Weekend Escape: Montecito : Rancho Contento : The San Ysidro Ranch Has the Feel of an Old-California Resort, but a New Generation of Ideas

Up from its neighbor Santa Barbara, in a narrow Montecito canyon defined by sloping walls of dusty golden rock, rising into rounded hills thick with shrubs, there is a stylish but modestly appointed compound of stone and wood-frame buildings called the San Ysidro Ranch.

Lush hedges and 70-foot-high eucalyptus trees and sycamores surround the place. Within its grounds, vast expanses of velvety grass slope uphill, dotted with lemon trees, framed by patches of marigolds and plots of cannas and larkspur. On one piece of terraced lawn are a bocce court, a horseshoe pit and a few pieces of children’s playground equipment. Nearby, a garden plot flourishes with corn, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, lettuces and herbs. Meandering paths thread through the property, lined with olive trees, coral trees, oaks, bamboo, oleanders, banksia, huge tangles of honeysuckle and jasmine. Many of the cottages have terraces, from which the sea is visible in the distance, through the trees.

I grew up around the rambling old low-key resorts and resort hotels of Southern California. They were wonderful places, unpretentious, comfortable, easy-going. Unfortunately, many establishments of this sort are disappearing one by one--or at least changing out of all recognition. The Santa Barbara Biltmore has been turned from a grand and charming, if slightly shabby, antique into a slick Spanish-colonial theme park, which could as easily have been built last year in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Ojai Valley Inn, formerly an old-fashioned country club with a bucolic air, is now a polished convention facility.

The San Ysidro Ranch, though, still feels much as it did 30 or 40 years ago, when I used to run up and down its paths and lawns while my parents sunbathed or played backgammon on the front porch of their cottage. I remember vividly the supernal peacefulness of the place, the enchanting calm that greeted us immediately, the moment we climbed out of the Buick. The perfume of jasmine and the camphoraceous scent of eucalyptus filled the air, and sometimes the smell of meat roasting in the kitchen.

Remembering these images so vividly from my childhood, I decided late last summer that the San Ysidro might be the perfect place for a weekend getaway with my own family. For a free-lance writer like myself, of course, the weekend comes whenever I want it to--which was lucky in this case. The San Ysidro celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and through the end of 1993 is offering a special Centennial Celebration package: Accommodations are available from Sunday through Thursday nights, with a two-night minimum stay, for $235 per night for two in deluxe rooms or $370 per night in cottages with private Jacuzzis. Full breakfasts and taxes are included. Since regular rates for two are $195-$595 per night, exclusive of breakfast and tax, this represents a significant saving.

The San Ysidro property was originally part of a Spanish land grant, and as early as 1788 a ranch was operating on the site, raising citrus fruit and cattle for the nearby Santa Barbara Mission. In 1935, the property was bought by actor Ronald Colman and hotelier Alvin Weingand (later a California state senator), and its guest register became a veritable logbook of the rich and famous. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were married in a midnight ceremony at the ranch in 1940, with Katherine Hepburn and Garson Kanin as witnesses. A young John F. Kennedy and his bride Jacqueline spent the first few days of their honeymoon here in 1953, before sailing off to Acapulco on Ronald Colman’s yacht.

Since 1987, the San Ysidro has been owned by Claude Rouas, proprietor of the elegant Auberge de Soleil in the Napa Valley and Rancho Valencia near Rancho Santa Fe. It offers 44 guest rooms and suites distributed among 21 cottages on the property, the various units differing vastly in configuration and tone.The cottage called Pine, for instance, is a series of dollhouse spaces, beautiful in a Portmeironish sort of way--but it could be anywhere, from London to Beverly Hills. We stayed in Lower Hill, one of the oldest stone houses on the property--two big rooms with creaky hardwood floors and stone walls, their age glossed over with thick white paint, and a collection of charming old bric-a-brac, including a tiny child’s hobby horse, some Indian baskets and a peat moss bear. We loved it--though the cottage is unfortunately close to the employee parking lot.

Its isolation, beauty and cachet have long made the San Ysidro a favorite hideaway for honeymooners, anniversary-celebrators and young couples in love. At the same time, the place is obviously making an attempt to appeal to families with young offspring. There’s the aforementioned little playground. There’s a children’s menu (Mr. Mouse’s Crisp Waffle, Lady the Cat’s Favorite Grilled Cheese, Bear’s Big Banana Split), available both from room service and in the restaurants. There are pony rides offered at the stables. Very nice cribs are provided upon request (complete with a baby amenity package, including talc and tearless shampoo), and there are “101 Dalmatians” sheet sets for older kids’ beds. And, from late May through early September and over holiday periods, there’s Camp SYR--a complimentary program of supervised children’s activities (ages 5-12) that’ll keep the little ranchers busy from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Our own children are too young for the program--3 1/2 years and 5 months old, respectively--but we found plenty to keep our older daughter, Maddy, busy while young Isabelle napped or ate or squawked. Maddy loved the playground, loved running up and tumbling down the grassy knolls, loved wandering along the flower-crowded paths. She was mad for Misty, the patient gray pony she rode one morning, wearing an oversized safety helmet and hanging on firmly but not at all in fright to the well-worn pommel of her little saddle as one of the stable managers led her first around the ring and then up a short trail. Although she wasn’t particularly happy when we snuck off alone for dinner each night, leaving her with a wonderful baby-sitter recommended by Santa Barbara friends, she did love her room-service dinners, and liked watching rental videos while nestled in her Dalmatian sheets.

What Maddy loved most of all, though, was the pool. It’s not a huge one, but it’s wonderfully situated, high on the property with a view all the way to the Pacific. It’s a sleepy sort of pool, with big chaise longues and plenty of towels and a young man or woman always in attendance to serve drinks or snacks. There’s no separate children’s pool, but there is a large, shallow plateau on one side, where youngsters can splash around in about a foot and a half of water. This became Maddy’s “home,” she told me, to which she would have repaired a dozen times a day if we’d let her. As it was, we swam twice daily.

As we played in the pool, my wife thought she caught distinct cold glances from some of the other guests. Maybe the San Ysidro wants to make kids welcome, she said later, but even our modest amount of splashing and screeching seemed to genuinely annoy the young-and-in-loves and older-and-trying-to-rests. This, I suppose, is a built-in problem for any resort that tries to have it both ways--as both a family getaway and a romantic hideaway. In any case, we weren’t too bothered by it, and we hoped that we didn’t bother the others too much.

About those dinners a deux : The food at the San Ysidro’s dining room, the Stonehouse, has gotten quite wonderful--and the overall restaurant experience, including the look of the place, the service and the wines as well as what’s on the plate, is absolutely superb. We enjoyed such dishes as seared ahi tuna with fragrant jasmine rice, a hearty tortilla soup with grilled chicken and avocado, pan-roasted ling cod with fried green tomatoes (not to be missed if you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss was about that particular vegetable), an extraordinary honey-glazed lamb shank with cornmeal cakes and a warm peach upside-down cake with ginger-caramel ice cream.

We also dined downstairs from the Stonehouse, at the Plow & Angel Pub. Once we got used to the corny decor and the strangely unsettling yellow light, we enjoyed a satisfying meal of fried calamari, a chicken Caesar salad and a chili-seared meatloaf sandwich, followed by a shared peanut butter ice cream sundae.

When it came time to leave the San Ysidro, we took a set of family photos outside “our” cottage, then set off for home, stopping for lunch in Montecito on the way. I promised Maddy we’d be back next year. A few days later, she said to me in a serious tone, “Nobody else will stay in our cottage while we’re gone, will they?” Well, yes, I told her, they probably will--but, I assured her, when we went back ourselves, we’d find it just as we’d left it. That, after all, is the whole point of the San Ysidro.

Budget for Four

Gas from Los Angeles: $ 26

Two nights, San Ysidro Ranch: $470

Dinner at the Stonehouse: $88.10

Dinner at the Plow & Angel: $35.50

Lunch at pool: $22.98

Lunch at Acacia in Montecito on the way home: $36.40

Pony ride for Maddy: $25

Baby-sitting: $55

Video rentals: $11.90

FINAL TAB: $770.88

The San Ysidro Ranch, 900 San Ysidro Lane, Montecito, Calif. 93108, telephone (805) 969-5046, reservations (800) 368-6788.