Margaret Grade, whose California Inn was popular with stars, dies at 72

Her Manka's Inverness Lodge attracted actors and writers who dined at Mrs. Grade's farm-to-table restaurant and reveled in her style eccentric.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Margaret Grade, a California neuropsychologist who took a career-defining turn to open a cozy and eclectic inn near the Point Reyes National Seashore, known for occupying farmers and fishermen with the same attention she gave. to movie stars and writers who sought refuge there, died on February 28 in San Francisco. She was 72 years old.

Mrs. Grade was injured in a car accident in Marin County on January 11. She spent several weeks in the hospital before dying from complications related to her injuries, said her brother Matthew Grade, a doctor. ="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The introverted Mrs. Grade admitted that she was a most unlikely innkeeper.

“If they put me in front, I would be bad. for business," she said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003. She also admitted that when she opened her inn, Manka's Inverness Lodge, she didn't have the first idea of ​​running a establishment. "I didn't know the term 'working capital' and, therefore, I didn't have any," she said.

Yet Manka's , a century-old former hunting resort This retreat nestled in the woods two hours northwest of San Francisco in Inverness, California, was at the forefront of hyperlocal cuisine, a haven for chefs and celebrities and a national media darling.

Mrs. Grade (pronounced GRAH-dee) was more than an innkeeper. She had an uncanny ability to anticipate guests' desires and sometimes had unusual ways of satisfying them.

"She's not someone I would describe as warm , but you still felt the touch of his hand in every room,” actress Frances McDormand, who spent years vacationing there with her family, said by telephone. “She had an old-fashioned understanding of what true luxury is. Part of his true gift was creating a fantasy that you just fell into. It was magical. »

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