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Gettysburg Dobbin House
Restaurant and Tavern Almost everybody's favorite restaurant locally is the 1776 Dobbin House, upstairs on two floors of the elegant Alexander Dobbin dining rooms or in the basement in the stone-walled Springhouse Tavern that is most people's vision of what eating out in Gettysburg should be about. The tavern is illuminated by candles even at noon. It was so dark we could barely read the menu, a lengthy affair with an historic theme. When finally we could see – and decide – one of us settled for an excellent baked French onion soup and a so-so spinach salad, accompanied by a glass of sparkling cider. The other was tempted by the tavern's special mile-high sandwich, “meats and such piled almost as high as the stone walls of the Dobbin House but much straighter!” But with a choice of only two meats it seemed no bigger a deal than the No. 33 club sandwich, roast beef and swiss cheese, which also added bacon and was 75 cents cheaper. There was no denying the atmosphere, although service was slow as molasses. And the roll that one of us requested to go with the salad turned out to be cold and stale and cost an extra 50 cents. Afterward, we adjourned upstairs for a look at the main floor, a ramble of small rooms with bare tables and high-back or windsor chairs. Proceed to the second floor where you'll find more dining rooms, some with tables covered by glass. The largest called the Bedroom contains the startling sight of three tables for six under bed canopies, “wherein one can actually dine in bed,” according to promotion materials. For some, the gas-fired fireplaces diminish the otherwise authentic Colonial atmosphere. But most praise the food listed on a lengthy menu that rarely changes. Entrées cover the gamut from "drunken scallops drowned in chablis" and crab cakes to veal madeira, roast duck and prime rib. Desserts run to cheesecake, pecan pie, black forest cake and warm gingerbread. The bound wine list contains affordable varieties, plus the special Chaddsford Gettysburg chardonnay at $42. (717) 334-2100.
www.dobbinhouse.com. Entrées, $16.75 to $26.95. Tavern open daily,
11:30 to 11. Dinner in Dobbin House, 5 to 9.
The chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America and gives cooking lessons, so the food here is a cut above. It’s served in a setting that’s downright funky: a bar in front with three booths and some parrot paraphernalia to live up to the name (from a previous incarnation), a rear dining room with another bar and a pool table, and at the end of it all the kitchen, quite a hike from the front. Tables are covered with paper mats over striped cloths over white linens. Assorted lamps or candles and dried flowers in marmalade pottery jars complete the picture. From a large lunch menu we sampled a hot chicken salad, a grilled brochette on a bed of tossed greens that left one of us still hungry. The other was more than satisfied with a delicious, hearty corn chowder and a vegetarian pita pizza, whose leftovers helped fill up the salad-eater. Each meal was served on a different platter, and ice water came in oversize glasses. Oyster crackers for munching at the bar were a pleasant extra. Chef-partner Allison McIlhenny’s nightly specials are supposed to be the best part of the dinner menu, upon which eggs benedict, of all things, once headed the list of entrées. More recent possibilities were categorized under grills, seafood and pasta. Choices ranged from seared tuna au poivre and sautéed crab cakes with ginger-lime sauce to two versions of steak and a mixed grill of pork, venison and lamb with a wine-shallot demi-glace. Desserts could be crème caramel, mocha swirl cheesecake and fresh fruit with zabaglione. (717) 337-3739. Entrées, $18 to $20. Open
Tuesday-Saturday, 11:30 to 8:30 or 9:30.
Rebuilt in 1987, this establishment appears spanking new, in contrast with the creaky old of some of its compatriots. The biggest room is the contemporary-style tavern, light and airy with big windows and a long faux-marble bar. The original tavern is known for a “salty past,” according to old newspaper accounts. It's now the main dining room, pretty with green fanned napkins on white-over-salmon tablecloths, stenciled walls and a working fireplace. Most striking are the unusual wood and leather chairs on pedestals, which the hostess likened to those in church choir lofts. Altogether, 180 diners can be seated on the main floor and in the stone basement rooms. The menu has been condensed and updated lately. The potato skins and veal parmesan of the past have given way to contemporary cuisine. Look for dinner appetizers such as crab cakes with jalapeño-corn fondue, chicken-liver stuffed chicken thighs wrapped in prosciutto, and pepper-crusted “lollipop lamb chops” with onion jam glaze. Typical entrées range from roasted salmon with apricot-juniper berry demi-glace to grilled beef tenderloin with horseradish beurre rouge. The changing dessert tray might yield fuzzy navel peach pie, french silk pie and “berry sinful” pie. Sandwiches, omelets and a few light entrées like scampi sauté and nutty chicken salad in a pineapple boat comprise the bulk of the lunchtime fare, served in the tavern. There's a pleasant outdoor patio for drinks. (717) 334-4332 or (800) 362-9849. Entrées, $21 to $28. Lunch, Monday-Friday 11 to 4, Saturday 11:30 to 2. Dinner nightly, 5 to 9.
Knowing diners are drawn from far and wide to the wonderfully restored plantation complex known as Antrim 1844 a dozen miles southeast of Gettysburg. Innkeepers Richard and Dorothy Mollett have fashioned three elegant dining rooms seating 65 in their old smokehouse, summer kitchen and slave’s kitchen – each a dramatic setting in brick, tartan plaid and hunter green – as well as an elegant dining room in which we first dined in the main inn. So successful have the Molletts been that they built an addition to the smokehouse with 60 more seats. We enjoyed a fabulous, well-paced dinner here. The experience begins at 6:30 with cocktails and complimentary hors d’oeuvre in the bar, where two loveseats face each other beside the huge brick hearth, and in various common areas. Strolling waitresses pass the appetizers as classical music wafts through the inn. At 7:30, diners adjourn to the restaurant wing, where oil portraits of major Civil War generals watch over the proceedings and a pianist plays on weekends. Chef Michael Gettier’s regional cuisine with a French accent is served in six courses, prix-fixe for $62.50. One recent meal started with oyster bisque or a goat cheese-stuffed tulip on a bed of spinach with beet aioli and a choice of salads. Sorbet cleared the palate for the main course, a choice of grilled swordfish with two tomato coulis sauces, pheasant breast stuffed with spinach and pine nuts, or filet of angus beef tenderloin with sage jus. Crème brûlée flavored with pumpkin and an apple strudel with crème fraîche completed what a Baltimore magazine reviewer called “a near-perfect dinner.” A recent entry in the guest book touted “the best meal we’ve had west of Europe.” (410) 756-6812 or (800) 858-1844. Prix-fixe,
$62.50. Dinner by reservation, nightly at 7:30. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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