Stunningly poor institutional handling of a challenging situation. We were in Big Sur when Highway 1 eroded to the north of the property. ~2,000 people were trapped in the Big Sur area overnight (with hundreds sleeping in their vehicles), and while we were able to convoy out the next day based on CalTrans assessing that the portion of the highway that hadn’t eroded was stable enough to support traffic, there was a real possibility that everyone would be stuck for a week+ ahead of an alternative evacuation plan. Through all this, the Big Sur community rallied. They supported stranded visitors, distributed food, offered shelter, and worked hard to support those in need. Everyone except the Alila Ventana and its restaurant, the Sur House. The Sur House is open to the public, and its lunch and dinner service is commonly frequented by visitors to Big Sur. While not staying on property, we had both lunch (pre-collapse) and dinner (post collapse) at the Sur House the day of the highway collapse. While the food was fine, what really stood out the day of the collapse was the kindness and grace of the staff members during dinner, as many of them were also trapped in Big Sur for the night, away from their homes. They made room for stranded visitors in the restaurant (it became a hub as it’s one of the few places in Bug Sur with reliable cell service and WiFi) and were extremely supportive given the circumstances. That all changed the next day. We arrived at the Sur House for breakfast on Sunday morning, along with several other weary stranded patrons, expecting to purchase a warm (and overpriced) meal and get some much-needed connectivity to get critical information about emergency response next steps. We and others were completely shocked to be curtly informed that the Alila management had made the dangerous and misguided decision to ban non-hotel-guests from eating at the restaurant. Total 180 from the night prior, and while the rest of Big Sur opened its arms amidst the crisis, the Alila slammed shut its doors. Interestingly, while we were there, alongside others who’d just spend the night huddled in their vehicles, processing that we were effectively being told to leave, despite the emergency situation, a State Park officer arrived to tell the hostess that he’d received complaints they weren’t serving food to non-guests (not from us). Before he could finish, the hostess erupted into a diatribe about how it’s their right to refuse service as an “all-inclusive” (as an aside, it’s not all-inclusive) resort etc. etc., which the officer rightly agreed with, stating that as a private business, it’s their right to refuse service to anyone, but he just wanted to inform them of the complaints. While it is absolutely their right to refuse to feed paying would-be customers in the face of an emergency, the Alila’s management’s decision to exercise that right while the rest of Big Sur rallied to support community members and visitors alike tells you
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