“Nepenthe is a wonderful and dynamic business in an extraordinary location that provides for our family, and gives us the opportunity to serve our community and guests from around the world. To be stewards to such a unique property and to be able to share it with the rest of the world for generations to come is a great honor and privilege.”
—Kirk Gafill

In celebration of Nepenthe Restaurant’s 70th year—still today a favorite tourist destination on the scenic drive along Highway 1 to Big Sur, California—comes a new edition of My Nepenthe. This revised edition includes stories that capture the interesting history and people, natural disasters, myriad wild tales, delicious recipes, stunning photography, an updated family tree and timeline, and a new essay chronicling the last decade and the start of a new era.

Written by the owners' granddaughter, Romney Steele, who grew up at the restaurant, My Nepenthe is as much about a family enterprise as it is about the Fassett family who opened Nepenthe in 1949, and their legacy as they preserve and manage it today.

Perched on the breathtaking cliffs, 808 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Nepenthe Restaurant boasts sweeping views of the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains and the wild south coast of Monterey County. This legendary location is nestled among native oak trees historic log cabins (now faced by brick) that were once owned by Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. The vibrant seventy-year history on the coast is brought to life through achival black-and-white and contemporary color photography by Sara Remington; a collection of eighty-five recipes from the Fassett family, the restaurant, and the café; stories about the restaurant’s past as a gathering place and noted bohemian haunt for artists and writers; and special sections on the filming of The Sandpiper (1965), which featured scenes from Nepenthe’s iconic terrace, as well as Nepenthe’s unique relationship with the renowned Pisoni winemaking family.

Ultimately, My Nepenthe is a story about food, family, and the culture of place, and how it all unfolds around the table and why that matters, then and now.

While the Bohemians were writing poetry and making Carmel famous, a group of painters, mostly women, were doing the work of building a sustainable arts community that would become Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Jane Gallatin Powers was the “spiritual rock” of the nascent art colony. Her story and artwork has never been published…until now. Jane Gallatin Powers was the great-great-grandmother of Erin Lee Gafill. Erin went on a decades long journey unearthing Jane’s story, and has created this stunning book about Jane’s life.

Check out this article about Erin and the book by The Monterey Herald.

Color Duets is a new book of original artwork, textiles, and family stories. It memorializes a series of artist retreats shared by Kaffe Fassett and his niece, Erin Lee Gafill over the last twelve years.

Two artists in the thick of noted careers celebrate beauty through color and pattern. Each works tirelessly to create work expressing their individual visions, while touring the world evangelizing to the faithful their message: “You, too are a creative spirit.”

For over twelve years, they have come together each May in the home where they both spent their formative years. They retreat to a cabin in a redwood grove across the highway from Nepenthe in Big Sur, California. In this stolen week, they sit side by side, surrounded by palettes, easels, brushes, and paints. They observe and render the nuance of color and form as the canyon light illuminates selected groups of vases, pots, and flowers.

World-renowned artist and textile designer Kaffe Fassett provides a window into his creative process, offering readers new patterns, new ideas, and new inspiration

With successes like Bold Blooms and Dreaming in Color, the latest book from Kaffe Fassett brings together all the best elements of his work and life. Kaffe Fassett in the Studio will offer an in-depth look at his work and where he finds inspiration, paying particular attention to his color work. He’ll also showcase some of his greatest designs in the areas of needlework, patchwork, and knitting, as well as provide three to four new patterns in each of these areas. Lastly, Fassett will speak to his fabric design and painting processes. He remains an icon in the fashion and craft worlds. He partners with brands such as Coach and is regularly featured in the pages of Vogue. Fassett’s brilliant use of color sets his work apart from other artists, and any collection of his work is a must-have among fans and beyond.

For more of Kaffe’s beautiful art, please click here.

A companion publication to Recipes for living in Big Sur. A “more-than-a-recipe” cookbook about challenges, loss, triumphs and new beginnings when facing wild fires, slides and extended highway closures on the Big Sur coast in California.

The Big Sur Historical Society was founded in 1978 to preserve and promote Big Sur’s rich cultural heritage. Over the years, BSHS has grown to an organization with over 100 members, an Archive building, and a museum located in the historic Ranch House at Andrew Molera State Park. BSHS gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of Post Ranch Inn and the California Department of Parks and Recreation in making space available for our Archive and Museum.

In the winter of 1980-81, six Big Sur women were inspired to create a fund that would sustain the fledgling Big Sur Historical Society in its work of preserving local history. Come January, the call went out to the Big Sur community asking for favorite recipes as well as for diaries, memoirs, photographs, legends and stories of life in Big Sur. The recipes came pouring in as folks searched through photograph albums and old recipe files. By April there was enough material for several books. A pattern finally emerged from the diary excerpts and reminiscences: six overlapping categories evolved into chapter headings: Living Off the Land, Food from the Sea, Self-Sufficiency, The Simple Life, Starting from Scratch and Big Sur Hospitality. The material was selected to express the diversity of life styles that found room to exist in Big Sur. The reader will discover that this is not an ordinary cookbook. Some of the recipes are vague about amounts or ingredients, reflecting the awareness that creative cooks use what they've got on hand. A few of the recipes are artifacts, included to offer a flavor of life as it used to be in Big Sur. Most of the recipes have been taste tested, and the result is a unique blend of history and recipes, expressive of the art of living as practiced in Big Sur. Soft cover, 156 pages, published in 1981 and reissued in 2020, lovingly compiled by the women of the Big Sur Historical Society: Pat Addelman, Judith Goodman, Mary Harrington, Clair Chappellet, Ruth Harlan, and Beverly Newell.

How do we find love? How do we live and love fully? And can we find healing and purpose after loss?

In her quest to understand love and healing, Alison van Diggelen explores how empathy, self-love and personal growth can transform ordinary lives into extraordinary ones, distrust into loving intimacy, and grief into purpose. The Love Project looks at a community through the lens of love - romantic, familial, platonic -- and the quiet, yet powerful bonds we share with community and nature.

With candor and compassion, these real love stories reveal how people overcome challenges, grief, trauma, and societal prejudice. From the windswept beaches of Carmel to moments of quiet self-discovery in neighbors' homes, each story reminds us of the human spirit's resiliency and capacity for growth and connection.

Whether you are seeking inspiration for your own journey of self-improvement or the comfort of knowing you are not alone, The Love Project offers a gentle guide to finding love and hope, living authentically, and embracing life's most transformative moments.

In 1947, Nancy Hopkins left her childhood home in Berkeley, California, to join her husband, Samuel Hopkins, in their newly-built home in Big Sur. Their simple, redwood home, three miles up a narrow dirt road, was perched high on a ridge overlooking the Big Sur coast. As Nancy settled in and raised her children, she chronicled her country life in letters to her parents. Writing about what she loved most-her husband and children, the books she read, the nature that surrounded her, her pleasures at home and with friends, the Big Sur community’s social gatherings-she captured a time and place. Her letters describe Big Sur in the 1950s, a time when “you could drive to ‘town’ 30 miles north on Highway 1, and not pass a single other car along the way.”

Herb Evans raised himself on the streets of Brooklyn. He forged a path into the greater world, first on a Navy submarine, later in theaters, night clubs, and restaurants in the Village, on Third Avenue, on Broadway, in Malibu, and eventually, in Big Sur. Through this collection of essays and reflections, Herb traces this path from Brooklyn to Big Sur, on a journey that has shaped his life through work. Betty Smith told the tale of a tree that grew in Brooklyn, Frank McCourt wove the saga of Angela’s Ashes. Here, Evans has his own stories to tell.

A restaurant is show business, and the bar is the stage. A bartender is the talent, the stage manager, and the director all rolled into one. Everybody wants to know the bartender. Herb’s start in the business came at 80 Warren Street in Manhattan. Each day he’d be sent to a new venue, a new job. He always had work, because he never said no. Delivery boy, sandwich guy, griddle cook, waiter, or bartender. He’d get the gig and take the stage. Herb finished his career in Big Sur at Nepenthe, one of the world’s most beautiful sets. What lay between lies within.

Paperback - 308 pages
Published April 6,2019

Romancing the Sur by Linda Sonrisa Jones, tells of the passion it takes to embrace the chaos, impermanence and wild beauty of life on the Big Sur coast. Up a dirt road, on the ridge Henry Miller called home, you'll find views of the lunar goddess, lupine blossom sorbet, and bathing in a claw-foot tub as condors soar above. There are also life-changing wildfires, sneaky rattlesnakes, and a host of marvelous eccentric characters with wisdom to share. “Linda Sonrisa’s writing, like a car she once had, is convertible—she converts her experiences of Big Sur so that we get to step into her rural, effervescent life. She’ll take you for a spin in her red Miata along the highway's tight curves and you too will find that “everything is beautiful again.” Get right up close to her experience of the transformation of fire into ash into gratitude. Here’s a writer who listens with such care that she can hear a friend’s sadness in a raven’s voice and his joy in singing finches. If we could all live our lives with such attention the world would be a better place. If we could all write like this, wouldn’t that be something!” Patrice Vecchione, author, Step into Nature: Nurturing Imagination & Spirit in Everyday Life

Corn Hollow: A Journey of Sorrow and Triumph by LaVerne Hillis McLeod

Discover a never-experienced fictitious story of growing up in the agrarian South during the Civil Rights era. Set in the farming community of Corn Hollow, Tennessee, the story takes place from the early 1950's to early 1970's. Corn Hollow is told through the young African American protagonist, Tamara Banks, as she grows up with a question. While in the process of seeking answers, she stumbles upon various encounters of injustice; of race and gender, incest and poverty, alcoholism and prostitution.

Paperback: 300 pages
Published: November 15, 2016

Written sometime after Jack Kerouac's best-known works, Big Sur follows his comedown from a carefree youth and unwanted fame. After staying for several weeks in a cabin in the northern California town of Big Sur, Kerouac undertook a mature confrontation with some of his most troubling emotional issues, including struggles with alcoholism, addiction and insecurity. He records his changing states of consciousness and powerful moments of epiphany. Big Sur is a challenging and poignant book by one of America's most influential authors. Paperback, 224 pages, published in 2011. Jack Kerouac is a central figure of the Beat Generation and was an American novelist and poet. He is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, drugs, poverty and travel. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements.

Tales from the Moon by Rosalia Moon Webster

“Tales from the Moon is my spell book.
Poems are mantras moving emotional energy through us. Recipes for love and earth power. Reciting resets us. Read of nature, reverence, friendship, and strong women. Relate to these experiences of comfort, confidence, and respect.
Fairytales from my lifetime in majestic Big Sur fill these pages.
This poetic legend spans from my unique childhood in nature, to remaining an inimitable adult in the same wilds. Writings hail healing, creativity, remembrance, forgiveness and triumph. Bold and brave recounts of love and hope, of shadows and scars. Fears become courage; our beast becomes our beauty mark.
Ritual, initiation, celebration, and awareness are written into daily life. This practice cultivates connectivity with humanity and earth. Dancing between mountains and technology spinning stories into live shows. Belly dancers, acrobats, fire spinners, bubble blowers, stunt women, and a wordsmith comprise the old-world performance troupe BiG SuRCuS to embody my lore.”

Sharing is my responsibility and pleasure.
These fables become the live shows of BiG SuRCuS.
love Rosalia Moon Webster
For bookings contact www.bigsurcus.com

Beloved Forest Feast author Erin Gleeson is back with a love letter to travel and delicious vegetarian food from her home state of California!

For years, Forest Feast fans have loved Erin Gleeson’s effortless California-style vegetarian cooking, made in her beautiful cabin in the woods. Now, Gleeson takes an extended road trip around California, staying in unique cabin dwellings along the way and showing readers the beauty and incredible food of the Golden State she knows so well. The Forest Feast Road Trip showcases 100 vegetarian recipes, all inspired by her family’s journey by car through a stunningly geographically diverse setting. Each chapter focuses on a different region of California, depicted in Gleeson’s signature aesthetic of atmospheric photography, charming watercolor illustrations, and mouthwatering recipes drawn from the fresh, local produce found in each location. Gleeson visits the stunning Big Sur coastline, the giant redwoods on the coast of Mendocino, the desert of Joshua Tree, the mountains of Lake Tahoe, the tropical beaches of Santa Barbara, the cliffs of Yosemite National Park, and everywhere in between. In each location, Gleeson and her family stay in design-forward cabins, host dinner parties, and explore local attractions, providing tips for readers who may want to take a California road trip of their own.

With its sense of wanderlust and its fresh take on the vegetarian cookbook, The Forest Feast Road Trip is an essential addition to this bestselling series.

Previously published as California’s Wild Edge: The Coast in Prints, Poetry, and History, this volume captures the beauty of the California coast from Mendocino, Point Reyes, and the San Francisco Bay down through Carmel, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica. Woodcut artist Tom Killion’s prints combine exquisite color with dynamic composition to portray the coast’s ever-changing moods and diverse formations: storm tides crashing at Point Lobos, serene moonlit coves at Mendocino, fog encircling the Golden Gate Bridge. Deepening our experience are poetry and prose from Gary Snyder, as well as selections from Native Californian traditional stories, accounts of travelers, and poems by Robinson Jeffers, Robert Hass, and Jaime de Angulo. As Tamalpais Walking and The High Sierra of California did for lovers of mountains, California’s Wild Coast will delight anyone who has seen (or wants to see) the meeting of land and the Pacific.

Paperback, 208 pages, published in 2020

The Alchemy of Possibility: Reinventing Your Personal Mythology
by Carolyn Mary Kleefeld

Alchemy is at once a universal handbook for creative growth and an intimate record of one artist s passionate journey to the edges of perception. It is possessed of a chant-like quality, and like a chant, its subtle powers gather by accretion to a final message that is both transcendent and ultimately useful. Each chapter is introduced with an original full-color painting paired with text and poetry; each group is further keyed into an I Ching hexagram or tarot card. These multiple forms provide the basis for an interactive reading, inviting you into a remapping of your own journey. The book moves through themes that are practical such as Leadership, to more inspirational matters such as Fanning Our Unique Flame. Not since Blake and Chagall has an individual successfully combined multi-media forms into an evocative integrated whole. What Natalie Goldberg s Writing Down the Bones did for the craft of creative writing, The Alchemy of Possibility does for the process of creative work in general. For every working artist, and for every person who wants to live artfully, Alchemy is a work of living inspiration. It promises to take a unique place in the spiritual libraries of seekers everywhere.

263 Pages
Published 1998
Paperback

Soul Seeds: Revelations & Drawings
by Carolyn Mary Kleefeld

Cultural Writing. Inspiration. With a foreword by Laura Huxley. SOUL SEEDS, an inspirational book of succinctly-expressed philosophical insights, accompanied by a series of intuitively imaginative drawings, provides a shift in perspective that awakens and frees the spirit when the mind is stuck in culturally-conditioned ways of thinking. It can help to transform fear into conscious creation, re-vitalize imagination, and renew a sense of wonder, romance and innocence. In this rushed world, the power of these insights is in their brevity; readers can peruse the book as they wish, even using it as an oracle by posing a question and then opening it at random to see what fresh insight may be gleaned, rather than reading it cover-to-cover. "Carolyn Mary Kleefeld writes from a well of perception that is rare and rises from deep within. Each observation, each short passage from her book SOUL SEEDS is a flash of insight that strikes to our very hearts"--Evelyne Blau.

91 Pages
Published 2008
Paperback

Carolyn Mary Kleefeld: Visions from Big Sur

This book is the catalog to accompany the exhibition, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld: Visions from Big Sur, organized by the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University by curator and director, Michael Zakian, PhD.

It is a full-scale overview of the visual art of Carolyn Mary Kleefeld. It covers twenty-five years, from 1983 to 2008, and includes drawings and paintings in all media, ranging from ink and watercolor to acrylic and oil. It includes biographical information in the context of the art and includes critical commentary of Carolyn’s many genres, ranging from cosmic abstractions to expressionism to figurative to linear fantasies.

“Ms Kleefeld's work goes beyond ordinary landscape. She's a spiritual artist who paints the Divine Female Goddess/space aliens/fantasy birds/temples. Her use of color and form is mesmerizing.”

118 pages
Published 2008
Paperback

The Divine Kiss: An Exhibit of Paintings and Poems in Honor of David Campagna
by Carolyn Mary Kleefeld

The Divine Kiss expresses in imagery and poetry the sacred merging of love into the realm of the Beloved, manifesting and celebrating the divine.

An exhibit catalog of Carolyn’s shows, inspired by David Campagna, at the Santa Barbara and the Shreveport Karpeles Manuscript Museum and Library, the book includes 15 full-color images and 15 poems, each of which resonates with the corresponding painting.

48 Pages
Published 2014
Paperback

This white coffee mug has the Nepenthe logo on one side and the definition of the word Nepenthe on the other: "Nepenthe - 1. an elixir or draft (or the plant yielding it) mentioned by ancient writers as capable of bringing forgetfulness of sorrow or trouble 2. anything inducing easeful forgetfulness."

Holds approximately 15 oz.

Our pint glass has the Nepenthe logo etched in black on one side.

Our shot glass has the Nepenthe logo etched in black on one side.

Our stemless wine glass has the Nepenthe logo etched in black on one side.

Holds approximately 11oz.

Our Nepenthe baseball caps will keep the sun out of your eyes, and keep you looking sharp. Each cotton cap comes with an adjustable buckle on the back and features the Nepenthe logo. Please select your color. $24 each

Weathered Cotton Outback Hat with Chin Cord

• cotton
• Imported
• Hand Wash
• Weathered cotton gives the hat a rugged, broken-in look, Fabric: 52% cotton/48% polyester
• Interior brow band and lining absorbs sweat and provides a smooth surface next to the skin
• Broad, shapable brim provides 360° of shade and protection for face, ears and nape,Width Of Brim 2.7 inches
• With a UPF 50+ rating, the hat provides excellent protection against harmful ultraviolet rays
• Adjustable chin strap secures the hat when the winds pick up

Size Chart

Manufacturer size          Head Size (in inches)
Small                                21 1/4 - 21 5/8
Medium                           22 - 22 1/2
Large                               22 3/4 - 23 1/4
X-Large                           23 5/8 - 24

Adjustable Weathered Cotton Baseball Cap with Nepenthe Logo.

This painting was created on the front steps of The Phoenix during Easter of 2016. It features the view looking south along the Big Sur coast. The mountains of the Santa Lucia range have been painted purple and they cascade into a sea the color of a Robin’s egg. The late afternoon light illuminates puffy white clouds, casting deep shadows from the nearby trees as the hills lighten into a warm, golden brown.

This limited edition fine art print is produced in Erin's studio to her specifications. They are printed on watercolor paper using a process that will last a lifetime. The print size is the outside paper dimension. The image size is approximately 8x10" or 16x12" for the two print sizes.

Umbrellas at Nepenthe V is an bright and colorful painting depicting the multi-colored umbrellas that have stood on Nepenthe’s deck on sunny days for years.

The original painting is 40″ x 30″ and is available at The Phoenix Shop at Nepenthe in Big Sur.

This fine art print is printed, hand trimmed, inspected, signed and numbered in the artist’s studio.

This limited edition fine art print is produced in Erin's studio to her specifications. They are printed on watercolor paper using a process that will last a lifetime. The print sizes (11x14” or 16×20”) is the outside paper dimension. The image size is approximately 8x10" or 16x12" for the two print sizes.

This limited edition fine art print is produced in Erin's studio to her specifications. They are printed on watercolor paper using a process that will last a lifetime. The print size (11x14” or 16x20”) is the outside paper dimension. The image size is approximately 8x10" or 16x12" for the two print sizes.

This painting of the view from Nepenthe's deck was created during the autumn season. The warm, vibrant colors and strong composition are a beautiful reminder of the view overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Lucia Mountain Range.

This limited edition fine art print is produced in Erin's studio to her specifications. They are printed on watercolor paper using a process that will last a lifetime. The print size (11x14” or 16x20”) is the outside paper dimension. The image size is approximately 8x10" or 16x12" for the two print sizes.