After years of lugging things up and down the hill Brad hired a local carpenter to build a wooden slide with a cart on it, but he couldn’t afford the powerful motor they would need to run it. Delivery trucks can’t drive up and deliver directly to the kitchen. Perhaps the biggest challenge of running a restaurant down a steep, wooded creekside slope is getting supplies in and out. These guys really liked Brad and Ed and to show their support they put up billboards for the Shadowbrook on the Bayshore freeway in Sunnyvale. If those names sound familiar it’s because that’s the company that owns most of the billboards along the highways in California. A couple of their first customers were salesmen from Foster & Kleiser. That first season as a restaurant in 1947 was slow because they had missed the summer rush, but things quickly changed. A newer version of those original biscuits called “orange rolls” were a popular part of Shadowbrook’s brunch service until 2008 when brunch was discontinued in order to accommodate more Sunday weddings. Ed’s first menu included something called orange sugared biscuits that had orange peel shredded into the dough. Ed was the chef and Brad was the Maitre d’ & waiter. One family in the top floor and one family below. They built living quarters for themselves in a water tower that was at the top of the property. Finally, he and his wife Bea showed the place to their friends Ed and Virginia Phillippet and before the visit was over the two couples decided to move in here.Īfter six months of work here they decided to open up the main room as a dinner house called the Shadowbrook. So he bought it and he came down on weekends to work on it. He found that the property was owned by the bank and they would let him have it for $800 down and $80 per month. The windows were broken and it was in sad shape, but he fell in love with the place and with the setting. He came down this hill cutting his way through the underbrush when he came upon the abandoned Tea Room. Her cat was missing so Brad offered to help search. In 1943 a guy named Brad McDonald was just out of the Navy and living in San Francisco and he was visiting his mother who lived up on Wharf Road. It changed hands again after the Tea Room but by the 1940’s the place was abandoned. Afterward, they would float them back down to the beach. The owners would take a shallow bottom boat down the creek and entice tourists to float up the river to take tea. It has a massive fireplace and hanging balcony which leads the way to all six dining rooms located on four different levels. At some point it was enlarged with the addition of the Fireplace Room, which is still in use today as a dining room. It was originally a log cabin built in the 1920’s as a summer home that was accessible only from Soquel Creek. The Shadowbrook building has been here for almost 100 years. Opened in October of 1947 with a promise of delivering Romance in Dining, this is not only the most romantic place to dine in the entire Santa Cruz area but was designated one of the Top 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in all of America by the 5 million voters of Open Table.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |