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Jackson/Mount
Washington Valley This choice, small, self-contained inn with quite a history is spectacularly situated off by itself in the White Mountain National Forest, on the other side of Mount Crawford from Jackson. It’s blessed with 400 acres of woods and gardens and a mile and a half of frontage on the Saco River, which has been dammed to create a nifty pond with two private swimming holes. The many-gabled stone manor house, built in 1862 , has been an inn since the 1920s. It was put on the knowledgeable inngoer’s map by ex-New Yorkers Les Schoof and Ed Butler, who took over the historic property in 1993 and made gradual upgrades. Still hands-on but now with assistants, the owners offer guests creature comforts and then some. The partners – who have raised personalized innkeeping to an art form – give tours of the public areas for guests upon arrival, chat with them at meals and take their photos upon departure. The main inn holds an acclaimed dining room plus seven guest rooms and three premium suites, each with king or queen bed and wood-burning fireplace. Decor is a mix of Victorian and traditional. Understated Laura Ashley wallpapers and fabrics are among the stylish decorative accents. A favorite among the premium suites is the kingsize Carter Suite with a large balcony and a whirlpool tub. The Kinsman Suite has a kingsize bed and an old-fashioned soaking tub and steam shower. It’s full of Asian art collected by Les from his previous life as executive director of the American Ballet Theater, whose posters on the walls prompted him to name the corridor leading to the suites “the dance hall.” The Evans Suite has a queensize bed beneath a skylight and a see-through fireplace serving a raised double jacuzzi tub overlooking a loveseat sitting area, which opens onto a rear balcony. Two newly renovated suites are beside the inn in the Schoolhouse building, which served as a one-room school until the 1920s. We were happily ensconced in the upstairs suite with an extra-comfortable mattress on the queensize bed, a spacious bath with corner tub and hand-held shower, and a large sitting area with a plump club chair and a loveseat, both with ottomans, facing the fireplace and an arched window looking onto Mount Hope. The inn’s wonderful front parlor with a huge fireplace was designed by Arts and Crafts pioneer Gustav Stickley, the noted furniture maker. Other common areas are a music and game room with piano and stereo, and a sun room with wicker furniture looking onto the property, where the owners raise llamas and miniature horses. A gazebo next to a small pond behind the inn houses a hot tub. A full breakfast is served in a charming wing that was once the tavern in Abel Crawford’s early White Mountain Hotel – the tavern was moved to this site in the 1920s. Beyond the fireplaced dining room with tables spaced well apart is a sunken dining room that served as a stage for the tavern as well as another sun room variously called garden room, plant room or conservatory. Big windows in the dining room overlook the pond and gazebo on one side and prolific gardens and Mount Hope on the other. Excellent dinners are served to inn guests and the public at a single seating at 7. The chef creates a new prix-fixe menu nightly, but there’s always a choice of two appetizers and two soups, three entrées, salad and three desserts. You make your choices upon check-in, so each course of every meal can be served simultaneously. Our leisurely, two-hour dinner began with a couple of masterful soups, two-color tomato and squash and a Creole fish chowder, whose delicacy masked assertive tastes – a phenomenon that held true throughout the meal. Appetizers were Mediterranean goat cheese wrapped in grape leaves and a suave corn custard served on a pool of red bell pepper coulis. Main courses were roast chicken breast topped with crispy prosciutto and grilled rib lamb chops with herbed mint sauce. The perfect mixed green salads that followed refreshed the palate for a couple of exceptional desserts, bread pudding with a spiced peach sauce and a cornmeal peach tart with ginger crème anglaise. Breakfast the next morning proved exceptional as well. The usual preliminaries here were delivered with variety and in abundance. Main courses involve a choice of pancakes, french toast (the one with orange spiced sauce was super) and eggs any style. We heard one guest order “eggs any style,” but we held out for an omelet with the works – everything but the kitchen sink. Delicious. As is the entire Notchland Inn experience.
Dinner by reservation, Wednesday-Sunday at 7.
Prix-fixe, $35 for inn guests, $40 to $45 for the public. (603) 374-6131 or (800) 866-6131. E-mail: innkeepers@notchland.com. For more information: www.notchland.com Material excerpted 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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