About Us
Loreen
bought the Riverwood Inn in 1995. A
native of Humboldt County, she had been living
on the Mendocino Coast for the past 15 years
and one day came over the hill on a motorcycle
run that ended up at the Riverwood Inn.
The run was in March and it was freezing
cold, but inside the Riverwood was a huge fire
and a BBQ going out on the porch. It was
love at first sight and upon finding out it
was for sale, she decided to buy it, even
though she didn't have any money. She
and her former husband Dick mortgaged
everything they had and Loreen borrowed some
cash from her Aunt Peg and made the
offer. By July 15th, the Riverwood Inn
was hers.
The
Riverwood was in pretty rough shape. In
its heyday, it had been a Italian Dinner House
and bar so there was a run down commercial
kitchen with assorted pots and pans. In
what had been the dining room were pool tables
and old carpet. The rooms downstairs had
been the living quarters for the former owner
and only one had a functioning bathroom.
The hallways were littered with boxes of
items stored by neighbors during the 64 flood
that had never been claimed. The whole
building needed paint and a new roof.
The old roof was the original and had
"Italian Dinners" painted on the shakes.
Loreen actually fell through the ceiling
in the bar trying to empty leak buckets in the
attic during a huge storm. It was a
monumental task to operate the business and
clean it up all at the same time. She
began having live music and tried to run the
restaurant several times with no success.
Then her husband ran off with the
cleaning lady and Loreen almost lost the whole
shebang! Luckily he signed everything
over to her, including the debt, of course,
but somehow she kept the Riverwood afloat with
live music and microwave burgers.
In
1999, during the famous Redwood Run she ran
into an old friend from the coast, Gary
Eliason. It was love at first sight and
they were married during Street Vibrations in
Reno in the Harley Davidson Dealership
in September 2000. Then another turn
came about when Loreen decided to serve
Mexican food as there were no Mexican
restaurants in Southern Humboldt. So in
2001 she became partners in the restaurant
with Hector Llamas, calling the restaurant
portion El Rio, meaning "The River."
Hector brought in his crew and his
special recipes, Loreen bought more tequila
and together they have created a really fine
Mexican restaurant with over thirty tequilas!
All the food is prepared fresh daily and
Lupe', the chef, makes all her own tortillas
by hand in the traditional way. So now
The Riverwood has live music, great food, lots
of tequila and rooms. And Gary?
Well, he loves to chop wood and
since we go through about ten cords a year
that is a real good thing. Who
could ask for anything more!
Besides
running the Riverwood, Loreen is also an
auctioneer and writes a column for the Trader
Magazine called "Off the Cuff". During
the summer months, Gary works on highway
construction. Busy, busy.........Please
click on Trader Articles if you're interested
in reading Loreen's drivel.
Mon thru Thu:Bar open @ 2:00pm, Restaraunt @4:30pm
Fri Sat & Sun: Bar
open @ 11:00am, Restaurant @11:30am
Restaurant Serving till 9pm nightly!
Bar Phone: 707-943-1766/943-3333
Restaurant Phone: 707-943-1930
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