1. Fife ‘N Drum Restaurant, Inn & Gift Shop
City: Kent, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (860) 927-3509
Address: 53 N. Main St.
Description: Since 1973 this fine little yellow Victorian house with private baths has provided food and lodging in the center of downtown (such as it is) Kent. The prices are reasonable, especially in the off-season. There are 8 rooms; try the Oak Room with its huge overhead beams. The gift shop is extensive, and people stop in off the street to browse here. They also have a fine three-star restaurant that serves dishes like grilled lobster tail and butter-poached claws over forbidden black rice and a roast half-duck flambé, done tableside. The piano music in the evening is usually played by the owner himself.
2. Macedonia Brook State Park
City: Kent, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (860) 927-3238
Address: 159 Macedonia Brook Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: This is simply one of the loveliest places to camp in the state. The road twists up along Macedonia Brook, which descends through a “hanging valley” amid a bowl of ridges. The campsites stagger up through this high valley, shaded by large trees. Small trout splash in the book, and red-tailed hawks hover in the updrafts. It is a quiet place to camp, without traffic noise or the rowdiness you sometimes find at private campgrounds, and there are several choice tent sites by themselves along bends in the stream. They are obvious on the campground map available on the website, and you should go for them unless you are bringing a large family. The hiking here is good, too, and you can do a loop around the entire park up along both eastern and western ridges, if you’re so inclined. This is a great place to stay to go antiquing in Kent, but the real joy of it is the complete removal from anything even approaching civilization. You’ll feel like you’re in a world far away.
3. Bull’S Bridge Inn
City: Kent, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (860) 927-1000
Address: 333 Kent Rd. (Route 7)
Description: This classic tavern right at Bull’s Bridge in Kent is a casual, less formal version of the New England country inn, perfect for families. Words like home-style, cozy, and friendly come to mind. It serves only dinner and Sunday brunch, with meat-and-potato meals and classic mid-20th-century entrees. However, the executive chef is a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) graduate, and keeps these classic dishes from getting stale or boring. During the winter, stop here for a hot (and probably alcoholic) drink by the fireplace before heading to your inn or hotel. In the summer, you’ll find expert kayakers getting ready to head down Class V rapids in the gorge here, one of the most difficult stretches in the state. You might also see a few bewildered-looking patrons in hiking clothes and beards. Don’t worry, those are just Appalachian Trail hikers poking their heads back into civilization.
4. Lyme Regis Ltd.
City: Kent, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (860) 927-3330
Address: 43 N. Main St.
Description: This interesting antiques store was originally in South Street Seaport in NYC before moving to Kent in 1999. They sell metalware, jewelry, books, pottery, paintings, and porcelain. But what you should really come to Lyme Regis for are the curiosities. You never know what new fascinating piece will be here, from an antique leather and brass dog collar to a dice game made of bone. The store is named after the beautiful seaside town of Lyme Regis in England, where in the 19th century collectors hunted for ammonites, which were plentiful there. And indeed, you’ll find some of those fossils here at Lyme Regis Ltd. in Kent. Or perhaps you’ll find your own special kind of curiosity to collect.
5. R. T. Facts Antiques
City: Kent, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (860) 927-5315
Address: 22 S. Main St.
Description: R. T. Facts Antiques carries unusual pieces of all sorts, and a search in this shop in downtown Kent will lead you in unexpected directions. Mid-20th-century craft furniture and decorative pieces abound: lamps, tables, benches, clocks, statues, sinks, paintings, and more. Facts specializes in garden and architectural pieces, and if you need a classy sculpture for your lawn, this is the place to get one. They also have great lanterns and mirrors here. R. T. Facts is open only on weekends, although you can call ahead and they’ll be there for you on a weekday.
6. House Of Books
City: Kent, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (860) 927-4104
Address: 10 N. Main St.
Description: If you’re in Kent looking for books, this bookstore in an old home is a great place to nose around. They have books on art, literature, history, and biography, as well as trail guides for Appalachian Trail hikers, a literal vault filled with children’s books, and gifts and CDs. One of the draws (so to speak) is the nook of art supplies, for the many artists who visit the scenic Litchfield Hills and those who make their home here. You should also check out the famous Kent Library book sale, which spills onto the sidewalks near the town center every sunny weekend of the summer.
7. Belgique Patisserie
City: Kent, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (860) 927-3681
Address: 1 Bridge St.
Description: Though we’ve been fooled by marketing into thinking that mass-produced chocolate is good enough, it’s a fact that unlike people, not all chocolates are created equal. This tiny shop in a Victorian carriage house at the center of Kent makes chocolates that will make you a believer in that hierarchy. Owner Pierre Gilissen’s candies, cakes, tortes, and pastries are done in the traditional Belgian way by hand, without preservatives. He uses 100 percent cocoa butter as well. Try the truffles or the feuilletines, little pieces of crunchy wafer covered in dark chocolate. If you’re there during the summer, you can pick up one of Pierre’s decadent ice cream or sorbet concoctions.
8. Bull’S Bridge
City: Kent, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Description: One of two covered bridges in the state open to vehicular traffic, this bridge was a community fixture as early as 1760, built by Isaac Bull. In 1811 his son Jacob built this one, and it was refurbished in 1842. George Washington made this crossing famous in 1781 when a horse (probably his) slipped into the waterfall here (the bridge was undergoing repairs) and cost him $215 to get it out, a princely sum at that time. The whitewater falls are just a few feet upstream from the bridge today. While you’re here, check out the 1830 Judd House at 248 Bulls Bridge Rd., where today you can buy American country furniture and accessories.
9. Kent Falls
City: Kent, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 927-3238
Address: 462 Kent-Cornwall Rd. (Route 7)
Insider Pick:
Description: If you pull off of Route 7 north of Kent into the parking lot, you’ll see a waterfall right away across a green meadow, and think that this was all very easy. But that is only the bottom falls, and there is an entire series of different and equally picturesque drops, which you’ll see as you hike up the side of the ridge more than 200 feet vertically from the Housatonic River valley where you parked. The top waterfall is the largest, dropping 70 feet in a fantastic cascade, and worth the climb, especially since they reconstructed the path with well-made little wooden platforms that I like to call “excuse for stopping platforms.” There’s also a 1-mile loop trail on the north side of the stream, if you’re looking for more exercise. And if you’re into fishing, this is a designated trout park, barely used, where I saw someone catch seven small trout on a fly, one after the other in the space of an hour below the bottom falls.
10. Connecticut Antique Machinery Association’S Fall Festival
City: Kent, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 927-0050
Address: 1 Kent Cornwall Rd.
Description: This annual festival takes place at the Connecticut Antique Machinery Museum, usually a quiet little collection of history museums in some restored buildings in Kent. But every autumn the antique machines here start running, and things get very, very exciting. Old trains, engines, tractors, and other mining and agricultural machines chug away to the great delight of all attending. The festival also features wood splitting, blacksmithing, broom making, and cider making. Antique cars and trucks fill the fields, and food is available from a variety of vendors. Also on-site are the Cream Hill Agricultural School, with its original desks and library, and the Connecticut Museum of Mining and Mineral Science, full of native rocks and mining equipment. Literally next door is the separately run Sloane-Stanley Museum, featuring a wonderful collection of colonial American tools and the partially restored ruins of the Kent Iron Furnace.
11. Litchfield Jazz Festival
City: Kent, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 361-6285
Address: 30 S. Main St.
Description: In 1996 Litchfield began this festival on the third weekend in Aug, on the grounds of the White Memorial Foundation. Today it happens at different venues throughout the hills, and lasts all day Sat and Sun. Usually there are over a thousand seats, but thousands more eager listeners sprawl on picnic blankets and lawn chairs throughout the meadows. Performers like Diana Krall, Dave Brubeck, and Sonny Rollins have played here. You can bring food, beer, and wine, or buy from the many vendors serving everything from pizza to oysters. There are a couple dozen craft vendors, too, and you’ll have plenty of time to browse; the concerts last from midday through the evening hours. That’s a lot of jazz.
12. North American Whitewater Expeditions
City: Kent, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 927-1000
Address: 06757
Description: If you’re in the Litchfield Hills in April, you should not miss the exciting opportunity to raft the Housatonic. During spring runoff the gorge by the old covered Bull’s Bridge becomes a Class V rapids. North American Whitewater Expeditions was the first company to attempt to take eager rafters down these rapids, and today they are still doing it. During the rest of the year, the gorge is mostly dry, since the nearby canal takes most of the water. But for this month only, these might be the most challenging rapids to raft in all of New England. The trip is 8 miles, and usually takes about 3 hours. The $90 price includes a snack and dinner at the Bull’s Bridge Inn afterwards, where you’ll enjoy a great meal and talk excitedly about the amazing scenery and adrenaline-pumping rapids.