Raphael Maldonado/NEWS-PRESS
Hotelier couple bring their own touch to ownership and planned expansion of boutique lodge
By
LEAH ETLING
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Paul
Navratil has long dreamed of owning his own little boutique hotel, a place
where guests receive intimate service while they get away from it all.
The Czech native has found just such a property, after a long search,
in Solvang.
The town’s first hotel, once the Solvang Gaard apartments,
was built in 1951. It has gone through several incarnations since then,
but under recent owners Ron and Julie Palladino, the Solvang Gardens Lodge
was transformed into a showcase with antiques in every room and beautiful
gardens out front.
Turns out it also has beautiful gardens in back, where Mr. Navratil
catches a breath under a shady fruit tree and shares the interesting,
eclectic story of his life while patting the lodge’s adopted cat.
Born in Prague while the Czech Republic was still part of Czechoslovakia
and under Communist control, his father planned for two years before spiriting
his family across the border in the middle of the night.
“We escaped to Austria and
They hoped to emigrate to the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, but a refugee relocation plan had room only in South America.
“We heard stories of gold washing down the street,” he said.
So Mr. Navratil spent 10 formative years of his life in Venezuela, where his parents started selling pastry in the street, advanced to peddling brooms and brushes, and eventually owned a large dry-cleaning business.
They were eventually granted entrance to America and came to Hollywood, influenced by the movies.
“It was New York or Hollywood,” Mr. Navratil said. That was the United States as they knew it.
Fluent in Spanish as a result of his time in Venezuela, he became a bilingual teacher in the Los Angeles City School District, but quickly discovered teaching teenagers was not his calling. Having played tennis in high school and college, he became a tennis professional, giving lessons in Los Angeles and later, in San
Hotel management was a natural transition from the sport-resort industry, and after losing his first wife to breast cancer, Mr. Navratil began a new life in Ventura as a hotel manager.
After a few years, he wanted to own his own property. The challenge was finding the right one.
“I looked everywhere,” he said. He took trips to Colorado, Arizona, and around the state. Eventually, he partnered in a deal to buy the Best Western Kronborg Inn in Solvang, a larger property than the Solvang Gardens at 38 rooms.
But that property was not quite right. Living in a tiny apartment on site and working much more than full time, Mr. Navratil quickly neared burnout.
Conveniently, the Palladinos decided to sell their pet project at about the same time.
For four years, they had worked to drastically upgrade the hotel. Owners of Solvang’s antique center, a passion for style and design dictated their decisions to redo hotel bathrooms in marble and granite, hang classically inspired art, and pick out the sort of furniture normally found in a museum.
With the help of his wife Diana, an interior decorator, he will be adding several new rooms to the property and also increasing the personal touches to make guests feel at home.
The Solvang Gaard was built in 1951 by Sig and Vi Hansen of Santa Ynez. Two years later, they converted the structure into Solvang’s first hotel.
The building is styled after the type of structure that might be found on a Danish farm. Today, the interior courtyard is filled with beautiful flowers, tables for guests to sit and talk, and a unique rock waterfall.
The back garden is much more secluded, and Mr. Navratil envisions holding wine tastings or other events under the shade of the fruit trees.
“I know when these fruits are right I’ll have bags for every guest to take home.”
e-mail: letling@newspress.com