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Woodstock/Quechee Guests are showered with hospitality at this inn built from scratch by Texans Gary and Janet Robison. They couldn’t find the perfect old New England inn in their search among existing buildings. So they built it – a brand new, meant-to-look-old Victorian structure with the requisite gingerbread and gazebo – in a clearing amid sixteen acres of maples and birches in tiny Barnard. Crackers and a homemade Texas chili cheese log – incorporating pecans grown in her yard by Gary’s aunt and sent as "a CARE package from home" – are served arriving guests on the wraparound front porch with its corner gazebo and Tennessee oak rockers, or inside in the library or fireplaced parlor. Light suppers of soup, bread, salad and dessert are served by request in winter. Two chocolates are placed at bedside at nightly turndown, and a personalized maple leaf wood Christmas ornament is hung on the door knob. And effervescent Janet is apt to send you on your way with a farewell package of pumpkin bread or muffins for midday sustenance. Between arrival and departure, guests are cosseted with unusual warmth and creature comforts, the latter the result of "being able to build what we wanted from the ground up," in Gary’s words. Most of the five luxurious bedrooms are positioned to have windows on three sides. All have modern baths (four with whirlpool tubs), kingsize beds, wood-burning fireplaces with antique mantels, sitting areas with swivel club chairs, TV/VCRs secreted in the armoires, ceiling fans and closets. Janet spent a week in each room doing the remarkable hand stenciling. She stenciled an elaborate winter village over the fireplace and around the doors and windows in the Winter Haven room in which we stayed. Birds are the stenciling theme in the Spring Hollow Room; foliage the theme in Autumn Woods. The Robisons’ attention to detail continues throughout, from the maple leaf engraved in the window of the front door to the "pasta-hair angels" that Janet fashioned from angel-hair pasta and placed atop bud vases as centerpieces in the dining room. The love stamps that she needlepointed and framed on the dining-room walls were anniversary gifts to Gary and, by extension, to their guests, who take breakfast by candlelight at individual tables near the fireplace. And what a breakfast! Ours began with buttermilk scones garnished with flowers. The accompanying orange and cranberry-apple butters were shaped like maple leaves, and the preserves were presented in leaf dishes. The fruit course was sautéed bananas with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, an adaptation of bananas foster at Brennan’s in New Orleans. The main event was stuffed french toast with peach preserves and cream cheese, garnished with nasturtiums. For 1997, the Robisons added two more rooms on their third floor, each with king bed, sitting area and two-person soaking tubs. They carry lower price tags, so getaway couples on tighter budgets may also enjoy the hosts’ abundant hospitality. (802) 234-5342 or (800) 516-2753. E-mail: www.mapleleafinn@aol For more information: www.mapleleafinn.com Seven rooms with private baths. Doubles, $160 to $230. Two-night minimum holidays and foliage season. No children. Material excerpted from Getaways for Gourmets in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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