1. Stanton House Inn
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (203) 869-2110
Address: 76 Maple Ave.
Description: This beautiful inn was built in its present form by famous architect Stanford White and was named for the owner’s grandmother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, renowned pioneer for women’s right to vote. Today this bed-and-breakfast has 22 rooms and 2 suites, all with private baths. There’s a very relaxing patio next to the pool, and afternoon tea and beach passes (expensive to get otherwise) are available. You can walk from the inn to all the fine restaurants and shops of Greenwich, as well as to historic Putnam Cottage. This is a comfortable, reasonably priced house that will become your own, for a little while.
2. Homestead Inn
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (203) 869-7500
Address: 06830
Description: The Homestead Inn in Greenwich will be one of the nicer (or possibly the nicest, period) places you’ll likely stay in this lifetime. Each of the 18 rooms is full of art and artifacts, and the bold use of color in each fits a carefully designed theme. All come with comfortable linens, bathrobes, and heated bathroom floors—do you need to know more? Okay, how about carved wood four-poster beds, cherry furniture, and Bulgari amenities. You can relax on the beautiful porches or in one of the “relaxation rooms” (calling them public areas really doesn’t do them justice). The Homestead is attached to the Thomas Henkelmann restaurant, one of the best in Connecticut and, in fact, the country. This is a great escape from New York (or anywhere else), and if you can afford it, the experience is well worth it.
3. Greenwich Hospital
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Health Care
Telephone: (203) 863-3000
Address: 5 Perryridge Rd.
Description: One of the facilities under the umbrella of the Yale New Haven Health System, Greenwich Hospital serves the greater Fairfield County area. The partnership with Yale insures continued advancements in technology and research. The hospital offers 45 inpatient and outpatient specialty services. The Bendheim Cancer Center received an award for Outstanding Achievement in Patient Care from the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer.
4. Jean-Louis
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 622-8450
Address: 61 Lewis St.
Description: Though the menu has French titles for its dishes, this is not strictly traditional French fare, but rather a New American/French hybrid, inspired by the wonderful food movement that has swept across the nation in recent years. Sure, chef Jean-Louis Gerin serves foie gras and duck confit, but you don’t get to consistently be called one of the best restaurants in America by playing it safe. Gerin uses his classical training as a base for making cutting-edge food. His potato au gratin is famous, and rightfully so, for its creaminess and proper preparation of cooking the gratin a day ahead, to give it time to rest. Get the Parisian lunch, a surprising deal for the amount of fine food you’ll get, and for dinner try the “grand tasting menu” with five courses, putting yourself in Jean-Louis’s capable hands. Not only has he won awards like Best Chef in the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation, he is considered to be a chef’s chef, and they all come out from New York to eat here.
5. Rebecca’S
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 532-9270
Address: 265 Glenville Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: Across from the firehouse in Greenwich, Rebecca’s is run by two chefs with outstanding pedigrees: Rebecca Kirhoffer and her husband, Reza Khorshidi. Kirhoffer also has a degree in design, and that eye for detail has gone into the impeccable trendy design here. The creative menu draws from all sorts of global cuisines, with dishes like eggs scrambled in their shells with caviar, and roasted California squab with morel mushrooms. This being Connecticut, seafood takes up a good portion of the menu, with sashimi appetizers and various fillets for entrees. The two soups in one bowl special (yellow and red gazpacho or butternut and acorn squash with roasted chestnuts, depending on the season) is a new classic, the roasted breast of wild pheasant is a rare joy, and the roasted suckling pig will make you fall in love with pork all over again. Don’t miss the cheese selection and the beautifully made and designed desserts.
6. Tengda Asian Bistro
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 625-5338
Address: 21 Field Point Rd.
Description: Naming your restaurant “prosperity” is a chancy idea, but it seems to be working for this local restaurant group, which is finding great success throughout the state, especially here in Fairfield County. The curries showcase a too-little-seen specialty of Japanese cuisine (in America), and they do them well. At the back of the restaurant is a classic sushi bar, great for an after-work plate of spicy tuna rolls or salmon sashimi. There are also Tengdas in Westport (1330 Post Rd. East, 203-255-6115) and Darien (25 Old Kings Hwy. North, 203-656-1688), as well as a few others throughout the state. The Greenwich one uses perhaps the greatest mixture of European and Asian traditions, but you’ll find these to be some of the most reliable pan-Asian restaurants in Connecticut.
7. Thomas Henkelmann
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 869-7500
Address: 420 Field Point Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: Set in the 1799 Homestead Inn in Greenwich, this restaurant draws out jaded diners from New York City to be born again. Thomas Henkelmann himself brings a pedigree few chefs in the world can match, and brings creativity and precise touches to the menu. The tomato soup, with semolina dumplings, is remarkable for its simple taste and beauty. If you like to walk on the wild side, Henkelmann does amazing sweetbreads and loin of rabbit. But the more approachable dishes (for Americans) like lobster fricassee or whole roasted baby chicken are absolutely delectable, moist and rich, with touches of surprise. For dessert, try the crisp cherry purses filled with almond cream, cherry sauce, and cherry ice cream—unless you don’t like cherry, that is. In the summer, sit on the glass-enclosed porch, from which you can enjoy the gardens while sampling from the exceptional wine list.
8. Burgers, Shakes, And Fries
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 531-7433
Address: 302 Delavan Ave.
Description: The postmodern name of this fast-food restaurant in Greenwich nearly says it all. They also have excellent hot dogs and chicken sandwiches. The black-and-white milk shake is something special, and the fixings are a must (try the fried egg). The burgers come on toast, just like the originals in New Haven’s Louis Lunch did a century ago (and still do). If you want cheap eats in upper-crust Greenwich, this always-crowded little joint is it. There’s also a new location at 800 Post Rd., Darien (203-202-9401). Oh, and the Darien location of Burgers, Shakes, and Fries now serves beer and wine. That’s fast food that we can all get behind.
9. Versailles
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 661-6634
Address: 339 Greenwich Ave.
Description: Founded in 1980, Versailles (actually the original owner’s last name) is a patisserie, boulangerie, and bistro. People come here for the boules and baguettes in the morning, the same way they do in Paris. The bistro part of the store serves all three meals, with delights such as crepes and brioche for breakfast, croque monsieur and quiche for lunch, and arctic char and roast beef fillet for dinner. Internationally acclaimed chef Jean-Pierre Bagnato offers authentic food in gorgeous presentations. And, of course, this is also a popular patisserie, where you can stop just to pick up dessert. Versailles makes éclairs, napoleons, cakes, pies, and tarts—all the finest French pastries, except they’re not French. They’re from Connecticut.
10. Putnam Cottage
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 869-9697
Address: 243 E. Putnam Ave.
Description: This unusual fish-scale shingle house was built in 1692 and later became a meeting place during the Revolution, when it was known as Knapp’s Tavern. George Washington’s second-in-command, Connecticut’s Israel Putnam, used it often. During an attack, General Putnam supposedly rode his horse down the steep cliff near the cottage, a skirmish that is reenacted here the last Sun in Feb every year. The house has relics of Putnam, including his desk, Bible, military uniform, glasses, and hat (with bullet hole!). It was opened to the public on the centennial of Putnam’s ride, and in 1906 it became an official museum. The cottage was restored to its 18th-century appearance, but it has kept the more modern (if 150 years old can be called modern) name.
11. Bruce Museum
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 869-0376
Address: 1 Museum Dr.
Description: This museum was once the home of a textile baron, Robert Moffat Bruce, though it has expanded significantly beyond that. It is an all-purpose museum of art and natural history, and includes both the work of American Impressionists like Childe Hassam and displays of fossils and local animals. The focus is on the land around us, which serves as a great primer to learn the geology, biology, and history of Connecticut. They also have a nice selection of rotating exhibits, including some to bring in the kids. The Bruce also runs the Seaside Center in Greenwich Point Park, about 6 miles down the road, where they teach you about the ecology of Long Island Sound. If you get a chance, make sure to catch a talk in their lecture series: They bring in some of the top names in art, science, and history to brush us up on the latest developments. I learned about Jean-Pierre Houdin’s Great Pyramid internal ramp theory here days before the rest of the world did.
12. Greenwich Audubon Center
City: Greenwich, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 869-5272
Address: 613 Riversville Rd.
Description: Opening in 1942, this was the first environmental education center in the US initiated by the Audubon Society. There are 15 miles of trails in and around this large park, a testament to the appeal of open green spaces even here in what is essentially a suburb of New York. The Kimberlin Nature Education Center has a nice little exhibit gallery. This is a great place to hike with children, who will marvel at the huge trees and the waterfall along the edge of Mead Lake. Every autumn hawks migrate through here, and the Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch Site is a great spot for the patient to see these majestic creatures on their way through Greenwich. If it’s difficult to imagine densely populated Greenwich as a “big city” in the same way as Stamford or Norwalk, it’s because of its commitment to places like this.