Inn the mood: Deerhill Inn
Boston Globe

In the 'Valley of the Inns,' hunger memorably satisfied
By Jane Roy Brown, Globe Correspondent | February 12, 2006
WEST DOVER, Vt. -- A canopied bed, a deep tub, and a dreamy view are certainly romantic, but for me, the road to romance starts at the gates of gastronomy. Find me an inn with a great chef -- an institution far less common than is claimed -- and I will be as happy as a Wellfleet oyster after Labor Day weekend.

I'm talking about memorable food, complex, intriguing, surpassing the sum of its parts. Great food is love on a plate.

No one makes this point better than the late writer-gourmand M.F.K. Fisher in ''The Gastronomical Me" (North Point Press, 1989): ''It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others."

I don't know how my husband found Deerhill Inn, which lies in southern Vermont's Deerfield River Valley, a region so dotted with hostelries that it has been dubbed the Valley of the Inns. As far as he can recall, its poetic name swam to the top of a Googled list. We arrived in mud season, that time between February and May when soot-stained snow melts to expose last year's dead grass, and mud rises to the gunwales of your shoes.

Inside, we found comfort: a sitting room with big windows and a fireplace. Our room held a basket of fruit, water, and cookies; a CD player and assorted CDs; a whirlpool tub; plush bathrobes. A queen-size bed faced the Green Mountains, gorgeous even in mud season.

Since the inn's brochure had touted the creative American cuisine of owner-chef Michael Allen, we made a dinner reservation. The prices (entrees average $32) promised a level of quality that we -- having been jilted in many an expensive restaurant -- dared not hope for.

We eyed the menu (which changes biweekly) at a candlelit table while Cassandra Wilson's sandy contralto wove an envelope of intimacy around each table.

Dinner began with homemade breads: a tender black-olive loaf and a tart, chewy wheat sourdough, and roasted olives swimming in rosemary-scented oil. After house salads came a plate of chef-made charcuterie ($12). That night the plate held duck paté garnished with apricots and a garlicky lamb sausage. Piquant mustard and cornichons coaxed subtle flavors from the meats. An awed silence descended during the main course, magret of moulard duckling with bok choy and ginger stir fry ($32), and pork tenderloin with chopped pecans, bread crumbs, a white-wine mustard sauce, and Medjool dates ($30). In a lifetime of eating, this meal (about $90 excluding tip and beverage) will remain memorable.

Breakfast the next day (guests only, included with room) was custom-blended coffee, fresh grapefruit juice, fruit, hot blueberry-corn muffins, and a choice of pancakes, French toast made with Allen's bread, or the omelet of the day, with roasted asparagus and local goat cheese.

We asked to meet the chef. Allen, who co-owns Deerhill with innkeeper Stan Gresens, told us that he trained at Madeleine Kamman's Modern Gourmet in the 1970s and worked in Boston-area restaurants before moving to Vermont four years ago.

This winter we returned, just to eat. The meal transported us as before, convincing me that Allen descends from Fisher's spiritual tribe. She said that ''when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it . . . and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied . . . and it is all one."

THE NEW ENGLAND INN
Concierge.com

- Jason Harper
What: Deerhill Inn
Where: West Dover, Vermont

The pitch: The Deerhill is in the southernmost part of Vermont—a straight shot north from New York City and the rest of the metropolitan area. So it quite consciously caters to stressed-to-the-gills city types with the comforting air of a grandmother: We know what you need, it says: Quiet time. In the summer, that means a shaded porch facing an immaculate garden and a small, welcoming pool; in the winter, a fireplace and chessboard in the common rooms. Yes, the prototypical stuff of New England inns. But owners Stan Gresens and Michael Allen, two ex-Bostonians who bought the former ski lodge in 2002, know their audience. They've stocked the 14 rooms and upstairs library with thought-provoking books, back issues of the New Yorker, and copies of the Sunday Times. They've decorated the place in an "eclectic country" style with found items (antique rocking chairs, hand-sewn bedspreads) but manage to avoid knickknackery. And naturally, they serve up indulgent breakfasts and dinners, but not the leaden French toast or not-so-prime rib you've suffered at other B&Bs. Michael, a chef, is responsible for the walnut-and-spinach bread, sweet berry pastries, layered eggplant-and-goat-cheese appetizer, saddle of lamb in red wine sauce, and wild mint ice cream.

The details: The Tamarack room is our favorite, with a super-sized bed big enough to sleep on sideways, a gas fireplace set in stone, and a bathroom that manages to feel both New England elegant (an antique end table serves as the vanity) and indulgently modern (a rain showerhead the size of a huge sunflower). There's a TV and DVD player, too, but they're hidden in a cupboard.

The killer app: The hilltop location off a small side road. There's a sense of literally getting off the fast track here—the views of the Green Mountains help. That garden and the wooden chairs strewn about outside encourage reading or quiet contemplation. Just don't think about that Monday morning meeting.

Vermont's Deerfield Valley, like Cape Cod in the '50s
Boston Globe

By Jane Roy Brown, Globe Correspondent | June 26, 2005
WILMINGTON, Vt. -- An aimless ramble through a country village is a fine antidote to urban stress, and this is the place to take it.

Wilmington is the most developed of several rural towns in the Deerfield Valley, which lies about 40 minutes west of Brattleboro in southern Vermont. The region, also known as the Mount Snow Valley, has seen farming cede ground to tourism since the development of nearby Mount Snow as a ski resort in the 1950s. Still, the tourist attractions here -- tasteful shops, an arts and crafts festival, mountains for hiking and skiing, hayrides -- seem refreshingly quaint, like Cape Cod in the '50s.

Winter weekends find Main Street swarming with après-skiers, but summers draw a slower-paced crowd: hikers, back-road explorers, art and antiques lovers.

The biggest challenge in Wilmington isn't finding things to do, eat, or buy, it's figuring out where to stay. The valley boasts so many country hostelries it has been dubbed the Valley of the Inns. Faced with the daunting number of choices, my husband resorted to Google, and the Deerhill Inn in West Dover floated to the surface of cyberspace like cream in a bucket of milk. The price seemed right, and the name had a lyrical appeal. Luckily, West Dover, where the post office is the chief attraction, lies only six miles from Wilmington.

Our country-chic room came with a whirlpool tub, luxurious bathrobes, a second-story porch, and a welcoming snack of spring water, apples, and homemade cookies. We made a dinner reservation and set out to explore the surroundings.

Wilmington is hardly a metropolis -- there are 1 1/2 traffic lights. But with an intriguing store or restaurant every few feet, it's possible to spend a few hours perusing the wares in more than a dozen shops, punctuated with stops to rest and recaffeinate.

Some fine examples of Vermont's high-quality crafts and locally made foods are available on and off Main Street (Route 9): dark-chocolate pecan turtles as big as burgers ($4.60) at 1836 Country Store; country-style home accents ($5-$300) at Pickwell's Barn; hand-blown glass, jewelry, Chinese antiques, and ceramics ($20-$4,200) in the Young & Constantin Gallery, occupying a former church on South Main.

The half-mile downtown strip is home to more than half of the two dozen or so restaurants in the area as well as most of the evening entertainment. Dot's, at the corner of East Main and Route 100, serves breakfast and lunch, with decent sandwiches, salads, and hot meals. Dot's fiery Jailhouse Chili has smoked the competition in a statewide cook-off seven times.

Rhythm & Bean, a coffeehouse on West Main, is a counterculture alternative. Free live acoustic music is played here most nights of the week. Next door, Memorial Hall will kick off a summer performance series on Saturday, featuring folk, jazz, and pop concerts, cabaret shows, and musical theater.

Backtrack east on Route 9 to Marlboro to find the Spiral Shop, which announces itself with a yard scattered with lawn ornaments, found art, and sculpture. Owner Harold Makepeace, a sculptor who studied with Alexander Calder, invites visitors to ascend (at their own risk) to his tree house for a commanding view of the sculpture garden. A gift shop inside holds more treasures ($5-$500). The day we visited, local artist Mason Parker was outside, working metal for one of his stained-glass pieces. His vibrant damselflies and butterflies, some as large as eagles, dot the garden ($65-$1,600).

Also in town, Marlboro College is home to the Marlboro Music Festival (weekends, July 16-Aug. 14).

Hikers seek out trails of varying degrees of difficulty -- including the state's famous Long Trail -- nearby in the Green Mountain National Forest and Woodford and Molly Stark state parks. Artists and artisans abound in these hills, and the annual Art on the Mountain festival showcases their work, this year July 23-Aug. 7 in West Dover.

Deerhill Inn devotes space in a downstairs common room to the small Art on the Mountain gallery. Returning to the inn after a day of walking and driving, we were glad to have resisted the temptation of grabbing a bite elsewhere, for it was dinner that propelled Deerhill into a league of its own and the meal we had there will remain memorable. Breakfast the following day (included with lodging) proved to be a work of art for the palate.

Chef Michael Allen, who co-owns Deerhill with innkeeper Stan Gresens, trained with the renowned Madeleine Kamman and honed his skills in Boston-area restaurants for almost 30 years. He is now part of the Vermont Fresh network, which connects chefs with local farmers. Allen and Gresens, a former industrial designer, moved here from Boston three years ago, and are gradually remodeling the 14 guest rooms and grounds. Built into a hillside on three acres, the inn shelters an outdoor pool on its uphill side. Perennial gardens and apple trees enclose a series of grassy terraces that are popular for weddings.

We won't await a wedding invitation to return.

Jane Roy Brown is a writer in Western Massachusetts.