1. Curtis House Inn
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (203) 263-2101
Address: 506 Main St. South
Description: The Curtis House is Connecticut’s oldest inn, built sometime before 1736 on the main street of Woodbury and first opened as an inn in 1754. The 3-story building with its white facade is hard to miss as you browse Woodbury for antiques, but you probably wouldn’t realize the inn’s amazing age. There are 18 guest rooms with canopy beds in the main house (though only 8 have private baths; this is a historic place, after all). In addition, there are 4 rooms in the old carriage house, connected to the main grounds by a footbridge from the second floor (see it to believe it). The restaurant at the inn serves classic American cuisine, including Connecticut’s own bluefish and a bacon and blue cheeseburger that is mouthwateringly good. They also have an old-fashioned turkey dinner that devotees swear by. This is a really inexpensive place, considering the fact that it’s in Woodbury, and it’s one of America’s oldest inns.
2. Longwood Country Inn And Restaurant
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (203) 266-0800
Address: 1204 Main St. South
Description: Built in 1789, the Longwood Country Inn is one of the most romantic old inns in Connecticut. There are 4 unique private rooms and 3 expansive suites to choose from when you stay here, each one comfortable and elegant. The dining room with its 3 roaring fireplaces serves a modern American menu, with some classics and some inventive items. Try the lobster bonbons for an appetizer and the white and dark chocolate bread pudding for dessert. You can also relax in the wonderful Hearthstone Lounge, sipping whiskey or martinis, and noshing on tapas or appetizers. Make sure to stroll around the gardens, and note the rare milestone embedded in the old stone wall out front, placed there by the country’s first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin.
3. Carole Peck’S Good News Cafe
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 266-4663
Address: 694 Main St. South
Insider Pick:
Description: Inconspicuous at the corner of a Woodbury shopping center, the Good News Cafe is legendary; it’s always mentioned when someone asks about the best restaurants in the state. Owner Carol Peck is one of the forerunners of the local food phenomenon, and so her menus feature organic, seasonal, farm-fresh food. Try the wild boar schnitzel or antelope meatballs if you’re in the mood to experiment, or the grass-fed beef short ribs if you’re not. Few do soft-shell crabs this well, either. Peck bakes her own loaves of country peasant bread, and you should take one home with you for the next day. Outside there are lawn sculptures, and inside a changing selection of art. But the art you’re probably most interested in here is on your plate, at one of the consistently delicious restaurants of Connecticut.
4. Longwood Country Inn And Restaurant
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 266-0800
Address: 06798
Description: In the same way that the inn has become one of the premier accommodations in the county, the Longwood began stepping up their cuisine when a chef from the Copper Beech Inn put things in order here. The country inn shellfish risotto, egg pasta cheese purses, ginger-apricot chicken, and salads full of edible flower petals are all cutting-edge dishes with familiar tastes. They change their seasonal menu often, and we can hope they bring back classics like their farm-raised venison and rice fritters. If you’re there for Sunday brunch, don’t pass up the crème brûlée French toast.
5. Dottie’S Diner
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 263-2545
Address: 740 Main St. South
Description: “Got Donuts?” is Dottie’s question to us, but of course if we are at Dottie’s Diner, we do. It’s hard to say which of the donuts are the yummiest, but the cinnamon have been called the best in the country by Gourmet Magazine. They will be so clearly superior to other donuts you’ve tried that you’ll be hard-pressed to go back to those stale, sugary imitations in the local chain store. Dottie’s other breakfast and lunch dishes are also done well, like their poached egg on toast or their Connecticut potpie stuffed with juicy pieces of chicken. This is a throwback diner that has taken the food we all love and done it with just a bit more class, but for the same price. The kicker is the donut bread pudding for a mere $4, made with leftover cinnamon donuts from yesterday, and topped with crème anglaise and berries. Unbelievable. Really, truly, unbelievably (insert more adverbs) good.
6. John’S Cafe
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 263-0188
Address: 693 Main St. South
Description: A trend in modern restaurants is not to be categorized and to offer a global mix of fascinating styles and dishes, as well as changing seasonally. With its seasonal menus and a bistro atmosphere, John’s Cafe offers American food and dishes with enough Mediterranean hints to fall into this category, though some others might disagree. Expect fresh, surprising dishes like house-made gnocchi with smoked chicken or crispy soft-boiled organic Marans hen eggs with a warm spinach and bacon salad. John does an amazing job with profiteroles for both dinner (blue crab and sweet corn in romesco sauce) and dessert (coffee ice cream with chocolate sauce and almonds). He is open to preparing the dishes with small twists, so feel free to suggest something to your server. John believes in making his food just the way you like it, in order to bring you the maximum pleasure. Fancy that.
7. Charcoal Chef
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 263-2538
Address: 670 Main St. North
Description: This classic road joint has not changed in decades, and its warm woody atmosphere is as comforting as its food. Offering inexpensive items like foot-long hot dogs, baked beans, and juicy burgers, the Chef is a destination for locals and for families who drive up from Waterbury to get these deliciously filling dishes. The Charcoal Chef makes strong (and cheap) drinks, too, so you’ll always find a dedicated crowd of regulars who come not so much for the greasy, tasty food, but for the mind-erasing cocktails. Bring cash; that’s all this blast from past in Woodbury takes.
8. Mill House Antiques And Gardens
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 263-3446
Address: 1068 Main St. North
Description: You’re in for a treat when you push open the wide planked wooden door into Mill House Antiques and Gardens along Route 6 in Woodbury. Yes, their gardens are so nice, they are practically an attraction themselves. Located in an 18th-century gristmill and specializing in 18th- and 19th-century pieces, this unique antiques store brings in an international clientele. Their most impressive collection is oak, walnut, yew, and mahogany furniture, including highboys, lowboys, tables, dressers, and desks. They also have a good collection of clocks, objets d’art, and chandeliers. There are 17 showrooms to explore here, as well as the beautiful gardens.
9. Thomas Schwenke Antiques
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 266-0303
Address: 50 Main St. North
Insider Pick:
Description: This is one of the best places in the US to get Federal-era furniture, a reminder of the flowering of American democracy from 1785 to 1820. Thomas Schwenke himself has over 40 years of experience in the field and is an acknowledged authority on American antique furniture, routinely consulted on Federal-era pieces in particular. You’ll explore the period barns with their exposed beams, and find antique dining tables, desks, chairs, sofas, mirrors, and sideboards. Look for the sense of proportion, scale, and line in these pieces, along with inlays and carvings. These are not just decorative, but very functional pieces for your home. And if you can’t afford the actual pieces, Schwenke has an exclusive American Federal Classics line of handmade replica furniture based on the finest originals.
10. Woodbury’S Famous Antique And Flea Market
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (203) 263-6217
Address: 44 Sherman Hill Rd. (Route 64)
Description: Woodbury has a couple nice dealers of its own, but this is the weekly event that makes the town a hub of antiques frenzy on every Sat from Apr to Dec for the last 40 years. In 2008 this event changed hands (they now refer to it as “new”), and there is space for up to 42 antiques vendors to sell their goods at once. This fun venue is a wonderful place to find a bargain among the mix of antiques and junk. Or you can work a little to make one—there are always negotiations going on here. Late in the day you’ll probably have better luck when dealers get desperate and sunburned. Breakfast and lunch are served.
11. Woodbury Pewter Outlet
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (800) 648-2014
Address: 860 Main St. South
Description: The family-owned-and-operated Woodbury Pewter was founded in 1952, and the factory outlet store here has been selling the business’s factory seconds (and firsts!) since then. These amazing pewter pieces are handcrafted using the same tools and methods that were used by our ancestors, spinning, casting, and finishing. This company is renowned for its authentic and high-quality pewter, and after you see it, you’ll know why. These aren’t those pieces you’ll find at the corner gift shop or at the local Renaissance Faire. You can also get other pewter from around the world at the outlet, but why would you want to do that, when you’re right here in Woodbury itself?
12. The Glebe House Museum And Garden
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 263-2855
Address: 49 Hollow Rd.
Description: This 1745 minister’s house was the birthplace of the Episcopal Church in America, when the first bishop was elected here in 1783 at a secret meeting that separated it from the Anglican Church of England. In 1923 it was restored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as it was during those turbulent times of American Independence, one of the first restorations of a historic house in the whole country. The garden is an attraction by itself, the only one remaining in America designed by Gertrude Jekyll, England’s premier garden landscape designer. Explore the streets of Woodbury and find the many other historic homes here, including the 1660 Hurd House, run by the Old Woodbury Historical Society, and the 1745 Bull Homestead, now Country Loft Antiques (www.countryloftantiques.com).
13. Woodbury Ski And Racquet
City: Woodbury, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (203) 263-2203
Address: 785 Washington Rd.
Description: In the winter, these 14 downhill trails are great for beginning and intermediate skiers. Snowboarders come for the 2 large half-pipes and a quarter-pipe. There’s tubing and sledding, as well as cross-country trails, all of which are kept in snow throughout the winter by Woodbury’s snowmaking equipment. Everything is lighted, and they are open until 10 p.m. most nights. In Jan a weeklong extravaganza called the Winter Carnival brings tourists by the busload. In the warmer months, you can come here for the skateboarding park, the tennis courts, the pond swimming, the camping, the “sorba ball” tubing, and the concerts.