our people
for johnny schmitt, family and cooking have always gone hand-in-hand. the son of don and sally schmitt, former owners of the french laundry, johnny grew up working in the family restaurant. at 18 he struck out on his own, rejecting classroom learning for the real thing, gaining cooking experience in france over the course of multiple visits before buying the boarded up boonville hotel with his wife jeanne in 1989.
california native,
Marcus Magdaleno, moved from SoCal to NorCal to study at UCSC, after which began a career in marine biology. in his late 20's marcus made a life altering decision to pursue his other passion, theater arts. He went on to study theater at A.C.T. in san francisco. being a country boy at heart, marcus grew eager to find a small town community in which to live. it was during this time that he met johnny schmitt and discovered the anderson valley. in 2008, marcus made the decision to up and move to boonville. starting off at the hotel as a bartender, it wasn't long until he was in charge of "all things wine". his role soon evolved into a management position. over the years he continued to take on more responsibility as business manager and bookkeeper, and is now one of the managing co-owners of the business.
perry hoffman started life in napa, while spending summers and holidays in the anderson valley. the boonville hotel has been a part Perry’s life as far back as his memory reaches. it started with his grandparent's restaurant the french laundry, where he as a child began to help sally in the kitchen. he set the stage to declare his intentions of a culinary career as a young teen. his second cooking foothold was the boonville hotel 20 years ago. since then, perry has had an exhilarating culinary career: leading kitchens at auberge du soleil, domaine chandon, and most recently healdsburg SHED. perry and his wife Kristen have just recently welcomed two children into the world and are building their home in anderson valley. he couldn’t imagine a better place to cook and raise his family.
melinda ellis cooked with johnny at the boonville hotel over twenty-five years ago, and at the french laundry with don and sally schmitt before that. since then she worked as a private chef, created melinda ellis cakes, baking magnificent wedding cakes on the mendocino coast and opened paysanne-real sweet things here in town. She returned to the hotel to manage & partner and pursue some of her dearest loves: caring for the hotel, restaurant, events, customers, employees and community, all as if they were family.
we wouldn't be who we are without our incredible staff.
each individual brings creativity, joy, beauty and heart each and every day