Dolly Parton was a quiet regular at this quirky steakhouse for decades
If there's a place in California where it made the most sense for Dolly Parton to be a regular, it's the Madonna Inn.
The sprawling hotel in San Luis Obispo is a tribute to opulence and maximalism in the same way the country icon was before her death on Aug. 25.
SFGate, a Hearst publication, originally published this story.
Parton spent nearly her whole life in the spotlight, but when she was able to get some time for herself, she often chose to spend it in California's charming small towns. And as often as she could, she'd make it back to the Madonna Inn, the singular 68-year-old hotel on the Central Coast with its bright pink exterior and its highly themed 110 rooms.
"Dolly first visited the Madonna Inn in the mid-1980s and continued to return annually for many years," Lyndsey Goldwyn, marketing manager for the hotel, told SFGATE.
"Dolly often expressed how much she 'loved the Madonna Inn' and especially appreciated the warm, family atmosphere," Goldwyn added. "Our longtime staff remember her as being incredibly kind, gracious, and sweet to everyone she encountered."
During visits, Parton would always make it a point to stay in a different one of the themed rooms, which range from an Austrian suite that looks straight out of “The Sound of Music” to a “love nest” with a pink-carpeted spiral staircase that leads up to a private viewing tower overlooking the grounds.
But when it came to dinner, Parton had a regular spot in the hotel’s Alex Madonna’s Gold Rush Steak House, bedecked in the hotel’s signature rose-patterned pink carpet and glittering chandeliers. It was, of course, the fanciest corner of the restaurant.
"She would always request to sit in the gold booth," Goldwyn said, a table in a secluded enclave decorated with mirrors and pink-on-pink baroque-inspired wallpaper. It's the restaurant's one gold booth among the overstuffed bright pink circular booths, Goldwyn said. Her meal of choice was regularly the steakhouse's oak-grilled filet mignon.
"Dolly was also a dear friend of the Madonna family," Goldwyn said. The Madonna Inn was founded in 1958 by Alex and Phyllis Madonna. "Whenever she dined in the Steak House, Alex would make a point to stop by the gold booth to visit with her."
After Parton's death, the hotel named the booth in her honor.
"Her visits throughout the years created memories we will always hold close, and our gold booth in the Alex Madonna Steakhouse will forever be known as 'Dolly's Booth,'" the inn posted on Instagram on Aug. 25.
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