Last week we were visiting friends in Warren, Vermont and stopped by at the Pitcher Inn, which Luxury Link currently has on its auction offering list. The Pitcher Inn is a member of Relais & Chateaux, the Inn's philosophy emphasizes the 5 Cs: calm, cuisine, character, charm and courtesy and I must say, they have succeeded on all five accounts.
The Pitcher Inn is a quiet kind of a place. The little village of Warren is a quiet, peaceful, old-fashioned kind of a place – quintessentially Vermont. Just a few miles down the road are the world famous ski areas of Sugarbush and Mad River Glen as well as miles of snow and cross-country ski trails. Warren is a perfect base for antiquing, hiking, cycling, canoeing, fly-fishing or touring the countryside.
The Inn sits in this small New England Village ringed by mountains whose hills slip down into the rolling Mad River. Outside, The Inn is a prize example of traditional New England architecture – white clapboard, gabled rooftop and wide porches. Inside it is a captivating blend of the playful and elegant, all bathed in honest warmth and generosity of spirit.
We were invited to wander through its public rooms. The Robert Frost library offers a quiet escape complete with cozy chairs and crackling fire in the fall and winter. In the pub “Tracks” there is a shuffleboard and billiards on a beautifully restored antique table. Tracks was most inviting, but we meandered out into the Inns backyard and found ourselves some comfortable Adirondack chairs under a shady tree where we sipped our drinks before heading for inside for dinner. We could have chosen dinner on the breezy porch perched near the babbling brook, but we opted for the more formal dining room and candlelit tables. On side note, if romance is in the air, you can reserve your candlelit table for two in the beautiful and very private wine cellar, and what a well stocked wine cellar it is, from vineyards from all over the world.
From what we had heard from our Vermont friends, the Kitchen of the Pitcher Inn enjoys a stellar reputation build on the creative talents of the chef. The Menu is American in essence drawing inspiration from the word over, yet based on the seasonal rhythms of Vermont with produce, herbs and edibles from the area’s forests, gardens and orchards. The menu offered some excellent choices, We settled on Vermont raised lamb, and our friends had quail and rabbit, both accompanied by organic heirloom tomatoes and fresh asparagus accompanied by a lovely Burgundy red . For desert we had very tasty Caramel Pots de Creme. What a feast we had. After that, we very contentedly made our way to our friends beautiful hillside house, overlooking the valley and settled on the porch for a while, sipping some Irish coffee and overlooking the lovely Mad River valley and gazing at the moon and the stars before retiring.
What an excellent weekend excursion we just finished.