Driving back home, I went through Longview, WA and stumbled onto a gorgeous historical part of town. Crowning a large open square was the grand old Monticello Hotel (their website). I made a mental note to revisit it as something that magnificient had to be good.
A little bit of googling and now? Not so much. From January 2014's The Daily News:
Monticello Hotel closes its restaurant, lounge
Gordon Ramsay and “Hotel Hell” couldn't save at least part of the Monticello Hotel — the owner closed the restaurant, lounge and banquet facilities Wednesday.
Owner Philip Lovingfoss decided to “pursue other endeavors,” according to a press release sent Wednesday morning to The Daily News. The notice says the closures are effective immediately but the hotel, motel, apartments and business offices rentals will remain open.
It also says Lovingfoss hopes to find someone else to step in and buy or lease the restaurant and lounge space.
Deposits for weddings and other events will be refunded, the press release states, as will gift cards and Rotary Meal cards.
A bit more:
The historic hotel — which celebrated its 90th birthday this summer — has struggled financially for several years. That’s what led Lovingfoss and manager Ginger Allred to sign up for the FOX reality show “Hotel Hell,” which filmed at the hotel this summer. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay visited the hotel and restaurant and offered suggestions for improvements. The episode has not aired — FOX says they haven’t set an air date even though Ramsay has tweeted the series starts again sometime this month — so exact details of Ramsay’s summer visit aren’t public.
The tidbits that have leaked out, though, made it clear Ramsay wasn’t impressed.
He ridiculed the motel rooms adjacent to the hotel and had the restaurant revamp its entire menu. When it reopened in June, many favorite standbys were replaced with a new, severely streamlined menu that wait staff said allowed them focus on a few great dishes. Fancier items such as roasted butternut squash rigatoni and cauliflower puree replaced items like the original hotel tournado and Dory’s famous ribs. In recent months some of the original items were added back in.
And maybe one of the reasons:
The filming started out on a sour note for Lovingfoss when he was arrested on suspicion of DUI the night before in front of the hotel — mere steps away from the production crews that had already set up in the parking lot.
Time for a new crew and some funding for remodeling - bring her back to her classic lines. The comments are an interesting read as most of them are Longview residents and know the history of the place.
The good news is that the Monticello is not the Longview Hudson Hotel - from TripAdvisor:
Crappy old rooming house left over from the 20s. Filled with felons, druggies, mentally ill, prostitutes and lots and lots of BEDBUGS. I am dead serious. No bathrooms in rooms, no phones, management absent often, DOC often arrests felons on site.
And:
This is not a B&B, it is a cheap boarder hotel for winos and drug addicts. The management is crooked and will rob you blind any chance they get. This establishment should have been condemned years ago.
