Just listen to Stan Lerner rattle off the many things he wants to do as the new owner of Winfield’s Iron Gate Inn and suddenly you feel the need for a nice long nap.
Next week the former L.A.-area chef is going to start serving lunch and dinner to the public in the inn’s small dining area, which seats 10. Lerner will be doing the cooking.
There are plans to remodel and build a commercial kitchen, add rooms and turn the carriage house out back into a spa – with respect given to the buildings’ original architecture, of course.
Soon Lerner wants to host concerts on the lawn of the inn at 1203 E. Ninth.
All this in addition to taking guests at the four-room bed-and breakfast, and spending three to four hours a day writing – his full-time gig.
Still, the whirlwind ahead may fall short of comparing to the dizzying summer he just put behind him.
In the last couple months, Lerner’s shuttered a successful eatery – the Eastside Chippery in Montebello, Calif -, uprooted himself from city life and pulled his Mercedes into the rock drive of the old-timey inn he’s owned for about 30 days.
You’re going to want to know – pretty much everyone does – how the heck an intense, driven entrepreneur, author and movie director decides to ditch California for the slower pace of the Midwest?
Lerner said the decision was made five years ago, when he began visiting Cowley County. Back then he came to Winfield a few times while work was done on his books at the now-defunct Central Plains Book Manufacturing at Strother Field.
Lerner wanted a nice, quiet place to stay when he visited. He ended up in a room at Diane Cook’s Iron Gate Inn.
The thought of buying it – if it ever sold – occurred to Lerner pretty much instantly.
“The first time I came here and stayed, it felt like home,” he said. “I knew it the very first day – I gotta have this place.”
When he learned the property was for sale this year, he stuck with his instinct and made immediate plans to relocate.
The spur-of-the-moment-ness of Lerner’s move here is apparent. Upstairs he’s sleeping in one of the inn’s rooms and basically living out of a suitcase.
Downstairs, he’s converted an entertainment area into a makeshift extension of the kitchen where he keeps his many tools of the chef trade and cooking gadgets. That move was necessary, he said, because “I just had to have more room.”
He’s spent some time settling in by befriending a number of locals, becoming a regular at College Hill Coffee shop and sipping wine on the inn’s front porch. Even a guy whose spent years working 80-hour plus weeks can admit that some time spent wearing flip-flops and casual clothes can be a nice break, he said.
But already, he’s gearing back up. He’s written a poem that will be the focus of a reading at his new favorite coffee shop and the inn is booked up for the Walnut Valley Festival.
Soon he wants to get started remodelling and expanding the kitchen and turning that carriage house into a full spa area. Plans are to convert the inn’s attic into a spacious top-floor suite.
Lerner, 46, said much of his motivation for undertaking the project is fueled by a belief that Winfield needs a more upscale place for visitors to eat and stay. He thinks that’s especially important if the town wants to continue to thrive and attract investment dollars from outside the community.
So, he’s taking the tact of J.P. Baden the legendary Winfield businessman who once-called the Iron Gate Inn home. Baden was known for his willingness to spend his own money on projects for the betterment of the community.
Lerner appears to have the financial resources to do that. In 25 years, he’s amassed millions selling art, running clubs and restaurants, writing, directing, producing and even running a successful Las Vegas club show.
His self-published, award-winning book Criminal is a work of fiction based loosely on the time he spent as a player in the late 1980’s L.A. drug scene. In the early 1990s, that experience landed him 30 months on work-release in a community correctional center.
A self-described Reagan Republican, he emerged from his missteps with a desire to contribute more positively to society. He thinks government should operate on a much smaller scale and that local businesses can provide the jobs and opportunities people use to better themselves.
“Look, the thing is, I think Winfield has just as much talent per capita, maybe more, than anywhere I’ve been,” Lerner said. “I want to be part of continuing to build that up.”
IRON GATE INN
1203 E. Ninth Ave
Winfield, KS 67156
Rooms at $99 per night.
Lunch and dinner by reservation by calling:
(620) 221-7787 or (213) 400-4559.
Cost: $20 per person for lunch; $30 per person for dinner.
On the Internet: www.irongateinnks.com; www.downtownster.com (Lerner’s blog)