4A • May 19, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
Defi ning the visitor experience
Working my way
toward somm level 3
I
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Breakfast is served daily for guests of the Arch Cape Inn & Retreat.
T
ucked away off the road in Arch Cape, up a slight hill and
through a shaded drive stands the elegant and imposing
Arch Cape Inn & Retreat. Its Tudor-style turrets form
momentous castles in the air, brought down to earth by the
full boughs of spruce bordering the property. It is in to this
glorious wonderland that visitors from around the world come
to celebrate the North Coast experience.
Few people articulate it or bring it to life better than innkeep-
er Cynthia Malkowski and her husband, Stephen, a commercial
airline pilot. The couple present a stage set for jet-setters and
staycationers alike. Malkowski’s passion for the visitor experi-
ence goes to extraordi-
nary lengths.
It starts with
CANNON SHOTS
breakfast.
R.J.
MARX
“How proud I am
of the culinary region
I live in,” Malkowski
said. “We try to be the
best ambassador for a culinary experience for people coming
from all over the nation, all over the world.”
Her philosophy was inspired by “Galloping Gourmet” Gra-
ham Kerr, a longtime friend and visitor to the inn: good, healthy
food that satisfi es the “neck-up experience.”
“How do we do that in a healthy way that refl ects our local
culinary value and makes a roomful of very diverse people
very happy, every single day?” Malkowski asked. “It should be
incumbent on people to provide healthy food for their travelers.
It will make everybody appreciate this area even more when
they go home.”
Most important is to keep every guest nourished and
content, she said. When people are traveling, if they’re not
eating well, by Day 3 they’ll feel irritable. “They’ll assign that
negative value to the lodging property that they’re staying at,”
she said.
They may complain about the mattress, sleeplessness or
lethargy.
Malkowski realized a portion of counteracting that is good
nutrition. “I started thinking, gosh, I’d better start serving good
food to people.”
Malkowski’s kitchen, under the hand of Sarah Oxford,
is able to develop a core menu into a gluten-free, dairy free,
egg-free or vegan experience. Kosher and halal servings are
dramatically on the uptick.
No visitor should feel they are getting a “second-class
meal,” she said. “It’s very impacting in a subliminal way when
people don’t feel they’re part of this great experience.”
While I was there, Oxford and Malkowski served the three-
course breakfast, beginning with prosciutto-wrapped melon
with asiago, honey and nuts.
That was followed by roasted vegetable hash, scrambled
eggs with red pepper sausage, chicken sausage. The third course
was mixed berry trifl e.
And they do this every day, 10 tables, 20 people. “It has to
be something that makes everybody happy from the Midwest to
Amsterdam,” Malkowski said.
Oxford, of Astoria, worked for Drina Daisy Bosnian Restau-
rant for fi ve years before joining forces with Malkowski fi ve
years ago.
“We get a lot of different food restrictions: gluten-free,
vegan, vegetarian, paleo — all kinds of things,” Oxford said.
“We try to have core menus and make them so they match
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Second course for breakfast: Roasted pepper hash,
scrambled eggs with red pepper sauce, chicken sausage
and dressed greens.
everybody’s needs.”
“Her natural creativity is amazing,” Malkowski said. “Sar-
ah gets in there and it’s like, ‘Ohmygosh how did you think of
that?’”
Everything is prepared and ready to serve by 9 a.m., Ox-
ford said.
Staff includes Malkowski, Oxford, Kim Johnson and
Stormy Johnson. Owen Cullen — aka “Owen from Dublin”
— maintains the grounds.
Guests have been coming to this location since its founding
in 1994 as St. Bernard’s, a bed and breakfast.
The Malkowskis became the third owners in 2008.
“I thought, what can I do to try to try to contribute to an
awareness of people understanding this land that I love so
much, in a way that they could see it through my eyes? How
can I share that?” Malkowski said.
As a fi rst endeavor, she considered a campground idea
featuring guided hikes, but soon shifted gears. The Oregon
Coast and nearby Arch Cape were a natural destination. She
narrowed the focus to become an adult romantic special oc-
casion destination. She got the word out by working with the
“change agents” in the community.”
It worked. “The power brokers from all over come here
and it’s a beautiful thing,” Malkowski said.
Even in the recession, when people weren’t spending money,
they were still spending money on that special occasion,”
Malkowski said. “Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, we kind
of by God’s grace sailed through.”
For several years, the inn was known as a “secret” fi ve-star
dining destination, and there is talk of starting up an evening
menu again.
Along with the spectacular breakfast, the daily wine social
from 3 to 6 p.m.“This place is party in the box, every day at 4
p.m.,” Malkowski said. “We do beautiful appetizers, wine —
and I get to share my story every night with people from all
over the country.”
Today, Stephen Malkowski handles business management
and Cynthia Malkowski the inn’s administrative and market-
ing aspects. And everyone who walks through their door is
greeted as a friend.
“That’s our product: People want to be known, they want
to be heard and they want to be loved on,” Cynthia Malkowski
said. “And that’s what we do.”
Wright named COO of EO Media Group
EO Media Group
SALEM — Heidi Wright has
been named chief operating offi cer
of EO Media Group, which owns
The Daily Astorian.
Wright succeeds John S. Perry,
who is retiring after 44 years in the
newspaper industry, including the
last 12 with EO Media Group.
Wright comes to EO Media
Group from Western Communica-
tions, owner of the Bend Bulletin
and other newspapers in Oregon and
California. She is Wescom’s chief fi -
nancial offi cer and human resources
director. She will join EO Media
Group in June .
Steve Forrester, the p resident
and CEO of EO Media Group,
announced Wright’s hiring: “Our
Publisher
David F. Pero
Editor
R.J. Marx
Sales/Advertising
Manager
Betty Smith
Circulation
Manager
Jeremy Feldman
Production
Manager
John D. Bruijn
executive commit-
tee — composed of
Kathryn Brown, Su-
san Forrester Rana
and me — is pleased
to fi nd a successor to
Heidi
Perry with the lead-
Wright
ership capabilities to
help our company
prosper in the digital age. Her pri-
or experience with family-owned
companies in our region is especially
relevant.”
Prior to joining Wescom, Wright
was publisher of the Klamath Falls
Herald and News, owned by Pio-
neer News Group. She also worked
as a publisher in Montana for Lee
Enterprises. As chief operating offi -
cer, Wright will direct the business
operations of EO Media Group and
Classifi ed Sales
Jamie Ramsdell
Advertising Sales
Holly Larkins
Chris Olson
Staff writer
Brenna Visser
Contributing
writers
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Nancy McCarthy
supervise publishers and corporate
staff. The company’s headquarters
are in Salem.
“It’s an honor and privilege to
be joining EO Media Group,” said
Wright. “While I will miss my friends
and colleagues at Western Commu-
nications, I am excited to become a
part of the EO Media Group family.
My husband, Richard Schuurman,
and I are looking forward to calling
Salem home in the near future.”
EO Media Group publications
include The Cannon Beach Gazette,
The Blue Mountain Eagle of John
Day, Capital Press, Chinook Observ-
er, Coast River Business Journal, The
Daily Astorian, East Oregonian,
Hermiston Herald, Oregon Coast
Today, Seaside Signal and Wallowa
County Chieftain.
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
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Media Group.
1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside,
Oregon 97138
503-738-5561 • Fax 503-738-
9285
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f you’ve been reading this column, you know I passed
my Wine and Spirits Education Trust Sommelier Level
2 (intermediate) exam “with merit” about a year ago and
against my better judgment, I decided to pursue my somm
level 3 (advanced) certifi cation. While I know a lot of wine
afi cionados, I’m not aware of anyone on the Oregon Coast
being a WSET Level 2 or Level 3 Sommelier.
There were 15 of us — two from Oregon, 13 from Wash-
ington —who freely gave up Saturdays and Sundays over
an eight-week period to attend wine classes at the Northwest
Wine Academy in
South Seattle this
spring. In addition
UNCORKED RAMBLINGS
to studying the
STEVEN SINKLER
world’s major
wine regions, we
studied viticulture
(grape growing)
and enology (winemaking). We also tasted and systematically
analyzed about 100 wines corresponding to the wine regions
being discussed.
I took the three-part exam on April 30 in Seattle. The ex-
am’s fi rst part is the blind tasting wine analysis of two wines,
an unknown white, followed by an unknown red. WSET has
created a very specifi c process for analyzing wine and in or-
der to pass this section, you have to following their process. If
you’ve seen the movie “Somm,” you get the general idea of
how this exam section goes, with the biggest differences be-
ing that we aren’t required to identify the wine and its region.
Instead, to pass at this level, you must nail the wine’s aromas
and fl avors, as well as it’s alcohol, body, acid and tannin lev-
els. Of the exam’s three sections, this is the easiest. For those
of you wondering, I identifi ed the two wines as an Alsatian
Gewürztraminer and a Bordeaux blend from Pauillac.
After the blind tasting was completed, we moved to the
exam’s theory section, which consists of 50 multiple choice
questions and four essay questions. I opened my testing
book and stared at multiple choice question No. 1 and had
no clue what the answer was. What a great start! I circled it
and moved on. After my fi rst pass at the 50 questions, I had
circled seven, answered the other 43, and was pretty sure
I’d pass this section of the exam. Of course, I went back
and worked through the circled questions, some with more
systematic reasoning … this hot climate grape has lower acid
levels, so the answer is “b,” while other questions received
the “eenie-meenie-miney-mo” reasoning. Either way, I
worked through this section in about 45 minutes, which left a
little more than an hour for the four essay questions. World-
wide, the WSET Level 3 exam has about a 50 percent pass
rate. Most students who stumble do so in the essay section; I
was about to learn why.
I opened the essay exam booklet and found a question
about Aglianico waiting for me. What is Aglianico you ask?
It’s a red grape, from Southern Italy and very few people
drink it, because Sangiovese (Chianti) and Nebbiolo (Barolo
and Barbaresco) make better wine and thus, get all of the
attention. So, I proceeded to write an essay answer around the
only things I knew about Aglianico: (1) it’s a red grape, (2)
from Southern Italy and (3) nobody drinks it. We’ll see how
many points I get from that.
There was a question asking us to discuss why a bottle
of Dom Perignon is so expensive and a question asking us
to explain the difference between two sweet wines (one was
botrytized and the other was a late harvest). I felt pretty good
about my answers on those questions and moved on. The fi -
nal essay question asked us about Argentina’s signature white
grape, Torrontes. We needed to discuss this grape’s two grow-
ing subregions, Uco Valley and Maipu. I was ready for this! I
had taken the week off and had done my fi nal studies, which
included Uco Valley and Maipu! I diligently began writing
about how the differences in vineyard locations, climate
and terrain impacted the aromas and fl avors of Torrontes. I
fi nished up the essay questions, handed in my exam booklet
and left feeling pretty confi dent. As I began my drive back to
Cannon Beach, I called Maryann and told her the exam went
well and that although it was tough, I thought I’d pass. That
didn’t last long.
I stopped for a late lunch and brought my study binder
into the restaurant. While eating, I looked through it to double
check my answers to questions I could remember. And then
I saw it, Uco Valley isn’t in a valley at all, it’s in the foothills
of the Andes and Maipu isn’t in the mountains, it’s in a valley.
Oh no … I fl ip-fl opped these two regions! The beautiful
answer I wrote describing Maipu was actually about Uco
Valley and vice versa. I suddenly lost my appetite and felt a
wave of nausea come over me. Instead of passing the essay
questions with room to spare, I now fi nd myself scrambling
to put enough points together to pass.
I won’t get my results until sometime in July, but I’m not
waiting around. I’ve already tuned up my study guide and
started hitting the books. The WSET Level 3 exam is being
offered again in December. If necessary, I’m going to ace it.
LETTERS
Rant of the day
Wow, government at its best.
I attended a Cannon Beach City
Council workshop last night on down-
town parking. The discussion was to
implement a time limit on parking
in downtown Cannon Beach. A city
employee, not the fi rm that did the study,
gave a report on a study to the council.
He gave the report with his back to the
audience; none of us could hear him. I
motion to the mayor that we could not
hear what was being said, but I was ig-
nored. Pretty much everything that was
discussed was said so softly most all of
us could not hear. Actually the keyboard
typing of the secretary was louder than
their voices at times.
As it turned out, they decided to start
by Memorial Day weekend with a three
hour parking time limit on Hemlock.
Not sure about the other streets, I
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don’t think they addressed that. What
is unbelievable to me is that, I know
work sessions are between the council
members, but I would think at some
point there would be public discussion.
So I asked after they were moving on to
another subject, they indicated at some
point they would check with businesses.
Well, not sure what that means when
they already decided to start it?
It also amazes me that I believe they
paid for a study on this issue, but the per-
son that did the study did not talk with
any businesses that I know of. I would
think that would be a high priority in a
study of parking in a business area. Love
government that thinks it knows better
about what to do than the businesses that
rely on that parking for their survival.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Jeff TerHar
Warrenton
THE NATIONAL AWARD-WINNING