Open since 1934 on the banks of the Big Sur River, Big Sur River Inn is the original gathering place of the Big Sur community, a low-key, log-and-stone inn with Adirondack chairs parked directly in the river's cool current and a bar that has served locals and road-trippers for generations. The 20 rooms are simple and honest, and the restaurant's Sunday brunch has been a ritual for Big Sur residents for decades. It has none of the aspirational polish of newer properties along Highway 1, and that's precisely why it earns the community's deepest loyalty: it belongs to the place in a way that more recent arrivals don't.