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Blue Hill Peninsula/ An expanded restaurant and tavern plus updated accommodations have enhanced this Colonial-style inn, based in a dark red house dating to 1793 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nicely located on a spit of land with a harbor in front and a mill pond in back, the inn has long been a favorite of sophisticated diners – and promised to remain so with its acquisition in late 2005 by Tina Oddleifson, an innkeeper in Brookline, Mass., and her husband Tony Lawless, a chef for 25 years who taught lately at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. In an effort to broaden its appeal to locals, the ground-floor restaurant was expanded in 2005 and renamed the Whale’s Rib Tavern. The attached former goat barn in which it was based was upscaled and refurbished to resemble a 1793 tavern, with windsor chairs at white-clothed tables and multiple windows onto the outdoors. The rest of the ground floor was reconfigured to add a new bar and separate lounge, plus a more casual tavern dining room adjacent. And a landscaped terrace was added in back for outdoor dining with a partial water view. A much-expanded, something-for-everyone menu with up to 40 entrées lured the locals as well as inn guests. The tavern portion includes the likes of burgers, fish and chips, seafood pot pie, chicken nachos, pot roast and shepherds pie. The traditional menu might start with crab-stuffed mushroom caps, crispy artichoke hearts, seven salads and shellfish from “ye olde steam pot.” Entrées range from seafood au gratin and mandarin halibut to chicken kabobs, baby back ribs, “smothered” london broil and veal marsala. The reasonably priced wine list carries a Wine Spectator award. Upstairs, the guest rooms have been freshly redecorated in what might be called contemporary period style. All but one now have king or queensize beds topped with down pillows and duvet comforters. Each has a wood stove and some of the updated baths have vanities topped with Deer Isle granite. A vintage house next door contains two efficiency suites with TVs and gas stoves, sharing a large deck overlooking the water. The deluxe Rugosa Rose cottage is a two-level affair with kitchenette, dining/sitting area and water-view deck on the main floor and a queen bedroom with gas fireplace on the upper level. Breakfast
involves a choice between an egg dish or brioche french toast with fruit
compote or zucchini pancakes with feta cheese and scallions. Homemade
granola, muffins and Maine-roasted Carpe Diem coffee accompany. 207) 348-6615 or (888) 778-7505. Fax (207) 348-6615. E-mail: innkeeper@pilgrimsinn.com. For more information: www.pilgrimsinn.com. Twelve rooms and three efficiency suites with
private baths. July-September: doubles $135 to $235, suites $255 to
$265. Off-season: doubles $105 to $205, suites $195 to $245. Closed late
October to early May. Entrées, $9.95 to $19.95. Dinner nightly, 4:30
to 9:30. Closed January-March.
L Material excerpted from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2006, and from Inn Spots & Special Places in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth, copyright 2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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