There’s a Small Hotel. . .

Movie magnate Jack Valenti described it as the most unusual small hotel he’d ever seen.

For the privileged few who have succumbed to its charms, awakening in Manouchehr Mobedshahi’s Sherman House in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights is like finding oneself a guest in the Louvre, or some palatial French chateau.

Some insist that Sherman House is the finest small hotel in the world.

Certainly it ranks among the most expensive, what with its 15 guest rooms and suites priced from $175 to $600 a night--a figure that doesn’t include even a slug of sherry or the crumb from a croissant.

What one gets for such a hefty tab is the privilege of sharing the residence with the ghosts of such departed celebrities as Enrico Caruso, Lillian Russell, Victor Herbert and Jan Paderewski, to name a few of the notables who have enjoyed its opulence.

Still, never in its storied past has this magnificent old Victorian pile provided the personalized service that guests enjoy today--what with butlers to pack and unpack and chauffeurs who deliver arrivals from the airport in immaculate vintage limousines. (In the case of one’s own car, it is washed and polished while the owner snoozes.)

Sherman House provides a host of services that include tailoring and shoe repair, personalized shopping, tours of the wine country and the chartering of airplanes and yachts for a day of sightseeing within the Golden Gate or some chosen destination on the distant horizon.

Still, it is the vintage residence itself that lures wayfarers back time and again. For half a century, beginning in 1876, the mansard-roofed mansion played host to the guests of art patron Leander Sherman. Divas, conductors and noted musicians performed in the three-storied Music Room. Galas drew the elite of San Francisco society.

Later the rambling relic of Green Street became a ballet school, a restaurant and the residence of sculptor Barbara Herbert. After her death in 1977, Sherman House was abandoned. It remained deserted until Iranian-born economist Mobedshahi, 41, discovered it while house hunting in 1980 with his 26-year-old bride, Vesta.

Only instead of choosing it for their residence, the couple resolved that Sherman House would become San Francisco’s finest small hotel. Mobedshahi paid $870,000 for the tottering structure and poured $4 million into its renovation.

For nearly a year, more than 60 artisans labored to restore the palace-like mansion and adjoining carriage house. By now it had been declared an historic landmark. While new foundations were poured, the mansion was shored up with steel supports and paint was peeled by hand.

Objets d’Art

Meanwhile, designer William Gaylord haunted Europe’s antique emporiums as well as Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York, searching out armoires, chandeliers, mirrors, beds, desks and other objets d’art. Carpets were imported from France, tapestries from Belgium, slate from China and marble was collected from Italy.

By the time the hotel opened in 1984, it was crowded with priceless furnishings. Bedrooms feature four-posters with down comforters and marble fireplaces. Even the bath and the former billiards room contain their own fireplaces.

These are rooms with sweeping views of San Francisco’s Golden Gate, Alcatraz and the Bay itself. One suite, chosen by television personality Johnny Carson, opens onto its own private terrace while another faces a garden complete with gazebo and fountain.

Such opulence stirs romantic notions. And so when a young man from Missouri decided to pop the question to his sweetie, he chose Sherman House. Surprising the girl, he had her delivered from the airport to his arms in the mansion’s Rolls-Royce. Later during a seven-course meal he proposed. How could the lady refuse when a huge diamond arrived on the dessert tray? Without further ado they were married on the spot with Mobedshahi and his wife acting as witnesses.

“All part of the service,” says the smiling hotelier.

Another bridal couple requested that their suite be filled with flowers. Even the bath overflowed with blooms. For three consecutive days the newlyweds ordered $150 meals--and never left the room.

Weddings Conducted

Weddings are conducted regularly in the music room as well as the hotel’s handsome gardens. One group took the entire house for three days, with entertainment provided by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. The tab for this little rite totaled something in excess of $30,000.

A while back a noted Broadway producer celebrated his 50th birthday by tossing a two-day bash attended by Caroline Kennedy and a couple dozen other guests. The bill for the rooms alone came to $5,500 a night. Meals and entertainment were extra.

On call 24 hours a day is Swiss chef Paul Grutter, formerly of Michel’s in Honolulu. At a dinner prepared recently for 60 guests, the hors d’oeuvres alone cost $100 per person.

When actress Shirley MacLaine called room service one night at 11:30, chef Paul talked her out of a sandwich and prepared an elaborate meal instead. And there was the time a couple rang up chef Paul at 4 o’clock in the morning, ordering a seven-course meal.

No request is denied.

Just last month the kitchen was without a guest’s favorite cereal. Chef Paul smiled pleasantly. “No problem,” he said. “We’ll send the houseman down the hill to the grocery.”

And he did.

Black Marble Baths

Each guest room in the three-story mansion and adjoining carriage house is graced with black marble baths. Terry-cloth robes are provided along with imported soaps and shampoos. Baths feature small TV screens so that corporate types can catch the latest stock market reports while shaving.

Sherman House is packed on weekends. During the summer/fall months it is booked to capacity, seven days a week. The brother of Vice President George Bush made reservations a year and a half ago for a party of bankers he is hosting next October.

Some guests remain for weeks. Last year a couple spent 2 1/2 months at Sherman House while their home was being remodeled. And even though they received a special rate, the tab still ran in excess of $40,000.

Sherman House does concerts and chamber music three nights a week. A grand piano is available for guests in the Music Room, and nearby there is a $3,000 bird cage filled with finches that twitter to the tunes of the evening.

The entire house smacks of designs from the French Second Empire. Light pours through leaded glass windows and afternoon tea is served in the gallery with its Louis XVI-style commode and tufted sofa.

Perched on the slopes of Pacific Heights, Sherman House offers a crackling fire on chilly nights as fog rolls in across the Golden Gate, engulfing other one-time fleabags whose owners have spent millions sprucing them up.

Other Entrepreneurs

A number of other San Francisco entrepreneurs are buying old properties and converting them into slick hotels. There comes to mind such caravansaries as Campton Place, the Juliana, the Inn at the Opera, the Orchard, the Majestic and the Villa Florence. And there’s the Donatello, which guests describe warmly as “one of San Francisco’s friendliest small hotels.” It is also the home of what old San Francisco hands insist is the city’s finest Italian restaurant. Not cheap, mind you, but worth the extra lira.

Only one block off Union Square (at Post and Mason), the Donatello features 140 rooms and a decor that’s definitely Italian.

Other Italian ambiance is served up at the Villa Florence with a fountain that was uprooted in Italy and transplanted in San Francisco. This along with the re-creation of a De Medici fireplace gives the Villa Florence the taste of Tuscany.

Campton Place is a slick new luxury hotel that occupies the frame of an ancient (circa 1909) hotel near Union Square. One spirited writer described it as “San Francisco’s most beautiful small hotel.” Certainly it ranks high on the list, with gobs of marble, expensive furnishings and elevators paneled in shiny mahogany. Guest luggage is unpacked on arrival and repacked at checkout time. There are terry-cloth robes and thermometers for checking the bath water; soaps and shampoos carry I. Magnin labels.

Elegant Touches

With only 126 rooms, Campton Place exudes elegance from lobby to top floor. Shoes left outside the door are shined and returned before one awakens--along with the morning newspaper. At Campton Place service is an art. Laundry and dry cleaning are provided seven days a week. Errands are run for guests. Beds are turned down. Each room features three telephones, and if you’re a light sleeper, traffic noises are muted by heavy windows and thick draperies.

While hotel food is generally only so-so, Campton Place is an exception. The menu, which changes daily, attracts some of the city’s fussiest patrons.

It’s not difficult to see how a reported $20 million was spent turning Campton Place into one of the city’s finest European-style hotels.

Other style is evident at the Juliana Hotel, just one block off Union Square and a block beyond Chinatown. It too was gutted, replumbed and rewired. Guests are offered complimentary continental breakfasts and wine in the evening--along with the melodies of a harpist.

This modernized turn-of-the-century hotel offers 107 guest rooms with double-insulated windows to muffle street noise. Each room contains stocked refrigerators and color TV with free movie channels. The Juliana’s restaurant is the Palm, which is fashioned after the celebrated restaurants of New York and Los Angeles.

The Orchard Hotel

Other raves go to the little (96-room) Orchard Hotel on Sutter Street, also in downtown San Francisco. A snug cocktail lounge draws a sophisticated crowd, as does the popular French restaurant, Annabel’s. Quiet elegance best describes the guest rooms with their custom-made furnishings. (The designer of this intimate little hotel was Bert Severin, architect to Queen Elizabeth II.)

Step out from the entrance and into the arms of shopkeepers at Laura Ashley, Pierre Deaux, Yves Saint Laurent and Williams-Sonoma (which should tell you something about this fashionable neighborhood).

Next there is the newly opened, newly refurbished Inn at the Opera, a choice spot for patrons of the Opera House just steps away (although unhandy for those desiring a downtown location). Here is a truly European-style hotel with 48 rooms along with one of San Francisco’s coziest cocktail lounges and an intimate little restaurant with mahogany-paneled walls that bring to mind the sort of hideaway one might stumble across in faraway London.

Guest rooms feature wet bars, microwaves, refrigerators and beds graced with down comforters.

$9-Million Face Lift

Finally, our list gives out with the Majestic Hotel (circa 1920), which just underwent a face lift to a tune of $9 million. The five-story Edwardian structure rises in a Victorian neighborhood atop Cathedral Hill. Complimentary limousine service is a plus, along with a concierge who provides theater tickets, does restaurant reservations and sends guests off on sightseeing tours to the wine country and elsewhere.

Old World ambiance describes the mood of the Majestic, with its imported four-poster beds, antique tapestries, down-filled sofas and paintings from a French bibliotheque featuring rare first editions. Guests pause in a rooftop garden and take their meals in Cafe Majestic where chef Stanley Eichelbaum holds forth with partner Tom Marshall. Eichelbaum and Marshall offer high tea, chamber music and classical jazz along with steaks, chops and such.

In case Eichelbaum’s name rings a bell, his byline ran in the San Francisco Examiner until 1979 when he traded in his tweeds for chef’s togs and said “30” to a newspaper career that spanned some 20 years.

He’s making headlines these days cooking up scoops in the kitchen.

Sherman House ($175/$600), 2160 Green St., San Francisco 94123. Telephone (415) 563-3600.

The Donatello ($150/$210)), 501 Post St., San Francisco 94102. In California telephone (800) 792-9837 or (800) 227-3184 nationwide.

Villa Florence ($79/$129), 225 Powell St., San Francisco 94102. In California telephone (800) 243-5700 or (800) 553-4411 nationwide.

Campton Place ($160/$750), 340 Stockton St., San Francisco 94108. Telephone (800) 235-4300.

The Hotel Juliana ($79/$110), 590 Bush St., San Francisco 94108. Telephone (800) 372-8800.

The Orchard Hotel ($85/$170), 562 Sutter St., San Francisco 94102. Telephone (800) 433-4434.

Inn at the Opera ($95/$165), 333 Fulton St., San Francisco 94102. Telephone (800) 423-9610.

The Majestic ($75/$140), 1500 Sutter St., San Francisco 94109. Telephone (800) 252-1155.