Sweetwater Eco Spa & Luna Trattoria

Some Mendocino addresses are not just found from the street. They are discovered by following a sign, a garden path, an Italian flag, and the feeling that something interesting is tucked back there.

Overview

955 Ukiah Street is one of those Mendocino addresses that contains more than one story.

Today the garden property is shared by Sweetwater Eco Spa and Luna Trattoria. Sweetwater operates its spa facilities in the redwood building beside the restaurant, while Luna occupies the tucked-away restaurant space reached along the narrow garden path. Both businesses currently identify 955 Ukiah Street as their Mendocino location.

Sweetwater traces its Mendocino spa operation to the 1980s. Its own history says the business was established in 1985 as the area's first therapeutic massage spa, with founder John Fliessbach building redwood soaking tubs and saunas.

The restaurant side of the property has a separate history. For roughly 25 years the space was home to the restaurant known simply by its address - 955 Ukiah Street - before that restaurant closed in 2018. Luna Trattoria then moved from Fort Bragg into the Mendocino location.

Location

The property sits on Ukiah Street in the eastern part of Mendocino village, but much of it is hidden from the street. That hidden quality has long been part of its charm.

A visitor looking for Luna does not simply walk through a storefront door. The restaurant is reached down a narrow path from Ukiah Street, marked by a wooden entrance, signs and an Italian flag. Recent descriptions still emphasize that the restaurant itself cannot really be seen from the sidewalk.

Sweetwater's spa entrance is nearby, surrounded by the same dense gardens and weathered wood that make the property feel separated from the street despite being in the middle of the village.

County records introduce another wrinkle. The 2026 Mendocino historic inventory lists the Sweetwater Gardens Spa, the nearby Packard-Randall Studio-Gallery and a Sweetwater Tower under 44845 Ukiah Street rather than the modern 955 Ukiah address. The inventory notes that the parcel was split from the McCornack House property and identifies the studio-gallery as dating to 1960, the tower to at least 1964 and Sweetwater Gardens Spa to at least 1983.

That difference in numbering is a reminder that Mendocino addresses and parcels have not always lined up neatly with the way the businesses are identified today.

History

The documented modern history of this little compound begins before either of its present businesses.

Mendocino County's updated historic inventory identifies a Packard-Randall Studio-Gallery on the parcel with an earliest documented date of 1960. It also identifies a nearby tower dating to at least 1964 and says the tower probably belonged with the Packard-Randall Studio property.

That matters because the present restaurant does not occupy a purpose-built modern commercial box. The property developed out of Mendocino's mid-twentieth-century artist and residential landscape.

By December 1983, county records identify Sweetwater Gardens Spa at the property. Sweetwater's own account places its establishment in 1985 and credits founder John Fliessbach with creating the redwood soaking tubs and saunas that became central to the business. The operation eventually expanded beyond the Ukiah Street spa to lodging elsewhere in the village, including the Sweetwater Inn at 44840 Main Street.

Sweetwater also became associated with Mendocino's water-tower tradition. Its lodging operation includes the Sweetwater Tower, which the business says was originally built in 1872 and reconstructed in 1983, as well as a newer redwood tower built in 1985.

Meanwhile, the restaurant tucked into the Ukiah Street gardens developed an identity strong enough that its address became its name. 955 Ukiah Street Restaurant was operating by the mid-1990s. A 1995 San Francisco Chronicle dining survey listed the restaurant at 955 Ukiah Street, open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday. By 1999 it was receiving national travel mentions, with the Los Angeles Times describing it as an elegant but unpretentious Mendocino dining choice with a broad menu.

The restaurant remained part of the Mendocino dining scene for decades. Public records from 2010 identify Jamie and Peggy Griffith as owners of 955 Ukiah Street Restaurant. The restaurant ultimately closed in 2018 after approximately 25 years in the space.

The Building Today

Its closing happened at just the right moment for another restaurant.

Massimo Melani and Marissa Rey had been operating Luna Trattoria in Fort Bragg when the building containing their restaurant there was put on the market. They moved Luna south to Mendocino and took over the former 955 Ukiah Street restaurant space in 2018.

Luna brought Northern Italian cooking into a setting that already had decades of restaurant history. The restaurant says its food is based on family recipes passed down through generations, with pasta, bread and desserts made in-house.

Why It Matters

The result is an interesting layering of Mendocino history: an early artist-studio property, a spa dating to the 1980s, a restaurant known simply as 955 Ukiah Street for roughly a quarter-century, and now Luna Trattoria carrying restaurant life forward beside Sweetwater.

Community Memories

One visitor remembers staying at Sweetwater and enjoying the spa, while also praising Luna Trattoria for both its food and atmosphere. Her connection with Mendocino goes back even farther - she remembers coming to the village since 1948 and spending her honeymoon here in 1984.

Another reply offers a more practical observation about the spa experience, remembering that private changing rooms were not available.

Those two comments actually capture the place pretty well. One is about the romance and atmosphere that have drawn people back to Mendocino for generations; the other is about the very real, informal character of a small village spa. And somehow both belong at 955 Ukiah Street.

Timeline

1960 - Earliest documented date for the Packard-Randall Studio-Gallery on the parcel.

1964 - Earliest documented date for the tower associated with the studio property.

1983 - County records identify Sweetwater Gardens Spa at the property.

1985 - Sweetwater's own history gives this as the founding year of the therapeutic massage spa.

1995-1999 - 955 Ukiah Street Restaurant receives regional and national dining coverage.

2018 - The restaurant closes after about 25 years; Luna Trattoria moves in from Fort Bragg.

Sources & Original Research: Mendocino County, 2026 Updated Inventory of Structures - Packard-Randall Studio-Gallery (1960), Sweetwater Tower (by 1964) and Sweetwater Gardens Spa (by 1983), and the parcel's relationship to the McCornack House property; Sweetwater Inn and Spa official website and history pages; Luna Trattoria official website; Word of Mouth Magazine, Summer 2025 - history of the former 955 Ukiah Street Restaurant and Luna's move from Fort Bragg; San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 1995; Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1999; Mendocino City Community Services District, February 22, 2010 - Jamie and Peggy Griffith as restaurant owners; community replies from Charlene Shaw and Anna Roeth; original post text, photograph and research compilation provided by Gee Bee.