Madonna Inn

Favorite Pit Stops

For the past thirty years, my travel buddy and I have stopped at the Madonna Inn for lunch or dinner on the way to or from San Francisco.  I started a collection of water goblets from their extraordinary gift shop and now have a dozen or more of  these colorful glasses.  It's a great pit stop because the food is good, the decor is over-the-top, and it gets my vote for the most beautiful public rest room on the West Coast.  It's a great place to stretch your legs.  The gardens are always in bloom.  Now, some people think this pink palace is tacky, but it's not.  It's upscale kitsch and frankly, a hoot. 

Madonna Inn Water Goblets

Mimi's Friend in the Gift Shop

Well, we were having so much fun in San Luis Obispo we decided to spend the night here instead of driving home.  Every room has a name and is decorated with different themes.  We chose the Currier and Ives room, but it was a difficult choice.  You can pick among the Old West, Caves, Kona Coast and Swiss Alps.  In the main dining room that night, we sat in a pink leather booth and had champagne angel food cake with, (you guessed it), pink frosting.  Don't let this scare off the men in your life.  There are tons of testosterone
here in the form of large rock walls.  My travel buddy and a gentleman we met from Dallas couldn't get over it.  "Does your room have a rock wall?" my guy said.  "Yes.  And it's real!  I don't believe it.  Those are giant boulders.  How the hell did they get them here?"  This went on for a full ten minutes much to the amusement of me and the fellow lodger's wife.

Alex Madonna made his fortune building the 101.  He was away from home 80% of the year and found the lodging inadequate.  Motel chains hadn't developed yet and even restaurants on the roads were more than likely to be truck stops back then.  Once this project was finished, he vowed to build an elegant inn and that's exactly what he and his wife Phyllis did.  Work began in 1954 and the inn was completed in 1962.   Alex managed the construction and Phyllis was put in charge of the interior design.  They spared no expense.  The tables in the luncheon area are copper.  The hand carved marble balustrade in the dining room came from Hearst Castle and each room has a "tasteful" array of antiques and artwork.  It's the gingerbread that makes it so damn fun!

View from the Hotel

I can't help but think there's a love story here.  In each room there is a history of the inn's construction written by Phyliis Madonna and as you leave, there is a bronze statue of Alex riding a horse.  We stopped to read the plaque:  "Alex's personality was complex and ran in a wide and broad spectrum.  He was as colorful as a rainbow, as stormy as a hurricane and as unpredictable as the weather."  It's a very personal tribute and much can be read between the lines.  She goes on to say, "His laughter was hearty, and sometimes ended in tears . . .He was thoughtful and was always giving and doing for others.  He never accepted failure."

The Madonna Inn is a memorial to a hardworking, family man who never sat still.  He had his hand in construction, lumber and cattle and finally, inn keeping.  The big pink sign can't be missed if you're traveling along the 101.  I'm glad we stayed here.  There's a lot of history here.  And a lot of love.