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Southern Vermont Chris and Ted Sprague, who turned the dining room at their Maine inn into a destination for gourmands, now lend their considerable innkeeping talents to this expanded B&B backing up to Robert Todd Lincoln’s Hildene estate. Chris, who cooked six nights a week in Maine, found she could not keep up the pace. "The change rejuvenated me," she advised after they acquired the Ormsby Hill in her native Vermont. "I’m able to do more creative breakfasts here, and we’ve reached a level of elegance that would have been impossible in Maine." The elegance comes in five new luxury rooms they added in an unfinished wing of this sprawling manor house long owned by Edward Isham, an Illinois state legislator and senior partner in a Chicago law firm with Abraham Lincoln's son, whom he entertained here. Each has a gas fireplace, whirlpool tub and handsome decor. Rooms come with interesting angles – "we don’t like squares," says Chris – and novel touches, a see-through fireplace between the bedroom and corner jacuzzi in one, a jacuzzi accessed through cupboard doors in another, and shuttered doors that open to reveal fireplaces in a couple more. The main house already offered five comfortable guest rooms, all with fireplaces and two-person whirlpool baths and separate showers. All contain king or queen canopy or four-poster beds, plush armchairs, antique chests, artworks and oriental rugs. We stayed in the main-floor library room, beamed and dark with well-stocked bookshelves and a wood-burning fireplace. Some are partial to the Spragues' new Tower suite, a three-level affair located in the tower section of the inn. There’s a writing desk in the foyer, which leads to a raised bedroom with fireplace, sitting area and a tiger maple queensize canopy bed. The top level has a tiled bathroom with an oversize whirlpool tub in the corner and an oversize shower that doubles as a steam shower for two. The best part may be the common rooms and the culinary treats. The main foyer leads to a front parlor furnished with antiques. From here one looks to the rear through a spacious library with fireplace into a conservatory dining room extending 40 feet back. At first glance, the total depth, in what is a strikingly wide house, is breathtaking. So is the view across the terrace, back yard, gardens and Hildene property to mountains through the many-paned windows. Breakfast is usually a lavish buffet, taken in the conservatory or on the outdoor terrace. The sideboard holds three kinds of cereal including homemade granola (which inspired the Ormsby Hill cereal in a bag being distributed nationally by a subsidiary of Kellogg), a bowl of assorted fruit, a basket of English muffins and two kinds of pastries (perhaps espresso or chocolate coffee cake and blueberry-lemon pound cake). The main dish could be a bacon and egg risotto, basil-scrambled eggs on portobello mushrooms, blueberry bread pudding, leek-bacon-gorgonzola polenta or a baked pancake dish that looks like a top hat. Dessert – yes, dessert – is the icing on the cake, so to speak: perhaps apple-cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream or peach crisp with white chocolate sauce. From welcoming madeleines and almond crescents upon arrival to a doggy bag of white-chocolate pound cake to take on your way, food is the star at this winning B&B. Ten rooms and suites with private baths.
Doubles, $265 to $330 weekends, $205 to $270 midweek. Foliage and
holidays: $320 to $385. (802) 362-1163 or (800) 670-2841. Fax (802) 362-5176. E-mail: ormsby@vermontel.com For more information: www.ormsbyhill.com Material excerpted from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2006. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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