Cal Stamenov has created an innovative culinary concept for Bernardus Lodge featuring California country cuisine in the main Marinus dining room at Bernardus Lodge. Wickets bar and bistro features bistro-style cuisine in a light and casual setting.
Upon graduating from the California Culinary Academy, Stamenov began his career in 1982 at New York’s famed Four Seasons restaurant. He is steeped in the European tradition of culinary artistry and has spent years in the most demanding kitchens of the world’s most renowned chefs.
Marinus at Bernardus Lodge has been enjoying high praise since the resort opened in 1999, and has won Wine Spectator Magazine’s highly coveted “Grand Award” for its wine cellar since 2001. Since 1981, only 89 restaurants from 12 countries have earned the “Grand Award,” an honor bestowed every three years. The cellar houses 1,850 different wines and a total of more than 35,000 premium bottles, including 10,000 bottles from the affiliated Bernardus Winery & Vineyard near the resort. Since 2001, the Zagat Survey has noted Marinus as one of the “Top Restaurants” and “Most Romantic Places South of San Francisco.”
Cal’s philosophy and style of cooking is built on three central pillars: the relationship between food and terroir, the superiority of handcrafted, artisanal products over mass-produced, and the common sense of glorifying food when its flavor is at its peak.
