Brewery Gulch Inn's very existence is tied to California's North Coast logging heritage. Mendocino lumber mills situated at the base of most major rivers, including The Big River just north of the inn, supplied timber used to rebuild San Francisco after the Great Earthquake of 1906.
Giant redwoods in the surrounding forests were felled during summer when the river's current wasn't strong enough to float logs down to the mills. 'Log decks' behind each dam were built by incrementally stacking logs on top of each other. As the decks became taller and heavier, their weight pushed the lowest logs called 'sinkers' deeper into the river silt. When winter rains arrived, the dams were dynamited to release the logs. Sinkers left forgotten under The Big River for over 150 years were unearthed during an earthquake retrofitting project on the Big River Bridge in 1961. Perfectly preserved by cold, mineral-rich ocean waters, these logs were used in the 2001 construction of present-day Brewery Gulch Inn.
Situated on the original 10 acre farmstead of Mendocino pioneer Homer Barton, the Inn overlooks the craggy bluffs of Smuggler's Cove tucked along 48,000 acres of preserved meadows and redwoods of Jackson Demonstration State Forest. In 2007, current owners Guy and Sarah Pacurar purchased the 10-room Inn featuring a central Great Room and dining area built around a huge four-sided fireplace made of glass and welded steel by a local shipbuilder.
A 3-story high skylight and 13-foot tall redwood-trimmed French doors flood the space, including the dining area's quarter-sawn oak tables, with sunlight and unobstructed views of Smuggler's Cove.
Whether gathering around a dinner buffet with entrees ranging from Scallops on a Bed of Lentilles Du Puy, Moroccan Lamb, Mussel Bisque, and Halibut Escabeche complemented by their widely diverse selection of local beers and wines or pondering their cooked-to-order breakfast menu featuring Millionaire's Bacon, Executive Chef Peg Davis only uses organic locally-sourced ingredients from what either local Mendocino County farmers, fishing fleets, or their own heritage garden provides.
The Inn's Zen-like tranquility extends to the rooms where all but one have ocean views from a private balcony or patio. A complementary bottle of wine awaits upon check-in and the well appointed bathrooms invite luxuriating with their Asprey and Molton Brown bath salts and soaps.
