Gilmore Girls Tour of Connecticut (and More!) - Part 1

Mar 8

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My oldest daughter, T, is a Registered Nurse in the ER and recently took her first Travel Contract. It just happens to be in Connecticut and she just happened to really want me to visit her because she was feeling a little homesick. It just happened to be a perfect opportunity to do a Gilmore Girls Tour of Connecticut!! To bring a little more humanity into this post, I do have to say that her post is a little less than 2 hours away from my wonderful Sister-in-Law and her family in New York. They've taken T into their family and she spends most of her time off with them. Ok, back to my visit. I arrived into Hartford's Bradley International Airport around 10 am on Friday, February 28th and was met by the cutest Uber driver (T) that was sweet enough to bring me a Tea from Starbucks and let me know how rough my landing was (yes, it was terrible). We drove into West Hartford so she could show me where she stays when she's working (cute little house where she rents a room), then headed west to Litchfield (Gilmore Girls fans know!!).

We arrived at the Litchfield Inn, but our room wasn't quite ready, so we ventured into the little town for a quick snack. We happened upon the Village Restaurant and it had a good looking bar, so we stepped on in. We found some amazing clam chowder and french onion soup along with some stellar drinks. There will probably be many short history lessons in this blog because history is (sometimes) cool. The buildings around the Litchfield Green where the Village Restaurant is located all date back to the early 18th Century. For those like me that are bad at centuries, that's around the early 1700s. The Village Restaurant itself has been in existence since the 1950s. The restaurant has some really amazing architecture that shows its age and I loved it!! There's something mesmerizing about sitting in an old building, surrounded by the echoes of history and the stories of those who came before - That's going to be a running theme for this trip!

Back to the Litchfield Inn we go and get checked in to our upgraded room. We have just about an hour until our Tarot reading reservation at Auberge's Mayflower Inn, so we take some time to rest in our lovely room.

Time to head to the Mayflower Inn! For those not in the know, this is where Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator/co-writer, of the Gilmore Girls, spent time creating and writing the show. She was inspired by the Inn itself as well as the surrounding towns. Given the price of a night's stay at the Mayflower Inn (Auberge is a TRUE Luxury brand and a night's stay starts at around $1,500), I was worried it would be pretentious and stuffy. I'm all about luxury and would definitely consider a stay at that rate given the right circumstances, but always worry about pretentiousness because I'm NOT about that. I was pleasantly surprised that the Inn was very welcoming! We dropped our car with the complimentary valet service and checked in at the front desk where they led us to wait for our numerology and tarot reader, Patti Kitson with Tarot in Thyme, in a beautifully appointed salon. We had some lovely readings, which Ms. Patti allowed us to record if we wanted.

After our readings, we had about an hour until our dinner reservation, so we explored the Inn then spent some time at the beautiful bar with the amazing bartender. There was plenty of silliness to be had, which is par for the course when we are left alone together.

Now it's my favorite time - DINNER!! Those who know me know I had studied the menu for at least 2 weeks. We had made reservations for the Taproom, but we were lucky enough to be seated at a table in the Garden Room where we had a great view of the gardens (and a little opossum friend who made his home under the back deck!). We started our meal with a Fever Tree ginger ale for me and a continuation of the Chenin Blanc we had started with at the bar for T. We ordered the sourdough bread service with Hudson Valley butter with maldon salt. It was delicious. We were having a hard time deciding between all the amazing sounding entrees, but our server Jonathan was very familiar with the menu and was more than happy to help guide us. T ended up with the spaghetti with Maine lobster saffron, and spicy tomato, and I chose the venison chili, which was described as not really chili, but more of a venison shank.

T's spaghetti had a flavor similar to a Thai drunken noodle and she absolutely loved it. The lobster was perfectly cooked and the spice was on point. My venison shank was amazing even before I tasted it. How can that be, you say? I caught a whiff of the aromatics of cinnamon and nutmeg and fell in love with it immediately. Upon first taste, it was not gamey at all, fell off the bone and, somehow, did not taste strongly of cinnamon or nutmeg. It was perfection. Add to it the sweet cornbread, creme fraiche, and avocado that came with it and it was absolutely heavenly. The desert options were lovely, but our attempts at finishing the massive lamb shank (which were in vain, we still left with a box), kept us from ordering a real dessert. I did order a nice raspberry orange sorbet, and Jonathan brought T a very nice vanilla bean ice cream to go with her Espresso Martini since he felt there was a lapse in service (there really was not). I would not hesitate to recommend this Inn and this restaurant to anyone at any time for any reason. Everyone we interacted with and everything we did was absolute perfection aside from one confused front desk clerk (and she was still somehow adorable in her confusion).