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L'Auberge Carmel: Where Dreams Begin By
George Medovoy, Editor Someone had posted a marker about dreams in an Old English garden near the Carmel beach. What a fitting introduction, not just for the garden, but for L'Auberge Carmel, a seductive inn and restaurant carved out of a building that dates back to 1929. The auberge is located on a quiet residential street about four blocks from the beach and just around the corner from a frenetic Italian trattoria called Cantinetta Luca.
(The beauty of the Carmel beach is one of the seductive pleasures of the area, and a sure ingredient of any visit to L'Auberge Carmel) Settle into One of 20 Modern Guest Rooms At the auberge, you can settle into one of 20 modern guest rooms in a white-stucco, three-story building. Rooms come with modern amenities like flat screen TV, a small refrigerator, and a bathroom with a big soaking tub, perfect after long walks to the beach or to Carmel's quirky shops. A full country breakfast is included, with warm croissants, preserves, fresh squeezed orange juice, coddled eggs, organic yogurt, and French pressed coffee. You can have the breakfast in your room, in the dining area, or out on the patio.
(Guests can choose to have breakfast in the comfortable patio of the auberge) The building that houses the auberge was built by Allen Knight, Carmel's 1920's mayor. Knight had asked noted San Francisco architect Albert Farr to design a classic wood-frame-and-stucco inn around a brick courtyard, where the upper rooms would come with views of Carmel Bay. Farr modeled his design after a building in the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia. An Eccentric Mayor The eccentric Knight may have been mayor, but his heart was really at sea. So next door to his house on Sixth Street, he built a dwelling that vaguely resembles a boat, including parts from 57 shipwrecked vessels, and a water-tight metal door from the USS Farquhar. With such a colorful pedigree, you should expect something special at the auberge, and that is exactly what you get, beginning with a gracious welcome in a cozy lobby that looks a bit like an English drawing room, what with its generous assortment of port and single malt whiskeys.
(Guests at the auberge are greeted in the cozy lobby, with its generous assortment of port and single malt whiskeys) Then there is the distinctive 12-table restaurant. Dinner during our stay was a six-course affair with cheese and wine served by waiters in white gloves. Wines come from throughout the world's grape-growing regions, including Monterey County, other areas of California, and France. The wine cellar lies directly underneath the inn's courtyard, so when you've decided to take breakfast outdoors, well, you're sitting above a prized collection of 4,500 bottles! With only 12 tables, the restaurant is obviously very intimate, but I found that it a lot easier to get to know other guests - which is just what I did, chatting up two couples from England who, like me, were fans of the hilarious British TV series, "Faulty Towers." IF
YOU GO:
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