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Mendocino Cove is a new boutique hotel with amenities that include pickleball courts and wellness offerings, including a sauna, outdoor hot tub, cold plunge, massage treatments and fitness center. Guests also have direct access to a private beach. The property was formerly the Pine Beach Inn. (Courtesy Nikolas Zvolensky)
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Mendocino Cove is a new boutique hotel with amenities that include pickleball courts and wellness offerings, including a sauna, outdoor hot tub, cold plunge, massage treatments and fitness center. Guests also have direct access to a private beach. The property was formerly the Pine Beach Inn. (Courtesy Nikolas Zvolensky)
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A new 50-room boutique hotel on the Mendocino coast operated by a North Bay couple is set to make its debut next month.
Mendocino Cove will open nearly 10 years after Teresa Raffo and Chris Hougie started their glamp site, called Mendocino Grove. The 70-year-old property situated on 36 acres was formerly a traditional campground.
Mendocino Cove is not an upscale camping site like Mendocino Grove, but rather a hotel with amenities that include eight pickleball courts and wellness offerings, including a sauna, outdoor hot tub, cold plunge, massage treatments and fitness center. Guests also have direct access to a private beach, according to Raffo.
Raffo and Hougie bought the former Pine Beach Inn about five years ago and began working to transform it into what would become Mendocino Cove, she said.
“It’s a pretty historical property on the coast that was started in the late 30s,” Raffo said. “It kept getting added on to and really hadn’t been redone since the 80s.”
The new boutique hotel also will give guests a variety of rooms to choose from. Some have suites with an ocean view, others are styled more as a motor lodge with a “modern yet relaxed vibe,” according to the release. Several garden suites will open early next year that are more residential with private garden settings.
The hotel had a soft opening over Labor Day, Raffo said, and will have its grand opening Nov. 24.
Over the winter, Mendocino Cove will begin food service with a light breakfast, and tapas in the evening with wine and beer, Raffo said.
A full restaurant is in the works.
“We’re in negotiation with a couple of restaurants right now,” she said. “It will definitely serve food that’s very kind of farm-to-table because we’re in such a great growing region” and seafood will be part of the menu. As of now, the restaurant is expected to open in the spring.
The couple started in the hospitality business in 2001 when they bought Cornerstone Sonoma, an event venue and outdoor marketplace located on Arnold Drive in Sonoma. The property is situated between Sonoma and Napa counties.
Raffo and Hougie sold Cornerstone Sonoma in 2013 and “we were sort of ready to figure out our next project,” she said.
They set their sights on Mendocino.
“We have been living here full time for six years now,” she said. “We are definitely part of this community, and it’s been a really pretty amazing place to be.” The couple relocated from St. Helena.
Mendocino Grove’s success gave them the confidence to grow their business and build Mendocino Cove.
“We’re a little bit more seasoned now at this kind of hospitality,” Raffo said. “I couldn’t have done this 10 years ago, so it feels good to be doing it now.”
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