Tiny Marathon full of surprises, 'frontier' opulence

December 10, 2006
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

As the 19th century yielded to the 20th, the railroad dynasties of America lured travelers to the wonders of the West – the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier. And their “hook” was a promise of rustic elegance at destination lodges and fine dining rooms built by the iron horse magnates.

In similar spirit, the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, 175 miles west of Del Rio on U.S. Highway 90, offers comfort, cuisine and art – all surrounded by Chihuahuan desert scrub and a dome of crystalline blue sky.

The old adobe and stucco hotel was designed by famous architects, Trost & Trost as a gathering place for ranchers and miners thanks to the financing and initiative of owner Albert Gage. Gage came from Vermont in 1878, and opened the Gage Hotel in 1927. It was two years before the infamous stock market crash, and while Cecil B. DeMille, Al Jolson and Greta Garbo starred in Hollywood, and Charles Lindbergh completed his solo flight to Paris in the “Spirit of St. Louis.”

Wilma Schindeler is general manager of the Gage Hotel, and a thousand times she has heard exclamations of awe and admiration when guests first enter the old hotel’s lobby. The room’s high, wood-beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, jade green fireplace, and comfortable, rustic furniture offer breathtaking contrast with the hotel’s plain exterior and arriving guests’ expectations.

The Gage has 37 rooms in both the oldest historic part of the property and the courtyard called Los Portales, and three “off-property” houses. Throughout, the décor seems masterfully selected and placed, though Schindeler affectionately calls the theme “cowboy clutter.”

As in most national parks and many historic hotel properties, there are no televisions in the rooms, only a small radio with XM channel selections. Schindeler wants guests to revel in the bucolic comfort of good beds, fine linens, great food, lavish surroundings and thunderous water pressure in the shower.

Accommodations in rooms at the Gage include soft, sterile-packaged earplugs for each light-sleeping guest. They are insurance against the haunting wail of locomotive horns on Union Pacific tracks across the highway. Fast freights and Amtrak’s Sunset Limited still run, but don’t stop in Marathon anymore.

Rooms in the Los Portales section of the hotel have design details worthy of note, including 100-year-old mesquite doors (all different in style), Saltillo tile floors, vigas y latillas (wood beam and sotol stalk) ceilings, and Talavera-style tiles and sinks. Though the bed linens envelope guests in soft comfort, Schindeler said they are being replaced “to make the rooms look even classier.”

But the Gage’s restaurant, Café Cenizo, is a significant draw, too, and Schindeler assures that her praise for Executive Chef Paul Petersen is fact, not hyperbole. “He is New York-trained, in his early 30s, and specializes in French technique,” said Schindeler, pointing to a menu on Thanksgiving weekend that included entrees such as mole-rubbed buffalo ribeye, pepper-crusted elk medallions, and barbecue-glazed wild king salmon.

A “special” over the Thanksgiving weekend, enjoyed by my wife Debbie, was seared scallops with a lemon garlic butter sauce on a bed of barley, and I enjoyed the “buffalo.” But Sous Chef Andrew McArthur also sent out samples including fire-roasted quail with ancho chili glaze, a roasted pear honey salad and smoked red onion vinaigrette.

And another: Sauteed shrimp over crostini with pumpkin mash and roasted garlic butter, topped with pepitas (pumpkin seeds). McArthur’s “side” of risotto included raisins, garlic, truffles, sage sausage and parsley.

Plano, Texas, builders and deer hunters Jeff Bullock, Michael Eikelbarner, and Bullock’s wife, Marti, relaxed in one of three warm, seductively lit dining rooms of Café Cenizo, clearly enjoying the meal and the hospitality of Manager Lane Williams and Waiter and Assistant Manager Juan Scott. Eikelbarner, refreshed but still weary from the hunt, called the experience “a great drop of elegance in an otherwise brutal day.”

Normal hours, according to Williams, are Sun. through Thurs., 6-8:45 p.m., and Fri. through Sat., 6-9:45 p.m. “On a typical busy night, we’ll serve 90 to 120 people,” Williams said. Consistent with the sedate pace in the Big Bend region, Marathon has no big, public events planned for the Christmas-New Year’s season. But, on Christmas Day, Café Cenizo will offer a special brunch, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

In addition, the hotel’s owner, J.P. Bryan, Houston, will host a New Year’s Eve celebration in the old Ritchey Building, across the Union Pacific tracks. Not long ago, it was a studio for noted Texas sculptor Garland Weeks, but this year it will be the hall for a five-course meal, followed by a dance featuring Craig Carter and the Spur of the Moment Band.

Café Cenizo is not open for breakfast or lunch, and reservations are urged for dinner, but the hotel offers a continental breakfast for guests.

A few blocks west of the Gage, Lupe Olvera manages the Courtyard Café, with a single-item menu, her handmade, satisfying breakfast burritos and homemade salsa. “I keep it simple, because I really don’t like to cook,” Olvera said, laughing. The burritos were delicious. Olvera is closed Wednesdays and Thursdays, otherwise open 6-10 a.m., including on Christmas Day and New Years Day.

Marathon, population less than 500, also boasts six art galleries, and a handful of other shops of visitor interest along the U.S. Highway 90 “main drag.”

For more information about this fine, landmark hotel, see their Web site, www.gagehotel.com .