New hotel with rooftop bar, saltwater pool opens in Paso Robles. Look inside

Paso Robles’ newest boutique hotel has opened its doors over a decade since its first blueprints were drawn out.

The Ava Hotel at 944 Pine St. was first dreamed of by its owners Debbie and Brett VanSteenwyk in 2012. Now, 13 years later, the VanSteenwyks cut the ribbon in front of the four-story hotel on Wednesday.

“I put the first shovel of dirt in the ground, and now I’m going to cut the ribbon, and I don’t know if I’m going to make it without breaking down,” Debbie VanSteenwyk told The Tribune. “It’s been so much stress, and if it couldn’t have happened without Brett, and him believing in my vision. He just kept having faith in me, because I did have faith that we could do it.”

The VanSteenwyks celebrated the ribbon-cutting of the hotel with city officials, project managers and staff. Norma Moye, executive director of the Paso Robles Downtown Association, sat in the lobby and watched the celebrations.

“Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous,” she told The Tribune. “I am so impressed with everybody. It’s a tremendous asset to Paso Robles. I hope everybody appreciates it.”

The hotel has 151 rooms with 24 varieties and is open for reservations, with multiple guests staying in its first night open, VanSteenwyk said.

Its three restaurants — Pine Street Bistro, EMRE and Esperanza — all serve different cuisines ranging from French grab-and-go, Mediterranean and Baja-coastline-inspired cuisine.

The Ava Hotel has a rooftop bar and saltwater pool and plenty of lounge areas on the rooftop and lobby, a feature to bring comfortability and to make guests feel at home.

“We wanted people to walk in and kind of feel like they were stepping into somebody’s home,” Ashley Lorenz, controller of The Ava Hotel, told The Tribune. “That they felt comfortable to spend time in the lobby, spend time on the roof deck, in these spaces that we’ve made to feel kind of cozy.”

With classic Paso Robles charm, The Ava Hotel’s architecture and design reflects its wine country and artwork, according to Studio Sinclair principal Sherry Kobashigawa.

“Instead of it being so blatant, I think it was more of a feeling,” she told The Tribune. “I’m glad that the community feels like the space reflects Paso too, because that was really the whole goal all along, for it to really be a space where the community felt like it was worthy of Paso, the architecture and downtown.”

The first floor of The Ava Hotel has six retail spaces, with two leased already, according to Lorenz. A women’s clothing store, Bounding Main, is set to open in December, and hair salon Sip and Style Blow Dry Bar will build out in the near future, Lorenz said.

Beyond its three restaurants and lounge space, VanSteenwyk said she sees art shows, wine tasting events and collaborations with other local hotels for conference space in the hotel’s 3,000-square-foot Tablas ballroom.

Having The Ava Hotel built for residents of Paso Robles to visit, lounge, gather and connect was the VanSteenwyks’ biggest goal.

“I wanted more for Paso, and I wanted more for the downtown, and I wanted more for the local people,” Debbie VanSteenwyk said. “That’s my biggest happy note.”

For more information

The Ava Hotel is in its soft opening phase, with plans for a grand opening in December, according to the VanSteenwyks.

The hotel at 944 Pine St. is now open for reservations.

For more information, visit its website or call 805-257-1000.

This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 12:16 PM.