This California Castle Was a Dream Come True

Once upon a time, there was a Viennese girl named Erna who dreamed of living in a castle. After she left her native Austria she worked very hard, starting as a tea girl in London’s Claridge Hotel and eventually becoming an accomplished chef.

Then one day she bought a seven-acre parcel of land overlooking the little California town of Oakhurst, just south of Yosemite National Park. She built a wood-and-stone manor house from the ground up, and opened a restaurant in it. There were elderberry trees all over the property, so she named the restaurant Erna’s Elderberry House.

People came from miles around. They couldn’t get over the European splendor of the place, the slate-rock wine cellar, the hand-laid tile floors, dark fixtures of burnished brass, the lace, the crystal and the magnificent wood carvings.

They gushed over her creative seven-course dinners, drank her wines and sipped coffee on her mountain terrace. Surely this woman was mad, they said, to build a restaurant so elaborate out here. But Erna only laughed.

“I’ll build a castle, too, someday,” she said, “and you’ll all be my guests.” And that’s where the real fairy tale begins.

You see, what Erna Kubin-Clanin has done in real life is as improbable as most anything to be found in the Brothers Grimm. Erna has finished her castle now and named it Chateau du Sureau ( sureau is the French word for elderberry)--a nine-room, 9,000-square-foot hostelry that cost nearly $2 million and opened almost exactly two months ago. And as the saying goes, seeing is believing.

Of course, a night in a sumptuously furnished 19th-Century French chateau, next door to a restaurant with arguably the best cuisine in Central California, is not to be had for a song--about $350 per night for two to be exact. That includes breakfast but not dinner, which runs an additional $90 for two. But then it’s certainly no pricier nor any less well-appointed than a highly regarded chateau or venerable spa in the French countryside.

Above Fresno, California 41 gradually begins to rise as it passes through a series of increasingly fallow fields. After about 20 miles, the stagnant San Joaquin Valley air turns fresh and you start to see sugar pines by the edge of the road. You trundle through the Central California town of Coarsegold and snake your way through a series of gentle green hills. Just before the bottom of a long hill, you’ll see a sign on the left side of the road--”Erna’s Elderberry House-Chateau du Sureau”--and a baronial iron gate. You’d better pinch yourself one time to make sure you aren’t dreaming all this up.

The chateau is on the top of Erna’s hill, just past the restaurant. You can see the brick-colored tile roof from the gate, the stone turret and the resin-cast coat of arms on the side, all conceived and built by Mariposa artist Peter Ledger. Leave your car by the entrance and walk through the green doors, where a houseman awaits you to take care of your luggage, garage your vehicle and show you to your room.

The moment you enter, the coolness of the stone floor envelops you, just like it would in a chateau in the Loire Valley. The living room is huge, with a separate “music tower” complete with French grand piano and hand-painted trompe l’oeil ceiling at the far end. There are broad beams across the main ceiling, triple-thick, hand-carved mahogany doors that have been sandblasted and stained to look centuries old, leading into various rooms off the downstairs hallway. At one end of the hall there is a tiny chapel to pass a reflective moment. At the other, there is a spiral staircase of limestone leading up to the guest rooms.

Erna’s chateau has been designed in the spirit of 19th-Century France, and it is no coincidence that a great deal of the charm is related to the quality of imported materials. The red-clay floor tiles are French, as are the hand-painted bathroom tiles. The marble-and-stone walls and floors found in the chateau’s bathrooms were cleaved from French buildings, and the wrought-iron balconies attached to every room obtained from Paris apartments.

Furniture in the chateau is mostly French, too, though more recently the property of various antique shops around the state. All rooms, named for herbs and flowers such as thyme and lavender, have highly personal themes and bedroom sets to match the colorful images dreamed up by Erna herself.

The Safran (saffron) Room, a sensuous, amber-shaded room, bleeds with yellow marble and features a Napoleon era bedroom set highlighted by an eight-foot ebony armoire. The Romarin (rosemary) Room is done in soft greens like a sprig of rosemary itself, with a forest-green drape around the king-size bed that you can pull completely closed on all four sides.

Before dinner and after a long drive, there’s no better way to unwind than a hot bath. Bathrooms here are extrordinary--all marble and tile with deep, sunken tubs big enough for an entire family.

Slip into one of the plush Italian terry robes the chambermaid has laid out for you and nibble on the canapes brought to accompany your afternoon tea, served on crockery from the French village of Biot. Then, when the tub is full, stretch out and contemplate the peace and tranquillity of the Sierras, just outside your balcony. It’s good to be king.

Of course, you’ll want to have dinner in the Elderberry House. Despite the spinsterly name, this is a serious restaurant with a wonderful wine list. On my last visit, I dined on feathery-light seabass quenelle with grilled scampi, a smoky consomme with couscous dumplings, wonderful roasted venison and one of Erna’s signature two-pronged desserts, an irresistible Saltzburger chestnut souffle flanked by a frozen chocolate pudding.

After a moonlight coffee on the terrace, walk across the narrow gravel path to the chateau, secure in the knowledge that you are in for one of the most restful nights of your life.

Every room has a wood-burning fireplace and hidden CD player, but the televisions have been left in a hall closet. (Yes, you may have one, if you must.) All but two of the rooms have canopy beds--these, too, draped in colorful toile fabric and dressed in 500 denier Italian linen, the sheerest available. And when you lay down to sleep, snuggle up under your fluffy eiderdown comforter, the goose-down blanket that knows no rival.

Eventually, you’re going to get around to wondering just how Erna did all this. Naturally, she had more than a little help, from investors, friends and family. In November of 1989, she married Rene Clanin, a Fresno optometrist, and that’s when things began to gel.

Daughter Renee, 22, one of California’s youngest and most charming sommeliers, has helped to hold things steady at the restaurant along with her omi , Erna’s mother, a vigorous 77-year-old who works the pantry chores, plants flowers in the chateau garden and does nonstop handywork seven days a week. But you won’t see her in a dirndl.

When you wake for breakfast, you’ll think you’re still dreaming. The downstairs dining room is all olive wood and fresh flowers, looking out onto a quiet garden. And the breakfast is huge. Erna’s countryman Wolfgang Puck sends her crusty dark bread from Los Angeles, and good croissant and brioche come daily from a baker in Fresno.

Coffee, fresh orange juice and an enormous plate of fresh fruit from the San Joaquin Valley are complemented by a platter that even a hungry Hessian would blink at: Black Forest ham, slices of runny Brie, sharply flavored Edam, abundant smoked salmon, spicy chicken sausage, cream cheese and softly boiled quail eggs.

The Austrian proprietress is not a real baroness, of course, but that’s only an accident of birth. Besides, now that she has built herself a castle, who’s going to notice the difference?

GUIDEBOOK

Chateau du Sureau

Getting there: Chateau du Sureau is in Oakhurst, approximately 265 miles from Los Angeles. Drive north on California 5 until the junction of Highway 99, then continue north to Fresno. At Highway 41 North, jog right and continue approximately 45 miles to Oakhurst. The chateau is just above, and slightly to the south of, the junction of Highway 49.

What it will cost: The nightly rate for all but two of the rooms is $350, including breakfast, based on double occupancy. The Thyme Room, with special handicap access, is $250, and the Mint Room, with a special private entry, is $400; a 7% room tax and 10% service charge is additional. For chateau reservations, call (209) 683-6860. Dinner for two at Erna’s Elderberry House (food only) is $90. For dinner reservations (essential), call (209) 683-6800 (overnight stay not essential for restaurant reservations). Dinner is served nightly except Tuesday, lunch Wednesday through Friday, brunch on Sunday.