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West Dover/
The first frame house in the town of Dover has quite a history. Built in the late 1700s, it became the summer home in the early 1900s of President Theodore Roosevelt's son and daughter-in-law. In the early 1940s it was moved to its present location, the site of a former sawmill and tannery. It became the first lodge for nearby Mount Snow and finally a restaurant in 1982. Along the way it has been transformed into a place of great attractiveness, especially the main Garden Room with its vaulted ceiling, a many-windowed space so filled with plants and so open that you almost don't know where the inside ends and the outside begins. A pleasant lounge contains part of the original bar from the Waldorf-Astoria. Longtime chef Brian Reynolds has spiced up the continental/American fare with starters like Acadian pepper shrimp, grilled cajun steak tips and spicy Thai turnovers with chili-garlic dipping sauce. We enjoyed the garlicky frog’s legs as well as the duck livers with onions in a terrific sauce. Nearly two dozen entrées plus nightly specials range from cioppino to grilled spice-rubbed lamb medallions with apple-currant sauce. “Tannery Two” might pair baked Acadian shrimp and grilled oriental salmon with a sesame-ginger sauce. Veal is a specialty, so we tried veal granonico in a basil sauce as well as grilled New Mexican chicken with chiles, herbs and special salsa, accompanied by a goodly array of vegetables – broccoli, carrots, parsley and boiled new potatoes in one case, rice pilaf in the other. A four-layer grand marnier cake with strawberries – enough for two to share – testified to the kitchen's prowess with desserts. (802) 464-2707. www.twotannery.com. Entrées, $24
to $32. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday 6 to 10.
Doveberry Inn & Restaurant Excellent northern Italian fare is offered here by chef-owner Michael Fayette, who trained at Paul Smith’s College in New York and 21 Federal in Nantucket, and his wife Christine, the baker. They have added a wine bar in the common room, and attract the public for dessert and cappuccino as well as dinner in the evening. Thirty diners can be seated in a two-part, beamed room at tables covered with handmade quilt overcloths that change with the seasons. Michael’s menu changes weekly. Typical starters include grilled shrimp over fennel risotto with a touch of armagnac, pan-seared scallops on a bed of braised leeks with port wine reduction, and grilled quail with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and rosemary. A house salad is included with the meal. Main courses vary from rare grilled tuna accented with white truffle oil and served over creamy risotto to rack of lamb with a black-cherry demi-glace. A specialty is wood-grilled veal chop with wild mushrooms. Sautéed rabbit with apples, figs and dried cranberries and seared venison with a mustard seed demi-glace are seasonal treats. Christine might prepare orange-cinnamon crème brûlée, zuccota cake, mascarpone cheesecake, a plum napoleon and cannolis for dessert. (802) 464-5652 or (800) 722-3204. Entrées, $21
to $33. Dinner, Thursday-Sunday 6 to 9. Closed two weeks in mid November
and early May. Deerhill Inn &
Restaurant This inn’s dining tradition continues under new chef and co-owner Michael Allen, who had cooked in Boston restaurants and before that at the famed Whistling Oyster in Ogunquit, Me. He calls his fare “creative American,” based on a foundation of “comfort food,” and maintained many of the inn’s specialties. To the traditional â-la-carte format he added a four-course prix-fixe menu that rotates every two weeks. The latter might open with pan-braised sea scallops served with a “ravioli” of braised celery root stuffed with portobello mushrooms, or smoked duck breast with a salad of roasted beets. A spinach salad laden with mushrooms, blue cheese and pancetta could follow. The main course at our latest visit offered a choice of pan-seared red snapper with red onion marmalade, cumin-crusted pork tenderloin with orange sauce and sautéed sirloin of venison wrapped in smoked bacon and served in a white wine and juniper sauce. Dessert could be pineapple tarte tatin with burnt sugar ice cream, peanut butter pudding with roasted bananas or – the ultimate in comfort food – chocolate angelfood cake with hot fudge and bananas. Our nicely paced dinner began with potato and leek soup and a portobello mushroom stuffed with lobster and crab. Among entrées, the sliced grilled leg of lamb with a wedge of saga blue cheese and the five-layer veal with roasted red pepper sauce proved exceptional. A Forest Glen merlot accompanied from what the host called “our NAFTA wine list.” A marked departure from the famous wine cellars of two nearby establishments, it was totally North and South American – from Chile to Virginia to Oregon – and pleasantly priced. The inn’s bent for art and flowers shows up in two colorful dining rooms in the country garden style. Well-spaced tables are dressed in white over provençal-style floral cloths. There’s a lot to look at, from a garden mural and floral paintings to ivy and tiny white lights twined all around. (802)
464-3100 or (800) 993-3379. Entrées, $24 to $30. Prix-fixe, $45. Dinner
nightly except Wednesday, 6 to 9:30. 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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