It is more than worthwhile, when in Northern California’s gorgeous Wine Country, checking out two new hotel treasures.
First, I drove north of San Francisco, to Calistoga. My dear friends Rob and Linda Stiles, who know a good thing when they see it, had said ‘you must go to The Francis House’. It turns out that in 2015 a San Francisco-based architect-builder, Richard Dwyer, and his Filipina designer wife, Dina Canola Dwyer, had bought an elegant three-floor mansion, built in 1886 on a corner site only five minutes’ walk from what is now the centre of Calistoga. Roll forward to the first week of September 2018 and The Francis House, a luxury five-bedroom Bed and Breakfast hotel, opened with a couple of parties for locals, including the Napa Valley wine community.
The Francis House, Napa
The building had been Calistoga Hospital, and, indeed, the first guest to check into The Francis House was an 82-year-old who was born here. Richard Dwyer, the builder, spent three years immaculately restoring the building, replacing every chip, it seems, in the local tufu stone exterior. Around, he has put in a sizeable pool, and there is a tennis court to come. Dina Dwyer, meanwhile, handled the inside.
The Francis House, Living Dining room
There are unpolished wood floors. White walls are balanced by an assortment of brightly coloured Murano chandeliers, absolutely gorgeous pieces in their own right. One-off antique desks go with modern chairs and other furnishings. The ground floor flows from a comfy-chic salon, bursting with art and fashion books, to a dining area and an enviable Miele kitchen, well-stocked with Christofle and local ceramics. Breakfast is included in the room rate. Soon, as soon as the Dwyers get a liquor licence, there will also be complimentary evening wine tastings – I know from the Kimpton group what a really popular concept this is.
The Francis House Bedroom
Upstairs, the five letting rooms are all unique, apart from the beds. As the photo shows, they have flute-edged grey buttoned headboards, with inset USB ports and fibre optic lights. Linens and towels are Matouk. With no distribution but pre-opening praise from both Architectural Digest and Robb Report, business, say the Dwyers, arrived immediately – heavy, apparently, with millennials who drive themselves here, and are then Uber-ed around the wineries.
The Francis House, Pool at Dusk
From one hospital, or former hospital, to another superb luxury hotel, six miles south of Calistoga in St Helena.
There, immediately past the Culinary Institute of America and Beringer Vineyards, and at the junction of Main Street and Spring Mountain Road, is Los Alcobas, sibling of Los Alcobas Mexico City. Both are Luxury Collection, both are managed by Mexico City-born Sam Leizorek.
Here, in California, he bought into a development already under-way by Presidio Companies: the 1907 main building, Acacia House, which has a total of three acres of land, and with three three-floor 2010-vintage bedroom blocks, a total of 68 rooms designed by Yabu Pushelberg in soft greys that beautifully complement the vista of wine country outside.
Acacia House, Napa
I was met on arrival by the hotel’s GM, Alain Negueloua, who feels he is back home – fortunately he kept his home here from his days running Meadowood, a few miles away. Now, in a way, it is almost as though he has never left. He told me, over dinner at Acacia House restaurant, how all food here is overseen by Oliver Wharton, including room service and events (there is a gorgeous outdoor space, right in the centre of the development, that is really popular for weddings).
Former F&B guru for SBE, Oliver Wharton heads Las Vegas-based A Perfect Bite Inc.; one of its divisions is Delicious MFG & CO, a partnership with Chris Cosentino. It is he, Cosentino, who is the ‘celebrity chef’ fronting Las Alcobas, and he who attracts locals to the restaurant.
Acacia House Deluxe Vineyard View King Room
We started with a bowl of crudites and hommus dip. I went on to burrata, covered with summer fruits and mitsuba pesto, and then to whole roasted eggplant with cherry tomatoes, capers, chilli and pistachios (why does a carnivore choose this? Primarily because Negueloua’s wife always chooses this, apparently).
The restaurant, which has outside seating on Acacia House’s original patio as well as tables in the bar and the main restaurant (with window through to the working kitchen behind) is in Yabu Pushelberg colouring: soft greys, with texture. We drank Beringer Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, from the vineyard just outside corner suite 338.
Acacia House by Chris Cosentino
My suite is gorgeous, up 40 wood steps – or elevator – from the ground. I have two all-wall windows leading out on to an L-shaped balcony with seating, and an electrically-operated fire pit. One side I look down to the pool. The other side looks straight into Beringer vineyards, with mountains beyond. Luxury is such views, and the feel of the bed’s comforter, and the Sarah Horowitz toiletries, and the fact that my car, ready and waiting, had a bottle of Los Alcobas-labelled chilled mineral water in it – the reverse of the label shows blue sky above those Beringer vines outside my room.
There are so many touch points at this unforgettable hotel, and I did not even have time, on this visit, to look at Acacia Barn for indoor events, or the nearby tasting room and wine shop, or the spa. I did, of course, have time for the really outstanding 24/7 gym.
Acacia House Deluxe One Bedroom Suite
All images supplied with permission. Lead image: Acacia House Pool overlooking vineyard.
