Quietly nestled amongst the luscious landscape of California’s central coast, Cambria Pines Lodge (CPL) overlooks the delightful, artsy town of Cambria, California, and one thing’s for sure – from weddings to banquet facilities, fine dining to gourmet breakfasts, this lodge surrounds its guests with pure warmth and comfort.

“Every time I call upon CPL, it’s like visiting a genuine piece of paradise,” said Jordano’s Account Executive, John Harrison, who has had the pleasure of working with CPL for more than 22 years. “This property boasts 25 plus acres of towering pine trees, colorful gardens and walking trails, all of which come together to create the perfect backdrop for the delicious Cambria Pines Lodge Restaurant (CPLR).”

One thing’s for sure, General Manager, Bram Winter, and his talented team know how to keep their guests coming back for more. In fact, one of CPLR’s largest hurdles in recent years has been a welcome one – lack of space in the restaurant for their ever-increasing clientele. To address this challenge, they remodeled an existing storage area and office into a new dining room, the “Red Room,” with five tables and an alcove for private dining space. This expansion, in addition to the use of online reservation programs like Open Table, has resulted in a more efficient guest flow and maximized revenue.

For more than 20 years, CPL has offered a fabulous dinner package for its guests. Although specific dinner packages come and go, the basic concept of the dinner package has been a key component of the lodge’s success in building market share. Bram has found that a guest who purchases a dinner package usually adds to that purchase with appetizers, desserts and beverages purchased before or after dinner in their adjoining Fireside Lounge. The lounge not only attracts guests staying at the lodge, but has also become a “go to” place for locals to unwind near the large river rock fireplace while sipping handcrafted martinis like the Vanilla White Russian and microbrews like the Widmer Hefeweizen and Firestone 805. Nightly entertainment and delectable appetizers like their top-selling Roasted Garlic and Goat Cheese Crostini also keeps this lounge bustling.

On the forefront of the on-site organic garden movement, CPLR has been producing veggies and herbs for more than 10 years in their Organic Kitchen Garden. The current harvest includes basil, dill and rosemary which are incorporated into many of their menu items. Pending Mother Nature’s cooperation with rain, their garden will provide CPLR with fresh organic lettuce and other vegetables for Chef “Papa” Martin to work into his expansive menu. The menu, which changes several times per year, focuses on healthy, fresh menu items like Pan-Seared Sea Scallops and Roasted Vegetable Salad. In order to cater to those with gluten sensitivities, they’ve expanded their menu to include vegetarian-friendly options like
Gluten-Free Vegetable Lasagna and Vegan Grilled Portobello Steak.

Another asset to the success of CPLR is the lodge’s terrific marketing team who heavily promotes the restaurant through print and internet advertising, with social media as an online support structure. For example, their Escape Coupon Package advertisements have run in Central Valley newspapers for several years with great success.

Even with its longstanding success, in order to remain competitive, CPL has to keep its costs under control. Insert John Harrison and his 22 years of bringing helpful advice and new ideas to the lodge.
“The key to my success at CPL is no different than with any of my customers – it comes down to TRUST,” says John. “Because of the breadth of Jordano’s business and resources, we’re able to offer great pricing and unique products to assure that CPL will remain faithful customers for years to come.”

John credits his long-standing success with Jordano’s back to the company. “I have a great team – from the management staff to our category specialists, transportation to our in-house marketing department, we all work together as one huge family to ensure our customers are always priority number one.”

For more information about Cambria Pines Lodge, visit www.cambriapineslodge.com or check them out on Facebook

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