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National Hotel
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
13 reviews for National Hotel
Had brunch, it was good. Nothing exceptional.
Service was excellent and the hotel atmosphere was great.
All and all a good experience, but nothing too memorable
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yikes! This goes on my list of the worst place that I have ever stayed in my life! The hotel was very, very dirty! The linens on the beds were crusty and old. There were no amenties at all in this hotel and everyone working there was really rude! Not a place to stay if you are young and traveling up there for the wild and scenic environmental film festival, we should have slept in the car. The pillows on the beds were awful and I could not take a shower in the bathroom because there was no shower curtain!!! The TV had no reception and was old!!!
DONT STAY HERE
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Had we not stopped here on our way out of town I'd have given five stars.
We stopped here on Thursday for cocktails on our way to Camptonville to go camping.
Daneen, the bartender, hooked a sister and a brother UP. I love a one drink buzz. I even was trying to tell Daneen a story before I left but told her that I had to stop talking because I was embarrassed my words were slurring. We promised to stop by on our way out of Camptonville for more drinks.
We stop on Father's Day for highway 49 libations but Daneen was working a brunch event upstairs. Sucks to be us.
A very tall, very old, slightly sarcastic limping guy was bartending. I think he was miffed that I asked for Daneen.
Anyhow, we had a couple appetizers ( i could have made in my oven out of the box ) and two rounds. No where near the potency of Daneen's pour.
I would give them three stars but he was honest about their crab cakes being "shitty".
The decor is really nice and the hotel itself has a "naughty" past. That peaks my interest. Also, they display the worlds biggest cocktail shaker collection. That is cooler than thimbles so an extra star for that!
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This review is for the restaurant and the bar only.
We found the restaurant food and service to be excellent. One night we had "rack of lamb " and "prime rib". The second night, we had "pork loin" and "roast duck". All were flawless. Prices were reasonable for Nevada City (overall, we found drinks in Nevada City to be cheap but restaurant prices to be high). We liked the background keyboard music although would prefer not to be asked to make music requests. The atmosphere is very good - seems historic whether it is or not.
We visited the bar several times over the 3 days we were in Nevada city. Good atmosphere, service was good. Dancing on Friday and Saturday evenings - C&W emphasis but band takes requests willingly.
The National Hotel bar and restaurant are central to our annual visits to Nevada City
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Walking up the staircase to the second floor reception desk and parlor is like traveling in time back to the 19th century. Unfortunately, that is the last time the rooms were upgraded, I think. I used to stay here from time to time, and the place was always under construction, but nothing ever seemed to get fixed up. "Shabby" is the word that comes to mind. If you want to experience history (I do, or I would never have stayed here), then stay here one night.
NEWS FLASH: the owner has announced he will put this hotel up for sale, after 27 years of benign neglect. The price will be in the millions, I fear.
NEWER NEWS FLASH: A drug dealer recently set up shop in the hotel. When the police arrived with a search warrant, he shot himself. The hotel owner announced that he was going to tighten up the standards for hotel guests.
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returned to the National to meet some friends and see if their week-end entertainment had improved. Indeed, they had a great karaoke show going on, with a fellow named Doug who really got the crowd involved and who can sing beautifully. The bartender and waitress were very friendly. Unfortunately I gather the karaoke is a hit and miss affair and that he doesn't perform there on a regular basis, too bad!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
10/26/2008
Our last visit to the bar was a complete disaster! Some old guy, who's probably been there since… Read more »
Please correct:
This review is for The National Hotel Bar and Saloon not the hotel itself. I am rating this very old hotel by the feel and taste and service of its bar, I will have you know, not its sleepover worthiness. I think it would be a fun place to stay over, but provided my home is minutes away, I prefer my own personal chalet.
The bar at The National Hotel is absolutely classically vintage. And I don't mean the 1960s, ....... I mean the 1860s. There is no better place to stop in and have a homemade whiskey sour next to a Civil War re-enactor, if you know what I mean. The velvety red wallpaper dimly lit only by kerosene chandeliers makes for quite a haunted martini. I highly recommend visiting this one of a kind place on a weekday night and NOT a Friday or Saturday unless you have an itching to dance to jam bands with an older crowd, which is fine too. The classic moments however, are shared with the bar's finest asset, Al, on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Al comes from L.A. He has got lots of stories, and he can make any lonely night a little more lively. Plus he has a rather timeless look. It could be any decade with Al there. He is a very smart gent, and fiery, I must say; a classic character for a classic old tyme place.
I first came to the National Hotel in Nevada City on my 21st birthday. I had never been to the little city before, and I had no idea I would be a resident later. The National Hotel absolutely haunted my soul. It possesses the perfect amount of eeriness to fall in love to. And that's exactly what I've done, plus I've gone AND gotten married. Oh, the charm.
P.S. Try to see a music show on a weeknight if you ever hear of one here. They are of a whole different atmosphere than the house band nights, and they are bewitching.
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the following review is for the hotel only. it's such a bummer when the owner of a historic business with such great modern day potential, in such an amazing small town just doesn't care anymore. the man that owns this place doesn't pay mind to customer service, cleanliness or...brace yourself : DIRTY PANTIES IN THE BED. (http://flickr.com/phot...)
yes, we pulled down the sheets after a late night at cooper's and found dirty panties made into the bed in the room we had checked into five hours previous (see pictures). you know this essentially means that housekeeping did not change the sheets.
my friend goes downstairs to the front desk. tells the man working what we found, and...he gives us a set of new sheets to change the bed ourselves with. ouch. granted, it's 230am and grandpa is manning the phones...we aren't going to make grandpa change sex sheets.
we set the dirty sheets in the hall. stained LARGE flowery panties resting on top, which were still in the hall, visible to any guest walking by, when we left eight hours later. ew, yes, we stayed there! i know, i what the fuck was wrong with us? i dunno. we were drunk. blame it on the high elevation maybe? i used to live at 24th & bartlett, i can handle anything i suppose. excuses...
so...the morning comes, after a tortured night of 'sleep'. we want our $62 room comped. too much to ask? you bet it is! the owner isn't around until noon, so we have to go back after breakfast. he had been told what happened and kind of just...didn't care. he said something along the lines of 'it's not like your special weekend was ruined, you didn't even have a reservation'. um, excuse me? he's going to blame US on fucking DIRTY PANTIES in our bed? after haggling for a little bit, he finally agreed to refund HALF of the room rate. UNREAL.
no, we did not have reservations. yes, we got one of the last couple rooms available. but this is absolutely no excuse for non-existent housekeeping and the unsanitary conditions we experienced. i heard from a local that this place is up for sale, and until it's under new ownership, BEWARE!
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An "antique" hotel where you feel like time stopped a while back. A long while back. They have a nice deck on the first floor overlooking main street (aka Broad Street). When we trolled into the bar downstairs and asked the barman Robert if we could get drinks upstairs, he looked at us like we were crazy and mumbled something like "why? but sure, you get your drinks down here, pay for them here, and then walk up the stairs". Ok, straight forward enough.
We did not stay at the hotel, so I can comment on that per se. But a great deck to get drinks on a sunny day.
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I am rating the BAR and the BRUNCH only. I have not stayed at the actual hotel.
Bar/ Saloon - Once you get past the rancid smell in the bar entry way, you will find a delicious range of martinis and drinks. My fave? The Golden Ingot. I can't remember what exactly was in it, but I ended up drinking 3! They also have great bar food like sliders and some ridiculously evil onion rings that were scrumptious.
Brunch - My friend had her after wedding brunch here and overall it was pretty good. The waitress seemed a little confused by the request for mimosas but the eggs benedict and yummy apple cinnamon muffin made up for that. I honestly don't really know what the full menu prices were like because we had a pre-arranged brunch but I do know I left full, satisfied and had lots of champagne, I heard the final bill with tip and tax was about $20 per person.
Ah man, I love this place. Nothing much has changed about it since the mid to late 1800's....in a good way. I love the creeky, crooked stairs, I love the musty atmosphere, I love that I can feel the ghosts.
Stay there.
This place was a real adventure. The good is that it is very centrally located, our room had air conditioning (one of those $60 window units) and it has "character." There is a wonderful veranda from which you can look down on the main street. The lobby looks like it was meant to look old fashioned back in the 1970's: you know they have the place all decked out with really old stuff, but they have a punch time card (does anybody still use these, I guess so!) and phones and stuff like I remember from my childhood.
On the down side, parts of it were pretty dirty. Fortunately the sheets were clean. Not that I care too much but the TV connection was filled with static. The advertized pool was filthy, aledgedly because of a party the previous night. We had a good time hanging out on the veranda, but some B-rad impersonator (from Malibu's Most Wanted) kept yelling at somebody in front of the saloon across the street.
And Nevada city is a really interesting place. It has lots of culture, restaurants, nice architecture and an aesthetic you would expect to find in much bigger cities. In some ways architecturally it reminded me of New Orleans with the brick facadres, steel shutters and ironwork balconies. Unfortunately it shares its culture with a handful of toothless harly rider meth addicts who like to stand around and talk about how loud they can make their motorcycles (reminding me of a town I once lived in :-(.)
As one of the other reviewers put it, try it once for the experience. I say the next night go find a nice clean place where you can take a long shower.
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the bar is great and empty, the hotel is old and with a lil bit of flavor but the service... ohmygawd!!! terrible!! i reserved a room here for my wedding night...called off the wedding and they would not send me my deposit back... i cancelled these reservations 2 months in advance, talked to soo many different people, nobody would call me back!! shady business people!!! finally my mom had to step in and help with the calls and threats.. i got a check a year later!!!!!! do yourself a favor and go to another hotel!! i went into grassvalley and the Holbrooke was a lot nicer and had people who were professional working there.
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