The plan was impeccable. On a weekend in late October, my wife and I would spend a weekend in tony Litchfield County in Connecticut, where the country homes of the rich and powerful sit alongside apple orchards on tree-lined country roads.
It's a place where overt ostentation is just not done; the esthetic calls for old-money understatement and decorum. Litchfield County offers a storybook New England countryside of rolling hills and white frame houses, green-gray brooks and old stone walls, all of it preserved through assiduous zoning.For a weekend, we would live like the landed gentry, staying at the Boulders Inn, a country lodge on Lake Waramaug in New Preston.
According to plan, we'd make the 95-mile trip to the town of Litchfield. We would revisit its boulevard (Route 63 North ) of stately white New England mansions and its fastidious green. Then we'd settle in at the Boulders. Perhaps we'd take one of the inn's canoes out for a paddle on the lake; perhaps we'd stroll the private trail up Pinnacle Mountain.
But the weather had other plans. On the Saturday we'd chosen, the skies opened up and flooded every exit route from Manhattan. By the time we left the interstates for Route 7 in New Milford, most of the afternoon was gone but the rain persisted. Indoor activities were called for.
Route 7 is the antiques corridor through New England, and we stopped desultorily at some places on the way; one, the Incurable Collector, included a cookie-jar museum with more than 2,000 examples, including more cute animals than a Disney retrospective.
We dropped into New Milford's well-advertised weekend flea market, housed in a sprawling industrial shed. Expecting more antiques, we instead found Canal Street north, just the place for obsolete eight-track tapes, hubcaps, Garfield figurines, off-brand pharmaceuticals, used vacuum cleaners and collector-priced baseball cards and comic books.
As we sloshed up Route 7, mini-malls gradually gave way to New England charm: a white-steepled church, a horse farm, a Colonial graveyard with skinny, listing tombstones. Roadside stands were piled with pumpkins that could fill a passenger seat.
On Route 202, the antiques started getting fancier: Earl J. Slack had a set of 12 Hawkes goblets for $1,800, along with African masks, Chinese vases and a hand-carved portable Buddhist altar from Siam.
The elegantly punning Reid and Wright, an antiquarian bookseller, had two floors of neatly organized volumes, from century-old Baedekers to a gazeteer of British ghosts; in the parking lot, a Fotomat-size booth sold cappuccino.
At Recherche Studio, there was a quintessential New England artifact: a sterling silver miniature oilcan, made by Tiffany, for adding just a few drops of vermouth to that dry martini.
New Preston (population 1,217) is itself tucked into the Litchfield Hills next to the Aspetuck River, where an old mill house still stands. The center of town, about four blocks long, is a clutch of high-end antiques shops and a pharmacy that also sells wine and liquor, presumably to cure different kinds of ailments. We picked up county newspapers there.
Doc's, a lakeside restaurant, had been recommended to us, but by the time we looked in we found out that it was booked solid from 6 to 9 p.m., even on this rainy night. It seemed we'd be cocooning at the Boulders.
We presented ourselves at the Boulders reception desk and let the coddling begin. The inn was built in 1895, a wood frame clad in the giant stones that provide its name, on a broad lawn with the lake across the street. At first, it was a summer home; it has housed guests since the 1930s, when outlying cottages were added. More modern bungalows replaced them in the 1960s and '70s.
We had booked Gem North, half of a cottage up on the hillside with the best view. It has the inn's top price, $300 a night plus tax and a 15 percent service charge. (The rate includes breakfast and full dinner for two; without the dinner, the rate is $50 less.)
A table was reserved for us that night, the woman at the desk said, and would we need an umbrella?
Gem North was uncluttered but carefully equipped. It had a coffee maker and a refrigerator tucked away in an alcove, a Jacuzzi and a hair dryer in the bathroom and a radio-clock-cassette player by the bed, with tapes of Handel. A window seat, and a deck, looked out on the lake, which was turning bluish-silver in the drizzle, perfectly framed by the trees. Two chairs faced a modern fireplace that was already piled with split logs and crumpled newspapers awaiting a match. I lighted it, and felt my equanimity returning.
Dinner was served in the main house, in a sun porch facing the lake; during warmer weather, we could have dined outdoors on a patio with the same view. At the next table, a group was avidly discussing the bond market. But we turned our attention to the food, which rewarded it.
Boulders follows New American cuisine strategies - seasonal ingredients, Europe-meets-Asia preparations, vertical constructions - with a meticulous flair. The mesclun salad came with cylinders of goat cheese wrapped in phyllo dough; salmon atop an herb and zucchini risotto all but melted with each bite. Desserts included an apple-ginger tart with a carmelized top, and a tower of mousse and orange-chocolate disks.
Replete, we looked around the main house, which has a homey parlor and a snug television room with an aquarium. A basement game room holds a pool table, a dartboard and a pinball machine so old it rings bells and only scores in the thousands. We strolled back up to the cottage and rekindled the fire.
Nobody comes to Litchfield for night life, although we could have taken in a movie in nearby Bantam, where the theater plays the kinds of movies seen at the Film Forum and the Angelika in Manhattan.
Instead, we eased back and perused the local papers. Stories in The Litchfield County Times mentioned residents like Henry Kissinger and Arthur Miller, Sam Waterston and Oscar de la Renta. They also detailed seething community issues: a peculiar gravel mine deal, a fast-food ban on Route 7, a town manager who smokes despite no-smoking rules in Town Hall, a ladybug infestation. The fire was cozy. "We should have brought marshmallows," my wife said.
While gathering more logs from the woodpile on the front porch, I looked up and saw constellations. The storm had finally cleared.
Morning brought bright sun and riotous colors. Golden and red leaves were reflected in Lake Waramaug and covered the path down to the inn. Breakfast was bounteous: a buffet of cereals, fruit salads (fresh and dried), pastries and juices, along with a choice of apple-raisin pancakes or omelets with home fries and bacon or sausage (ordinary or Cajun andouille). Sipping tea, we watched two men fishing from a small boat.
It was a perfect day to roam the area: clear, not too cool, with the leaves still on the trees thanks to the dry summer. We decided to visit some local attractions on a circuitous route that would take us through plenty of countryside.
The Silo, in New Milford, is a store and cooking school owned by the New York Pops musical director, Skitch Henderson, and his wife, Ruth. Situated in an old farm up a narrow road, the Silo's store supplies things like trivets and wine glasses, cornichons and sun-dried tomato paste to local and weekending gourmets.
Nearby, in the town of Washington, was the Institute for American Indian Studies, dedicated to prior county inhabitants like the Algonquians. A mother ushered her children through exhibits of arrowheads, baskets and deerskin leather. Another room held heirlooms from local Indian families, including a pair of elaborately beaded moccasins that had been worn through from dancing.
We circled back to Lake Waramaug and to the Hopkins Winery, a vest-pocket vineyard across the street from (and owned by) the Hopkins Inn. The grapes are processed yards away from their hillside arbors, in a converted barn; from a catwalk, we looked down on towering metal vats and big oak barrels while the heady smell of smashed grapes filled the air. The winery offers tastings of its red, white, sparkling and apple wines.
At the inn across the street, overlooking another lobe of Lake Waramaug from high above, brook trout were swimming in a tank, awaiting their turn as dinner in the inn's German-style restaurant. But the sky was turning pink, so we headed back to the Boulders to watch sunset over the lake from our room.
The inn's Sunday dinner ($30 prix-fixe for nonresidents) offered slightly fewer choices than the regular menu, but no less finesse in dishes like monkfish medallions in a lobster coriander broth. We lingered over hazelnut cheesecake and cups of tea, and felt all our senses gratified with the day.
Back in the room, we gazed out on the blue-black lake and then into the fire, absorbing as much New England comfort as we could before the morning's trip back home.
Getting there
A free guide to the county is available through the Litchfield Hills Travel Council, P.O. Box 968, Litchfield, Conn. 06759, (203) 567-4506.
Boulders Inn, Route 45, East Shore Road, New Preston, (800) 552-6853. Accommodations range from single rooms, with fireplaces and views of Lake Waramaug, to guest cottages. Weekend rates, based on double-occupancy and a minimum stay of two nights: $250 to $300 per night, which includes breakfast and dinner; children under 12 can be accommodated by special arrangement. Mid-week daily rates: $150 to $250.
S. Averill Farm, 250 Calhoun St., off Baldwin Hill Road, Washington, (860) 868-2777. Some Rome apples are still available for picking. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
Earl J. Slack, Route 202, Washington, (860)868-7092.
Gunn Memorial Musuem, 3 Wykeham Road, at Route 47, Washington, (203)868-7756. On view is an exhibition of photographs of the 1955 flood, which severely damaged the area. Hours: Thursday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Donations accepted.
Institute for American Indian Studies, 38 Curtis Road, off Route 199, Washington, (860)868-0518. A reconstructed outdoor Algonkian Indian village, a nature trail and exhibitions. Hours through December: Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. (January through March: Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.) Admission: $4; $3.50 for the elderly; $2 for those 6 to 16 years old; free for those under 6. A storytelling festival is planned Nov. 24 and 25, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; admission: $10; $6 for those 6 to 16; free for those under 6; members, $8 ($4 for children).
Recherche Studio, Route 202, New Preston, (203)868-0281. A collection of formal and country formal furniture, crystal, silver and accessories. Hours: Fridays through Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.
Reid and Wright Antiquarian Book Center, 287 New Milford Turnpike, Route 202, New Preston, (860)868-7706. Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; Mondays and Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Silo Cooking School, 44 Upland Road, off Route 202, New Milford, (860)355-0300. In addition to cooking classes, which are full through December, the store sells kitchen-related items and has an art gallery in which a Christmas display is now featured. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.