Inn Season : Nostalgia and good food lure a visitor back to the Russian River. : Destination: California & Massachusetts

GUERNEVILLE —  Lured by redwood forests, fog-tempered summers and sandy swimming holes, vacationers have been coming to the Russian River since the turn of the century. Once known as San Francisco’s Riviera, the Russian River resort area was a day trip by ferry and train.

Travelers stayed in rough cabins or in scores of resorts and camps along the railroad tracks that, until 1935, extended north from Sausalito to Monte Rio and Guerneville. When I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the railroad was gone but my family of 10 car-camped or stayed at friends’ cabins near the river.

I recently made a trip to see how the area is doing. During last winter’s floods, when the river rose high above its banks, many dwellings and businesses were ravaged and access was cut off for several days. Now, the natural beauty seems unaffected and business is back to normal. The only flood reminders are a handful of boarded up buildings.

Sonoma County’s celebrated wineries and food have widened the area’s appeal, especially in the fall when the fog retreats, warm temperatures remain and the vineyards blaze with colors of harvest gold and burgundy. For those who didn’t inherit one of the rustic family cabins that still cling to the river’s steep banks, a number of bed and breakfast inns serving dinner can provide a complete romantic getaway.

Each of the five inns I dined at appealed to me for different reasons. One inn is a nostalgic gambol into the past with the funk-amid-natural-beauty for which the Russian River is known. Three others--converted from a farmhouse, a family estate and a manor house--provide casual-to-formal settings for breakfast and dinner. The fifth is highlighted by a five-star dining experience.

All are convenient bases from which to experience the Russian River Valley and its canoeing, hiking, swimming, bicycling and wine tasting.

From the turnoff on U.S. 101, 60 miles from San Francisco and just five miles north of Santa Rosa, River Road heads west into the Russian River resort area. At the junction is Vintners Inn. Its setting among the vineyards, its sun-colored walls, arched doorways and peaked tile roofs give it the appearance of a country hotel in Provence.

The spacious rooms have vineyard or courtyard views and are decorated in antique pine and European prints. Some rooms have fireplaces; the fireplace tiles have a grape leaf motif. Delicious breakfasts of fresh fruit and pastries are served in a cozy dining room adjacent to the lobby and library.

But the main draw is the restaurant, John Ash & Co. The chef is now Jeffrey Madura, but John Ash comes back once a month to prepare and host winemaker’s dinners, bringing with him baskets of organic produce grown at Fetzer Vineyards Valley Oaks Winery, where he is the culinary director.

The food here is California-style with Asian accents. The menu changes monthly with an eye toward seasonal specialties. For those who take dietary restrictions on vacation, a low-fat menu is offered a la carte or three courses for a fixed price ($19.95).

The cafe, which includes the bar and adjacent outside patio, serves appetizers, pizza, pasta and sandwiches. Oysters on the half shell at $1.50 each and rosemary flat bread with sun-dried tomatoes, eggplant and hard Asiago cheese ($7.95) make perfect appetizers to go with a glass of Fume Blanc and a sunset. Other choices include two crispy thick crab cakes on a bed of wilted greens with a dollop of serrano chile mayonnaise ($8.95) or fried calamari rings to dip in a sweet-hot Thai-basil sauce ($8.95).

The high-ceiling dining room is divided by horizontal oak trellises. Pale yellow and mint green walls contrast with the highly glossed terra-cotta floor. A soup appetizer of black bean chowder flecked with corn and pepper jack cheese ($5.95) is a great prelude to an entree of grilled pork tenderloin with a tart raspberry vinegar sauce laden with shallots and shiitake mushrooms ($12.95 or $17.95, depending on portion size). Desserts ($4.95 each) range from classic bread pudding and strawberry shortcake to an original macadamia nut, caramel and chocolate tart.

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Beyond Vintners Inn, River Road passes produce stands, market gardens, dairy cows and vineyards. After eight miles, redwoods begin to replace valley oaks and willow trees. On the left, surrounded by oaks and the first redwoods, sits the yellow Farmhouse Inn.

This country inn is 5 years old. The rooms, in what were once farm workers’ cabins, are done in English cottage-style with suite-like sitting areas and fireplaces. Three rooms have their own saunas and Jacuzzi-tubs and two suites offer separate living rooms and accommodate children. It’s comfortable and casual, without the European feel of Vintners Inn.

Innkeeper Becky Smith chattily lead me on a tour of the place, including the garden and pool. She’s a great resource for events in the area. Farmhouse Inn chef, Jack Burton, a Portland transplant, prepares Mediterranean-style dishes Thursday through Sunday. His ginger chicken won-tons ($5.50) are spicy and fragrant in a sweet-hot broth. An Italian green salad ($5.95) with peppery-sugared almonds continues the spicy-sweet theme.

The inn’s mixed grill ($13.95) includes skewers of lemon-fennel pork, chicken and salmon with perfectly cooked green beans. Herb-roasted chicken breast ($12.95) has a lemony-mustard glaze. The house-made cheesecake is served with mulberry sauce made from berries picked from a bush in the garden.

Just before dinner, Jack can be found picking herbs for seasoning and garnishes. Becky is usually prepping for breakfast while Jack prepares dinners. Her croissants rise all night and are among the best in wine country. Before I left, Jack was preparing for a 50th birthday party dinner while Becky set outside tables and placed croquet wickets in the lawn for the guests’ entertainment.

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About a mile farther west on River Road travelers catch the first glimpse of the Russian River, which is lined by a corridor of oaks and willows. After crossing a bridge, a right-hand turn on Westside Road leads visitors through the Russian River Valley, past vineyards and farms along a narrow road that takes you to Madrona Manor.

The lovely manor house, with its collection of antiques and exquisitely carved beds, its gardens, veranda and carriage house and its excellent meals, is a one-stop destination for those who want to relive the rich life of the 19th Century.

Owned by Carol and John Muir, Madrona Manor was once the country house of wealthy entrepreneur John Alexander Paxton, who built it in 1880. Spending weekends here, he came by train to nearby Healdsburg on Friday evenings and returned to San Francisco on Monday mornings.

One of his two original dining rooms is still in use (French doors lead to a large terrace). Service is slow, but if you don’t want to go anywhere else it adds to the feeling of being in someone’s home. Todd Muir is the executive chef and creative inspiration for the ever-changing, seasonal California-style menu.

My favorite appetizers are corn cakes with rock shrimp salsa and caviar ($10.75) and a multilayered Dungeness crab and crisp won-ton skin salad ($9.75). The entrees come in the most original combinations. Lamb tenderloin is pan seared and served on a lacy potato crisp with a rich glazed reduction sauce ($22). Tea-smoked Sonoma duck breast with Chinese spices is served with ginger, orange and garlic sauces and braised greens ($19).

Every night a fixed price menu of four courses with optional pairing of a glass of wine with each course is offered ($40 for menu only, $60 with wine). Desserts include a superb hot blackberry crisp with fresh cream ($5.50) and a Caribbean banana cream cake with chocolate curls and papaya sauce ($5.75).

In winter, Madrona Manor features a series of cooking classes and imports chefs from Europe to prepare special dinners. The Dickens Christmas Feast, held several times in December, includes a traditional English dinner and carolers dressed in period costume.

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The next inn is located near Guerneville, about 15 miles downstream from Madrona Manor and about 15 miles from U.S. 101. From River Road, turn south at Guerneville onto California 116 to reach Applewood, An Estate Inn.

Winding up the Applewood driveway, you see a remodeled family home and new units built in a complementary Mission-style around a courtyard. The original home was built by a Santa Rosa family during the Russian River heyday in the 1920s and is the only building in the area to have historical landmark status.

Applewood is owned by Darryl Notter and Jim Caron, who, with his family in the 1950s, also spent summers in the Russian River. The inn features richly appointed rooms and a secluded swimming pool. A swim in the pool is more private than anywhere on the river, a couple I met assured me. They live in the nearby Napa Valley and stay frequently at the inn because the weather, scenery and stylish accommodations are “so inviting.”

Walking into the lobby, I was struck by the magnificent, double-sided stone fireplace, with hearths in the sitting and dining rooms. The dining room, once a porch, was enclosed in 1939.

Dinners are served five nights a week at one 7:15 seating. One menu is offered each night so visitors can call ahead to see what is being served. Each menu’s three or four courses feature colorful locally grown food and bread from Brother Juniper’s Bakery in nearby Forestville. A salad of Sonoma greens with beefsteak tomatoes and a mellow gumbo were on my menu. Dessert was a wonderful chocolate pecan torte. The next night’s menu included roasted corn chowder with red peppers, baked salmon with basil, tomato and cucumber buerre blanc, and an eight-layered Tuscan cream cake. Prices range from $22.50 to $32.50. Cooked-to-order breakfasts, from omelets to eggs Florentine, are served with homemade breads.

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Before leaving this paradise of past and present, I had to check out one more inn. Both my family and my father’s family had visited the Cazanoma Lodge, built in 1926. To get there turn right from River Road on the Cazadero Highway just west of Monte Rio, about 25 miles from U.S. 101.

Arriving at the lodge, which is a mile off Cazadero on a dirt road, I waited for the dust to settle and then climbed the stairs to the lobby and dining room. Complimentary fruit and cheese and a bottle of wine are in each of the upstairs rooms, all of which looked comfortable if not fancy. Two cabins offer seclusion in the redwoods. The Shady Nook cabin has a fireplace and a deck overlooking a creek.

Inside the hotel, the bar, terrace and outside dining areas overlook the cascading waterfall and--the reason I’ve come--a fern-rimmed trout pond. Hearty portions of German-American fare appeal to a loyal and friendly local clientele. The Sunday brunch menu features a buffet of salads and fruit, plus fluffy omelets, eggs Benedict, steak and eggs and fresh trout.

The pond is stocked with hundreds of hungry trout. I told my waitress I wanted to catch my own and she dispatched a busboy to help. He carried a plate of sausage bits and put one on a hook. I swung a worn willow pole into the pond and he yelled, “Pull!” After a couple of tries I managed to snag a nice eight-inch trout, which the busboy grabbed and unhooked. He took it to the chef and within 20 minutes it came out on a plate, boned and served with a mound of potatoes, drawn butter and lemon wedges.

I anticipated a dining experience akin to one recorded by the late M.F.K. Fisher, who in her book, “As They Were,” wrote about having “truite au bleu” in an auberge in France in the ‘30s. I won’t say the meal met my expectations, but the trout was superbly fresh.

After walking around the trout pond, listening to locals trading gossip with the lodge’s owners and overhearing the wedding plans of a group at the dinner table next to me, I realized I was captivated once more by the wonders of this vacation area.

The Russian River rises again.

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GUIDEBOOK

Along the Russian River

Getting there: The closest airport is in Santa Rosa. United flies there from LAX, connecting through San Francisco, starting at $199 round trip.

Where to stay: Vintners Inn & John Ash & Co., 4350 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95403; telephones (707) 575-7350 or (800) 421-2584. Bed & Breafast: $128-$185. Dinners: $12.95-$19.95

The Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant, 7871 River Road, Forestville, CA 95436; tel. (707) 887-3300 or (800) 464-6642. Bed & Breakfast: $105-$175. Dinners: $11.95-$16.95

Applewood, An Estate Inn, 13555 Highway 116, Guerneville, CA 95446; tel. (707) 869-9093. Bed & Breakfast: $125-$250. Dinners: $22.50-$32.50

Madrona Manor, 1001 Westside Road, P.O. Box 818, Healdsburg, CA 95448; tel. (707) 433-4231 or (800) 258-4003. Bed & Breakfast: $140-$240. Dinners: $17.00-$60.

Cazanoma Lodge, P.O. Box 37, Cazadero, CA 95421; tel. (707) 632-5255. Rooms: $65-$125. Dinners: $10-$15.50. Brunch: $8.50-$11.75