‘A good time’: Los Robles Lodge was a beloved Santa Rosa landmark for over 40 years

Although Los Robles Lodge in Santa Rosa is long gone, residents are quick to conjure sweet memories of it.

Los Robles was a 105-room motor lodge near the Coddingtown Mall shopping center. It opened in 1962, and for over four decades it was the site of family dinners, holiday parties, dazzling banquets, conferences, brunches, weddings, a lively lounge and an outdoor swimming pool.

Hotels typically receive business from tourists, but at Los Robles about 80% of its business was local, according to a 1988 advertisement in The Press Democrat. The Los Robles restaurant, fondly remembered by many for its Friday night seafood buffet, was a popular dining spot.

“All of our business comes from the local community. We have no big national reservation program. That’s why we need the community on our side,” lodge owner Claus Neumann said in 1988.

Los Robles was opened by Neumann and Tony Vicini. The lodge also had a late-night coffee shop, bar, dance floor and entertainment stage.

During the 1960s, Neumann advertised a courtesy bus that not only did airport runs for out-of-town guests but also catered to local residents. Around noon each day, the bus made trips to nearby administrative buildings and the courthouse to pick up anyone who wanted to eat lunch at the Los Robles restaurant.

The bus service was also provided for dinner. “If you wish to stay past 10 p.m., don’t worry, as we will have the Bus at your disposal all evening,” a 1966 Los Robles ad said.

The Friday night seafood buffet had long tables of fish, crab and oysters. Diners would search for the hidden pearl in the oysters, which Vicini’s widow, Lorraine, said in a recent interview was her husband’s idea.

Tony Vicini left the lodge about five years after its opening. The Vicini family lived across the street from Los Robles when Vicini was co-owner.

Lorraine Vicini remembered a party at the lodge that ordered a lot of cheesecake. She helped the chef by making extra cheesecakes at home from a family recipe.

“And now that’s all my family wants for dessert, is this cheesecake for their birthdays,” said Lorraine Vicini, 82.

Another memorable moment was the time Tony and Lorraine Vicini got drinks at the lodge and met with actors George Peppard and Elizabeth Ashley while they were shooting “The Third Day,” a 1965 thriller filmed in Bodega Bay.

“I was just starstruck,” Lorraine Vicini said.

A 1986 profile of Neumann in The Press Democrat noted that Los Robles was popular with V.I.P. movie star visitors in Sonoma County including Barbra Streisand, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

Los Robles with its elegant and traditional atmosphere was a sentimental place to Santa Rosa residents.

“When they get married, when they have a birthday dinner or anniversary party, they come here because this is where that special feeling began for them. They wouldn’t go anywhere else,” Neumann said of customers in 1986.

But when the lodge closed in 2006, Neumann told The Press Democrat he felt it was time. He said, "I drive by Los Robles and sometimes I say, 'It was a good time,' but you know, it could not have lasted forever."

Los Robles Lodge was located at 925 Edwards Ave. Currently near that address is an apartment complex and Dick’s Sporting Goods store.

Neumann died in 2011. Vicini died in 2013.

See the gallery above for photos of Los Robles Lodge during the 1960s.