The Golden Door
There is a spa near us, just down the hill on Deer Springs Road across the highway and towards San Marco. It is tucked away quietly on what looks like a quiet winding country road set between the hills. That road is very much like that except for two times a day when it acts as a shortcut between the 78 and the 15 North and gets jammed for about an hour of commuter traffic. The most I have seen of the spa is the front gate and whatever building roofs are visible from the road. It is called The Golden Door and it has been purported to be one of the great spas in North America and has been for thirty or more years. It so happens that my massage therapist, Andrew, worked there for a decade honing his craft, so I always feel like I am getting Golden Door treatment at a discount. I say that not because Andrew is inexpensive, because he is not, but because I have been told that it costs something like $25,000 per week to go check in to The Golden Door and part of that treatment is a massage each day from someone as skilled as Andrew.
Recently, there was a referendum about a development of about 100 acres of land on the hills across the 15 from where we live. It was \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\a hotly contested local issue as development issues usually are. On the one side were developers with big bucks wanting to put up expensive homes on the hills and threatening that if they didn’t get their approval they would build some big box shopping malls, as was their supposed right. The local community, led by The Golden Door, was against the development because of what it would do to local services, especially traffic in the area. This is the same basic drama that goes on in thousands of locales across America and the world every day. The forces of “progress” against the forces of the status quo. While most of my neighbors were vehemently opposed to the development for perfectly normal selfish reasons or perhaps environmental reasons, I was sort of neutral. I didn’t believe the developers would build the malls they threatened to in a world that seems to hate malls right now, but I also wasn’t so sure that having some more services in the area would be all bad for us. We are pretty isolated up here on the hilltop with two gas stations, two delis and now, one bistro/ale house.
In fact, it is that bistro/ale house that made me wonder since I was not thinking it would add to my convenience and it has. It is actually nice to have a local open-air dining establishment that is truly local and keeps us from having to go 6 or 7 miles to the nearest eatery. In fact, we are going there this Friday with our visitors Gary & Oswaldo, Patrick & James and Mike & Melisa. The Sideyard Public House sort of feels like our place. It’s no Golden Door, but it’s a nice spot nonetheless. Mike likes to say that I am to the Sideyard what Norm is to Cheers. Everybody there certainly does know my name and I tip well enough to keep it that way on purpose.
I initially learned about The Golden Door from my sister Kathy and her husband Bennett, who, as local architects, were enlisted many years ago to do some renovation or addition to the place when it was on its initial rise to glory. They are the ones who gave me the sense that the place is so exclusive and pricey. That was reinforced by stopping at their fruit and vegetable stand further on down the road. The Golden Door grows all its own produce and sells the excess at this roadside stand. Everything there is organic and nice plus they offer some of their spa’s homemade cookies and special secret healthy sauces. We don’t shop there often, but we do stop in once in a while.
Then, I started using Andrew about five years ago and he has taught me a great deal more about The Golden Door. It seems that a few years ago the place was not washing its face financially and was in a bit of distress. As difficult as that was to understand at their price point, who knows what services they included for that weekly ticket price. But it seems there was one woman who was a very devoted patron of the spa and had been for as long as it was in business. She was quite distressed about the spa possibly ceasing to exist, so she had her husband buy the place. He is a top founder of one of the big private equity firms and is now a guy worth several billion dollars. Buying this spa to keep his wife happy would have been a chip shot for this big hitter and I’m sure the biggest issue was how to get it back to financial health and who to get to run the place. I’m guessing that neither he nor his wife were so inclined, but the good news about being in private equity is that the act of buying something and replacing its management to make it more profitable is something this guy could probably do in his sleep. And so, Th Golden Door went on. They even got their act together enough to lead the charge against the development of those hills by the highway. I’ll bet those developers were used to steamrollering the locals with their hardball tactics, but they probably had no idea what they were up against with the new owner of The Golden Door. My guess there was not only a financial stake to be protected in their quiet little enclave of a spa, but a whole lot more of deal-doing pride at stake not letting some gum-snapping developers run roughshod over his wife’s favorite pet project. The outcome of the referendum not only went against the developers, but Mr. Golden Door went the next step to quiet the concerns about the big box mall threat by buying up the developer’s parcel, probably with lots of encouragement from the developers bankers who were probably out over their skis on the loan anyway. My guess is that the way the deal went down was for Mr. Golden Door to allow the developers to make a small profit on their land purchase to allow them to save face with their investors. There is no point in making enemies in business and the act of being a little magnanimous is perhaps the biggest win for the neighborhood that could be expected.
Given what I see of the hills behind The Golden Door, I would guess that one of three things will happen to that hillside. Either it will be turned into private hiking trails for the spa clientele and selective other day-users, or it will be planted with citrus and avocado trees to get the agricultural land tax benefits, or maybe it will be donated to a conservancy in order to keep the area free of development in perpetuity. That last idea perhaps combined with the first may be the most obvious outcome, especially as I’m sure the estate planning people on staff for Mr. Golden Door will certainly find ways to use that deduction.
Meanwhile, back on my hilltop, I feel like I have my own miniature Golden Door. Right now I am sitting in my grotto hot tub soaking at 97 degrees, admiring the flowering jade plant, the yuccas, the lavender and the boulders that surround me. I have often said that I see no reason to pay for an expensive spa visit since between my beautiful hot tub area (themed with a pagoda and a Chinese stone lantern set amongst the bonsais) with the mosaic table top sitting in the shade thrown off by the wedge-shaped pergola shade, is all very pleasant. I will have my weekly Golden Door trained massage therapist visit tomorrow, and the rest the sunshine and warm ocean breezes will take care of. I have already walked through my Golden Door.