Take a look inside SLO’s Hotel Cerro, with its rooftop pool and 360-degree views
After about five years of design and construction, Hotel Cerro is now open in downtown San Luis Obispo — and it doesn’t spare expense or luxury.
The 65-room hotel, which boasts the city’s only rooftop pool, an edible garden, a restaurant and a spa, began taking bookings as of Friday. Room rates range from $300 to $800 for the higher-end suites.
Brasserie SLO, the hotel’s restaurant, opened on Jan. 23, and Spa Cerro has been open since December, with public availability for treatments.
The hotel situated between Marsh, Garden and Broad streets — part of which replaces the old SLO Brewing Co. location on Garden Street — is the last of three larger hotels to open in SLO, totaling 245 rooms.
Offering picturesque rooftop views of Bishop Peak and Cerro San Luis, it trails the 78-room Hotel SLO that opened in October and the 102-room La Quinta Inn, which opened in May 2019.
The hotel isn’t entirely finished, with some final touches remaining after nearly a year and a half delay.
The hotel’s distillery, for example, isn’t quite ready for customers, said Beverley Matthews, a hotel operating partner. The distillery will will feature a tasting area open to the public.
“We’ve basically opened piece by piece, with soft openings,” Matthews said. “... We had delays mainly because of the complexity of building in a downtown area.”
The asset partners of the business are Alex Pananides, Patrick Smith and Hamish Marshall. Beverley Matthews and her husband Shaun Matthews are the operating partners.
“It may take a year of two for us to really start seeing the full effect, but our success will partly rely on getting people to stay here on their trips north and south instead of moving on to Monterey or Santa Barbara,” Matthews said.
Matthews added: “This is a new kind of experience for San Luis Obispo. It’s a luxury experience, where people might come here and say ‘I didn’t know this type of place existed (in SLO).”
A preview of the hotel
A sneak peek at the new hotel reveals high-end design touches like the stylish ceramic tiles on the rooftop pool deck and bathroom shower walls, hardwood flooring in the guest rooms, and sophisticated soundproofing that creates a sudden silence inside a room after closing a door to the outside noises.
“That was important because we are in the heart of downtown, and our guests wouldn’t want to hear noise late at night,” Matthews said.
Standard rooms are about 450 square feet and feature pure linen bedding; complimentary, reusable water bottles; and access to on-site amenities such as the edible garden, rooftop pool and bar, and fitness room.
Some suites include a fountain-like spout of water that pours from the ceiling into a tub, filling up the bath from high above.
The edible garden, located on an upper floor of the complex, offers a host of plants for guests to pick, including some used for the restaurant’s menu items. They include parsley, lettuce, wasabi arugula, kale, radishes and strawberries. Balconies outside some rooms overlook the hotel’s garden.
The rooftop, which includes a bar and a 4-foot-deep swimming pool, offers 360-degree views of the mountains and typically will only be open to guests, although the hotel will offer access to the public on a limited basis. Special events can be hosted there, for example, and the hotel is considering opening the space one night a week using a ticket system, Matthews said.
“Once we have determined a start date, we shall provide Eventbrite ticket purchase,” Matthews said. “It is likely to be for one evening a week at sunset, and the bar will be available for drinks. We have yet to determine a price.”
For larger gatherings, an area for meetings and celebrations has a capacity for up to 75 guests and offers an “airy venue with glass doors and natural light,” the hotel’s website says.
What to eat at SLO Brasserie
Hotel Cerro’s restaurant, Brasserie SLO, is located in the former SLO Brew’s first-floor concert space, lined by the familiar brick wall, which was retained as part of the hotel’s architecture.
The name was derived from the French version of an an informal restaurant, with a large selection of drinks. “Brasserie” also is French for “brewery.”
The restaurant features a “modern Mediterranean” menu with a wood-fired grill and wood-burning oven, and Matthews said it will rely both on out-of-town guests and loyal, local customers.
The menu, which includes lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, features entrees such as a $24 wine-braised volcano lamb shank and a $28 oak-roasted Muscovy duck breast, as well as Morro Bay oysters for up to $26 depending on portion and $40 California caviar.
A host of vegetarian options are also available, such as pan-roasted king trumpets ($13), harissa grilled cauliflower ($11.25) and nantes carrot risotto ($18).
Cocktails range from $10 to $13, including vodka, tequila, and rum concoctions. The bar is open to the public until the restaurant’s closing time, which is 9 p.m.
“As time progresses, we will work to instill trust and excitement for new ideas in each patron that dines at SLO Brasserie,” said James Anderson, the hotel’s head chef. “Community is our greatest asset; we will work each day to build upon that within and outside our doors.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 1:03 PM.
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