For a tiny town with a wee population of just over 1,000 people, the one-bar(The Buckhorn Saloon) hamlet of Boonville, CA is quite the charmer. Boonville bursts with loads of natural beauty, a unique jargon(Boontling), and more friendly folks than the heart of Texas. A popular getaway for California city-dwellers, San Franciscans can roll up in a little over 2 hours. With a charming main street, numerous farms, vineyards and tasting rooms, the Anderson Valley Brewery, the ole wise Redwoods hovering nearby, and sun and shade drenched shadow play across picturesque landscapes with plenty of room to spread your picnic blanket, and of course the beloved Boonville Hotel, it is a verdant hiatus away from your everyday. With just enough gristle and quirk to make you forget your Joe** for a few days.
Nestled in a valley pitched between tree-lined sun-kissed hill peaks, on a winding mountain road not half an hour from California’s rustically invigorating Mendocino Pacific shore, the darling Boonville Hotel has all the right priorities: “It’s all about people, food, drink, and a well-made bed." No doubt. The hotel perches right on the main street in town, and houses a terrific innkeeper’s lodge, with rooms above the lobby, bar and restaurant, and warmly detailed casitas sprinkled on the land. It’s so cozy, it makes it hard not to sleep in in the morning. If you somehow manage to rise early, there are plenty of pockets and nooks on the pastoral grounds perfect for daydreaming, exploring, or mingling. You early birds can even catch a cat nap if you wish outdoors—hammocks drape most of the trees and porches on the property.
Visit one of the few lunch spots in town, get you some hot zeese*** and treat yourself to some fresh churned ice cream across the street at the Boonville Hotel’s sister ice cream shop Paysanne while you browse the colorful main street shops. Enjoy mid-century architecture, old-school pace of life, and the subtler sounds of nature you can’t pick up in the city. But save your appetite, as The Boonville Hotel's famously scrumptious slow-food, farm-to-table restaurant Table 128 chef-owner Johnny Schmitt’s articulate cuisine, which features a prix fixe, daily freshly-curated menu that will cause the tongues of your tastebuds to dance in wonderment and downright disbelief—it is impossibly delicious. The meal is prepared with love and it shines through. For those just looking for a relaxing evening, any day of the week you can grab a glass of wine or wine by the bottle to enjoy in the lush grounds. Saturdays and Sundays enjoy an on-site outdoor cold-pressed juice bar, and the weekly Saturday farmer’s market. On your way out, be sure to stop at Pennyroyal Farm for a sweet farmstead cheese plate. 
Put it on your list! And don’t forget to mention Small Room Collective for a special price when booking a midweek stay at the Boonville Hotel!
*Apparently the wealthiest man in the area at Boontling’s renaissance was a very tall man.
**Your phone. Otherwise known as a “Joe” or a “Walter" in Boontling, for the first man in Boonville to own a telephone, and the first man to have one installed, respectively, supposedly.
***Zeese Blevens apparently liked his coffee and he liked it strong.
Join us at the charming Boonville Hotel this Thursday - Saturday June 9-11, 2016! If you aren't able to come, be sure to check the hotel out online here, and put this on your mental list as one of your must-go places! Be sure to mention Small Room Collective for a extra special rate on your stay when you call to book!
We are excited to roll to Lancaster, PA and hang with the lovely people of Lancaster Transplant and the burgeoning creative community therein! We hope you join SRC & Lancaster Transplant for a good old time, where you can GET YER MEMBERSHIP this Thursday June 18 at Thistle Finch Distillery & Wacker Brewing Co.
Not for the faint of heart, but what worth listening to is? Okay, we like our Delilah as much as the next guy, but there is just nothing like something that will shake your socks off. Frances Quinlan's volatile, voice-cracking plea gets the blood flowing. Her textured yowl lines up with the likes of Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield and Land Of Talk's Elizabeth Powell. It serves as a constantly varying sift, deploying polarized emotion from one word to the next, and is sublimely centered again and again by the interaction with the Philadelphia four-piece's patiently building song structures.
These guys will be playing in a few weeks at Dogfish Head's Analog-A-Go-Go, June 11-13, along with Built To Spill, Tall Tales, and Silver Lining. Yes please! We will be popping up with the airstream at the festival on June 13. If you are in the area, we hope to see you there!!
While we didn't bump into Alice Cooper in Milwaukee (see clip below from Wayne's World), we did leave the city chanting "We're not worthy...". We've wanted to stop in this rad city for the last couple times through the region, but we just couldn't find a connecting point. However this year we were fortunate enough to meet Jerimiah in Chicago who is also about to set-out on his own nationwide adventure. Jerimiah hooked us up with Scott at the Palomino in Bay View and soon enough we were parked outside and gaining new friends, snacking on good food, and drinking whiskey and cheap beers with all of the above. Thank you to everyone who came out, the Palomino, Milwaukee, Jerimiah & Scott.
Hiya. We have decided it is time. To blog the jordache jeans out of this blog. We are working on backlogging our blog, so please bear with the untimely posts on this new and improved blog. Hashtag #laterblog.
So. Back in April we drove from Denver to Louisville in a day and a half. Far! And silly. Chasin storms and tornadoes. Wacky. We were never happier to see a city, then when we arrived in Lousiville. And man o war, what a cool town!
Melissa and Dude, the caretakers of Farmington were awesome folks and amazing hosts, and they even had us over to hang out with their family and close friends at their Saturday Derby party. We had mint juleps and played a game with the little plastic horses and you each choose a color of the guy you think will win, Desktop Derby. We did other things, but that was a definite highlight. We got really into that. Good times. Diane of Farmington & Josh and the Original Makers Club crew put on two great parties during Derby week, Bulleit Bourbon and Union Wine Co killed it in the beverage department and we had some amazing food too, where different restaurants in town created a unique recipe using pimiento cheese. I wasn't a huge fan of pimiento cheese before, except of course saying it & pronouncing the silent "i" but "i" was made a believer. In pim-ee-ento. Garden & Gun was there in full swing too! We also popped-up at Garage Bar(a very cool converted garage that is now a bar/restaurant) and met sweetheart Carrie, friends of friends Dan and Marlene of Malimish Airstream, who then later showed us around old Louisville, which is awesome.
We even made a quick jaunt to Lexington and popped-up at County Club one of the most stellar restaurants, easily, that we've been to on our travels--still dreaming about it. Johnny can do no wrong. While we were there, we had the pleasure of meeting the forces behind the rad KY for KY. There we also met the great Kate and Ellen and Adelaide(now they are fellow airstreamers!), and Kate took some pretty sweet photos of the airstream and us. Thank you Darling!
Photo by Kate Sands.
Louisville:
Old Louisville(for strolling around, beautiful old houses, lantern lit parks, your neighborhood corner dive Magnolia "Mag" Bar and Pizza Donisi)
Lexington:
The Dean teaches, I mean TEACHES, on how to mix beautiful modern, clean lines with a sparkle and a cozy, well-kept nostalgia.
Modern and stark, yet quirky and personable with an exacting punch of fun. The word on the street is that it is a transformation for the ages--the building used to be called The Sportsmen, with er, a bit of a seedy past. The only sport being had there now is classiness. For real, this spot is a gem--amazing design, warm vibes, and straight-up cool. Go there, and if you don't have plans to do it, make them to do so. Bolt Coffee sits nestled in the lobby of The Dean and served up aromas and sips of super rich, meaty, hot coffee. With the friendliest, most down-to-earth crew probably that has ever existed in a coffee shop. Delicious and good! We were brain-buzzed and out the door ready to go. A paper-sack of everything pretzel bagels went with us. Nom nom.
Faust served up salty, crunchy fries and German beers and Magdalenae Room slung killer cocktails in a dim speakeasy. If you want to dig up your ghosts of 7th grade talent shows past, then The Boombox has your back. Go there to sing your heart out. Every type of person from every walk of life in a little tiny room, just going for it, with everything they have, and it is seriously amazing.
In all, we were at The Dean Hotel for 3 days and 4 nights and we loved every minute. Who knew you could meet so many great folks in a single spot?
Some of them even documented on their blogs: Winter Moon & Jen's Dish! Hope to see you again, real soon Providence.
Photo by Winter Moon Blog.
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