Erna's daughter fired at Elderberry House. Changes at Valley's top restaurant, hotel

What happens when the Erna in Erna's Elderberry House – and now her daughter – are no longer part of the international award-winning restaurant, hotel and spa in Oakhurst?

There are growing pains. Hurt feelings.

Most stem from the firing of the founder's daughter, general manager Renée-Nicole Kubin.

For years, Erna's restaurant has consistently won Forbes Travel Guide's four-star award, the only restaurant in the Central Valley to do so. Its hotel, the Château du Sureau, where a room costs between $385 and $645 a night, gets even higher honors, including Forbes' five-star award for 25 years in a row. It's also part of Relais & Châteaux, a prestigious organization that includes just 550 properties worldwide.

In December, Erna Kubin-Clanin, 76, sold the 35-year-old business she built from the ground up for an undisclosed amount. She's also selling her five-bedroom, 4,522-square-foot house near Oakhurst for $1.25 million and moving to her native Austria to be closer to grandchildren.

Bernard Rosenson – an entrepreneur who owns several high-end restaurants and got his start in senior living facilities – bought the restaurant, hotel and spa.

At the time, Kubin-Clanin said in a Fresno Bee story, “He is totally in love with this place. And he wants to keep it just like it is.”

Now, six months later, her daughter said she doesn't like what he's doing with the property and is frustrated over the firing.

"It is changing. It is different. The family is gone," Kubin said. "This was about family heritage, family legacy, carrying on what my family has created. It wasn't just a job."

She noted that the property is now on sites like Booking.com and Trivago.com, a move she said removes the personal interaction of a guest booking directly with the property.

Rosenson disagrees, saying the personal touch is still there. Only now there's more money to fix things and the changes are positive, including trying to raise the profile of the hotel by putting it on those sites.

"Things are not the same, they’re better than before," he said.

Kubin's firing in June is a point of conflict.

Rosenson said he fired Kubin because she spent too much time away from the property.

"Renée-Nicole lives in San Francisco and has an issue coming to work," he said. "That was an issue."

Kubin said she owns a house in Coarsegold and was sometimes gone for events like wine conferences, but that is part of running a top-rated business.

"I was there all the time," Kubin said. "I wasn't there as much as my mother because I don't own it and I'm not going to run myself into the ground like she did."

She said she was fired the day after Rosenson told her she was doing a "great job" and gave her a handshake and a hug. She said she wasn't given enough of a reason for the firing, though she believes not having to pay her salary was a cost-saving measure for him.

The firing was sudden and unexpected, she said.

"I deserve the respect of a conversation," she said. "At no point in time did he ever say to me, 'You know what, I think we need to work on this and do this better.'"

Kubin was replaced by Carina Stephens as general manager.

The 2008 Mariposa High School grad has worked at Erna's for six years, including as a reservationist, special events coordinator and then assistant general manager.

New owner Rosenson said of Stephens, "In the absence of Renée-Nicole – which was very frequent – she ran the place."

Rosenson said he is happy with Stephens, pointing out that she's well versed in both the restaurant and hotel sides of the business.

"She’s very motivated," he said. "She puts a lot of time in that place. We speak at least once daily and seven days a week."

Stephens notes that the chef, Robert Snyder, and the experienced dining room manager and hotel manager are still there.

"By no means are we changing what Miss Erna created or built or the essence of what this property is," she said.

In February of 2017, The Bee wrote about Kubin, 49, returning to Erna's and the Château du Sureau, the business she worked at and grew up in. She became the general manager, bringing with her 30 years' experience at top-level restaurants and hotels. She brought her wine expertise from her job as a sommelier for four years in the 1990s at Charlie Trotter's, a restaurant run by the chef of the same name in Chicago. The restaurant consistently landed on a list of the Top 50 restaurants worldwide and had two Michelin stars.

Kubin also helped open Gary Danko restaurant in San Francisco as wine director. That restaurant has a one-star Michelin rating and both the business and the chef of the same name have won several James Beard Awards.

At Erna's, she made some changes after taking the helm, including a renewed emphasis on the restaurant's rock-lined cellar bar. She kept the $112 five-course tasting menu, but the restaurant now lets people order individual dishes off the menu.

But Kubin says she's unhappy with some of the new owner's changes. The biggest change is that neither Kubin nor her mother are there to continue the extreme attention to detail, "erna-isms" like making sure no lamp has a burned-out light bulb or that every piece of silverware is polished to perfection, she said.

"I was there all the time saying nothing's changing," Kubin said. "I'm staying on, I'm going to continue the legacy."

Even though she said she did not plan to stay at Erna's forever, Kubin said she feels deceived by Rosenson's assurance that nothing would change. She said she wished she had more time to pass along a career's worth of knowledge.

The property appearing on sites like Trivago.com means the staff doesn't talk with guests over the phone to ask about food allergies or arrange a hike inside Yosemite National Park, she said.

Rosenson said that personal touch happens when guests arrive and said to neglect using the internet would be a mistake.

"I think the personal touch is not lost," he said. "It’s just a matter of publicizing that this place exists. I asked a lot of my friends and family, 'Have you ever heard of Chateau du Sureau?' and they say 'no'. It’s not that well known."

Rosenson said he's putting more money into the property and added a traditional English high tea on Sundays with pastries, sandwiches and Champagne.

"What’s different now is that we’re better capitalized and we’re able to fix things and keep things in order," Rosenson said. "Any property needs investment we have a standard of no delayed maintenance."

He also notes he's not a newbie in the restaurant business and makes his decisions after consulting with the staff.

"I've been in the restaurant business and hospitality as long as Erna has been," he said. "It’s not like we're novices and jumped into something new."

Rosenson got his start in assisted living facilities, but now owns several high-end restaurants. They include First & Oak at The Mirabelle Inn in Solvang, (along with the Coquelicot Estate Vineyard) in Solvang.

He owned The Sky Room and Cielo, a restaurant and bar at the top floors of the building he owned in Long Beach, for about two years. The Sky Room was referred to as "the Rainbow Room of the west coast" by foodie publication Eater Los Angeles. Rosenson sold the building and the restaurants have closed as new owners refurbish the space, he said.

Rosenson bought Santa Barbara's Wine Cask restaurant in 2007, which held a Wine Spectator Grand Award for years. The business was evicted after several months of unpaid rent, the landlord told The Santa Barbara Independent. Rosenson said the economy was to blame and the founder of the restaurant reopened it in 2009.

Still, Rosenson also owns Bernard's Restaurant in Calabasas, which is currently being converted into a restaurant called Ampersand that is scheduled to open in October.

Most recently, he bought a Victorian mansion in San Francisco – once dubbed the city's priciest Airbnb – that he plans to refurbish. He plans to turn the 18,000-square-foot building into a 16-room hotel and 94-seat restaurant called the Mansion on Sutter, named after the street it's on.

Rosenson said the Erna's property just needs loving care, money and the determination to continue its high standards.

"We will take what Erna created, which was a magnificent venue, almost second to none, and we will bring it into the 21st century and make it even greater," he said.

This story was originally published July 3, 2018 at 1:25 PM.