Into the woods near the coast

Travelers arriving at the Brewery Gulch Inn, opened in early 2001, find themselves immersed in woodsiness because Ciancutti turned his timber treasure into this inn on a 10-acre site, originally a vegetable farm, where Mendocino County's first brewery and dairy began business in the mid-1800s.

Ciancutti's reclaimed redwood dominates the inn. Shingles cover the facades, posts support the pitched-roofed entryway. Indoors, thick beams extend across the lobby's 35-foot cathedral ceiling. Eight of the 10 guest rooms open onto private decks with redwood railings.

Such natural atmospherics must be complemented with a huge wood-burning fireplace, and Ciancutti doesn't disappoint you. Centered in the Great Room, it's a steel behemoth with double glass doors and a chimney poking through rooftop skylights. Red-stained stone floors transfer the radiant heat.

Furnishings in public areas exemplify Arts & Crafts style (massive quarter-sawn oak tables accompany spindle-back chairs and leather sofas). In my upstairs room, looking over Smugglers Cove amid Pacific Ocean bluffs, I phoned my daughter while lounging in a heavy leather club chair and writing notes on a dark hardwood desk. Down comforters and in-the-wall fireplaces prepare guests for the damp chilliness that prevails after nightfall this far up the coastline.

Bed-and-breakfast innkeepers, it seems, try to outdo one another regarding exotic morning meals. So, joining a pair of long-distance bicyclists from Santa Rosa, an Oregon RV trio, and a second-honeymoon couple from Cincinnati, I pondered a menu listing such exotica as brioche French toast topped with a Grand Marnier-apple-cranberry saut, and carmelized banana and praline pecan pancakes doused in vanilla-bourbon maple syrup. The Smugglers Breakfast, a simple alternative, brings eggs, potatoes, bacon, and apple-chicken sausage to the table.