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Franconia/Sugar Hill/ Rabbit Hill Inn The doors to the
Rabbit Hill dining room are kept closed until the dinner hour, so that
first-time inn guests will appreciate the drama of a candlelit room,
silver gleaming atop burgundy mats on polished wood tables and napkins
folded into pewter rings shaped like rabbits. Even the electrified
lanterns and chandeliers look like candles. Miniature oil lamps and
porcelain bunnies on each table lend to the charm. In the winter, the
glow of the large fireplace adds to the allure. Chef Jeffrey Fairman
implements a seasonally changing, three-course menu in a style he calls
“nouveau French country with a local flair.” It offers a choice of
appetizer, soup, or salad, entrée, dessert and coffee or tea. You know you are at
Rabbit Hill when you are presented a loaf of oatmeal molasses bread
served with butter cut in the shape of a bunny with a parsley tail. The
meal starts with an amuse bouche – perhaps a seared lamb carpaccio
with truffle oil and merlot granita. That might be followed by a roulade
of rabbit confit in puff pastry served with nicoise olive puree, date
chutney and riesling butter. Crispy-skin
cognac-marinated quail plated
with a foie gras-quinoa filled pastry basket, wilted spinach, and
balsamic syrup is another appetizer favorite.
Then it is on to an
entrée like pumpkin seed-crusted sea scallops with goat cheese whipped
sweet potatoes, gingered salsify, and a pea and lavender tart with red
wine pumpkin seed oil. Chef
Jeff does his own house aging of beef, which might be served with
potatoes dauphine, spring pea puree, shallot-morel sauté, and truffle
compound butter. Jeff doubles as pastry chef with tantalizing dessert
offerings such as warm blueberry strudel with cinnamon ice cream and a
drizzle of orange caramel. Or perhaps you might prefer a dark chocolate
pot du crème topped with fresh berries and chantilly cream. All the ice
creams and sorbets are made in-house. In lieu of sweets, a sampling of
international or locally made artisan cheeses with fruit and house made
breads and crackers is offered. Light jazz and
standards play in the background. This is an elegant yet serene and
unpretentious dining room – one in which no detail has been overlooked
and solicitous service is well paced. (802) 748-5168 or
(800) 762-8669. Prix-fixe dinner, $44 for three courses. Dinner nightly
by reservation starting at 6. Closed
early April and early November.
For its first ten years, this little establishment named for its owners, Tim and Biruta Carr, was a culinary landmark in the basement of a building down an alley in downtown Littleton. It moved in 1994 from the alley to a 200-acre rural estate and two small and elegant dining rooms on the main floor of an inn called Adair, where the Carrs continue to serve some of the area’s most sophisticated and inventive food. After optional cocktails with snacks served in the inn's basement Granite Tavern or outside on the flagstone terrace, patrons adjourn to the dining room for a meal to remember. The menu, which changes weekly, offers six entrée choices from garlic-basil tuna with roasted Mediterranean relish to ginger and soy-scented grilled quail with molasses barbecue sauce. Our latest dinner here began with fabulous chicken-almond wontons with coconut-curry sauce and delicate salmon pancakes on a roasted red pepper coulis. For main courses, we enjoyed the breast of chicken with maple-balsamic glaze and plum-ginger puree and the pork tenderloin sauced with red wine, grilled leeks and smoked bacon. Follow this assertive fare with, perhaps, peach ricotta strudel with caramel sauce, mango cheesecake with banana-coconut compote and honey-caramel sauce, and carrot-hazelnut cake with warm brandy sauce. The well-chosen wine list is affordably priced. (603) 444-6142. Entrées, $18.95 to $24.95.
Dinner by reservation, Wednesday-Sunday 5:30 to 9. Closed in November
and April.
Four elegant dining rooms seating a total of 100 are strung along the rear of this refurbished inn, their tall windows opening onto the Franconia, Kinsman and Presidential ranges. The rooms are handsome with yellow Schumacher bird-print wallpapers, oriental print carpets and well spaced tables set with white linens and china, candles in hurricane chimneys and vases of alstroemeria. Veteran chef Joe Peterson’s contemporary fare and the staff’s flawless service are the match for a mountain view unsurpassed in the area. We were impressed by starters of grilled boar sausage, served sliced with a soothing maple crème fraîche, and the seared ahi tuna steak with spicy mango-habañero and sweet ruby grapefruit sauces. The unusual house salad was tossed with a tequila-jalapeño dressing. Main courses included a superb filet mignon with a lemon-spinach peanut sauce, served with shiitake mushrooms and roasted new potatoes, and juniper-accented medallions of venison in a pinot noir reduction. Innkeeper Nancy Henderson’s favorite baked chicken stuffed with goat cheese and a mixed grill of duck sausage, pork and lamb loin proved good choices at another visit. Broiled rainbow trout with horseradish-apple cream, cider-brined Iowa pork and duckling Bombay are other signatures. White chocolate cheesecake, iced lemon soufflé cake and bananas foster were among sweet endings. The wine list is ranked among the best in the state. (603) 823-5522 or (800) 786-4455. Entrées, $22
to $27. Dinner nightly except Monday, 5:30 to 9, Memorial Day to
foliage; nightly in foliage and holiday weeks. Rest of year:
Thursday-Sunday 5:30 to 9. Beal
House Inn Restaurant The former carriage house at the side of the Beal House Inn has been converted into a winning café lovingly run by Jose Luis Pawelek, an Argentine chef of some renown, and his wife Catherine, who was raised in the Netherlands. Oriental rugs dot the polished wood floors of the intimate dining room seating a total of 40. Musical instruments pose with artworks on the siena-colored walls above the original tin wainscoting in an elegant, white-tablecloth setting. A jazzy upstairs lounge decked out in white lights has a glistening wood floor and a copper-topped martini bar ranked as New Hampshire’s best (252 martinis listed at last count). Jose does the cooking, offering a fairly extensive menu of superior contemporary international fare, every item so tempting it makes choosing difficult. Appetizers range
from a medley of wild mushrooms in puff pastry to wood-grilled scallops
and shrimp served on a buttermilk corn cake in a pool of smoky hot
chipotle butter. Main courses include potato-crusted haddock with a
roasted red-pepper sauce, duckling sauced with crème de cassis, and
black angus tenderloin with a trio of sauces. The house specialty is
cioppino in a spicy marinara sauce over linguini. Interesting sauces are
the chef’s forte: the snapper tropical is sautéed with mango, banana,
grapes and dark rum, and the salmon with strawberries, balsamic vinegar
and a cabernet reduction. The treats
continue for dessert, perhaps the dream terrine (frozen white-chocolate
mousse with chambord-infused raspberry mousse served with warm
bittersweet chocolate sauce) and Catherine’s tarte tatin, enhanced
with peach or mango and served with French vanilla ice cream and a warm
ginger-caramel sauce. (603) 444-2661 or (888) 616-2325.
www.bealhouseinn.com. Entrées, $16 to $25. Dinner, Wednesday-Saturday
5:30 to 9, Sunday 5:30 to 8.
Well-known local chef-owner Frederick Tilton, a Francophile through and through, has a loyal following. Main dishes range from potato-crusted Atlantic salmon with a lemon-mustard sauce and grilled yellowfin tuna with a sundried tomato and kalamata olive sauce to chicken cubano and grilled venison steak with a red currant sauce. Three of the dozen or so entrée choices are vegetarian. The big-spender’s favorite is the filet mignon served on a potato pancake garnished with roasted mushroom caps and finished with a parslied garlic butter. Appetizers could be the house chicken liver pâté, escargots bourguignonne or blackened carpaccio of barbary duck marinated in armagnac and fennel. Desserts include key lime cheesecake, apple crisp and quite a choice of unusual sorbets and gelatos. Chef Rick is especially proud of the extensive wine list and the roster of single-malt scotches. He’s also known for an eclectic bar menu of global fare. (603) 444-5303. Entrées, $14.95 to $32, bar menu
$6.95 to $14.95. Dinner, Monday-Saturday 5 to 9.
Some of the area’s most interesting fare emanates from the kitchen of this quirky, 34-seat storefront. It’s also served up at prices from yesteryear by chef-owners David Brown and Jack Foley. Imagine, bouillabaisse for dinner for $14.95, or rack of lamb for $15.95. The entrée price includes a house salad as well as starch and vegetable. Expect the likes of baked salmon with tamari-ginger glaze, chicken breast with a Thai curry sauce and pork medallions with mango chutney. Interesting salads, quesadillas, quiches and sandwiches are featured on the lunch menu. Cappuccino, beer and wines are the beverages of choice. Dining takes place in a spare room with pale yellow walls hung with changing local art, halogen lights and votive candles on bare wood tables. (603) 869-2500. Entrées, $10.95 to $15.95.
Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11 to 3:30. Dinner, Monday-Saturday 5:30 to 9 or
9:30. No credit cards.
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