# Weird Hotel & Restaurant in California **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431 "2009-07-27T15:29:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/41 "2009-07-30T06:34:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The food isn’t great, but also not awful. Think of Stuckeys if it were run by Zsa Zsa Gabor. The men’s room is impressive, and the rest of the place is a bit jaw-droppingly awful (although less so since they toned down the bright pink exterior that it used to sport). Still, it is a dim candle in comparison to [The Gobbler](http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/index.html) in Wisconsin off the I-94. At least in California after all the rocket fuel and nuclear emissions released by SSFL and AFRL, it is surprising residents of Southern California didn’t start sporting extra appendages from their foreheads. I don’t know what excuse Wisconsinites have. > > Stranger I lived through that era. And a circular bed without a mirror on the ceiling is just wrong. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/42 "2009-07-31T15:41:44Z")
I haven’t stayed at the Madonna Inn, but I stayed at another place in SLO that had to have been inspired by it: [The Apple Farm](http://www.applefarm.com/). I went with my martial arts instructor because we were going to train with a well known MMA instructor (John Hackleman, Chuck Liddell’s trainer) in the little town of Arroyo Grande just to the south. His wife booked the room, and we had no idea about what the place looked like. So, after a day of tough guy martial arts training we went back to this: [Our room looked like this.](http://www.applefarm.com/rooms/) [What a delightful little gift shop!](http://www.applefarm.com/giftshop/) [Oh, the little millhouse is just darling!](http://www.applefarm.com/millhouse/) Teapots and cozys and ceramic cats and canopy beds and crap all over the place. My mother would have loved it, but we found it both hilarious and mortifying. I think the place sucked all the testosterone out of us. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/43 "2009-07-31T18:18:01Z")
BTw, from what I hear, you ah, might not want to mention the SDMB when reserving your room. Jus’ sayin. > [@Kyla](#): > > I’ve never heard the Luis pronounced in any other way than “lu-EEZ”, btw. People kinda run the whole name together, so it comes out as “sanluEEZaBISpo”. **Kyla** , I’m pretty sure you’ve finally lost it. It’s “lewis,” or as **psy** points out, “slow.” ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/44 "2009-07-31T21:25:23Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > **Kyla** , I’m pretty sure you’ve finally lost it. It’s “lewis,” or as **psy** points out, “slow.” [Not quite.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11390506&postcount=36) ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/45 "2009-08-01T18:22:47Z")
I grew up there, it is definitely pronounced San Lewis or Slow by all the locals. To pronounce it like a Spaniard risks comparison to those comedy-skit newscasters who discuss the Central American nation of NI-HARRRAGWA. Technically correct, but wrong. San Rafael is a similar deal, you’d think it was rah-fah-el, the locals say ruh-fell. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/46 "2009-08-02T06:13:04Z")
When I was in Illinois the campus commercial radio station had a great series starring Flush Bizbo, college freshman. In one show we discovered that his mother was Pepto and his father was Sam Louis. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/47 "2009-08-02T06:34:49Z")
In Spanish, Luis doesn’t have a stress on the second syllable: there is no second syllable, it’s a dyptong! ---
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/48 "2009-08-05T03:56:49Z")
> [@RTA](#): > > I grew up there, it is definitely pronounced San Lewis or Slow by all the locals. To pronounce it like a Spaniard risks comparison to those comedy-skit newscasters who discuss the Central American nation of NI-HARRRAGWA. Technically correct, but wrong. > > San Rafael is a similar deal, you’d think it was rah-fah-el, the locals say ruh-fell. And San Jose is Sanazay. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/49 "2009-08-05T04:40:26Z")
Cool thread. As a former SLO resident, I knew this was about the Madonna Inn. And we always called it SLO, occasionally San Louis Obispo. And we shopped and clubbed on HI-gera (Higuera) Street. More SLO trivia: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, is the longest-named university in America. Go Mustangs! ---
**Author:** ![DarrellBray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@DarrellBray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrellBray)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/50 "2009-12-01T14:12:23Z")
I travel to SF semi-regularly, should see about maybe taking the time one of these days and spending a night there. Looks like quite the experience. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/51 "2009-12-01T14:42:39Z")
Watch out for the zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431/52 "2009-12-01T16:12:09Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Watch out for the zombies. [moderating] It’s only a few months old. That doesn’t bother us. Thanks for reporting it, though. [/moderating] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-hotel-restaurant-in-california/504431.md?page=2)