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Craftsbury/Northeast
Kingdom,
VT Trellis Dinner at the sophisticated The redecorated dining room is elegant as can be, with big windows onto an outdoor deck beside the rose garden. Twenty-five diners can be accommodated at two seatings. Dining is by candlelight, with candles flickering in hurricane chimneys on the tables and in reflective wall sconces. Jim, who serves as chef, changes the short menu changes seasonally. It is available à la carte, a change from the prix-fixe format of the past and served at individual tables, rather than the large communal tables of days gone by. Guests may enjoy cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the library and parlor before adjourning to a dining room dignified by fine linens, china and crystal. At our latest autumn visit, the starters were butternut squash soup, curry-seared mahi mahi with ratatouille and a frisée and spinach salad with blue cheese, apples and dried cranberries. Entrées, which come with a garden salad and fresh bread, included crispy duck breast with apricot-brandy sauce, seared filet mignon with truffle-bordelaise sauce, and venison loin with walnut demi-glace. Desserts were apple-cranberry crisp with ice cream or frozen chocolate mocha terrine with raspberry coulis. Coffee and chocolates are available after dinner in the library, where guests like to linger over cordials. The inn’s wine list is carefully chosen and affordable. (802) 586-9619 or (800) 521-2233. Entrées,
$18.50 to $21.50. Dinner Thursday-Sunday, seatings 5:30 to 7:30
. Closed in April and November. The
Craftsbury Inn A handsome Atrium dining room overlooking spotlit gardens and upscale food commend this restaurant that's open to the public by reservation. Dining is at round tables set with linens, candles and fresh flowers in an elegant room with wainscoting and big windows onto the back yard. Dinner is à la carte, and chef-owner Bill Maire
changes his French/American menu seasonally. You might start with
Canadian pea soup, warm beef tenderloin and wild mushroom salad, curried
scallops in puff pastry, risotto with porcini mushrooms and goat cheese,
or escargots bourguignonne. Main courses range from four-cheese
tortellini to grilled rack of spring lamb. Choices include Bill, who was wine and spirits manager for the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, is naturally proud of his wine list. It reflects his preference for good wines at reasonable prices, especially those of undiscovered and underrated vineyards. (802) 586-2848 or (800) 336-2848. Entrées, $16
to $22. Lunch in season, Tuesday-Saturday 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. Highland Lodge Lunch on the front porch with a distant
view of The chefs create a new dinner menu each night, but
the format stays the same. It features homemade soups and appetizers;
salads with local greens and homemade dressings; and occasionally
imaginative entrées and specials. Grilled black angus sirloin steak is
a staple, but other entrées could be striped bass fillet spiced with
pepper and lemon, grilled mustard-glazed chicken breast and maple-cured Some people come here just for the lodge's special
dessert hour, starting nightly at (802) 533-2647. Entrées, $20 to $23. Lunch in
season, Tuesday-Sunday
Folks go out of their way for meals at this
hard-to-find establishment along a dirt road west of There is something immensely appealing about the dining experience at Heermansmith Farm. Perhaps it is the food. Perhaps it is the setting: glamorous, white-linened tables scattered about an open living room and dining room centered by a huge slate fireplace amid antiques and the glow of candles and kerosene lamps. Perhaps it is the good little wine list, amazingly priced from yesteryear. Probably it is everything put together. The food is certainly the match for the stylish living-room setting. The short menu might start with haddock chowder, mushrooms sautéed in a sherried shallot cream sauce in puff pastry, or a strudel of Alaskan king crab, ementhaler cheese and grated potato. For main courses, how about the house specialty, roast duck with a strawberry and chambord sauce? Choices include salmon filet poached in court bouillon and served with a cucumber and yogurt herb sauce, butterflied shrimp stuffed with lobster and crabmeat, herb-crusted pork tenderloin with cabernet sauvignon sauce or grilled delmonico steak with mâitre d’ hotel butter or creamy horseradish sauce, Desserts could be blueberry buckle, amaretto cheesecake with hazelnuts, french bread pudding with whiskey sauce, and puff pastry with lemon cream and fresh raspberries. If you’ve planned ahead and don’t want to drive afterward, you could stay overnight in one of six guest rooms with private baths (doubles, $65 to $75, including a hearty breakfast). (802) 754-8866. Entrées, $16.95 to $18.95.
Dinner nightly, River
Garden Cafe Robert Baker, who owned a restaurant called Sofi in Chef Steven Hartwell’s “new culinary age” menu
is fairly sophisticated for the area and the prices are right. You can
snack on anything from bruschetta or artichoke dip to grilled shrimp
caesar salad or a Jamaican jerk chicken salad with a spicy lime
vinaigrette. Or go for filet mignon with a merlot sauce or grilled lamb
loin with a sundried tomato-basil vinaigrette, the most expensive entrées
on the menu that ranges from Mediterranean salmon and chicken Crème brûlée is a dessert specialty. Or you might find triple chocolate torte, seasonal fruit cobblers or a chipwich, two cookies centered with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. (802) 626-3514. Entrées, $15.95 to $21.95.
Lunch, Wednesday-Saturday
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