On a recent Friday night, servers bustled between white tablecloths only to disappear into the kitchen and reappear moments later with a steaming plate or a cup of soup in hand.
This is a typical scene on a Friday night in almost any restaurant. But what makes this scene unusual is the creek that babbles beneath a redwood bridge connecting two sides of the Brook Room dining area in the Brookdale Inn and Spa.
Still known by locals as the Brookdale Lodge, the landmark might be regaining its luster.
Within the past 1½ years, the lodge has quietly undergone a multimillion dollar face-lift while changes in the restaurant make the Brookdale an option for an affordable upper-class meal in a unique setting.
“I want the local community to experience us and be able to come back and say ‘I’m getting a good value for my money, and a nice environment,’” owner Sanjiv Kakkar said.
The outdoor changes to the inn are obvious to the casual observer.
New stonework and paint adorn the façade of the 50-room inn. Inside, there is a new dance floor in the Mermaid Room, where a stage and the underground window to the swimming pool face each other.
The remodel has included a new roof over both the swimming pool and the main lobby and fresh paint and new furniture to improve the ambiance of the Brook Room restaurant.
However, the biggest change is a complete remodel of a wing of rooms known as the Garden Room. The new rooms include double showers and new furnishings.
Kakkar and General Manager Andy Poon realize that years of neglect have tarnished the inn’s image, but said the product they are working to provide will change that.
“We’re still doing damage control,” Poon said. “A lot of people think how negative the place was, but people who stay with us enjoy it.”
They have even brought in chef Judd Anthony from the former La Bruschetta Restaurant in Felton to man the remodeled kitchen — bringing instant credibility to the food.
Anthony creates a new entrée for each Sunday brunch, already the most popular meal at the restaurant, Poon said.
Despite the new trimmings, the rustic lodge has a storied history, and Kakkar is working to embrace the history with an eye to the future.
“I’ve been looking at old pictures and trying to get it back how it was,” Kakkar said.
Visitors have mailed type-written menus from the 1920s and ’30s and Kakkar is collecting pictures of famous celebrities who have visited the lodge in years past to put on the walls.
“We want to be part of the community,” Poon said. “We want people to enjoy us.”
For now, the Brookdale is just an inn. However, sometime in the future, Poon said, a spa across Highway 9 will be part of the hotel’s operation.
But the remodel alone does not guarantee the inn is on the right track — people have to use it.
“Eventually, it has to be on the product we offer,” Kakkar said. “It’s almost there, and then the people will judge it for themselves.”
At a glance
WHAT: Brookdale restaurant
HOURS: 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday; 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday; 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday brunch
WHERE: 11570 Highway 9, in Brookdale
