1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (4 page)

Down by the Seashore

Connecticut

It’s not difficult to find no-frills restaurants serving lobster and scallops along the Connecticut shoreline—and wherever you go, you can count on freshness. But some venues assume legendary reputations. Take Abbott’s
Lobster in the Rough, an old-fashioned seasonal fish shanty in tiny Noank, 3 miles southwest of Mystic Seaport (see p. 15). All summer, this BYOB restaurant overlooking Long Island Sound pulls in hungry fans of seafood, most of whom have patiently waited on the inevitably long lines. You order when you walk in and then wait for your number to be called. In the meantime, scour the grassy lawn beside the restaurant for a free picnic table. The traditional lobster dinners are de rigueur—choose your lobster, which is then steamed and served with drawn butter, potato chips, and coleslaw. There is plenty more on the menu, all of it tantalizingly good: quarter-pound hot crab rolls, oysters on the half shell, clear-broth clam chowder, and velvety New York–style cheesecake.

In Madison, along the central Connecticut shoreline, Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale has been serving armies of shellfish lovers since it opened in 1979—a football-field-size parking lot attests to its popularity. A second restaurant, about 10 miles east in Westbrook, dishes up the same fresh food. Together, these fish joints attract more than 10,000 customers on a typical summer weekend. Favorite choices from the lengthy menu include seafood platters heaped with fried whole-belly clams and Atlantic sea scallops. Not all the best seafood joints in Connecticut are along the coast. The funky Blue Oar restaurant in Haddam sits just beyond the railroad tracks by a marina along the Connecticut River. It dishes up fresh lobster rolls, steamed clams, grilled salmon, mussel bisque, and the like. There’s also plenty of non-aquatic fare, including some fairly inventive nightly specials. Dining is on a casual porch or picnic tables, and the food is prepared on a gas grill. It’s BYOB, and cash only. The restaurant has remained one of the state’s better-kept secrets over the years, its reputation spread by word of mouth.

A
BBOTT’S
L
OBSTER IN THE
R
OUGH:
Noank. Tel 860-536-7719;
www.abbottslobster.com
.
Cost:
dinner $25.
L
ENNY AND
J
OE’S
F
ISH
T
ALE:
Madison. Tel 203-245-7289; Westbrook: Tel 860-669-0767;
www.ljfishtale.com
.
Cost:
dinner $20.
T
HE
B
LUE
O
AR:
Haddam. Tel 860-345-2994;
www.blueoar.com
.
Cost:
dinner $25.
B
EST TIMES:
last weekend in May for Lobsterfest in Mystic Seaport; mid-Aug for Milford Oyster Festival; early Sept for Norwalk’s Oyster Festival.

The Perfect American Small Town and the State’s Oldest Inn

Connecticut

Adignified, Revolutionary War–era spirit lingers in Essex, a mint-condition one-traffic-light village on the Connecticut River, where early colonial and federal houses tell of the town’s shipbuilding heyday. On
Main Street, white picket fences frame many landmark buildings, a mix of grand private homes and specialty stores.

You can learn about the town’s seafaring heritage at the waterfront Connecticut River Museum, which sits 5 miles north of where the river empties into Long Island Sound. It comprises an 1870s steamboat warehouse filled with ship models and maritime artifacts, including a full-scale replica of America’s first submarine,
The Turtle,
built during the Revolutionary War. Train buffs will enjoy touring the lower Connecticut River valley in vintage 1920s Pullman cars, riding the Essex Steam Train north to Deep River, where passengers can either return to Essex by train or continue aboard a three-deck Mississippi-style riverboat to East Haddam (see p. 5).

One of the most celebrated buildings in Essex is the Griswold Inn, the oldest continuously operating inn in Connecticut. Opened in 1776, the “Gris” is most famous for its Tap Room, originally the town’s schoolhouse, built in 1738. A potbellied stove sits at its center, and its wood-paneled walls are lined with maritime memorabilia and original Currier & Ives prints. Much of the inn’s buzz (not to mention Dixieland jazz and banjo music) emanates from here. Overnighters can hang their hats in any of the handsome guest rooms; many lodgers stay for the weekend just to partake of the inn’s Sunday Hunt brunch, an enormous affair said to have been initiated by the British, who commandeered the inn during the War of 1812.

Take a ride on the
Becky Thatcher,
an 1870 Mississippi-style riverboat built in 1961.

It’s just a few minutes’ drive inland to tiny Ivoryton’s classic Copper Beech Inn, which occupies the former homestead of one of the community’s most esteemed merchants. The 7 acres of gardens are stunning, and the 13 rooms equally dazzling, many with soaring cathedral ceilings and deep tubs. Most of the rooms are in a handsomely restored carriage house, with just four in the Main House, also the site of a stellar restaurant, serving the likes of lobster bisque with shaved truffles and pork tenderloin with blue-cheese mashed potatoes and fava beans.

You may experience a moment of century adjustment if you’re in the area mid-July, when nearby Deep River hosts its annual Fife & Drum Muster, said to be the largest in America. More than 70 units play their hearts out as they march down Main Street during the event’s three-hour parade of uber-Americana.

W
HERE:
40 miles southeast of Hartford.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-793-4480 or 860-244-8181;
www.visitctriver.com
.
C
ONNECTICUT
R
IVER
M
USEUM:
Tel 860-767-8269;
www.ctrivermuseum.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
E
SSEX
S
TEAM
T
RAIN:
Tel 860-767-0103;
www.essexsteamtrain.com
.
G
RISWOLD
I
NN:
Tel 860-767-1776;
www.griswoldinn.com
.
Cost:
from $100; Tap Room dinner $35, Sunday Hunt brunch $19.
C
OPPER
B
EECH
I
NN:
Ivoryton. Tel 888-809-2056 or 860-767-0330;
www.copperbeechinn.com
.
Cost:
from $165; dinner $50.
B
EST TIMES:
mid-Feb for the Connecticut River Eagle Festival; mid-July for the Deep River Fife & Drum Muster; Christmas holidays.

Artistic Enclaves in Manhattan’s Verdant Backyard

Connecticut

The countrified but urbane enclaves of Ridgefield and Westport, 15 miles apart in tony Fairfield County, have long enjoyed popularity among artists, actors, and writers. These two upscale towns are celebrated for their artistic
attractions and downtowns abundant with galleries, fine restaurants, and elegant shops.

Despite its proximity to Manhattan, Ridgefield feels a bit like one of the grand colonial New England towns in northwestern Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills. Mature shade trees line Main Street, a wide showcase of storefront businesses and venerable mansions. Don’t miss the town’s seminal Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, one of the first museums in the nation devoted exclusively to contemporary art. Its lack of a permanent collection is compensated for by provocative, changing exhibits that focus on emerging artists. Behind the museum is a fine 2-acre sculpture garden.

Downtown Ridgefield may be known for its snazzy restaurants, but the local legend is a modest hot-dog stand called Chez Lenard, which doles out such heavenly fare as Le Hot Dog Garniture Suisse (topped with cheese fondue blended with white wine and Kirsch). Later, dress up for dinner at Bernard’s, situated in one of the dignified clapboard houses that illustrate the town’s centuries-old roots. On Ridgefield’s border with the town of Wilton, you’ll find Connecticut’s only national park, the 153-acre Weir Farm National Historic Site, dedicated to Impressionist landscape artist J. Alden Weir.

It’s 12 miles southeast from the farm to Westport, perhaps best known to many as the longtime home of actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who are closely associated with the acclaimed Westport Country Playhouse, a supreme small-town theater (Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Robeson, and Bette Davis are among the alums). Many of the first-rate dramas and comedies that originated in this converted barn moved on to greater fame on Broadway.

The perfect roost in this creative country outpost is one of the most whimsically decorated and sumptuous accommodations in New England. Westport’s Inn at National Hall occupies a three-story Italianate Victorian built in 1873 on the banks of the Saugatuck River. The eight rooms and eight suites have been designed by a cadre of talented local artisans and decorators with fancy and flair.

W
HERE:
Ridgefield is 65 miles southwest of Hartford.
Ridgefield visitor info:
Tel 800-663-1273 or 860-567-4506;
www.litchfieldhills.com
.
Westport visitor info:
Tel 800-866-7925 or 203-853-7770;
www.coastalct.com
.
A
LDRICH
C
ONTEMPORARY
A
RT
M
USEUM:
Ridgefield. Tel 203-438-4519;
www.aldrichart.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
C
HEZ
L
ENARD:
Ridgefield. Tel 203-431-6324;
www.chezlenard.com
.
Cost:
lunch $5.
B
ERNARD’S:
Ridgefield. Tel 203-438-8282;
www.bernardsridgefield.com
.
Cost:
dinner $60.
W
EIR
F
ARM:
Wilton. Tel 203-834-1896;
www.nps.gov/wefa
.
W
ESTPORT
C
OUNTRY
P
LAYHOUSE:
Tel 203-227-4177;
www.westportplayhouse.org
.
Cost:
tickets from $40.
I
NN AT
N
ATIONAL
H
ALL:
Westport. Tel 800-628-4255 or 203-221-1351;
www.innatnationalhall.com
.
Cost:
from $325.
B
EST TIMES:
late Jan for Taste of Ridgefield food and music festival; early June for Ridgefield Antiques Market; mid-June for annual Hidden Garden Tour in Westport.

Casinos in the Country

Connecticut

A little bit of Vegas glam has been sprinkled upon the casino resorts of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, two of the most appealing mega-gaming properties on the East Coast. Together they have transformed a sleepy
swath of southeastern Connecticut into a hugely popular leisure destination. Even if you’re not a slots fan or poker aficionado, consider immersing yourself in high rollers’ perks: fabulous spas, swank restaurants, challenging golf courses, first-rate entertainment, and plush hotel rooms. Just 10 miles apart near the small city of Norwich, the two rivals have spawned a series of expansions and renovations as each vies to outdazzle the other.

Operated by the Mohegan tribe, the Mohegan Sun is the newer of the two properties, with a shiny 34-story hotel tower that soars high over the Thames River. Open 24/7, its massive casino is alive with pulsing lights and clattering bells and whistles, and a huge race book where you can wager on horses. Abundant top-of-the-line shops and restaurants are a big draw, as is a 10,000-seat sports and concert arena, and the luxurious Elemis Spa, where guests can opt for a lavender facial or Japanese shiatsu massage. Among several outstanding restaurants, celeb chef Todd English’s Tuscany may be the most popular, with an elegant dining room graced by a soaring waterfall and an innovative menu, including crispy sweetbreads with a spicy maple glaze and delicate lobster-crusted salmon in phyllo dough.

Foxwoods, owned by the formerly obscure but now fabulously wealthy Mashantucket Pequot tribe, kicked off Connecticut’s casino craze when it opened in 1992 (Mohegan Sun followed four years later). The similarly prestigious, attractive resort is on its way to being
every bit as spectacular as its competitor, spending over $700 million to add new hotel rooms, restaurants, gaming areas, and other features in a huge expansion slated for completion in 2008. In the meantime, you’ll find an enormous gaming space, a concert hall, and three contemporary hotels, the fanciest being the Grand Pequot Tower. The resort’s Lake of the Isles golf course offers 36 scenic holes of challenging play amid ancient forests and beside lakes and streams.