Linda Richards, owner of the Jack London Lodge, speaks with Jack London Saloon bartender Matt McDermott about local wines.
Ryan lely/EL SOL DE SONOMA
“I never in a million years imagined that I’d be in business for myself or own a hotel,” said Linda Richards, “I knew from the time I was three that I wanted to be an attorney.”
Richards, who comes from five generations of farmers in Southern California, pursued her goal, attained her law degree in the Bay Area, met her husband in law school and moved to the Sacramento area where she began practicing law. She built her career specializing in civil trial cases, “I loved practicing law, but it was stressful at times, so in the early ‘80s I bought a property in Davis and started to renovate it as a kind of outlet.”
She soon discovered she was good at organizing real estate projects, and her law background gave her the fundamentals needed to handle the contracts, loans and regulatory parts of the process. Her real estate endeavors coincided with her role as stepmother to her husband’s two children. “I had the more flexible situation, as their mother was a nurse and my husband’s law practice created a demanding schedule,” said Richards. “Gradually, I found myself at PTA meetings and teacher-parent conferences.”
Enjoying her accomplishments renovating properties, Richards began to take on more projects, blending real estate with her family responsibilities and practicing law part-time. In 1989, an agent suggested a property in Glen Ellen that included a hotel, restaurant and bar. “The hotel had been built in the ’70s and had green shag carpeting, single-pane aluminum windows, but it did have a tile roof,” said Richards. Deciding that it had potential, Richards purchased The Jack London Lodge and the accompanying bar and restaurant. “The Jack London Saloon had a very authentic, historic feel and had a good local following, so we didn’t meddle with that other than to clean it up, and we leased out the restaurant.”
Richards updated the hotel with the decorating help of her mother and sister, adding antiques, redoing bathrooms, windows and plumbing, upgrading the pool, installing an outdoor spa and putting in landscaping. During this time she was commuting almost daily from Sacramento and only doing occasional legal work. “I found I really liked the hotel business and I liked Glen Ellen – there was a real sense of community, it was very different from Sacramento.”
Interested in all aspects of the operation, Richards took a course on managing inventory costs for the bar, then went to bartending school so she could experience it first-hand. “People still joke about my bartending here,” she said, “but if you don’t have hands-on knowledge of how it’s done, you can’t run the business properly.” With a newfound appreciation of wine and food acquired from her time in Sonoma, she decided to take over the restaurant in partnership with her sister, who was in the restaurant business, changing the name to The Wolf House. “The food is so good here, I would go back to Sacramento and be disappointed with what I could get there,” said Richards. They gutted the space and remodeled the kitchen and the restaurant, opening it up to the adjoining creek.
In the winter of 2005, that same creek overflowed its banks and flooded the restaurant’s cellar. The town turned out to help pull bottles out of the mud and wash them off, saving a large portion of the inventory and Richards was able to open the hotel to neighbors who had their homes flooded. “It was an incredible experience and really showed us what a wonderful community this is,” said Richards. She and her husband are planning a permanent move to Glen Ellen in the near future.
One important lesson that Richards has learned from running her own business is to set limits. “There is no limit to the hours, so you keep expanding them. I come from an energetic family and I’ve had to learn how not to work all the time.”
