1. Connecticut Builder
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Media
Telephone: (203) 453-5420
Address: 37 Boston St.
Description: Connecticut Builder is the official magazine of the Home Builders Association of Connecticut. It’s geared as a trade magazine for builders, remodelers, and developers.
2. The Place
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 453-9276
Address: 901 Boston Post Rd.
Description: This seasonal “restaurant” is really a permanent open-air clambake on the side of Route 1. Grilling and roasting since 1971, the Place can be found by its huge, red wooden menu sign and the smoke from its wood fires. Seat yourself on a tree stump chair above the crushed clam shell floor, and drink the local Foxon Park soda or bring your own beer or wine to enjoy with these seafood delights. Roasted clams with a homemade barbecue sauce are their signature treat, and once you try them, you’ll wonder why anyone ever thinks of steaming them. Their roasted corn on the cob complete with husk, roast lobster, and grilled steak are also excellent. This is one of the places in Connecticut to get the native bluefish, and grilled is the way to eat it. There is a large tent for rainy days, but please note that the Place is cash or check only. It’s tough to swipe credit cards at a truly outdoor facility like this.
3. Shoreline Diner And Vegetarian Enclave
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 458-7380
Address: 345 Boston Post Rd.
Description: The Shoreline Diner was built in 1956 and was restored in 2009, making sure this piece of American history is around for new generations. The name lets us know that this is not your ordinary diner, though, but a road-food place where vegetarians feel at home. Don’t think that you’re just going to get vegetables here, however. The diner has pancakes, challah French toast, waffles, omelets, steak and eggs, and all the lunch classics like lobster rolls and hamburgers. Like most diners, the menu often seems endless, but their menu for vegans is huge, with grilled tofu, chili, stuffed peppers, falafel, and more. They train their kitchen staff to be aware of cross-contamination and allergies, and they also serve things like gluten-free pilaf and pasta. The french fries are actually gluten free and vegan, although you’d never know it from tasting them. That makes the Shoreline Diner a great place for families who can’t agree on their feelings about meat.
4. Ballou’S Wine Bar
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 453-0319
Address: 51 Whitfield St.
Insider Pick:
Description: Wine bars are making a comeback in the US, and Ballou’s is at the head of the pack. The wine list looks impressive, but not outrageous, until you realize that every single wine is available by the glass. Then it is staggering. This is currently also the only place in the state where you can get an entire flight of Connecticut wines from different vineyards. The food is excellent, with wicked fondues like cheddar Merlot and “tiger cheese.” They also have a large selection of salads, sandwiches, paninis, and pastas, with the Brie and apricot panini and potato gnocchi as standouts. Owners Steve Kaye and Debbie Ballou choose every wine carefully, and use the latest technology to keep the many bottles fresh and new. Debbie also makes truffles, and some people come to Ballou’s just for those, along with a glass of port, of course.
5. Grass Island Market
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 689-5072
Address: 301 Boston Post Rd.
Description: Once a car dealership, the Grass Island Market is now a collection of antiques and collectibles dealers run by Charles Mannix, who exchanged cars for this. Many of these dealers are amateurs rather than professional antiques dealers, and bargaining is encouraged as a fun part of the process. Think of it as a high-class tag sale that the whole street is putting on at once. The flea market is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the old car dealership next to the water tower. Expect to find bargains here; there are solid antiques, but most is fun stuff that you will be excited to take home for only a few dollars. Everything from clocks to bottles to jewelry is available. It’s also right next to the Shoreline Diner, so stop there for a bite and then browse to your heart’s content.
6. Bishop’S Orchards
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 453-2338
Address: 1355 Boston Post Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: Bishop’s has been in operation for 140 years, providing the finest farm products to residents up and down the shoreline for 6 generations. Open year-round and conveniently located on Route 1 in Guilford, the market is vast. Inside you’ll find the bakery, filled with fresh pies, breads, donuts, and other goodies. Outside is the garden center. Besides fresh produce that changes with the seasons, the market offers a wide selection of local meats. Most notably, the orchards provide peaches, pears, and apples, and these along with strawberries, blueberries, and pumpkins make up the pick-your-own choices. Located in the market, the winery is open for tastings 7 days a week. Apple wines are the signature offerings, and you can try Celebration 1871, which tends toward the dry side, or Stone House White for a sweeter sip. Blushing Beauty peach wine and Pearadise, as well as a hearty selection of fruit blends and hard ciders, are among the other offerings.
7. Pinchbeck Rose Farm
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 453-2186
Address: 929 Boston Post Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: Do you like roses? Sure you do. Well, then you couldn’t find a better place than Pinchbeck’s to get some of the most beautiful roses in America, beloved by clients from Joan Crawford to Barbara Bush. Since 1929 when William Pinchbeck Jr. founded the farm, they have used the largest iron-framed greenhouse in the world (1,200 feet long and 81 feet wide) as well as another huge greenhouse to grow 90,000 rose bushes. That’s 3 million blooms a year. They heat their greenhouses with recycled wood and use steam from their boilers to produce electricity. Pinchbeck also runs Roses for Autism (www.rosesforautism.com) a wonderful nonprofit organization that ships and delivers fresh roses, lilies, and gifts across America.
8. Henry Whitfield State Museum
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 453-2457
Address: 248 Old Whitfield St.
Insider Pick:
Description: This remarkable stone manor house is the oldest building in Connecticut and the oldest stone house in colonial America, begun in 1639 by Henry Whitfield, a minister from England. Built to last, like a small castle, it doubled as the defensive structure for the town of Guilford. Inside the house are period artifacts, as well as a small museum on the top floor. You can’t miss the 1726 tower clock, which resides upstairs. If you don’t get enough history here, the Guilford Green a long block away is definitely worth a walk. The local historical societies keep two houses a few blocks east on Water Street. The Hyland House, with its walk-in fireplace, and the blacksmith shop at the Thomas Griswold House are both worth a look if you’re here in the summertime. However, because it’s run by the state, the Whitfield House is open year-round.
9. Guilford Craft Expo
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 453-5947
Address: 06437
Description: On the quaint Guilford Green every summer for over 50 years, the Guilford Art Center’s annual Craft Expo brings in up to 20,000 artists, collectors, and visitors from around the US. Featuring over 150 exhibitors of decorative, functional, traditional, and contemporary crafts, it lasts for 3 or 4 days every summer, making it one of the top craft shows in New England. Some years they feature other events like silent auctions of donated items. You might find crafts in clay, glass, leather, metal, paper, soap, or wood; every one of these works is one of a kind, and they are all for sale. There are food trucks around the green, and every night expect exciting musical performances.
10. Rituals Spa
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 458-7727
Address: 4 Water St.
Description: Set in the historic district of Guilford near the green, Rituals Spa offers dozens of different treatments and techniques designed to make you feel better about yourself. There are 11 treatment rooms for massage, body treatments, and facials, not to mention their nail salon, pedicure and manicure stations, and relaxation room. Just the waterfall showers in the locker rooms will put you in a better state. Don’t forget to ask for the monoi oil, which is great for your hair. Most people go to Rituals for these treatments, but what sets it apart, perhaps, is its offerings of “med spa treatments,” such as Botox, laser skin resurfacing, and microdermabrasion. Not every spa has registered nurses and medical doctors on staff, and this holistic medical approach makes Rituals one of the most interesting spas in the state.
11. Westwoods Trails
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 454-8068
Description: This is one of the largest (it’s hard to measure these things accurately) networks of trails in the entire state. You could walk different combinations of these 39 miles of trails for years without getting bored. There are waterfalls, salt- and freshwater marshes and swamps, rock sculptures, and several cave formations. There’s also an inland tidal lake called Lost Lake that you should definitely check out along the white circle–blazed trail. In the western section on the green trail is a cave where colonial artifacts were found, and the yellow trail goes along a beautiful open cliff, and down it near a huge fallen section. On the orange trail you’ll find another cave, and you will sometimes have vistas of Long Island Sound. Some of these trails are also great for experienced mountain bikers, since the entire preserve is rather flat geologically (no big hills) but the trails go up and down quite a bit.
12. Dudley Farm
City: Guilford, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 457-0770
Address: 2351 Durham Rd.
Description: The Dudley Farm could just as easily be listed under historical attractions. The Dudley Foundation has restored this 1840s farmhouse (all 17 rooms) and runs the farm as it was over 100 years ago. The house is a great tour, in the Munger Barn you’ll find a display of Native American artifacts, and there’s a sugarhouse, an herb garden, beehives, and animal enclosures with oxen, geese, and sheep. That’s probably what the kids want to see. There’s also an easy, kid-friendly 2-mile loop trail through the woodlands behind the farm. You want to come here on Sat mornings in the summer, when the market is going on. They have Dudley Farm produce, as well as that from nearby farms, including fruits and vegetables, flowers and herbs, baked goods, jams and jellies, maple syrup, eggs, pickles, naturally raised meats, and handmade arts and crafts. You can also watch or participate in demonstrations of traditional farm and house chores.