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Inns in St. Augustine, Ocala and St. Petersburg are three of an estimated 300 bed and breakfasts across the state.
By ALINE MENDELSOHN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2000
You enter the foyer of a large Victorian house, where a Persian cat greets you. The owners, like good friends, welcome you warmly and invite you to sit down in the living room, where family photographs sit atop a coffee table.
After chatting with you, the hosts show you to your room. In the morning, you stir to the aroma of breakfast cooking.
You're not at home. But you're also not in a hotel -- you're in the ideal bed and breakfast.
B&Bs are popping up all over as more and more travelers seek unusual experiences with a personalized touch. Compared with familiar chain hotels and motels, the benefits of the best B&Bs include individualized service, a more intimate setting and the owners' firsthand knowledge about the community -- plus a home-cooked meal. Florida has an estimated 300 B&Bs; 136 are members of the Bed and Breakfast Inns association. The organization charges an annual membership fee ($285, plus $10 per guest room), and inspects each facility before accepting a B&B. The inspectors look for cleanliness, safety, maintenance and hospitality standards. Applicable business licenses are also required by the association.
"It's like any industry," says the association's executive director, Lois Cleveland, whose job has taken her to more than 100 Florida inns in the past six years. "There are good restaurants, there are great restaurants, there are not so great restaurants, but we all keep eating out. Some inns are more enjoyable than others."
To get a feel for B&Bs, we sampled three of them in Florida.
St. George Street transports you back to the 18th century. The cobblestone road runs through its tourist-friendly historic district into a quiet, residential neighborhood. This area is shady and quiet, save for the occasional horse-drawn carriage rolling by.
Behind a gate at No. 279 stands a brown and white building made of native coquina limestone. Four flags -- of the U.S., Spain, Florida and Ireland -- hang from the balcony.
Welcome to the 209-year-old St. Francis Inn.
The courtyard is fanned with ferns, green banana trees and jasmine. A pair of bright orange koi fish swim in an Artesian well, surrounded by purple water lilies. Fire-engine red rocking chairs and a matching swing invite relaxation on the porch. A nearby shed is packed with 10-speed bikes.
But once you enter the building, the appearance is that of a business lobby, not the foyer of a home. In clear view are a cash register and a credit card machine.
The innkeepers are clearly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the city. "You're only staying one day?" they ask incredulously. "Oh, you'll have to come back."
Unlike in many hotels, guests here will not find a drab corridor leading to a string of carbon-copy rooms. Each room has its own personality and theme. The Ballerina Room doesn't have a barre, just a painting of a demure ballerina hanging above the fireplace.
Though the fire marshal ordered the inn to disable the fireplaces, in order to eliminate hazards, their presence still adds ambiance by enhancing the 18th century feel.
But that theme yields to modern comforts: Each room has air conditioning, cable TV, telephones, private baths -- some with a whirlpool bath. And guests are given a small bottle of Bailey's Irish Creme, to enhance the welcome.
The element of this B&B that, oddly, is the least-personalized is the buffet-style breakfast. While a hearty meal -- eggs, apple-flavored oatmeal, juice, pumpkin bread, cereal, grapefruit while I was there -- it lacked the home-cooked touch. Overall, St. Francis Inn is less personalized than other inns the Times sampled. Nonetheless, it offers a happy medium for the traveler who does not want to stay in a hotel but wants his space.
The Seven Sisters Inn comes straight from Candy Land.
The sprawling, Victorian-style house is iced with teal-and-white, candy-striped awnings, bric-a-brac shingles and twinkling white Christmas lights. In the back yard, a white gazebo, bordered with cut-out hearts, is a delicate valentine shape itself.
Inside, the 112-year-old house is just as romantic, with great attention given to details: silver-plated light switch covers, a wooden dollhouse, the silver dish of potpourri. A bay window pours onto the porch, enticing the guest to curl up there with a book. The Candy Land theme is continued with gold-wrapped chocolates and miniature Hersheys proffered here and there.
Along a hallway, a wooden shelf holds cookbooks, soaps, Seven Sisters shirts, mugs. This merchandising creates a discordant commercialized note: Retail items do not belong in the same house as Bonnie's Room.
This overwhelmingly pink room, named after the innkeeper, is the quintessential little girl's bedroom. Two tiny, flowered sofa chairs -- perfect for tea with teddy bears -- could seat a child or even a small adult. White and green curtains drape elegantly to the floor.
A mirrored armoire faces the queen-size bed, hiding a television set and copies of Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Accents and, oddly, the book Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life.
The bathroom is just as ornately decorated, with towels splayed in a seashell fold and a basket of lotions, bath gels and soaps bearing the Seven Sisters Inn logo. A dressing room allows ample space for hanging clothes and for ironing, and two fluffy pink-and-yellow robes.
In the morning, guests may wake to the clatter of cooking and the scent of breakfast. The meal is served -- no buffet here -- inside the Monet Morning Room, at tables laid with china, gingham napkins, lace tablecloths and artificial flowers. Couples and individual guests sit at their own tables, which eliminates the awkwardness of forced small talk with strangers.
The meal might include a blended orange-kiwi-banana-strawberry juice, fresh buttered raspberry muffin, apple dumpling dipped in cream, tomato-zucchini quiche in a flaky crust and slices of melon.
If you stay at this setting for a Victorian getaway, eat lightly the night before, to keep an appetite for that wonderful breakfast.
Of the B&Bs visited earlier this summer, Sunset Bay Inn felt the most like a home.
Maybe it is the framed family photos lining the coffee tables. Or the friendly white poodle, Cher -- that's short for Cherie, not a reference to the pop star. Or the plate of banana bread and oatmeal cookies left for guests to nibble on, near the kitchen.
There's no cash register in view. Just a home, with a large dining room, a living room for socializing and a shelf of several dozen videotapes, including Sophie's Choice, Broadcast News and As Good as it Gets.
The entire inn has the feel of a couple in love, starting with the names of the guest rooms. Each represents an aspect of innkeepers Bob and Martha Bruce's relationship: the Kihei Room refers to the Maui city where they spent their honeymoon; the Augusta Room is named for the place where they were married 12 years ago; the Sapphire Room is named after the North Carolina town they call their "falling in love" place.
The building's life as an inn is just 2 years old. After years of working at a communications company, Bob Bruce wanted out of the corporate grind. So the Bruces moved from Atlanta to Martha's childhood home near the downtown business district, did massive renovations on the house and opened in January 1998.
"We wanted to develop a place we, the neighbors and the city would be proud of," Bob Bruce says.
Four years after they started the renovation project, the guest books in the rooms are filled with praise. The inn has been awarded four diamonds (out of five) by the AAA and has been given a state preservation award for the restoration.
Up the wooden staircase -- carpeted in a soft green rug -- the Sapphire Room has the comforts of a top hotel without the manufactured aftertaste.
Light streams from skylights onto the bed. Blue-and-white striped wallpaper and lace curtains cover the walls, and Persian-style rugs grace the floor. A deck of playing cards sits in a drawer, area magazines wait in a wicker basket, and chocolate truffles are placed on the pillow, like a good-night kiss.
The only aspect of the visit that seemed out of place was that breakfast -- a turkey and cheese croissant and a fruit bowl -- though prepared with care, seemed more appropriate for brunch.
But both the house and the innkeepers are warm and inviting.
As with hotels and motels, B&Bs often post different rates for weekday and weekend stays, for holidays and special events.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the following for rates and reservations:
St. Francis Inn, 17 rooms; 279 St. George St., St. Augustine, FL 32084; call (800) 824-6062 or (904) 824-6068; e-mail to innceasd@aug.com; the Web site is http://www.stfrancisinn.com
Seven Sisters Inn, eight rooms, 820 SE Fort King St., Ocala, FL 34471; call (352) 867-1170; e-mail to sistersinn@aol.com . Owners are in the process of converting a house next door to B&B use.
Sunset Bay Inn, six rooms; 635 Bay St. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701; call (800) 794-5133 or (727) 896-6701; e-mail to wrbcom@aol.com; Web site is http://www.sunsetbayinn.comFlorida Bed & Breakfast Inns, P.O. 6187, Palm Harbor, FL 34684-0787; call (800) 524-1880 or (281) 499-1374; Web site is http://www.florida-inns.com
Another organization that lists B&Bs and other accommodations with fewer than 50 rooms is Superior Small Lodgings. President Don Dermity says that the largest clusters of B&Bs that are members are in Key West, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.
The organization, mainly small motels, also has prospective members inspected by the same organization used by the Florida Bed & Breakfast Inns. For a copy of the statewide directory, contact the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area convention and Visitors Bureau, (727) 464-7200; the Web site is www.stpete-clearwater.com, or call the headquarters in Gainesville, (352) 735-4635 .