle of the

this fascination into a fondness for the arts, treasuring the ways

empty West. Jeanne has several specific memories of this voyage. She

people around the world expressed individual notions of beauty.

remembers how often they would have to mend their tires due to the

And though Hawaii would not last forever, the adventure would

bumpiness of the road. Kenton would patch the tires himself with a kit

continue.

he had purchased before the trip.

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65

A Most Memorable Life Jeanne vividly remembers her father working in the sweltering heat somewhere in Nevada’s Great Basin Desert, following the shadow of a tree as it rotated with the arc of the afternoon sun. The trip took two weeks. For Jeanne, it seemed interminable. Tensions in the backseat rose between Jeanne and her sister, Kathleen. Despite a wall of suitcases separating them, their sororal feud reached a crescendo when Jeanne split her prized pineapple ukulele over Kathleen’s head. A remarkable low point in the journey, but one still recalled by Jeanne with a devilish smile.

Jeanne beautifying the beach, 1937

Off to Europe

D

uring Jeanne’s early adolescent years, the U.S. Army transferred Kenton Cooley and his family to Paris. Jeanne considered herself fortunate

to be living abroad during this time. It was the late 1920s, after all, and the United States economy was rapidly slipping into a Great Depression. Europe remained mostly immune from the economic disparities ravaging the United States. Paris was flush with life and prosperity and Jeanne, who became deeply enamored with French culture, paid little mind to what her parents were doing.

Although her father was stationed in the capital, his mission was to explore the abandoned Great War battlefields of eastern France and to recover bodies of soldiers killed in the fighting and to ensure that the remains were Jeanne and friend marooned on a beach, circa 1930s

Jeanne on the Atlantic Coast, 1935

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A Most Memorable Life safely brought back for identification. When Kenton wasn’t busy with his duties, he brought his daughters to a new country every week, and insisted they learn at least one valuable fact about each place they visited.

For them this took the place of school.

In Paris, Jeanne found a world suddenly available to her. She picked up the language and learned her way around the streets. She and her sister would spend a lot of time unsupervised, as they had been in Hawaii, playing with the neighborhood children and exploring the city. While she didn’t know it at the time, several of their local playmates were the children of James Joyce, who lived in the same building as the Cooleys.

All the while, Jeanne and Kathleen were encouraged to learn about the places they explored, even as they ventured alone through Paris. Kenton set up an award system, rewarding curiosity with related activities, taking the girls to places they couldn’t go to on their own. Jeanne became so proficient in the language and routes of the city that her mother would lend her to visiting friends as an unofficial guide and translator.

In the early 1930s, Jeanne and her family travelled to Germany to see their cousins. Two of the children they met wore tan uniforms with

Jeanne and friend take a break from work, 1930s

red ties. They belonged to a group called Hitler Jugend. At this time, Hitler was still ascending to power, but had not yet become Chancellor of Germany. The boys’ father spoke critically of Hitler and his wife would try to hush him, as the boys were listening. It was not uncommon for children to report their parents for speaking ill of the Nazis. Some years later, when Germany invaded Poland, the boys’ parents fled the country.

The youths were never heard from again. Jeanne presumed that they were killed in the war.

Still, while political conflict escalated in Europe, Jeanne continued living a relatively carefree life, pursuing her interests and exploring new places. In 1936, she convinced her parents to let her move to New York City to pursue an acting career. She had just graduated high school and her father wanted her to attend college. He yielded to his daughter’s desires and sent her to New York. Kenton agreed to support Jeanne for the first three months, but, if she failed to find a steady job by then, she would be sent back to finish college.

68 |

Jeanne, circa 1930s

A Most Memorable Life

Manhattan Transfer

T

While in New York, Jeanne enjoyed several amorous relationships.

A lot of the men were significantly older. One in particular was a

his is how Jeanne came to find herself alone in New York

talented pianist named Mario Bragiotti, who was almost 30. The

City at the tender age of 17. She initially found a job as a

age difference didn’t bother Jeanne, but her mother was immediately

department store model. Back then, if a patron was interested in a

suspicious. By her family, Jeanne was warned not to get too close to this

garment, a store employee would model the garment on request.

man. She didn’t, and the romance naturally faded away. But the pool

Admittedly, this was not exactly the line of work Jeanne was interested

of attractive older men didn’t shallow. Jeanne and her girlfriends would

in doing. Thankfully, however, her sympathetic boss afforded Jeanne

combine their resources with these men and go on outings around the

extended lunch breaks during which she could visit local casting

city. They would all pitch in for nice clothes to attend the opera or visit

directors in hopes of landing a role in one of the local shows. Jeanne

the Museum of Modern Art. Jeanne had never been exposed to modern

recalled one particularly awkward casting call where she found out

art before. She didn’t understand it but found it undeniably intriguing.

she was auditioning for the role of a cigarette girl in a play called The

It was the beginning of a passion that would persist to this day.

Woman. She had been hired for her straight legs and not her acting

During this time, Jeanne met Horace Greeley. Introduced by

talent. The casting director had her hike her skirt up above the knee

her roommate, Jeanne was quickly smitten by the young West Point

and strut across the room. It was Jeanne’s first bitter taste of the

officer. They fell madly in love. Horace came to see Jeanne perform

sexually objectifying nature of show business. While she felt somewhat

in The Woman at least four times and would take her out after each

uncomfortable, she admits she was still happy to be a part of the show.

show. Jeanne was deeply enamored with Horace, letting her ambitions happily slip away in favor of this newfound romance. Soon she stopped touring with The Woman and started focusing on a life with Horace, which included booking transit to the Philippines. Horace had just graduated from West Point and was going to be a pilot. He was to be stationed in the country’s Bataan Peninsula. As it happened, Jeanne’s father was also stationed in the same area and Jeanne saw this as a wonderful opportunity to be close to her family again, while potentially starting one of her own.

Horace

A

s the world edged toward a Second World War, Jeanne’s idyllic life reached a fateful juncture when she married

Horace Greeley. Her time with Horace would come to represent an era of careless bliss that would never fully be recreated in her life again. During the onset of war, as the Japanese Imperial Army strove Jeanne with actress Irene Neuwirth, late 1970s

southwards towards the rich oil and ore deposits in the South Pacific,

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69

A Most Memorable Life Jeanne and Horace were living in the Philippines, where Horace was stationed as an officer of the Air Force.

Because the United States had yet to enter the fray, Horace was a mere overseer of war material being sent to China. Japan, at this point, had invaded the Chinese Mainland and the United States felt it necessary to do what it could to at least passively oppose such aggression. As the situation grew more dire, Horace went to China to ensure firsthand that the supplies were properly distributed and not falling into corrupt hands. Around this time, Japanese forces surrounded the Philippines and Jeanne had no choice but to evacuate to the United States. Horace eventually returned to his base in Bataan and readied with the rest of the American troops there to repel the imminent Japanese invasion. Their plan: Hold out long enough to be rescued by the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet stationed in Pearl Harbor.

Jeanne would never see Horace again.

Missing in Action

O

n December 7, 1941, the Imperial Army of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, killing more than 2,000 American servicemen

President of the New York Herald Tribune Walter Thayer, Jeanne’s second husband and father of her children, 1980

do. My decisions were made for me very soon after that.”

Over the next several years, during which time Horace endured imprisonment by the Japanese, Jeanne received several Red Cross

and effectively neutralizing the Pacific Fleet. Though this event would

letters from Horace, who did his best to downplay his suffering and

act as the catalytic moment precipitating America’s involvement in the

ready Jeanne for his eventual release. He cautioned her that his state

war, the soldiers stationed in Bataan, many under Horace’s command,

of mind would be fragile and that he would find post-war America

would never receive rescue from the Pacific Fleet, or even news of

strange and confusing after his time in captivity.

the attack. They held off their enemy for what must have felt like an

Despite her despair over her husband’s fate, she remained

eternity, but, after a four-month siege, Horace and the others, realizing

confident that they would eventually be reunited. “We were aware

that they had been abandoned, surrendered to Japanese forces.

that prisoners were tortured and that they were not given adequate

Jeanne received only one letter from Horace during this frenzied

food or medical care,” Jeanne later wrote. “I learned a lot of this

period; it had been smuggled out by one of the last American soldiers

through the Intelligence Division at G-2 at the Pentagon, because I

to evacuate. The letter clearly dictated Horace’s frustration, fear, and

had access to information that other young wives in Washington did

confusion. “It was very difficult to describe the feelings we had,” Jeanne

not have.”

wrote in her memoirs. “I don’t remember what I thought at the time,

Meanwhile, as America advanced into the war, and having been

except a horrible sense of desolation about Horace. I wasn’t thinking

recruited by U.S. military intelligence officials because of her extensive

about other people; I only thought of him, and I did not know what to

knowledge of world geography and her close familial ties to military

70 |

A Most Memorable Life officers, Jeanne directed a group of women responsible for supplying

importance, because it was only shortly after the event that she

pilots with timely intelligence regarding safe flying routes and landing

received official confirmation of Horace’s death as a Japanese prisoner

zones, their equipment, and status. Many routes became compromised

of war.

by enemy forces and airstrips around the world became targets.

Her husband had managed to endure captivity longer than many

Jeanne and her group had to stay ahead of the fray, relaying first-hand

of his fellow prisoners – a fact Jeanne still recounts with pride. After

information as it arrived, ensuring that American troops and supplies

surrendering to the Japanese, Horace took part in the infamous Bataan

were deployed safely and properly.

Death March that resulted in the deaths of thousands of American and Filipino POWs. After enduring years of imprisonment in the

The War

M

y grandmother spent years in a cramped building with no heat in the winter, nor air-conditioning in the summer.

Philippines, and with the war nearing its end, Horace was transferred to the Japanese mainland.

Taking only prisoners who were still physically able to function as slave laborers, the Japanese loaded them, Horace included, onto

Life changed drastically during the war. Washington, D.C. flooded

unmarked merchant ships to be transported back to Japan. These

with people waiting to be deployed. A visceral sense of urgency and

ships were misidentified as Japanese warships by the U.S. Navy and

fear fueled their work; people slept fleetingly and lived together

were routinely targeted and destroyed as such, killing all aboard. In

communally. They pooled what little resources they had in order

the wake of one such attack, Horace’s remains were recovered and sent

to enjoy rare moments of peace and happiness, while the specter

back to the United States, where Jeanne had them buried in Arlington

of war loomed just beyond the horizon. “It was a frantic, hysterical

Cemetery.

atmosphere,” she recalled. “There was a lot of dancing; all the hotels

“There were so many rumors about how he died that I was never

were open and had orchestras playing. Groups of us would also gather

sure,” Jeanne wrote. “All I know is that very much later, when the

our gas coupons together and combine them and occasionally go out

government asked me if I wanted his body shipped back to the United

to the country on weekends to visit people who had eggs and meat and

States, I said yes, I wanted him to be buried at Arlington National

butter, because food and gasoline were rationed.”

Cemetery. He was a hero, and I wanted him nearby, and finally that’s

The carefree life Jeanne had experienced as a child, and which

what happened.”

had been fostered by her parents, was over. But her exposure to the depravity of war, the death of culture, and the glorification of destruction brought about by it, fueled Jeanne’s desire to perpetuate the arts, to seek beauty, and to never forget the inherent innocence and nobility of the human spirit.

It is often said that the 1900s was the American century, but this

A Widow

B

efore she became a grieving widow, Jeanne had encountered my grandfather. During the war, Walter Thayer was a civilian

conducting business in London, utilizing military planes to transport

sobriquet only became historically factual in 1945, when the United

urgent reports to and from Europe. Jeanne would ensure that their

States dropped two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

pilots delivered his parcels and letters, transported unofficially aboard

and the Pacific Theater of World War Two came to a savage end.

warplanes heading to London from Washington, D.C. After the end

Jeanne remembers this day well and with an eerie tone of bittersweet

of the war, Walter courted Jeanne, enticing her with an invitation to

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71

A Most Memorable Life dinner at an upscale restaurant, to which he offered to escort her in his privately-owned automobile. It didn’t hurt his case that gasoline was still being rationed.

Jeanne found Walter’s status impressive, and his ability to take command of the situation comforted her during a time of such uncertainty. They became great friends and soon fell in love.

According to Jeanne, Walter encouraged her to chase her passions. At Walter’s bequest, Jeanne stopped working and positioned herself to become a matron of the arts in New York City. “I was a widow with a very peculiar attitude and hardly a future,” Jeanne recalled. “I don’t think it was a very sound way for Walter to choose his future wife, but I wasn’t aware of that. I just knew that he knew how to take care of me, and could make decisions for me, and was good to me, and

Jeanne, 1987

of course I fell in love with him. That was the beginning of the next

Matron of the Arts

chapter of my life.”

acting days before she’d met Horace. Walter was well connected, too.

R

With some help, he started a firm that quickly proved to be a success,

she described as having an encyclopedic knowledge of art and history.

complete with partners and clients whose names read like a roster

Jeanne was back in her element, learning more about the topics that

of the city’s most respected and influential people. Jeanne cherished

had once inspired her and, of course, making many new friends along

Walter as a man incapable of dissimulation, a genuine champion

the way. Walter was on the board of the Museum of Modern Art and

for the truth, a character whose evident traits explained both his

Jeanne would volunteer there as often as possible. She also became one

professional success and long-lasting relationships with friends and

of three women on the Board of Trustees for the State University of

partners in New York and Washington, D.C.

New York.

Walter wanted to start a law firm in New York, and Jeanne was ecstatic over the idea. She still had many old connections from her

Jeanne and Walter had three children. With two young girls and

egaining the lifestyle she had lived before moving to Rye,

Jeanne frequented lectures at the Museum of Modern Art every

Saturday, including those by her favorite speaker, Claude Marks, who

Jeanne toured the system’s 64 campuses, typically presiding over

a baby boy, they moved out to the country, where, in Rye, New York,

campus events held by various associations within the alumni or

they found more space and a peaceful place for the children to grow.

student body. She often spoke at these events and Walter would help

It was the first period of calm she had enjoyed since her childhood in

Jeanne rehearse her speeches. According to Jeanne, Walter supported

Hawaii. Yet, while she appreciated the family-oriented opportunities

and motivated her in a way that she felt was rare. Such opportunities

offered by suburban life, Jeanne always longed for the city. She shared

for involvement and accomplishment, she’d argue, would not have

a deep connection with New York. It was part of her sense of identity.

come to fruition without Walter standing by her.

When the children reached their teens and began going off to boarding school, Jeanne and Walter moved back to the Big Apple.

72 |

Jeanne went on to become involved with many more organizations, sticking to her core values of promoting the arts and

A Most Memorable Life preserving parts of history. She was the Chairman of the Board of Sleepy Hollow Restoration, became a member of the board of the Drawing Center in New York, and, her most fond involvement, joined the board for the New York City Ballet. She would continue to travel and experience art and beauty, watching dancers in St. Petersburg, and experiencing totems of culture from around the world.

When Walter passed away in 1989, Jeanne took his place on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of Modern Art. She remained in New York for five years after his death before deciding to leave the City in favor for a quiet corner in Southern California, the chosen home of her son, Tom (my father). Montecito would provide a new style of life away from the bustle of New York. Jeanne found this to be bittersweet, appreciating the quiet beauty of Montecito while still missing the vivaciousness of New York City. Still, she quickly became involved in groups and organizations that brought her the same pleasure, being a part of the things that mattered to her. Most notably, she contributed often to Lotusland, the Santa Barbara Symphony, and the Music Academy of the West, whose schedule of courses and list of esteemed instructors she can still recite with some accuracy.

Jeanne holding Jack in front of Santa Barbara Biltmore, 1997

An Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note

I

was born around this time. The Jeanne I knew was physically

state of affairs, our friends and family, my schooling and interests. This was the way she preferred it.

My grandmother would listen patiently and smile, asking

disconnected from that old world, though the steady stream of

thoughtful questions and delighting over thoughtful answers. She

letters, visitors, and books offered hints of her rich past. As a child,

would work in her garden and read her non-fiction, and when her

I would think little of it. I took in these elements of her life with a

balance and eyesight failed, she continued on by listening to books on

passing stride and never thought too deeply of her old life until I

tape. She never ceased her efforts to further enrich her understanding

was much older. My grandmother was not concerned by my lack of

of the world.

understanding or juvenile interests. She found it genuine.

This holds true today. At 102 years old, she still spends her days

As I grew older, Jeanne entered the twilight years of her life.

listening to audio books and scanning the bestsellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s list for new titles

She discussed her life more often. Even then, she would make it out

or catching the evening news and staying up to date on current affairs.

to sound unimportant, something that had happened that I may

In the end, it is her curiosity and love for the world that defines her.

or may not be interested in. The anecdotes would come with casual

And her desire to impress this love onto others marks the legacy she

ephemerality. Our conversations still primarily concerned the present

still continues to build.

m |

73

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Parkitecture

Classic Lodges in the National Parks of the West

by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr.

A

s you roam America’s national parks, you discover our legacy of majestic, unspoiled scenery – jagged peaks, silent forests, red-rock canyons. But you also discover a few not-so-great things about the great outdoors. For instance, due to poor planning, the outdoors is mainly dirt and rocks. Insects bite you.

Freeze-dried food packets should be reserved for an apocalypse. Also, it rains. You could be takeout for a grizzly bear. Hiking trails tend to go uphill, and you get sweaty and tired.

After a few days in nature, it’s possible you could use a shower. And how about a gourmet dinner – is that so wrong? You

might also enjoy time to talk with other travelers in civilized, even artistic, surroundings.

Luckily for you, the grand lodges of the western U.S. national parks offer comfort and services similar to those in city hotels. They also please the eye with rustic architecture that matches the magnificent landscapes around them.

Oddly, building grand hotels in the western wilds began as a crass commercial enterprise. In the early twentieth century, railroad executives calculated that if national parks were to offer exceptional lodgings, tourists would flock in – riding the train, of course. (Until then, parks provided only tent camps and standard hotels with basic beds and meals.)

In 1904, the Northern Pacific Railroad turned its attention to Yellowstone and opened the Old Faithful Inn. Rising close to its namesake geyser, the inn was a soaring masterwork of logs and stone that exemplified the rustic grace of the American Wild West. Its seven-story log-and-limb lobby and massive 85-foot-tall fireplace gave guests a genuine architectural experience; it was an interior space nearly as grand as the scenery.

This was the first example of what became known as “Parkitecture,” a design style that was a marriage of two apparent opposites: rustic materials and high design. In the 19th century, feelings about the wilderness had changed. Once a place to be feared and conquered, it now became a resource to be preserved and treasured. Thus the creation of national parks.

Parkitecture aimed to build visitor facilities that harmonized with the wilderness. Rejecting the machinelike uniformity of the industrial world, Parkitecture instead reflected the Arts and Crafts movement and embraced the simplicity and charm of the handmade.

76 |

The resulting park lodges changed Americans’ views on vacationing. “While it may seem counterintuitive to go to a national park and check out the man-made structures,” says park concessionaire

Glacier Hotel, a Swiss-style lodge in the “American Alps” of Glacier National Park.

Even businesses not related to tourism followed the trend. In

Xanterra, “many of our buildings stand on their own as worthy of

1927 the Pacific Coast Borax Company built the Furnace Creek Inn,

a tour or visit. If these walls could talk, they would probably be

a garden oasis in forbidding Death Valley. The National Park Service

providing a history lecture.”

itself leaped on the bandwagon and built the Ahwahnee among the

Other railroads soon coupled onto the idea that started in

peaks and waterfalls of Yosemite National Park.

Yellowstone. Directly on the rim of the Grand Canyon, the Santa Fe

In the end, the profit from these commercial enterprises accrued

Railway and hospitality pioneer Fred Harvey built El Tovar, a grand

to all Americans and to travelers from around the world – a legacy of

chalet to attract tourists to the eye-popping chasm. In 1914 the

grand lodges that measure up to their awe-inspiring sites.

Great Northern Railway set its sights on Montana, erecting the Many

Truly, they are places to write home about.

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77

Parkitecture

78 |

Parkitecture

EL TOVAR

A

lthough this luxury hotel of native boulders and fir logs was designed not to distract people from the silent grandeur of the Grand Canyon, some guests have viewed

El Tovar as a destination in itself. In fact, naturalist John Burroughs remembered meeting a woman there who thought they had built the canyon too near the hotel.

Only twenty feet from the veranda at El Tovar, the rimrock drops off into the mile-deep gorge. Some guest rooms have direct views into the canyon. So does the dining room, which architect Charles Whittlesey modeled on a “great hall” in Norway, in keeping with the hotel’s stylistic blend of Norwegian villa and Swiss chalet. The lobby carries on the frontier theme with exposed log rafters accented by copper chandeliers.

Once described as the most expensive log house in America, El Tovar opened in 1905 with such luxurious modern amenities as hot water, electric lights, and steam heat. Guests were a fancy lot, as one longtime employee recalled: “Everyone dressed up. You had to hold guests by the hand, so they wouldn’t step on their fur stoles.” Dining room patrons were attended by the famous Harvey Girls, frontier ingenues in crisp white aprons. They set tables with Irish linen and French china, then served meals accompanied by fresh water that had been brought to the hotel – like the guests themselves – aboard Santa Fe trains.

The railroad’s public relations man had promoted a spur line to the hotel from the main line at Williams. Then he hatched the idea of inviting celebrated artists to stay at El Tovar free, reckoning that their paintings of the chasm would entice tourists from around the world.

He was right. Today the Grand Canyon receives more than six million visitors every year.

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79

Parkitecture

THE AHWAHNEE

I

t’s Christmastime in the Yosemite Valley, and snow blankets the meadow outside the Ahwahnee Hotel. Guests in the dining room typically spend the meal hour gazing out tall windows that frame Yosemite Falls. But

tonight candles flicker, carolers sing, and revelers parade through the vast dining hall. Waiters trot from the kitchen with trays held high to serve the applauding guests platters of Peacock Pie (actually duck) and Baron of Beef.

It’s the Ahwahnee’s annual Bracebridge Dinner, which rekindles the magic of Christmas as it was in 18th-century Yorkshire, loosely interpreted.

How loosely? When the Bracebridge Dinner started back in 1927, photographer and Yosemite resident Ansel Adams donned cap and bells to portray the Lord of Misrule, becoming so merry that he climbed one of the dining room’s forty-foot-tall log pillars. Helping to put Adams in high spirits, no doubt, was the exhilarating scale of the Ahwahnee, a hotel whose six stories of native granite and “redwood timbers” (actually, stained concrete) stand against the spectacular backdrop of Yosemite Valley.

The creation of architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the hotel incorporates five thousand tons of rough-cut stone. The interior is decorated with designs from Native American baskets, stylized with a touch of Art Deco. Windows in the Great Lounge rise from floor to ceiling and are topped with stained glass panels; an oversized fireplace warms the huge room. The result is at once rustic and sophisticated.

For the Ahwahnee’s 1927 gala opening, guests arrived in chauffeured

80 |

Parkitecture

Cadillacs and Packards, symbols of the soft-sheet luxury the hotel offered in rugged Yosemite. Since then, celebrated guests have included U.S. presidents, Queen Elizabeth II, and Emperor Haile Selassie, who arrived in 1954 toting half a ton of luggage and his prize elephant tusks. Hollywood’s biggest names, from Walt Disney to Robert Redford, have also stayed here. (Greta Garbo tried to sneak in under a false name but was recognized by the monogram on her suitcases and by her trademark dark glasses.)

Today’s guests spend summertime sightseeing and hiking. In winter they cross-country ski or snowshoe, then return to read or write postcards in a solarium looking out at evergreen trees mantled with snow. It’s no wonder that rooms at the Ahwahnee are reserved up to a year in advance.

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81

Parkitecture

THE INN AT DEATH VALLEY

D

uring summer in Death Valley, the desert sands can heat up to more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s said that a bucket of water left in the sun will evaporate in an hour. These searing

statistics explain why the cool caravansary originally known as the Furnace Creek Inn makes a perfect winter resort. Surrounded by lush gardens, it offers civilized comfort in a formidable landscape.

This hotel of adobe and stone, built to resemble a Spanish villa, came into existence in 1927 when the Pacific Coast Borax Company was looking for ways to lure visitors to Death Valley. Highways were primitive, so the company promoted package tours to the inn by bringing in travelers on its own Tonopah & Tidewater and Death Valley railroads.

Guests felt the strange magnetism of Death Valley, a place of rainbow rocks and haunting salt flats, just as early miners did. Prospector Shorty Harris, a colorful and kindly character, made a strike in 1904 that set off a gold rush, only to sign away his claim one drunken night. Yet he was a happy man. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t gold

82 |

Parkitecture

but the life here that he loved. “I’ve got something they can’t take away. I step out of my cabin every morning and look it over – 100 miles of outdoors. All mine.”

Today, standing on the porch of the inn, you have a 180-degree view of the same valley, looking across to the pastel Panamint Range. Near the resort you can play eighteen holes of golf at 214 feet below sea level – the lowest-elevation course on Earth. Tamarisk trees frame the fairways, and majestic mountains are visible from every hole. At night you can float on your back in a swimming pool fed by natural hot springs and gaze up at stars undimmed by smog or city lights. Your bedroom may overlook the ponds of a shady oasis, where birds flit among the palms. In the evening you can dress up for a gourmet dinner in the dining room.

Death Valley’s early pioneers were single-blanket jackass prospectors who had only shacks to sleep in and beans to eat. They must have dreamed about this life – a hot bath, cold champagne, and a soft bed.

|

83

Parkitecture

84 |

Parkitecture

OLD FAITHFUL INN

A

n observant visitor might notice that the foundations of the Old Faithful Inn are the same material as the rock formations surrounding the

world-famous geyser nearby: rhyolite. The mineral unites the hotel with its surroundings – in fact, the 1904 inn was the first one in a national park to display any architectural tie to its environment.

The oversized gable roof and dormers resemble Rocky Mountain peaks. The soaring seven-story lobby, framed in logs and gnarled branches, calls to mind the cathedral spaces in a pine forest. By design, the inn seems to exist in two worlds at once: It offers style and comfort, but also a connection to the wilderness.

With this hotel on Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin, architect Robert Reamer set the standard of monumental rustic design. Using native materials in an appropriate scale, he avoided stiff lines and over-sophistication; instead, the building appears to have been crafted by pioneers using hand tools.

A wood-burning boiler provided heat for the new inn, and there was electricity and plumbing. (The best rooms even had private baths.) Today, however, newfangled television, radio, and air-conditioning are not available. All the more reason to head outside!

Tourists stay at the inn from May to October. After that, temperatures can drop to sixty degrees below zero.

Snowdrifts build up twenty feet high around the hotel, so the staff hangs wooden shutters over the windows, blows the water out of the pipes, and closes up for the winter.

Come spring the inn opens again – right on schedule, just like Old Faithful itself.

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85

Parkitecture

MANY GLACIER HOTEL

D

espite its name, the Many Glacier Hotel on Swift Current Lake in Montana evokes a perfect vision of summertime Switzerland – at least in the warm season. But in winter, the terrain around this 1915 alpine chalet in Glacier National Park gets c-o-l-d.

Snow can reach as high as the four-story hotel’s gables, so theoretically a person could ski down the east face of the roof. Swift Current

Lake freezes too, and in the days before refrigerators the hotel staff would cut frozen blocks to store in an icehouse and use in the kitchen all summer.

Today summer remains the high – and only – season. That’s the time to hike, paddle a canoe across the lake, and enjoy the pleasures of warm weather.

Like the other grand lodges in the national parks of the American West, the Many Glacier Hotel does two things perfectly: It harmonizes with its magnificent surroundings, and it appears to have always stood there, as natural as the peaks and trees.

86 |

Parkitecture

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87

Parkitecture

COMPASS POINTS

Caution: Death Valley holds the world record for heat: 134 degrees F. In hot weather, remember: Cell phones often don’t have

EL TOVAR:

reception here; stick to well traveled areas where other travelers

South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park

can help if needed; choose viewpoints at higher, cooler elevations.

(www.grandcanyonlodges.com; 888-297-2757; open year-round)

Always bring drinking water and snacks.

Lodging: Rooms and suites (several with porches or balconies)

Fun Fact: Hazards on the resort golf course include coyotes that

have TV, full bath, and air-conditioning. Rooms start at $229.

like to “one-way fetch” golf balls.

Dining: The dining room features traditional and Southwest dishes; classics include prime rib hash at breakfast and salmon

OLD FAITHFUL INN:

tostada on organic greens at dinner.

Yellowstone National Park

Fun Fact: When a dining room guest complained, the staff had

(www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/lodgings/hotel/old-

to ask guest Paul McCartney to stop playing the piano.

faithful-inn/; 307-344-7311; open May-Oct.) Lodging: From suites to simple rooms with shared baths. No

THE AHWAHNEE:

television, radio, air-conditioning; Wi-Fi in lobby only. Basic

Yosemite National Park

rooms start at $164, standard at $340.

(www.travelyosemite.com; 888-413-8869; open year-round)

Dining: Dishes range from salads to steaks, some with local

Lodging: Four-diamond hotel with artistic decor. TVs, limited

ingredients (e.g., elk bratwurst and Montana beef meatballs).

Wi-Fi. Rooms start at $589, suites at $1,200, cottages at $589.

Dinner buffet features prime rib, trout.

Dining: Featuring roasted and grilled meats and fish served in a

Fun Fact: The Old Faithful Inn is the largest log hotel in the

dining room with dramatic views.

world.

Fun Fact: Interiors at the Ahwahnee were adapted for the 1980 horror movie The Shining.

MANY GLACIER HOTEL: Glacier National Park

THE INN AT DEATH VALLEY:

(www.glaciernationalparklodges.com; 303-265-7010;

Death Valley National Park

open June-Sept.)

(www.oasisatdeathvalley.com; 800-236-7916; open year-round)

Lodging: Suites, modest rooms, simple amenities. No TVs or air-

Lodging: Four-diamond resort with rooms, suites, garden casitas.

conditioning; limited Wi-Fi in lobby only. Rooms start at $211,

Spring-fed swimming pool (84.5 degrees F), spa, USGA 18-hole

suites at $559.

course. Rooms start at $339, casitas at $399.

Dining: Dining room with lake view serves salads, pasta, bison

Dining: Classic cuisine with regional flavors (cactus, citrus, date,

chili, steaks, chops, fish.

pomegranate). The terrace, weather permitting, offers desert and

Fun Fact: The hotel’s Red Bus touring vehicles date to the 1930s

starry sky views.

and have roll-back tops for unobstructed sightseeing.

88 |

m

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HISTORY IN THE

MAKING

Real estate and architecture play an integral part in Montecito’s rich history. Check out some of Montecito’s iconic homes from the last century along with other notable real estate events - past, present, and future!

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R E B E CCA R ISK IN B E GINS SELLING M ON T E CIT O R E A L ESTATE E ST. 1989

256 SA NTA ROSA LA NE EST. 1999

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1398 OAK CR E E K CANYON ROA D E ST. 2013

RISKIN PA RTNERS EST. 2014

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TH E MO NTECI TO CO LLECTI O N MAGAZI NE VO LUME I V CO MI NG 2020

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R I S K I N P A R T N E R S E S TAT E G R O U P Village Properties Realtors

DINA LANDI Managing Partner

SARAH HANACEK Partner

JASMINE TENNIS Partner

ERIN LAMMERS Marketing Director

JENNA GALKIN Marketing Coordinator

ROBERT RISKIN Partner

JOHNNY CASH Office Pup

805.565.8600

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All information provided is deemed reliable, but has not been verified and we do not guarantee it. We recommend that buyers make their own inquiries.

THE WAY IT WAS

by Hattie Beresford

GOURMET GRUB

W 116 |

The Central Restaurant, seen here in the 1880s, like many of Santa Barbara’s early eateries, also offered room and board (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

hile French gastronomy held sway in the finer restaurants of the East Coast, in mid-1800s Chicago, diners were still able to obtain the wild meats of the frontier. Bills of fare offered Wild Boar’s Steak, Boned Wild Turkey, Aged Bear’s Paws in burgundy sauce, Ragoût de Coon, and Squirrel Pie. The most discriminating of the rough and tumble men of the West

T H E WAY I T WA S lusted after this food, but outsiders complained that the meat was often in an advanced state of putrefaction.

The culinary delights of the Wild West were preserved at Chicago’s Grand Pacific Hotel, which hosted its twenty-second game dinner in 1880. Game served included roasted antelope, woodchuck, Blue-Billed Wigeon, and opossum, as well as broiled Sand Snipe, Red Squirrel, and partridge. Even the famous Delmonico’s in New York was not immune to such gastronomic specialties and featured Bear’s Paws, decorated Boar’s Head, and Sheepshead à la Bechamel at its Williams Street restaurant.

In Santa Barbara in the early 1850s, there was only one first class hotel and no second class one. It was called Hotel La Fonda and was also the only eating place in town. The business was housed in a one-story adobe that stretched along State Street. Lodgers were accommodated in a string of rooms, each about eight feet square and lighted only by a sash door. The adobe had been built by fur trapperturned-merchant Luis T. Burton, who had come to Santa Barbara in 1831 and married into the Carrillo family. He set up a mercantile store near the beach on what became Burton’s Mound, and another at his home in town.

In the early 1860s, Luis Burton’s adobe home and store became the hotel and restaurant La Fonda. Because it blocked State Street, civic improvers soon razed the adobe. (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

The American Restaurant advertised that it would pack box lunches for parties heading for a day in the country. The popularity of this activity lasted well into the 20th century as seen here as Sally de la Guerra Taylor (far right) enjoys an auto picnic in a local canyon with friends circa 1910. (Sally’s descendants still live in Santa Barbara.)

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T H E WAY I T WA S

In 1873 the American Restaurant advertised fresh oysters and board by the day or week. Meal tickets were $1 for three meals and 37 cents for one. (Santa Barbara Historical Museum) As more and more Americans arrived after 1848, the number of restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, and saloons slowly rose. By 1860, the population had doubled to an unprecedented 2,351. Although the hotels and lodging houses in town offered meals, records indicate that in 1875 there were still only two restaurants. The populace was well supplied with refreshments, however, for there were 16 saloons, three liquor dealers, and two breweries in town.

At that time, the American Restaurant was the best show in town, offering good prices and plain dishes at 12 ½ cents, with bread, butter, and vegetables thrown in for free. A Porterhouse steak, however, cost a whopping 25 cents and a cup of coffee with a slice of cake or pie went

“Ma’s in her kitchen, all’s right with the world” (Library of Congress)

for a grand total of 15 cents. The American also prepared box lunches

that restaurants, clubs, and hotels had replaced the home for thousands

for parties heading for a day in the country and offered “handsomely

of people, and mechanization and education had changed women,

fitted up private rooms where Ladies and Gentlemen can enjoy a quiet

making them discontented. “Obedience,” he says, “has dropped from

meal.” Patrons who preferred oysters could buy them when the tasty

her vocabulary.” (A woeful situation, indeed.)

mollusks were brought in fresh from northern bays by steamship.

Restaurants as the Downfall of Civilization

A

That same year, Alfred Packard, Esq., a Santa Barbara pioneer and prominent attorney and judge, advanced the idea (presumably facetiously) that all our political troubles were caused by indigestion induced by the decline of housewifery. “When our women return to the

male writer to the Santa Barbara Morning Press in 1873

good old practice of making pumpkin and mince pies and cooking good

discussed the deplorable state of the institution of marriage in

dinners with their own fair hands, instead of leaving this great work to

the United States. He blamed this situation on two things. One was

the Chinaman, the men will have good digestion once more and will

the fact that people no longer lived and died in the same town where

return to the virtues of the early days of the Republic,” he argued.

they were born. “Everyone,” he says, “is on the move.” Another was

118 |

As counterpoint, in 1874 a woman wrote to the newspaper

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T H E WAY I T WA S

Oyster Saloons

I

n 1876, the Santa Barbara Daily Press printed an article on the moral character of the oyster. The writer opined that while the

oyster was quiet and very well-behaved, he participated in nearly every scene of debauchery and revelry in town and frequented midnight suppers in the company of wild and riotous fellows. Though he himself was perfectly respectable, and refined people could have him at dinner without scruple, there could be no doubt that his name was suggestive of dissoluteness and dissipation.

Like many permanent residents and winter visitors, William H. Stowell and his wife, Emma, didn’t mind at all “leaving the great work” of preparing meals in the hands of a Chinese cook seen here posing on the lawn. Stowell, who is sitting on the porch of his cottage near the Miramar in 1900, was a former U.S. Congressman for Virginia as well as merchant, industrialist, banker, and foreign correspondent. (Courtesy Montecito Association History Committee) claiming to be “The Happiest Woman in Santa Barbara.” The writer credited an anonymous man for making her so happy, but it was not an offer of matrimony that raised her spirits to near euphoria, but the offer of victuals. “Mr. ________________,” she writes, “keeps the restaurant, and he sends me my dinner. And such a dinner! Chicken – roasted, boiled, and stewed; celery; the daintiest little dishes of vegetables; golden, creamy, luscious squash pies; melting, dreamy

Oysters were all the rage from the 1870s up to 1920 (Library of Congress)

puddings; savory soups; tempting red-cheeked apples; and hard, sweet, amber-colored butter.”

By having the restaurant prepare dinner, the housewife, she opined, would become much more pleasant company for her spouse.

“He will linger at the table,” she said, “loth to leave her sweet, bright face and she will sing songs to him rather than return to the kitchen to wash the vile, grimy, abominable pots and kettles.”

Encouraging others to do the same, she wrote, “The victory is yours, Maria Ann. Fling your pots and kettles out of the window, toss that codfish dangling from your kitchen roof into the sea where it belongs. Give that half-peck of potatoes to your neighbor… And give one last, long, vindictive look at that hateful kitchen and say ‘Adieu,’ hopefully, forever.”

120 |

Lagomarsino’s saloon stood on State Street and featured plenty of spittoons for its patrons as well as bar fare like oysters (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

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T H E WAY I T WA S Charles Dickens once pointed out that the moment any man fell into poverty due to drunkenness and idleness, he began to eat oysters as a regular diet. “Notwithstanding the high estimation in which the best of us hold this mollusk,” said the writer, “his name somehow suggests irregularity of living, late hours, unwholesome haunts, and potations of gin.”

By the 1870s, the apparently gin-soaked, unwholesome haunt of Santa Barbara couldn’t get enough of the bivalve as oyster saloons proliferated on State Street. In 1871, even the upright ladies of the Congregational Church Society, perhaps in the spirit of Christian charity toward sinners, held a Strawberry Festival and Oyster Supper

As Easterners moved West after the Gold Rush, the Eastern and Southern oyster industries found a new market

that drew an enormous crowd.

The Forty-Niners had brought an appetite for oysters to California

These were the oysters transplanted Easterners dreamed of, and oyster

during the Gold Rush, and at first local oysters were harvested from

saloons sprang up throughout the state. In the 1870s in Santa Barbara,

San Francisco Bay. Once those beds were depleted, restaurants looked

the American Restaurant advertised fresh Saddle Rock oysters. The

for oysters from Washington State, which were shipped by schooner

Metropolitan Coffee, Oyster, and Ice Cream Saloon promised, not

to California, as were Olympia seed oysters which were planted in San

only fresh oysters, but also beer, wine and liquors, as well as a daily

Francisco Bay with varying degrees of success.

free lunch. J.T. Linden’s would prepare oysters in any style, and the

After the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, live Eastern oysters and seed oysters could be shipped west in three weeks.

Fashion Restaurant and Oyster Saloon, the Oyster Ocean House, the Merchant’s Exchange, and the Vienna Oyster House and Restaurant

Canned oysters were big business in Louisiana and the East Coast. Few considered the working conditions that kept the prices low. In this group the children smile for the camera, but from the smallest to the tallest, they have been shucking oysters since 3 am and will continue until 5 pm. None of the children went to school.

Note the aprons stained with oyster “liquor” and the stained hands. (Lewis Wickes Hine photo, ca 1910; Library of Congress)

122 |

T H E WAY I T WA S

The grocer Walter Crockett Show capitalized on the latest craze to hit Santa Barbara, Oyster Cocktails, in 1898. All ingredients were available at Show’s fine establishment.

Other places, like The Senate Saloon and Howard’s, began offering the spicy cocktail and Diehl’s Grocery store restaurant served it for lunch The Fountain Saloon at 822 State Street circa 1890. Owned by the J.F. Meyers family, the saloon was often in the news for barroom fights and violations of the Sunday closure laws. Clearly a hangout for oysters.

(Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

for 15 cents.

(on the corner of State and De la Guerra), all did a thriving business.

had wedged himself into an oyster barrel to enjoy a private drunk. He

In 1894 the Oyster Cocktail made it to Santa Barbara. Legend

As for the oyster’s association with unsavory characters and environs, in 1875 the newspaper did report that one Frank Morrison

was arrested on the charge of extreme inebriation and fined $5. “The

says it was invented by a miner who had struck gold and gone to a San Francisco restaurant where he asked the waiter to bring him a plate of raw California oysters and a glass of whiskey. After downing the whiskey, he put the oysters into his glass, added salt, pepper, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and ketchup, and downed the whole mess in one gulp. Once word got around of this new culinary delight, every restaurant and saloon in the City by the Bay was serving Oyster Cocktails.

In Santa Barbara, Walter C. Show, grocer, embraced the idea in his advertisements, which promoted Little California oysters and gave a recipe for the cocktails, whose ingredients were all available at Show’s.

Those tins of delectable oysters were shucked by kids like Josie and Bertha, age 6, and Sophie, age 10, seen here at an oyster shucking plant in South Carolina circa 1910 (Lewis Wickes Hine photo, ca 1910; Library of Congress)

| 123

T H E WAY I T WA S oysterman paid the fine, remarking that it was rather hard that a man could not enjoy the sanctity of his home,” reported the Press.

In 1909, William Smith raised Cain in the Saddlerock Restaurant.

head-spinning frequency.

As the population grew, however, so did the number of restaurants. In 1897, with the population grown to near 6,000 people,

“The proprietors handled the fellow, who used language that made the

there were eight restaurants and 13 saloons. In 1910, there were 22

oysters turn pale, with extreme gentleness,” reported the Morning Press.

restaurants and 21 saloons, and in 1920, there were still 22 restaurants

They prevented his breaking too much crockery by holding his hands

and zero saloons.

and didn’t call the police until he’d fallen asleep in their arms.

Despite their sketchy reputation, oyster saloons remained a staple

Most early restaurants, and even some saloons, in Santa Barbara also offered room and board. The American Restaurant enticed clients

among Santa Barbara eateries during the first two decades of the 20th

to become boarders with the offer of free wine at dinner in 1873. The

century with such places as the Oyster and Chop House at 623 State,

Central offered meals at 25 cents, board for $4 per week, and board

the Mascarel Oyster House, and the Oyster Grotto. But changing

and lodging for $6 per week in 1880. Raffour’s Restaurant offered

times and changing habits saw their demise as other, more varied

sunny rooms for boarders and meals at all hours in 1882. The Olympia

eateries rose to the forefront and Prohibition shuttered the saloons.

Restaurant, owned by L. Miratti, opened as a new restaurant and

Restaurants Come and Go

T

lodging house in 1898 at 512 State Street.

There were also places to eat that didn’t make it into the city

he years between 1870 and 1920 were turbulent years for the

directories or the newspapers. In the 1890s, local artist Elizabeth Eaton

restaurant business in Santa Barbara as a string of hopefuls

Burton and her husband, William Waples Burton, entertained their

entered the scene and departed almost as quickly. Even those whose

guests in the Spanish district of Santa Barbara where several of the

names lasted longer than a few years had changes in ownership with

doñas would cook for guests.

Diehl’s grocery store catered to a highclass clientele that demanded the very best gourmet items, both locally sourced and imported. Their restaurant became a popular place for lunch until it was overrun

by Flying A rowdies.

(Courtesy of Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

124 |

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T H E WAY I T WA S

The elegant Potter dining room (Courtesy of Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

Most of the hotels in town catered to both guests and residents with their restaurant and bar businesses. The Potter dining room always offered a various and delectable menu, all in English. (Santa Barbara Historical Museum) “Very often,” she wrote, “we would repair to an old adobe, picturesque with its covered porch and flowerpots. It was always a gay party which sat around the long table in a good sized sala, lit with shaded hanging lamps and smelling strongly of garlic; the whole

The new Potter Hotel circa 1904 offered beautiful views of the Santa Barbara Channel and a first-class formal dining room (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum) watered with red wine.”

But Santa Barbara longed for a really fine restaurant, one whose

atmosphere so foreign that you felt far away, indeed, from our country

menu exceeded the normal fried chicken and mashed potatoes motif.

and its modern ways.

Although some hopeful starts were made with the 1878 Café FranÇais

“We began squarely with a Mexican or Spanish dish, so perfectly seasoned and so savory that we would have made a whole meal of it

and the 1887 St. Elmo Dining Parlors, each lasted barely a year.

It wasn’t until 1909 that a truly first-class restaurant would be

alone; but in succession we had placed before us, in courses, an array

established on State Street. Its chef and its fare, of course, would be

of dishes all served with rich red salsas and ripe black olives and well-

French.

126 |

T H E WAY I T WA S

Dining in Montecito

I

n the early days, Montecito’s business district was centered in Spanishtown, which stretched along East Valley Road between

Sycamore Canyon and Hot Springs Road. It boasted several stores, three dance halls, and several saloons. In fact, when it came time to name the roads in Montecito in 1898, one local wag suggested that this section of the road be named La Calle de Cuatro Cantinas since it ran past the home of Don Feliciano Dominguez, the owner of multiple taverns. There were also three grocery stores, a rooming house, and an inn called the Weeping Willow.

As the population of Montecito increased with the advent of winter visitors from the East, additional businesses developed, especially at the intersection of San Ysidro Road and East Valley Road where the Buell Store provided groceries for the entire community.

Down near the County Highway, the Miramar Hotel and dining room was doing a thriving business, but a truly fine restaurant had still to be established.

Then in 1893, a couple from France, Alfred and Amelia Jacoutot, purchased property that straddled Montecito Creek at the County

El Cortijo opened in the 1930s on the Coast Highway in Montecito, today’s 915 Coast Village Road. Years later, it became the Somerset Restaurant. One local resident recalls that as a girl she thought it was the most romantic place she’d ever seen. (Montecito Association History Committee) Road and established an elegantly furnished restaurant named The Grove House. It was hoped this restaurant would satisfy a long-felt desire for the comfort of tourists and residents alike.

The restaurant drew a steady clientele, and large parties, which included dancing to the music of live bands, were often held there.

Amelia offered catering, and cold lunches were available at all hours of the day. Then in May 1901, Amelia purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Humphrey Road and built a new restaurant named Le Chalet, which became extremely popular. The newspaper reported that Mrs. Harold (Maud) Sidebotham, the wife of Dr. Sidebotham and Montecito resident at the time, gave a luncheon for twelve people at Le Chalet in May 1902. “Lunch parties there are all the rage just now and

El Cortijo in 1932 celebrated Fiesta with dining and dancing every evening by candlelight (Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

one is given almost every day,” wrote the journalist. Throughout the

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T H E WAY I T WA S

Steaks to order from $1.25 - $1.75 and a restaurant that never closed; that was Bud’s Blue Onion which serviced the highway traffic. Bud’s eventually moved into Santa Barbara and established the restaurant where IHOP is today. (Courtesy Montecito Association History Committee)

Bud’s Blue Onion once served the stream of motorists that traversed the County Highway, today’s Coast Village Road (Courtesy Montecito Association History Committee)

year, the pages of the newspaper were peppered with announcements

with young men and “without any shame whatever, embrace and

of these society luncheons.

carouse, unmindful of other eyes watching them.”

The Grove House, meanwhile, had been closed as a restaurant,

Stewart, and he couldn’t believe it was right for young girls to go there

Stewart had refused to reveal the names of the witnesses against

and after several attempts by various people at establishing a business

the three defendants (the owners of the bawdy house) pending the

there, it was leased to three men who established the Channel City

developments of the trial. It was hoped the defendants would plead

Suburban Club, an eating and drinking resort that soon earned an

guilty or otherwise make a deal. If not, the Morning Press said, “Those

unsavory reputation.

present will be called as witnesses, and aside from telling what they

On Sunday, January 19, Sheriff Nat Stewart raided the Grove House. “There he caught several prominent men, some of them married men,” reported the Morning Press, “and at least one man in the company with a married woman not his wife, together with eight other women, some of them married, and well known. One of the young girls found in a private room with a young man, was only 15 years old.”

Stewart also discovered a room filled with couples “occupying” themselves on sofas. He took the names of all those present and asked the District Attorney to arrest the proprietors on the charges of serving liquor without a license (and to minors) and of running a “disorderly” house. “The disgraceful scenes I witnessed there were common,” said

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Once a respectable restaurant founded by Alfred and Amelia Jacoutot, in 1908 it was leased by three men who established the Channel City Suburban Club. Soon, whispers throughout town hinted that it was now a bawdy house catering to high society. (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

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T H E WAY I T WA S

Delmonico’s in Santa Barbara

A

rguably the finest restaurant in New York City, Delmonico’s was founded by two Swiss brothers in 1827 and quickly became

the place to dine for the rich and famous. Serving as chef from 1862 to 1896 was Charles Ranhofer, who published Epicurean, a book of menus, bills of fare, and recipes collected from his illustrious career. It was, of course, based on the French style of culinary art and included methods of preparation denominated by a slew of “à la” monikers. So The Pink Cricket was a dining and dancing place with pink placemats, pink candles and pink crickets. On its stage above the bar, Jimmy Campiglia played violin, and Newt Perry and Caesar Robles used to play there as well. (John Fritsche Collection, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.)

popular was the eatery that many restaurants throughout the United

know of the Grove house, they will be made to tell what they were

By 1909, he had arrived in Santa Barbara and opened a restaurant

doing at the particular moment when the sheriff spied them out.”

at 621 State Street, which he named Delmonico. (The Abadie name

Needless to say, there was a host of nervous socialites in Santa Barbara

was not unfamiliar to Santa Barbara. French Abadie brothers worked

and Montecito that night.

as merchants in Santa Barbara in 1860, and Dominique Abadie had

In the end, the case was dismissed, the defendants left town, and the Channel City Suburban Club disbanded. The newspaper said that a great sigh of relief came from the aristocrats of Santa Barbara and

States, who aspired to similar greatness, adopted the name.

In 1906, Lucien Abadie, chef first Grand Prix Culinary Art, Paris Exposition 1900, immigrated to the United States from France.

married into the Lugo-Yorba family. His widow and children still lived in town in 1909.)

Lucien had high aspirations for his restaurant and advertised a

Montecito, and there was joy among the “Grove house giddy girls,” for

menu that would make a gourmand’s mouth water. Unfortunately,

many of them occupied prominent positions in select local circles.

such customers were few and far between in Santa Barbara. To make

After the 1920s, as the population of Montecito increased, a slew of new restaurants were established to tempt its denizens.

Standing on the edge of the Andree Clark Bird Refuge on Los Patos Road (once the Coast Highway), Tyrol was a beer joint that was decorated like a little chalet. Offering dancing on weekends, it became a favorite with college students. Its later incarnations included the Falcon Lounge, the Green Lantern, Quackers, and Café del Sol. 130 |

matters worse, he was the victim of a crime soon after he opened.

In November, Gin Buck, who had been working at the restaurant

Chinese Fan Tan game in 1887 in New York City

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T H E WAY I T WA S

In 1894, Charles Ranhofer published a collection of bills of fare, menus, and recipes from his 32 years as head chef of the famous New York eatery, Delmonico’s. Throughout the nation, aspiring gourmet chefs gave their restaurants the same name. for several weeks, offered to sell Abadie a dozen chickens. They looked

capture. That would have been the end of it, if Gin hadn’t been a

plump and well cared for, and with Sunday’s fricassee of chicken and

gambling man. At the end of December, the Morning Press reported,

Ailes de Poulet Montebello coming up, Abadie paid Buck the very

“Ah Gin played in a fan tan game at Guadalupe and now he is in the

reasonable asking price. A little later, as he looked over the chickens

Santa Barbara jail on a charge of stealing chickens. And they were not

more closely, Abadie was struck by how similar they looked to the

fan-tail chickens either – just ordinary every-day chickens; nice, fat

chickens he had at his residence on West Haley Street.

chickens, ripe for a charcoal broil.”

The Morning Press reported, “With grave suspicion in his mind, he

Apparently, Ah Gin had lost a lot of money at the Guadalupe

determined to find out the truth of the fowls’ identity.” Abadie rushed

game and complained to a police officer in an effort to get his money

home to count his chickens, and, sure enough, a dozen was missing.

back. “Officer Machado was glad to see Ah Gin,” the Press reported.

Not only had Lucien purchased stolen chickens, but they had been

“He sympathized with him because of the fan-tail adventure, but

stolen from him!

he was thinking more of chickens and told the Chinaman so.” In

Ah Gin, meanwhile, had flown the coop on the 6:35 train to San Luis Obispo, and despite alerts to the San Luis authorities, he eluded

132 |

the end, Gin Buck was fined $25 on the charge of petty larceny and released.

T H E WAY I T WA S

Improving Santa Barbara’s Culinary Habits

U

ndeterred by his misadventure with the larcenous Gin Buck, Lucien Abadie worked hard to create a first-class French

restaurant in Santa Barbara and to secure a clientele. In December 1910, he offered a Christmas Subscription Dinner at $2 per plate.

There was a choice of a French Menu or an English Menu. Bilingual residents recognized they offered exactly the same thing. The Turkey stuffed with Chestnuts would taste just as wonderful as the Dinde Farcie aux Marrons.

In 1911 Lucien wrote a book called Culinary Progress: The Delight of the Gourmets and announced that he would publish a list of the dishes from the book in the newspaper. The book cost $50

Lucien Abadie and his Cuisine Roulante rolled into Santa Barbara for a very short time (Santa Barbara Historical Museum) and contained all 100 recipes. He also offered to teach people how to prepare each dish for $100. Clearly gourmet prices for a gourmet experience.

List Number Six named recipes for 10 different ways to prepare Gigot (Leg of Mutton). These were Anglaise, Bordelaise, Boulangere, Bonne femme Bretonne, Marine en Chevreuil, Menthe, Soulise, and Champagne. Lamb Chops, or Cotelettes d' Agneau, had 15 different preparations including Pompadour, Valois, and Financiere.

In 1912, Abadie decided to move his restaurant across the street to 624 State Street. He had been making quite a reputation for himself in this backwater town and the Morning Press was happy to give him some positive ink. “Lucien Abadie, proprietor and chef of the Delmonico Restaurant, will today make good his promise to give Santa Barbara an The vulture feather chapeau became all the rage with the restaurant set in 1920 (Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

up-to-date and enterprising café,” the newspaper announced.

| 133

T H E WAY I T WA S His new space was much larger to meet the increasing demand and had two dining rooms: one for commercial meals at 25 and 35 cents, and the other for special French dinners à la carte. “Mr. Abadie bears a wide reputation as a chef,” wrote the reporter.

By 1913, however, Abadie’s advertising showed a marked simplification and Anglification. While Rissoles à la Reine were still on

The Copper Coffee Pot was built around the old Orella Adobe on State Street circa 1930. It reflected the Spanish theme of the day in décor but offered steaks and chops. (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum) the menu, his charcoal broiler was churning out steaks, chickens and chops, any style, and Cream of Tomato Soup, Duchess Potatoes, and apple pie for “fancy” meals.

In 1916, Abadie had one more trick up his sleeve; he invented the Tony’s patrons enjoyed American and Italian dinners and bellied up to the bar for cocktails and beer. Note the booths named for California landmarks, the pine tree motif on the upper walls, and the wagon wheel chandeliers. (John Fritsche Collection, Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

Cuisine Roulante, a quick-server device that took the wait out of Fine French Dining by wheeling dishes for selection and service to the table.

Equipped with steam and refrigeration, Meals on Wheels could handle

Tony’s Log Cabin offered genuine Italian Spaghetti and was the original home of the Sizzling Steak in the 1940s.

Today, the building houses Joe’s Café on the corner of State and Cota streets. (John Fritsche Collection, Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

134 |

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T H E WAY I T WA S opened the Delmonico Hotel and Restaurant. While the hotel lasted several more years, the restaurant ceased to be listed after 1918. For a while Abadie became chef at the El Encanto Hotel before retiring from the business forever. As World War I was winding down and heading toward Prohibition and the Roaring Twenties, a new modern culture and a population explosion would bring new restaurants to town.

m

(Sources: My Santa Barbara Scrapbook by Elizabeth Eaton No self-respecting, fashionable woman would dine without a hat, and milliners were quick to design chapeaux for dining. This happy woman is wearing a turban hat trimmed with flamboyant vulture feathers, appropriate for dining on rare meat. (Library of Congress)

Burton; Saloons of the Old West by Richard Erdoes quoted in website foodtimeline.org; Epicurean by Charles Ranhofer, 1894; Olden Days: Restaurant to Rival the State’s Finest, Stella Haverland Rouse, News-Press 19 November 1972; Olden Days: Oyster Houses Thrived

a variety of dishes in special compartments and had all the features of a

for 20 Years, Stella Haverland Rouse, News-Press, 30 April 1967;

Cafeteria without the hassle of self-service. Abadie planned to apply for

contemporary newspapers; whatscookingamericia.net “Oyster Shooter

a patent on the device.

– Oyster Cocktail Recipe”; Daily Press and Morning Press articles

By the end of the year, Abadie had purchased the Haley Hotel building on the southwest corner of State and Haley streets and

and advertisements; “The California Oyster Industry” by Elinore M. Barrett, 1963; Library of Co; bioguide.congress.gov.)

The El Paseo Restaurant, part of Bernard Hoffmann’s Streets of Spain complex, was designed by James Osborne Craig and Mary McLaughlin Craig and completed in 1922.

The romanticized retro Spanish style restaurant has been a favored spot for Fiesta celebrations since 1924, and the sign advertises Fiesta tickets for sale. (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

136 |

ART & ARCHITECTURE FIELD OF LIGHT, FIELD OF DREAMS

138 |

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

LYNN P. KIRST

W

ho would have guessed that American rocker Bruce Springsteen’s decision to pursue a concert tour in Australia in 2017, would inadvertently lead

to a British artist installing a huge art installation comprised of 58,800 solar powered lights in a valley on California’s Central Coast owned by a couple of his superfans? Yet that’s exactly how Bruce Munro’s “Field of Light at Sensorio” came about.

Santa Ynez residents Bobbi and Ken Hunter had already seen nearly thirty Bruce Springsteen concerts when they decided to travel to Australia to catch three more of his shows. While visiting Uluru, the aboriginal term for the massive Ayers Rock located in the heart of Down Under, they heard about artist Bruce Munro’s installation of solar lights there.

“There wasn’t much to do out there at night,” recounts Bobbi.

“So we said sure, let’s go see it.” It didn’t take long before she and Ken realized they were sharing the same dream, looking at each other saying, “Oh, this installation is a wonderful introduction to what we have in mind for Sensorio.”

Sensorio is their 350-acre property in Paso Robles, located just off Highway 46 East. Their dream is to develop it not only with a hotel and conference center, but also as a place for a variety of sensory experiences.

Bobbi remembers the first time Bruce Munro visited Sensorio, just a few months after their Australian trip. “He walked all the canyons, all the valleys, all the ridges. We had no plans to use that particular valley, but it hit Bruce the minute he saw it. He said, ‘This is it; I’ve got it, I know exactly what I’m going to do.’”

But it took two years of planning and meeting stiff permit requirements of numerous governmental agencies to bring Field of

| 139

Light to fruition. Vernal pools, wildlife, plant species, cultural resources â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all these issues had to be assessed in exhaustive reports before Munro, working with five installers and 200 volunteers, could spend the five weeks it took to place the stemmed spheres lit by solar-powered fiber optics in place.

The result is a magical palette of color and light, which intensifies as the sky deepens from daylight to dusk to total darkness. The color patterns are on an eight-second timer, so there are approximately twenty different groups imperceptibly changing colors.

On average, visitors spend three hours experiencing Field of Light at Sensorio, admiring the colored vistas from afar, as well as traversing the three wheelchair-accessible paths that lead through the heart of the installation.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise that there have already been several wedding proposals that have taken place amid the Field of Light at Sensorio. Field of dreams, indeed.

Tickets available at www.sensoriopaso.com.

140 |

m

Taking in the View

By Briana Westmacott

“Cliff of the Golden West” 40”x60” Oil by Jordan Pope

Artist Jordan Pope’s Portico Fine Art Gallery Brings Plein Air Magic to Montecito

T

here is a splendid spot on Coast Village Road in Montecito where the walls work as windows affording views of the luscious, rolling hills of Santa Ynez; peeks at the blushing shores of the Pacific; glimpses of clouds as they etch shadows across mountain lakes. The vistas are the work of a multitude of plein air painters, renowned for their impressionistic California landscapes.

Artist Jordan Pope founded Portico Fine Art Gallery 17 years ago. Her master-sized landscape paintings hang alongside a long list of notable

talents. If you walk into Portico and turn right, you will be standing in front of approximately five feet of Pope’s own “Malibu Sky,” a quintessential palm tree set alight with soft hues; an immediate sensation of relaxation will overtake you.

At any turn, you may see the work of Randall Sexton or John Budicin. Both painters are ranked among America’s plein air elite. Sexton’s “Flying

142 |

Low” sweeps you into the country sky with hot air balloons dotted on the horizon. Budicin’s “Mountain Lake” provides you a moment to sit in reflection next to a crisp mountain lake frosted with winter’s first snowfall.

Without knowing it, you may find yourself face-to-face with an exquisite equestrian creature from the work of Dennis R. Newell. Newell’s gorgeous white horse hanging in Portico’s entryway will stop you in your tracks. His contemporary western work is a must-see.

Venture farther inside the Portico Gallery and the voyage continues. Karl Dempwolf, a Lifetime Achievement Honoree in 2017, provides a vision of California Impressionism, one that he has perfected in his decades of experience. Lynn Gertenbach will seduce you with her sunrise in the piece “Quiet Estuary”; you might just pull up a chair and stare for a while.

144 |

“Trio” 14”x18”

by Vadim Zang

“Rainy Day” 30”x40” Oil

by Dan La Vigne

Jordan has been painting her entire life. One of the reasons she was originally drawn to Montecito twenty years ago was the “lighting and the south-facing coastline.” What Pope can do with a brush and canvas in regard to light is truly special. Her signature brushwork adds a sense of calm to her pieces. In recent years, Jordan has completed two large-format series of paintings, “Twelve Months of Light” and “Quiet Dreams and Reflections.” She has been exhibited in the National Oil Painters Exhibition and the National American Impressionist Show. Her pieces will bring a permanent view of the pristine nature of California to your wall.

Pope is an expert in her ability to curate fine art. Being an artist herself and a member of the California Art Club, she selects Portico’s gallery pieces from a roster of master artists. Pope has spent a lifetime developing her art. In the third grade, she recalled seeing Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and

| 145

“Orchard Oriole” 14”x18” Oil

by M.K. West, International Salon Winner

it was looking at that dark, shadowy artwork when “a light came on” and she knew art was her calling.

Her first art mentor came into her life when she was just 17 years old; their relationship lasted five years. When the mentor passed away, Pope was surprised to discover that she had been bequeathed all of her art supplies; a room full of treasured tools that Jordan would cherish and put to great use. “I had twenty years of supplies given to me,” she says.

The art in the Portico gallery is constantly rotating. Pope takes pride in making weekly acquisitions that give visitors fresh views every time they set foot in the store. Beyond providing the community with luxury art pieces for purchase, Pope also offers the unique experience of pairing a frame for the buyer. If a particular artwork is not in a frame that will marry into your environment, Jordan allows the buyer to be a part of the creative process and will reframe the work at no extra cost. She wants your view to be perfect.

Pope describes plein air painting as a “thumbnail for light and naturalism, shadows and color.” These artists craft their canvases in nature, in essence, to bring a window to your wall. When you walk into Portico Fine Art Gallery you are awakened by a world awash with luminosity. The view is like no other. m

Portico Fine Art Gallery is located at 1235 Coast Village Road #B in Montecito.

Visit porticofinearts.com or call (805) 695-8850 for more details.

146 |

Artist and gallery owner Jordan Pope inside Portico Fine Art Gallery on Coast Village Road

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MONTECITO WINEMAKERS

SONJA MAGDEVSKI

photo by Michelle Turner

T

B Y E VA VA N P R O O Y E N

photo by Luis Escobar

he historic Old West stagecoach stop town of Los

drinkable gems,” says owner Sonja Magdevski. Babi’s Beer Emporium

Alamos, located 15 miles north of Buellton, serves as

is named after Magdevski’s Macedonian grandmother. “She set an

the “northern entry” to the Santa Ynez Valley. The main

impeccable example and invited everyone to her table for revelry,”

thoroughfare is Bell Street and although only seven small rural

Magdevski explains. “We use our travels and connections to curate a

blocks long, it flaunts the town’s western heritage with a stylish and

delightful collection of craft beers and ciders from all over the world –

alluring clutch of eateries, antique shops, art galleries, boutique

near and far – and we have a rotating tap list.”

hotels, and tasting rooms.

Casa Dumetz Wines and its sister business, Babi’s Beer Emporium,

A journalist by training and now a winemaker by passion, Magdevski splits her time between the Santa Ynez Valley, her Los

share the Western front building at the corner of Bell and Centennial

Alamos tasting rooms, and the Montecito home she shares with her

Streets with an indoor threshold connecting the two tasting room

husband, Greg Brewer, founder and winemaker of Brewer-Clifton and

experiences. Babi’s is a “band of rogue family members finding

Diatom wines.

150 |

“My amazing husband lived in Montecito when I met him in 2012,” says Magdevski. “We started dating in 2015 and married in 2016. Montecito is a dreamscape for us. We live in the home Greg’s grandfather originally designed and built for Greg’s mom. We absolutely love it here.”

APOCRYPHAL ROOTS

“C

photo by Deborah Chadsey

asa Dumetz is named after a Spanish missionary, Francisco

exclusively in Santa Barbara County. The name comes from one of

Dumetz, who we apocryphally say was the first to plant

Magdevski’s favorite Western films, My Darling Clementine. “I love

grapes in California,” Magdevski says. “I began making wine by assisting

Westerns and, in this film, with all the whiskey drinking and gun-fighting,

in the planting of a half-acre vineyard in Point Dume in Malibu in 2004

Clementine is really about a woman on a journey.”

– named after Francisco Dumetz.” (Apparently his name was misspelled on a map and never corrected).

“The vineyard was planted with the best of intentions,” Magdevski

The Feminist Party is in honor of what Magdevski calls “radical inclusion.” “The Feminist Party GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre) is our singular multi-varietal grape blend,” she elaborates. “We all work

says. “Yet terroir is everything. I often say you can only grow a cactus

better together.” Across all three labels, Sonja produces about 1,500

in Alaska for so long. That half-acre pinot noir vineyard didn’t make

cases annually, sold almost exclusively through the tasting room in Los

it,” adds Sonja, explaining after ten years of trying to habilitate it, she

Alamos and her wine club.

focused solely on grapes from the Santa Ynez Valley.

All of that effort eventually landed her in Los Alamos. “I immediately fell in love with the place, the landscape and the light,” Magdevski says. “The first time I ever crested the 154 Chumash Highway in Los Padres Forest and saw the valley below I was immediately awed, as so many are. It is hard to not fall in love at first sight. In 2011, I took a big risk by opening my tasting room in Los

RADICAL INCLUSION

M

agdevski was born in Dearborn, Michigan, a first generation American-Macedonian whose parents were from

Yugoslavia. “My first language was Macedonian,” she says. After

Alamos. Everyone told me I was crazy to do it. I am sure I was. It took a

graduating in Political Science from the University of Michigan, she

minute, but I found my way.”

pursued graduate work in Journalism from Michigan State University.

Casa Dumetz is an umbrella brand for her three wine labels: Casa

“I received a Fulbright Scholarship to The Republic of Macedonia

Dumetz, Clementine Carter, and The Feminist Party. “Casa Dumetz

in 1998-1999 to study ethnic issues,” Magdevski continues. “The

is a singular pinot noir from the Sta. Rita Hills,” says Magdevski. “It is

pursuit was to better understand the paths toward peace. Today I

in honor of where I have been and what I have learned along the way.

believe I more effectively accomplish this through wine – one glass

Ground, grapes, grit are everything.”

at a time. When people come wine tasting and enjoy a bottle of

Clementine Carter is dedicated to Rhône varietals grown

wine with friends and family, they put their phones away and allow

| 151

WINEMAKERS and make it their own, as I have. It has different meaning to different people, which gives it strength and vitality, as it should. It is The Feminist Party because a woman heads the program – and everyone is invited to the party to enjoy and have fun regardless of who you are.”

Casa Dumetz and Babi’s Beer Emporium are located at 388 + 380 Bell Street in Los Alamos and open seven days a week: Monday through photo by Luis Escobar

time for sharing conversation.”

Magdevski reports that her ongoing wine education and training

Wednesday, 12 to 4 pm; Thursday, 12 to 7pm; Friday and Saturday 11 am to 7 pm; and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm. Sonja hosts a Words to Live By (photo by Donny Heddon) Speakers Series every Friday evening, “where we create an open forum for sharing and discussion covering topics ranging from bread fermentation

are primarily on the job, in the vineyard and the cellar, and through

to immigration to falconry. The list is intriguing, inspiring, distinctive, and

viticulture and enology classes at Allan Hancock College in Santa

educational.” For more information visit www.casadumetzwines.com or call

Maria. “I’m still telling stories with the grapes, the vineyards, and the

(805) 344-1900.

people,” she says. “A bottle of wine should allow you to taste its vintage.

This is not an anonymous beverage. Wines are personal. My goal is to write that vintage through wine.”

Her 2019 harvest was a “brilliant” one, Magdevski asserts. “The rain did a wonderful job of cleansing the vines and giving them extraordinary strength. We haven’t had this much rain in about fifteen years, and it has made a noticeable impact on the health of the vines.”

As for that term, “radical inclusion,” Magdevski explains that wine tends to be intimidating for people – and it shouldn’t be. “Wine is for pleasure and plays an important additive role at the table that everyone can enjoy if interested. I am simply following the lead my grandmother set.”

Although The Feminist Party GSM first release date was in 2017 at the height of the Me Too Movement, Sonja says it was not a result of or a reaction to it. “Planning for The Feminist Party began in 2015 creating the concept, label design and philosophy,” she says. “The timing just happened to converge on a critical movement.”

Magdevski says she’s often asked what it is like to be a female winemaker. “I dislike that question,” she says. “It further separates us instead of joins us. People can take the message of The Feminist Party

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photo by Deborah Chadsey

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The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are independent contractor sales associates, not employees. ©2019 Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker, the Coldwell Banker logo, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury and the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.

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©2019 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. If your home is currently listed, this is not a solicitation for your listing. ©2019 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. If your home is currently listed, this is not a solicitation for your listing.

©2019 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. If your home is currently listed, this is not a solicitation for your listing.

©2019 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. If your home is currently listed, this is not a solicitation for your listing.

FROM THE DOCK TO YOUR DINNER TABLE:

EAT LOCAL WILD-CAUGHT SEAFOOD WITH GET HOOKED SEAFOOD

F

amily and friends gather around the dinner table. Dishes are brought from each household, displaying colorful vegetables, homemade bread, and grandma’s famous blackberry cobbler.

The kids, once running through the house, stop in their tracks as a platter of local rock crab is set on the table. Groans of anticipation erupt throughout the room, photos are taken, and plates are filled. Nostalgia takes its hold as you remember seafood dinners as a kid, the same memories you’re now creating for a family of your own.

Similar scenes are experienced regularly by the members of Get Hooked Seafood, a subscription-based delivery program that provides fresh seafood from local fishermen each week. The company is run by Kim Selkoe and Victoria Voss and along with one full-time employee, Camila Vargas, and a handful of volunteers, the team works tirelessly to

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GET

BY MEGAN WALDREP

PHOTOS BY DAVID HILLS WWW.FISHYPICTURES.COM

HOOKED

| 157

GET HOOKED

provide a variety despite the unpredictable and highly perishable

to the complexity of seafood, availability of certain products isn’t known

nature of seafood.

until the week of delivery. “It’s never very stable and you don’t have

Since its inception in December 2018, Get Hooked Seafood has

[much] inventory [to work with],” Selkoe says. “It’s highly perishable. We

offered members a wide selection including swordfish, black cod,

get it as fresh as possible, so you only have a two-day buying window,

halibut, white sea bass, tuna, mussels, oysters, salmon, crab, ridgeback

and that part is always a challenge.”

shrimp, yellowtail, Pacific sanddab, and rockfish, among others. Get

To balance this inconsistency, Get Hooked delivers one main

Hooked also strives to use under-appreciated “bycatch” species that

species of fresh local seafood per week. Since fishermen are mostly

would otherwise be discarded. (Bycatch is a fish or other marine species

specialized in a specific fishery each season, Get Hooked networks

caught unintentionally during commercial fishing.) Members can opt

with many different fishermen so as to not repeat the same product.

out of undesired seafood, and a replacement will be added to their

Freshly frozen seafood is occasionally delivered during a long stretch of

order instead.

bad weather, or when a fresh alternative isn’t available for those who’ve

Get Hooked’s program could be compared to a Community Supported Agriculture farm box subscription (or CSA), where clients buy a farm’s harvest in advance through weekly subscriptions. But due

158 |

opted out of the main fish of the week.

“Frozen seafood has a bad reputation because it is often frozen past its prime,” Voss says. “But when it’s frozen at the peak of freshness,

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the taste is indistinguishable from fresh.” Get Hooked prioritizes local harbors but has worked with fisheries from San Diego to the Bay Area to ensure diversity. Branching out has helped with consistency, but they’ve found this isn’t the easiest solution; once their supply of tuna was stolen from the dock in San Diego. Although situations like this would make many walk away from the business, Get Hooked seafood has yet to miss a delivery week.

Voss explains how Get Hooked makes this work. “Monday, Tuesday are our buying days when we meet fishermen at the dock and get the fish into our van. Then, we bring the seafood to our kitchen to process.”

After processing on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, the team portions in bags by individual order, packs the orders in designated coolers, then delivers the coolers to different drop locations from Goleta to Ventura. Members are then able to pick up their orders of local shellfish or fish over the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours before the coolers are collected and the cycle begins again.

CAREERS IN COMMERCIAL FISHING

T

his isn’t Selkoe or Voss’s first time in the seafood industry.

Selkoe came to the University of California Santa Barbara to obtain a PhD in Marine Biology. Though she earned her

degree on a subject unrelated to fisheries or systems that produce seafood, she yearned to connect more with the community. “I started

do with it.” Voss wears another hat, too, that of the executive director of

consulting to local chefs on their seafood menus based on the Seafood

the Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara.

Watch guidelines, and as a volunteer for seven years with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Sea Center,” she recalls.

Voss has also run the local Saturday Fisherman’s Market for three

Voss grew up as the daughter of a commercial fisherman, but never expected to work in the industry. She first began fishing – commercial salmon fishing to be exact – over three summers in Alaska before her

years, but felt she was hitting a wall. “There’s a lot of people who won’t

daughter was born. She admits it’s not the most stable or easiest job

go down to the market on a Saturday morning, or need the education

to work with young kids. So, she switched gears. “I worked in the Santa

before they’re ready to do so,” she explains. “[Get Hooked] is a way of

Barbara Harbor Office, which I enjoyed, because I love being a part of

holding their hand to get them used to a variety of seafood, and what to

the harbor community,” she enthuses.

160 |

Along with her family, Voss moved to Australia for several years, and upon returning to Santa Barbara she was connected with Selkoe.

The ladies realized they were compatible enough to dive into a business together, so they jumped in feet first. Voss and Selkoe wrote a grant through a program with the United States Department of Agriculture and were accepted. “[The grant] kicked us into high gear, allowing us to partner with an existing community supported fishery program called Real

A FISHING FAMILY WITH TIES TO MONTECITO

H

ow they met is a testament to the tight knit commercial fishing community. Victoria’s father, Chris Voss, is the President of CFSB and, with Kim being the Executive

Director, Chris thought they might be a natural fit. Voss himself is

Good Fish that operates out of Moss Landing, serving the Bay Area,”

well known in the industry, having commercially fished for over forty

Selkoe says. “They are sort of advisors to us. We’re replicating their model

years. He’s held leadership positions in several fisheries and, in addition

and developing tools that other communities can use to initiate similar

to serving as the current President of CFSB, Voss works with policy

programs to ours.” Though the grant gave them the push they needed,

makers, environmental organizations, and local commercial fishermen to

they’ve also thrown a good bit of their own money into the pot.

figure out ways for each group to work harmoniously. According to Kim

| 161

GET HOOKED

and Victoria, Chris has helped through countless hurdles in order to get seafood processed and delivered on time.

And how Chris Voss got into the industry is another interesting story. One that can be traced to deep ties with a multi-generational Montecito family. Enter Thomas Dabney, a realtor with Village Properties, who began commercially fishing in his late teens. His love for the ocean began while growing up on Padaro Lane, moving to a home in Montecito on Edgecliff Lane between Hammonds and Miramar Beach, as well as boating in the Santa Barbara Harbor with his father, Sam Dabney Jr. The Dabneys’ California roots date back to over a century ago, most notably through Thomas’ great-grandfather, Charles Dabney, who built a western log cabin as a fishing lodge on lower Manzana Creek in 1913. The cabin has since been donated and is now Santa Barbara County’s History Landmark No.8, known as The Dabney Cabin.

Whispers of his family can also be heard in the modern art world.

commercial fishermen; Dabney’s oldest son, Christopher, and Voss’ son,

When Thomas’ great-uncle Burton Tremaine married Emily Hall

James, are currently commercial fishermen in Santa Barbara, and both

in 1945, the couple began collecting art from then-unknown artists

of their daughters have commercially fished in Alaska, too.

including Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, as well as European greats such as Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, and Robert Delaunay. At one point, the family owned one of the largest private modern art collections in the world, even selling Jasper Johns’ Three Flags painting for one million dollars to the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City in 1980, then the highest price ever paid for the work of a living artist.

Back in Montecito, Dabney’s grandparents, Warren and Katherine

WHERE TO GET HOOKED

G

et Hooked may have family ties in the industry, but the women are making their own mark. What makes this company stand out is its complete traceability: Each

week, Get Hooked Seafood provides members with newsletters

“Kit” Tremaine, built a home designed by internationally known architect

introducing the fisherman of that week’s catch, what techniques

Richard Neutra. Neutra created a California modernist masterpiece,

they use to harvest the fish, information about the boat, and a little

intermixing landscape and a structure of concrete and glass on Moore

background of why they do what they do. “I think the connection

Road which still stands today. Though his family is known in the

directly to a producer is so rare,” Victoria Voss says. “Traceability in

modern art and architectural world, the ocean laid claim to Thomas’

this industry can really be an issue.”

heart. After working at the fuel dock for his first job out of high school,

Many local businesses believe in their model and have become

Dabney began a career as a local commercial fisherman. Once married

pick-up sites for members around the county. Certain locations, such

to Chris Voss’ sister, Thomas took two of his brothers-in-law fishing

as Pierre Lafond Market & Deli in Montecito, are delivered a cooler of

one afternoon and the rest is history – both brothers-in-law became

seafood on Wednesdays or Thursdays and allow a two-day window for

162 |

members to visit and collect their orders. In addition to Pierre Lafond, members can find their orders at Heritage Goods and Supply and The

menu, trying to reach their price point and volume,” Selkoe elaborates.

Get Hooked also hopes to partner with the school’s curriculum and

Apiary Ciderworks & Meadery in Carpinteria, Tri-County Produce in

get fishermen visits to the classroom. Involving high school or college

Santa Barbara, and Gladden and Sons Produce and Fairview Gardens

students on the entrepreneurial side of the industry is also a goal, with

in Goleta. Just choose your preferred location when you sign up, and a

hopes to further connect through the families of students and their

personalized bag of local seafood will be chilled and waiting.

peers. Currently, Get Hooked hosts filleting classes for the community, and aspires to add cooking classes, even educating people on how to

THE BIG PICTURE

S

The moral of this story?

Eat local seafood. “It’s such a win-win-win,” Selkoe says. “You

elkoe and Voss are realistic when it comes to sustaining a

support the local economy, get really fresh premium seafood, you can

business and are carefully monitoring all factors to prevent

lower your carbon footprint, and there are benefits to your health.

accelerated growth. Keeping it local is the goal, even linking

There’s just so many good reasons to make it a priority.”

their services with local schools. “We’re working with the Santa Barbara School District to get fish tacos and other kid friendly items on the

164 |

prepare a whole fish.

WWW.GETHOOKEDSEAFOOD.COM

m

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FAR FLUNG TRAVEL

BY CHUCK GRAHAM

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RAINMAKER

I

t was raining monkeys.

Actually, it was raining leaves that had been unleashed by the

colobus monkeys who were flinging themselves from tree to tree somewhere above us, at least 50 to 70 feet in the air. The shower of falling vegetation they left in their wake rained downward through the

forest canopy, almost drowning out the cacophony of the cascading river next to our trail.

Our encounter with the invisible, airborne monkeys was just one of the many unexpected moments we experienced while trekking through knee-deep muddy bogs in the rainforest of Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, including the legendary Mount Stanley and Margherita Peak, which, at 16,763 feet, ranks as the highest summit in the country.

It was my 15th trip to Africa, and this time I was accompanied by my good friends Craig Fernandez, 52, and Danny Trudeau, 65. Yet the Rwenzoris had been playing on my mind ever since February 1990. That’s when the film Mountains of the Moon was released. Starring Patrick Bergin as Englishman Richard Francis Burton and Iain Glen as Englishman John Hanning Speke, the two explorers were on an epic quest to discover the true source of the River Nile in 1857-58. It was a brutal journey full of unspeakable hardships and eventually ended with the two men becoming bitter rivals.

The Rwenzori Mountains were mentioned on multiple occasions in the writings of Burton and Speke as they searched for the Nile’s source. After several more difficult expeditions into Africa’s central interior, it was Speke who was credited with the discovery of Lake Victoria as the true source of the Nile. Ironically, however, a small portion of the Rwenzoris also feeds the Nile, and, all legends aside, today the mountain range is known as a World Heritage Site.

According to Wikipedia, the first successful ascent of Margherita Peak took place in 1906, led by Italian Luigi Amedeo. Also, on that expedition were J. Petigax, C. Ollier, and J. Brocherel. Margherita Peak was named after Queen Margherita of Italy.

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FAR FLUNG TRAVEL

PEAKS AND VALLEYS

T

where the only terrain not completely inundated with massive swaths of mud was at roughly 14,700 feet above sea level at Margherita Camp, the final shelter available for climbers attempting to reach the

he website for Rwenzori Trekking didn’t lie. The company sternly warns potential trekkers and climbers that the terrain is steep and difficult, with lots of muddy bogs.

summit of Margherita Peak.

From the moment we left the Trekkers Hostel in Kilembe at 4,785 feet with our guides Samuel and Rogers, we began our

After summiting Mount Kilimanjaro twice (1996 and 2009) and

ascent through the incredible vegetation zones the Rwenzoris are

Mount Kenya once (1997), it became clear to me while slogging

known for. The walk leading into the rainforest was brimming

it out in gooey mud for a week that the Rwenzoris would require

with smiling, laughing and playful Ugandan kids, my digital

more effort. In fact, the Rwenzoris possess six of Africa’s 10 highest

camera being all the rage while playing back all those beautiful,

summits, with the towering Margherita Peak ranking as the third

curious smiles.

highest in all of Africa.

For me, the mud was the biggest surprise. On Kilimanjaro and

There’s a lot of wildlife in the Rwenzoris, but spotting any of the forest antelopes, reptiles, birdlife, and raucous assortment of primates

Mount Kenya it made sense that the mud on those beautiful peaks

was another matter. The rainforest was dense and unforgivingly

was located closer to the bottom, in the dense tropical rainforests at

wet, and the steady rush of creeks and waterfalls helped conceal the

the base of those mountains. That wasn’t the case in the Rwenzoris,

sounds of the forest.

168 |

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FAR FLUNG TRAVEL

TRANSITION ZONES

O

the next morning’s sunrise, a fireball of orange rising above Uganda’s sweeping eastern savannah. The dawn of a new day in the Rwenzoris was thoroughly enjoyed holding a cup of hot tea and inhaling a

nce above the rainforest, thick stalks of bamboo proved

brimming bowl of porridge with honey and chunky peanut butter, fuel

helpful as we navigated the spines of the mountain’s

for the trek to the next camp.

narrow ridges. They provided sturdy hand-holds when

the ground became steep and slippery. It felt like we were trekking the back of some type of sea serpent, its rolling spine never ceasing until we reached our first overnight at Kalalama Camp at 10,276 feet above sea level.

What was most impressive during this time were all the mountain guides and porters lugging up heavy packs and bags of food and other essential items to all the camps hidden throughout the vegetation zones and up to the higher elevations. Not one of the porters were without a smile or a misstep on the uneven terrain, always offering a hello even when the climb was at its most challenging.

We were in a transition zone at the Kalalama Camp. The bamboo was on the wane and the tall canopy of the heather forest was hovering above our first significant plateau. Wisps of usnea beard lichens clung to the heather trees offering much-needed shade on a precipice where cozy cabins awaited several tuckered-out trekkers.

However, any fatigue was soon forgotten with our first sunset and

OF BOARDWALKS AND LADDERS

A

t 12,000 feet, trekking above the treeline, we left the wisps of the heather forest in our wake and forged ahead through the impressive moorlands of the Rwenzoris. The guides

and porters doubled as trail crews, taking turns to maintain some sort of semblance of a marked trail. They’d done a superlative job of constructing long sections of boardwalks above some of the worst of the bogs, but also building ladders up and down some of the most challenging ascents and down-climbs.

Trekking across the moorlands was an other-worldly experience.

The throng of vegetation that cloaked those daunting peaks sometimes made us forget about the mud entirely. Every now and then we would stop and gawk in stunned silence at the 360-degree mountain views.

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E V E RY

LUX URY I N C LU D E D

OUR PILOT SWUNG RIGH T… We were soaring over Alaska’s pristine forests and mountains, the helicopter skimming the treetops, when it emerged: Hubbard Glacier.

The countless angles refracted the sunlight like a beautifully cut jewel.

Our guide told us it’s the largest, calving glacier in North America.

We actually saw — and even heard — a giant iceberg break off!

START YOUR JOURNEY AT RSSC.COM CONTACT YOUR LOCAL TRAVEL ADVISOR

FAR FLUNG TRAVEL Giant lobelias, forests of gargantuan groundsel trees, endless mounds

plumes of wispy clouds ascending skyward. Then it was a slow,

of tussock grasses, Saint Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wort, and other vegetation dominated

muddy, 2,000-foot descent along a couple of tranquil lakes before

the mountain landscape.

finishing the rest of the descent via a series of well-placed ladders.

Above 13,000 feet we reached the lair of the Rwenzorisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; legendary alpine. The first one we encountered, Bugata Lake, proved an excellent

From there, it was a muddy 500-foot ascent to Hunwicks Camp at a nosebleeding 13,114 feet.

place to spot some of the impressive birdlife in the mountain range.

More than 1,000 species of birds have been documented in Uganda, representing over half of the species found on the entire continent.

One of those was the brilliant scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird, an endemic bird to the high-altitude zones of East and Central Africa. Its curved beak, forked, elongated tail, and shimmering feathers made it stand out against the vegetation, especially around the giant lobelias because they enjoyed its nectar.

Well above Bugata Lake we took several moments to soak in the

INTO THE MIST

H

unswick Camp was situated on a plateau overlooking a boardwalk crossing a valley splitting two vegetated peaks with three lakes, the trail hugging the right side of the

water. The giant groundsel forests were tall and clustered leading to

epic views from Bamwanjara Pass at 14,685 feet, our first real look

Margherita Camp. It was our shortest day of trekking, and we were

across a deep valley toward the high peaks of Margherita, Mount

grateful as it allowed us to rest for the ascent to the summit.

Stanley, Mount Baker, and Mount Speke, complete with swirling

172 |

It was busy at the high camp, with climbers finishing their summit

FAR FLUNG TRAVEL push, resting, eating, and packing up for destinations unknown. All the eating cabins possessed wood-burning stoves and Margherita Camp was no different. It was the place to be, to huddle up and stay warm, sort gear and tell stories, the guides and porters chiming in with some twisted, homespun tales of the Rwenzoris.

We were up at 1 am. It was clouded over but unusually warm outside. Headlamps burning bright, Craig, Danny, and I placed one foot in front of the other. I’ve always theorized that it’s better to ascend in the dark because you can’t see how far you need to go, and the darkness doesn’t reveal how difficult the terrain might become. I relayed my theory to Danny and Craig, and they bought into it with a subtle nod or a reluctant thumbs up as we traversed our first glacier, our breaths wafting above our headlamps.

We kept our crampons on while scrambling through a rocky section toward Margherita Glacier. Samuel warned that the Margherita Glacier was steep, a 70 percent grade and that it would take nearly two hours to traverse. Samuel, Danny, and I were tied together and in a

| 173

FAR FLUNG TRAVEL good rhythm. Rogers and Craig were tied in together and just behind us. There was just one other small group ahead of us from Switzerland.

All the other climbing teams were behind us when visibility deteriorated to less than 25 feet. And because there were a series of crevasses crisscrossing the glacier, Samuel and two of the other lead guides set ice screws into the glacier and fixed lines for everyone to follow as we continued our steep ascent.

Steadily we traversed, giving each crevasse a wide berth, visibility virtually nonexistent.

Once we reached the overhanging portion of the glacier, visibility slightly improved. From there it was a snow-covered, rocky scramble to the summit. If it had been a clear morning, we wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been able to look across the valley towards Bamwanjara Pass from which we stood two days prior. Instead, we settled for milling around the summit post at 16,763 feet.

174 |

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FAR FLUNG TRAVEL

AN ANIMALISTIC DESCENT

I

t’s often much tougher coming down a hill than ascending one, the descent ultimately proving to be much more taxing on the joints.

This rule proved true in the case of the Rwenzoris. Although we’d

been lucky with the rain-free weather until now, once we left Hunswick Camp we were in a lot of mud, steady rain, and even some snow. Worse, we were now on a different route and two days away from the nearest trekking hostel. We trekked up and over Oliver’s Pass at around 15,000 feet. From Hunswick it was almost a 2,000 ascent to the top of the pass, the mud delivering a lasting impression leading to each plateau and through narrow gorges where giant groundsels soaked in all the moisture. They acted as natural water catchments as I sipped occasionally from those smooth, thick leaves.

While we made the arduous descent, we experienced some nice diversions, the first one a brief look at a red duiker, a small, stocky, and rather shy mountain antelope. Once back in the rainforest, the head porter, Paul, and I veered off briefly on an alternate route for more bird sightings. That produced a cinnamon-chested bee-eater and another sunbird, this one being a red-chested sunbird.

Further along, without any warning, Paul spotted in dense vegetation a pair of blue monkeys tight-roping with utter aplomb on a narrow branch. They were across the river from us, but when they spotted us, they made a point of creating a lot of noise either by their own vocalizations or thrashing through the rainforest.

Danny, Craig, and I did make a special request to the guides and all the porters. We wanted to see a chameleon, a sighting as easy to manage as spotting a dime at the bottom of the ocean. Yet they came through in a pinch, locating not just one, but two separate species of chameleons in the rainforest all within a few feet of each other. A young, three-horned chameleon scaled the sleeve of Rogers. The larger species was a giant chameleon. Away from vegetation it flashed at least six different colors. Once back in the rainforest it blended in only like a chameleon can, vanishing in the rainforest of the Rwenzoris, a mountain range brimming in natural wonders from its highest peaks to its smallest inhabitants.

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WEEKEND G E TAWAY

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THE MONARCH BEACH RESORT

BY JAMES BUCKLEY

L

iving as we do in one of the nicest and quietest locations on the western seaboard (despite the regular Coast Village Road-Highway 101 congestion during the misnamed morning and

afternoon “rush hours”), most of us generally think of getaways as being north or west of Montecito. Going south (or east as the pelican flies) means heading towards Los Angeles, where real congestion prevails at 5 am or 5 pm and all times in between.

In addition to Palm Springs and other desert communities, we are pleased to note there are the spectacular Orange County beaches and the quirky and appealing little towns along that coast, such as Laguna Beach and Dana Point. Not far away is the shopping mecca of Costa Mesa, and a queen of the missions in San Juan Capistrano is worth a visit. And, of course, almost directly 15 miles offshore is the always popular Santa Catalina.

Naturally, you have to plough through the City of Angels to reach your destination, but the 400-room Monarch Beach Resort is worth the effort. If you fly in, the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana is most convenient. Tip number one for those driving is do take the toll road (route 73) when it appears. It may set you back ten bucks (each way) but it’s a pleasurable diversion and will get you to the Monarch tout de suite. Make sure, however, you register online (thetollroads.com) with your license plate number.

You can do that within five days of getting on the toll road, but it’s easy to forget, so do it before you go or at the very least, when you check into your hotel room. After five days, you’ll receive a nice $25 “fine” in addition to the original toll, and the amount will continue to go up the longer you wait to pay.

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WEEKEND GETAWAY

OUR ACCOMMODATIONS

E

was more formal too,” she says, “but when it became the Monarch

very room is a suite, with a handsome foyer, full living room, and

Beach Resort, management decided to embrace the beach culture of

a giant high-def TV in both the bedroom (opposite the king-sized

Southern California and to capitalize on the ocean view.” To that end

bed) and the comfortable living room. The ceilings are nearly 11-foot

pillars were removed, walls, ceilings, and floors were lightened, “and it

high, which adds to the feeling of space and luxury. Our room was on

was all opened up with a $40 million renovation three years ago.” She

the ground floor, so we had an easy-to-operate gas fire pit on a small

calls the laid-back luxury that permeates the resort “Chilluxe,” a term

patio. The large bathroom contains a tub and separate shower; behind

we agree with. The group that populates the Monarch Beach now is

a nearby door is the toilet, also separate. Most importantly, the lighting

probably aged from 40 to the mid-50s.

in the bathroom is (I believe) incandescent, which means that you are cast in the most favorable light as you step out of your bath or shower.

You’ll sleep soundly (if you ever do), as there is no noise. At all.

PROPERTY TOUR

U

pon arrival, I took a quick tour of the entire compound, accompanied by Denae Hermawan, Digital Marketing Manager

of Monarch Beach Resort, who tells me the resort began life as the St. Regis, a more formal getaway with an older clientele. “The dress code

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WEEKEND GETAWAY

BOURBON STEAK

D

ining here is an option of either indoors or outdoors, befitting its spectacular setting; when the weather is nice (nearly all the

time, frankly), most choose outdoors but we sat comfortably indoors with a grand view.

Monarch Beach Resort’s signature restaurant is Bourbon Steak and it is all about meat, all kinds of meat. The James Beard award-winning Michael Mina butter-poached (both Beard and Julia Child were butter lovers, as am I) dry-aged prime steaks, cooked by Executive Chef Bryan Brown, do indeed “melt in your mouth,” in that steak knives are not required, though one is available, even if just for nostalgic purposes.

I ordered the Hay-smoked Snake River Farms Rib Eye Tasting, accompanied by caramelized potatoes and green peppercorn. It’s not inexpensive ($87) but it’s a full eight ounces of beautifully cooked and prepared prime beef.

I ate it all.

Couldn’t help myself.

Oh, and it was delicious, “mouth-watering,” flavorful, all that.

In fact, it would be worth a trip from Montecito just to have it again.

The dish, by the way, is “smoked” in the kitchen after having been cooked to your specification (medium rare for me). The chef tops the plate with a clear cover, injects smoke into it and the server brings it out with the cover on, removing it only when placed in front of you.

182 |

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WEEKEND GETAWAY

As the smoke clears (our server says that’s done so it won’t taste too

Wagyu beef, or the other desserts (such as a Mud Pie made with

“smoky,” but just enough to enhance the dish), the palate gasps.

chocolate espresso semifredo, and macadamia nut crunch), I suggest

It works.

you go online (monarchbeachresort.com) and peruse the menu

The rest of the menu is equally creative, though I was so stuffed

yourself.

with my eight-ounce meal that I opted to pass on dessert. The chef

The cocktail list is a fun read, with selections from a Moscow

would have none of that though, and our server presented – on the

Mule to a Hemingway Daiquiri, made either “Old School”

house – the Bourbon Steak signature dessert: warm spiced beignets,

(traditional) or “New School.” The beer selection is eclectic, filled as it

dusted with powdered sugar and accompanied by a vanilla crème

is with a variety of boutique brewery offerings, such as Hitachino Red

brulée.

Rice Ale from Konosu, Naka, Japan, or a Dog Fish Head Double IPA

Okay, now I’m really full but, sadly (for my waistline) I ate the whole thing too. It didn’t help that we were served some savory fried

from Milton, Delaware.

Michael Mina is my new hero, as is Executive Chef Bryan Brown.

potatoes, rolled in duck fat with a choice of three different dips, including one infused with truffle, as a “starter.”

I haven’t mentioned my Kona Kampachi appetizer. I was thinking “guacamole” when I ordered it, as it featured avocado purée, but instead it came as five small dabs of green containing avocado, chili

MONARCH BAY BEACH CLUB

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his additional eatery is right on the sand, on the ocean. Pre-lit fire pits line the shore, and other fire pits are further inland,

rubbed corn, cilantro and paprika gel and, well, every little taste was a

closer to the main restaurant featuring ocean views for all. It’s another

dance on my tongue.

big place that can sit as many 200 guests and the food here is mainly

It was a meal to remember.

farm-to-table from all over California. Executive Chef is Hansen

Rather than point out the number of intriguing dishes with

Lee, and not only does the menu honor each farm individually, Jerry

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WEEKEND GETAWAY

Wunderer is noted as the fisherman who brings the Beach Club’s daily catch from Morro Bay. Menu items include tuna tartare, watermelon caprese, roasted

There’s a botanical garden for meditation on the grounds, featuring an even more peaceful Zen area. Lots of running trails and a Run/Go app that will guide you on the trails and advise you when and

beets, truffle crab melt, sweet potato fries, prime beef dishes, seafood

where to stop for photos. Lots of live music in the lobby and elsewhere

carbonara.

add to a festive atmosphere. One treat was master violinist Daniel

There is a different group of specialized cocktails and drinks here, including a mangorita, blackberry/basil soda, all natural piña colada,

Morris, I am told, as I did not hear him, whose hip-hop melodies are a wonder.

house-infused tequila, Catalina Sunset, Pilgrim Duke’s Old Fashion made with John Wayne’s bourbon, Monarch Beach Blonde beer, partnered with Left Coast Brewery and Heal the Bay IPA.

OTHER AMENITIES

T

FOR THE CHILDREN

T

he Kid’s Club, where one can leave the little ones (5 to 12) fully supervised, has video games, educational programming,

a full-on beach club during the summer, and operates very much

here are two pools, an abundance of pool side cabanas, two

like a day camp; 48-hour advance reservation required. Morning

infinity spas, and plenty of choices of places to eat, including a

and evening sessions: 10 to 2 ($90), and 2 to 6 (also $90; full day

Mexican restaurant, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, Club 19 at

is $135). There are also events that include parents, and a “Kids

the golf course, a coffee shop, a café in the spa, and a small outlet just

Night Out” on Friday and Saturday evenings from 6 pm to 10 pm

off the lobby offering Starbucks coffee and house-made pastries. Fitness

($95). Resort Planners are available to arrange for babysitting services

classes are complimentary for hotel guests. There is an enormous

(outsourced) as well.

exercise room with all the latest equipment and that boasts floating meditation hammocks. There is also a Dry Bar where you can wash and set your hair. The wine cave where tastings and small private dinners take place comes from Italy.

Oh, and the Wi-Fi is trouble free and pervasive.

THE GOLF COURSE

W

ith its 840-mile coastline, California has very few actual oceanfront golf courses, perhaps less than a dozen. Monarch

Beach is one of those. It’s a par-70 Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed course with views from every hole, and a couple right on the beach.

And with a nod to the ever-present surf culture, the course not only offers the usual electric golf carts, but “Phat Scooters,” which are just as they sound: one-man cycles with bags on the back, and even “Golfboards” that one steers much as one would a surfboard. There is an extensive practice area and golf lessons are available.

••• For more information and prices: One Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point, CA 92629 (1-800-722-1543) or (1-949-234-3900). m

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