As an Oakland highschool pupil who often traipsed to Berkeley’s Telegraph Ave., I at all times handed by the Claremont Resort & Membership. It was a beacon; its stately, white façade perched atop the Berkeley Hills loomed over my highschool years like a sentinel of magnificence. To me, it was greater than a lodge. It was a fairy tale-like image of timeless refinement.
Through the years, that very same fortress of grace grew to become a part of my life. I attended weddings, events and retreats there, at all times drawn in by its grandeur. So once I lastly had the prospect to spend an evening—in its Tower Suite no much less— full with a rooftop terrace that stretches out towards the Bay—it felt like coming residence, solely elevated, actually and emotionally.
The Tower Suite encompasses a furnished terrace that overlooks the bay. Picture by Dan Miller
A Century of Presence
Claremont Resort & Membership opened in 1915, perched on 22 acres the place the Berkeley and Oakland hills meet. Its origin story is worthy of its structure: a grand Tudor-style property constructed on the outdated Peralta land grant ultimately evolving into one of many area’s defining landmarks. Over the many years, considerate restorations have preserved its basic strains whereas updating the interiors for contemporary friends. Most not too long ago, a administration shift introduced a refined new chapter: the resort marked its a hundred and tenth anniversary, accomplished a considerate restoration, and reintroduced itself beneath a spring rebrand as an unbiased property. By way of all of it, the Claremont’s important character stays unchanged. This continuity is a part of why the Claremont feels bigger than its historical past. It’s not only a constructing on a hill; it’s a presence, one which has held its place for greater than a century.
Traditional room
Rooms With a View
With 276 guestrooms and a small assortment of suites, the Claremont balances grand scale with a way of calm. The Tower Bay View Suite, the place I stayed, combines beneficiant residing house with a furnished rooftop terrace that fairly actually opens up the Bay. Far beneath, the lights of Oakland, San Francisco, and the Golden Gate twinkled. Different suites, from spacious one-bedrooms to the expansive Presidential Suite, provide various sq. footage but the identical understated luxurious, considerate design, and a perspective on the Bay that’s cinematic in scope.
Deluxe room
Eating Above the Bay
The resort’s culinary coronary heart is Limewood Bar & Restaurant, the place brasserie-style black-and-white tile flooring, a stamped tin ceiling, purple banquettes, pendant lighting, and an open kitchen create an environment that’s vibrant and welcoming. Add the sweeping panorama and Limewood is a standout even earlier than the primary cocktail is poured. It’s elegant but informal. Refined but approachable. Whether or not for a particular occasion, a date, or dinner along with your Cal pupil, Limewood supplies an environment appropriate for each event, all ages, and each mind-set, with menu and drink selections to match. And that view? It’s icing on the flourless chocolate cake.
Limewood’s environment is appropriate for any event
The close by Foyer Lounge is as ideally suited for gentle bites and cocktails as it’s for morning espresso and laptops. For one thing extra informal, East Bay Provisions is the lodge’s all-day cease for Oakland-based Mr. Espresso espresso, contemporary pastries, and simple snacks. On my morning espresso run, the house buzzed with each lodge friends and membership members contemporary from a exercise, making a relaxed neighborhood-meets-resort really feel. The actual draw right here, although, is the pastry program. The resort maintains a century-old sourdough starter—affectionately known as “Lenny”—that anchors its breads and pastries. Its most talked-about creation is the now-famous “squassant,” a seasonal, laminated hybrid that went viral and shortly earned a everlasting place on the menu. Flavors rotate, however the final result is identical: it sells out every morning, making East Bay Provisions a vital first cease of the day.
The Foyer Lounge is as ideally suited for cocktails as it’s for morning espresso
The Membership: An City Escape
What makes The Membership on the Claremont so compelling is how uncommon it’s at present: a full-scale non-public membership unfold throughout hillside acreage, full with palm bushes, manicured gardens, and the type of respiratory room that feels more and more uncommon within the Bay Space. The setting has a distinctly Mediterranean sensibility with sun-warmed furnished decks that overlook impeccable gardens and the shimmer of the Bay past.
Three heated outside swimming pools anchor the house. It’s the kind of place the place you may spend a complete afternoon drifting between the lap lanes, the deck, and a shaded terrace with a ebook. Paired with a remedy on the spa, the expertise turns into probably the most easy day journeys conceivable.
The health and recreation choices add to the membership’s vitality: Pilates and biking studios, a full roster of lessons, and an energetic tennis and pickleball neighborhood that retains the courts busy from daybreak to nightfall. The whole lot right here is designed to really feel expansive, not simply in dimension, however in spirit
The Membership options three swimming swimming pools
The primary foyer
A Crew That Defines the Expertise
What units the Claremont aside, greater than its dramatic structure or hillside vantage, is the longevity of its workers. Many staff have been a part of the property for many years, shaping a tradition of service that’s heat and guaranteed. Their familiarity with returning friends creates an environment of continuity hardly ever present in fashionable lodges.
Enduring Enchantment
For me, staying on the Claremont carries the nostalgia of my teen years, the enjoyment of celebration, and the angle of maturity suddenly. The lodge that when felt impossibly grand from beneath is simply as fascinating up shut, solely now, for me its enchantment isn’t simply architectural. It’s emotional.
The Claremont stays a landmark not due to its dimension or its views, however as a result of it has spent greater than a century changing into a part of the lives round it. And for anybody who has ever seemed up at it from Oakland or Berkeley, the prospect to remain inside its historic partitions seems like each a luxurious and a type of homecoming.
Images courtesy of Claremont Resort & Membership, except in any other case famous
