The Shadowbrook Journal

With no road to the site, Brad Macdonald and Ed Philippet hauled every piece of lumber, equipment, and furniture down the steep hillside by hand. Over nearly three years they restored the old summer home rather than replace it, carefully blending new work into the original log cabin so the restaurant would feel as though it belonged among the redwoods. In the autumn of 1947, Shadowbrook was finally ready to open.

Shadowbrook Stories – Part Two In 1944, Brad Macdonald and Ed Philippet purchased an abandoned hillside property overlooking Soquel Creek for $8,000. Brad was a San Francisco native who had grown up in Capitola, while both men were veterans of World War II. Where others saw an aging home hidden behind years of overgrowth, they…

Before it became a beloved restaurant, Shadowbrook was a forgotten 1920s summer home tucked into a redwood canyon beside Soquel Creek. Abandoned and reclaimed by forest, the property still held a rare sense of peace. In 1944 two young entrepreneurs saw past the neglect and named it for the cool shadows and flowing brook—beginning the story of a place that would offer far more than a meal.