We’ve obviously had to try all new restaurants and make all new friends. Our preferred haunt is The Dorset Inn. It is the oldest continuously operating inn in America, I believe. We have been there more times than I can count, for every meal as well as some of their holiday and special dinners. They are just fantastic in every regard. There is the casual tavern and fancier main dining room, both with the same menu. Their summer lobster special was outstanding. Their sister property is the Barrows House. We like sitting outside there in the summer but alas, I think they have already closed that up for the season. Mio Bistro is also wonderfully local and fresh, though we haven’t been back often enough since their renovation. I think part of the draw for us was being able to sit at the bar and talk to Leo the chef/owner as he cooked, and the renovation took that away. These are the ones that are in Dorset, the town 20 minutes from us.
In Manchester there are many more options, and still some we have not tried, or gotten back to enough. I think now with tourist season coming to an end, we’ll be more inclined to try new places. We finally got to both The Perfect Wife and her tavern The Other Woman. We just received birthday coupon cards from them so that will certainly get us to the Wife to celebrate! Brasserie L’Oustau is where we go when the Husband gets his foie gras craving. Yeah, I know. It’s a bit at odds with the local/sustainable/etc that we generally have in VT but what can you do, we all have our vices. We had a wonderful meal at Bistro Henry, which left us asking why we hadn’t eaten there sooner. I wanted to love Depot Bistro at Depot 62 but I liked it very much. Not sure there’s enough variety on the menu for the Husband. I’ve had several good meals at Thai Basil. And the biggest surprise is really excellent sushi at Sushi Boat; they have a very limited menu with few cooked items but everything, especially the eel, has been outstanding. We have been to most of the restaurants at the Equinox Hotel. The Marsh Tavern is a stand-out and one of our go to places for lunch.
We’ve been here and there and more often than not have found some great food. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to start writing more regularly and will have better information and updates.