Park James Hotel Elevates Lodging Experience

MENLO PARK, CA -- It's not every day a hotel guest finds a venue beyond compare. But the Park James Hotel, which opened its doors almost six months ago, is not just a place to put your head. It's a destination in itself.

Just ask the locals who frequent the Oak + Violet restaurant on the premises. Or ask a San Francisco couple, who chose to stay within an hour of their home.

Once a Shell gas station, the trendy, 61-room hotel is considered a first-of-its-kind for good reason. Located right off El Camino Real, this $45 million boutique hotel delivers in its service -- in every way. In case the guests or 77 staffers forget that, a message written in neon at the front door "No Strangers Here, Only New Friends," along with others etched in the marble slate floor declare the dedication to hospitality.

This undaunted, steadfast commitment to superior hospitality for both the business and leisure traveler even extends to the valet parking staff, who express a willingness to help on every turn.

But this is only a sliver of what awaits a hotel guest or restaurant diner.

Special luxurious touches and treatments sprinkled throughout the hotel exude comfort and a welcoming format unique in nature -- from room accents like solo plants hanging in cubes to wool skin wall decor hung in the hall between the elevator and bar-restaurant-patio.

The bar is open, friendly and extended into a cushy seating area that would prove to be a place a guest in the summer may want to either park oneself for the day or even sleep in serenity if not for the draw of other guests wanting a lush lounge area from which to socialize. Even the throw blankets are a thing deemed suitable for creature comforts. They're woven out of an unusually soft fabric transported from Menlo Park's sister city - Menlough-Galway, Ireland.

The open-air bar-restaurant setting extends into its indoor-outdoor gym, thus capitalizing on the Bay Area Peninsula's unmatched climate.

Most hotel and motel gyms have the basics. This one has a full-size punching bag hanging in case a guest wants to take out aggression or work out the upper body. The Skillmill treadmills are like something out of the Jetsons, which allows a user to speed up the running platform with a gear shift.

"This is the kind of stuff people want to see," Assistant General Manager Dan Romero pointed out.

The hotel plans to bring peloton equipment into the gym for the ultimate in a full-body workout.

If sanctioned gym equipment isn't enough, even the lounge chairs situated on the turf between the patio and fitness center provide an abdominal workout while sitting. Now that's something that can bring out the subtle laziness in all of us.

"We want to be authentic," Romero said, as he spun around a chair.

The LEED-certified lodging establishment lives up to its eco-friendly distinction, with solar panels on the roof; cisterns to trap stormwater runoff for the plants; and the using of wood, steel, rock and even artificial turf to reduce the hotel's footprint on the environment.

It soon becomes apparent during a tour of the hotel this is no average setting. For one thing, it's owned and operated by an arm wrestling professional and insurance broker, James Pollock from neighboring Palo Alto as well as broughtonHotels - an Orange County-based hospitality company founded in 2001.

The business of travel takes center stage at the Park James.

Business travelers - who consist of the majority of clientele - may use a "functional" room, an alternative to a dry "conference" room.

"The beauty of its is we've made it unique. People want something they can't get back home," Romero said.

And even if the clientele considers Menlo Park home, the restaurant is a reminder why the most adept visitors often want to live like a local.

"The restaurant does really well here," Romero said.

Believing is seeing.

Peninsula resident Tiffany Zabala joined about a dozen friends for a 30th birthday party for brunch at the Oak + Violet for simple reasons.

"It was new, fresh and local -- and chic for the ambience," she said, surrounded by her smart-dressed friends.

From the other direction, Kevin Chen drove north with his Sunnyvale companion to relish a leisure pace for brunch on a recent rainy day.

"The prices are reasonable," he said.

Shhhhh, it's almost like the restaurant staff doesn't know how good it is.

The beets and burrata salad with pickled onions, pistachios and chunks of cheese was tangy and light at $14. The crab club sandwich - which uses local crab from the bay - was perfectly toasted and tasty at $19.

And this time, tasting is believing.

The impossible slider with onion jam, avocado and the O+V's signature sauce is vegan -- but may fool many because of its hardiness and melt-in-your-mouth flavors and textures.

Diners wanting to move from the savory to sweet will satisfy their cravings with the doughnut bread pudding french toast with none other than bourbon-laced syrup. After the strawberry-bread-whipped cream bites are gone, diners may find themselves tempted to crudely lick the plates.

To wash it all down, it's recommended to line up the beverages to reflect how difficult it is to hold back on the choices. The bar stocks the best in sparkling wine and champagne, squeezes its own orange juice good enough to be bottled and even uses chemistry to create its own concoctions.

Forget port. Order the limoncello that's knock-your-socks-off tasty. It's made with vodka, sugar and lemon zest that soaks in jars for a month.

When diners are ready to retire as guests, the rooms that start at $199 on weekends keep the superiority elevated with Italian linens, fuzzy hoodie robes, oversized tile showers, motion sensors for lighting and, in keeping with its location, a high-tech device to order room service, live streaming or any other whim one can think of.

As cozy as the rooms are, many guests will find themselves drawn to the main floor where the lobby-bar front area has come to a host a recent letter "j"-themed costume party with a man dressed up like a judge and a woman in a full Jurassic Park suit.

Further entertainment in the hopping bar on a given weekend can be found in a couple's simple game of checkers -- cast as a diversion to a power outage that tested the staff in its improvising skills. The bar atmosphere was charming, with candles set out to create ambience and light where needed.

"All we need now is a Ouija board," Lilly Kazeminia said of the perceived spirit talking board.

She and her San Francisco boyfriend, Cameron Kashani, were checking in for the weekend to attend a nearby friend's birthday party.

The Park James Hotel may accommodate all tastes and reasons for a stay.

For more information or to book a stay, visit https://www.parkjames.com/.