Photograph by George Sakkestad
The first thing guests at Dana Schroeder's Twin Lions Estate see is the tiled entryway and double spiral staircases.
Bed-and-breakfast is a dream come true for LG's Schroeder
By Shari Kaplan
Dana Schroeder and her family love their sprawling home and gardens on the outskirts of Los Gatos near the Saratoga border. However, she and husband Ted travel frequently, their son is away at college now and their teen daughter is going off to boarding school. So Schroeder decided to share that love of her home with others.
Schroeder has turned some of the 17,000 square-foot English Tudor-style property into a bed-and-breakfast, which she has named Twin Lions Estate after the pair of large stone felines that guard the front door. Although she says Los Gatos town regulations do not permit this type of establishment, Schroeder lives in an unincorporated part of town that falls under the jurisdiction of Santa Clara County, which, she happily says, does permit bed-and-breakfasts.
"I love the bed-and-breakfast type of atmosphere. It's friendly and warm. It's also a great way to meet new people," says Schroeder, who has stayed with her husband in many European B&Bs. "But being an American, I also like the conveniences of hotels, like having in-room bathrooms and TVs."
And so, as she explains it, she combined 18th-century elegance with 21st-century comfort, having much of the estate decorated with the styles and antiques of France circa the 1700s. Although the family made the property their home, Schroeder says she always planned on having a B&B some day.
"I've been researching this for a few years now," she says, relating all the books she read, the phone calls she made and the advice she solicited. Offering particularly helpful encouragement, she adds, were friends who run a B&B near Hearst Castle and her Aunt Mitzi--actually her husband's aunt-who runs a B&B in San Francisco.
After 18 months of renovations and preparations, Twin Lions Estate officially opened on May 1, although it has already hosted weddings and community events, including the Casino Royale and Christmas Tour fundraisers for Saratoga High School's performing arts center and a benefit for Al Gore's 2000 election campaign.
Between the main building and guest cottage, Twin Lions offers four rooms for lodgers-two more are in the works-all with private bathrooms, robes, televisions and telephones; some also have fireplaces, balconies or Internet access. All guests have access to a workout room, racquetball court, tennis court, library, home theater, lap pool, Jacuzzi and recreation room with a pool table, jukebox, darts and board games.
Along with beds, guests also get breakfast, which they take in a formal dining room. Meals are prepared by Pilar DiCola, the estate manager, who lives on-site with her husband and two daughters. Schroeder sometimes assists her. Their specialties include blueberry buckwheat pancakes, hot crab soufflé, huevos rancheros, applesauce-spice muffins and chocolate-peanut butter muffins.
Each afternoon, DiCola sets out snacks that reveal a gourmet spin on the cheese-and-crackers tradition. At Twin Lions Estate, these "snacks"-always accompanied by wine-might be brie baked in a pastry, seafood dip with crackers, or sourdough bread with cheese.
Schroeder hopes to attract everyone from business travelers to Santa Cruz Mountain wine-tasters to celebrities performing at Montalvo or the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.
For more information about Twin Lions Estate, call 408.399.3161 or visit www.twinlionsestate.com.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
