New hotel with a curious name opens in SLO County. Take a look inside
A new hotel has opened its automatic sliding doors in San Luis Obispo County, but don’t let it’s three-town name fool you. It’s only located in one of them.
The new Cambria Hotel Templeton-Paso Robles had its grand opening on Thursday evening at 1000 Las Tablas Road in Templeton. Its name comes from Choice Hotels International, a hospitality company that runs a hotel brand called Cambria Hotels.
This Cambria Hotel just happens to be in close quarters with the SLO County town by the same name, co-owner David Wood told The Tribune.
“There’s now 70 Cambrias across the country, it just turns out that the name Cambria is close to the city of Cambria on the coast,” he said.
The hotel was dreamt up by its co-owner Doug Filipponi, who also owns Ancient Peaks Winery and co-owns Santa Margarita Ranch. Living in the wine world, Filipponi wanted to take the next step: hotel hospitality.
“You always have to look into the future,” Filipponi told The Tribune. “You have to take the risk, take a chance, and life’s all about taking chances. We took a chance and created this so people can enjoy the hospitality we can show here in North County on the Central Coast.”
Filipponi took a chance with brothers David and Andrew Wood five years ago, when the three owners visited the 2.1-acre space in Templeton and realized it would “make a great spot for a hotel.”
“This was just a grassy lot,” Filipponi said. “It was just an elevated lot, and we had to kind of stand here and look around and visualize a hotel there.”
That early vision broke ground into full-fledged construction in September 2023 and last week opened as a 132-room boutique hotel with “elevated amenities” like black-out curtains in every room, a pool, jacuzzi and cabanas, three fire pits and lounge seating.
The three-floor hotel offers dual queen bedrooms, single king bedrooms and suites that can house up to 10 guests. Green accents and soft lighting bring comfort to the hotel rooms, and art of horses and Western-style influence is curated on blank walls.
“We love the timeless aspect of it,” Wood said. “When you drive up to the property, it looks like it’s been there for a while. It’s early California. It has flavors of the barn, farm, ranch. We wanted to incorporate that.”
Despite its timeless details, Cambria Hotel Templeton-Paso Robles is one of the few hotels in SLO County to be solar-powered, Filipponi said. Solar panels adorn the hotel’s roof, and the hotel’s parking lot offers complimentary EV charging stations for guests.
In the Cambria Hotel’s 88,000 square feet of space, an on-site restaurant and bar called The Iron Horse brings back one of Templeton’s historic restaurants from the late 1800s. The Iron Horse ties together Templeton’s railroad town to Santa Margarita Ranch, with Filipponi calling the restaurant “the engine on a train.”
“The Iron Horse is reminiscent of the Iron Horse downtown, and it ties to the train history that we have on the ranch,” he said. “Of course, we’re just getting started here, and we have a great menu. … but we’re just getting kind of rolling here.”
The Iron Horse’s menu includes breakfast, dinner, cocktail, beer and wine lists. Popular menu items include a Santa Maria dry rubbed tri-tip, cedar plank BBQ salmon, a Chardonnay brined half chicken and steak frites.
Seating for the restaurant and bar extends to the outside patio of the Cambria Hotel, and during dinner time from 5 to 10 p.m., tables expand into the hotel’s lobby for more seating room.
For more information
Reservations are open for Cambria Hotel Templeton-Paso Robles at 1000 Las Tablas Road in Templeton.
Rooms are priced from as low as $104 on a weeknight to more than $400 for a suite on a busy weekend.
To book, visit its website at cambriatempleton.com or call 805-400-3336.
