Friday, January 18, 2008

The INN at Little Washington

A few weeks ago I went for a culinary ADVENTURE. I know that sounds corny, but really..there was no other way to describe it! I was going to wait to talk about this, but the one friend who took pictures has been a slacker in sending them out *ahem* - but I did find an article on http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/ that had written an article about the place just a week before we went with some GREAT photos.

Where to start -this place is in the middle of nowhere. Let me rephrase that.......'nowheresville' to be exact. I took a bus, a train and a car to get there. Well, took the bus from work to the metro to one of my friend's car exactly-and then it was about a 2 hour drive. FUN!!! So we get there and it's like 5 buildings with no lights in this tiny town. This is basically what greeted us:


I think I've grown used to living in the city because to me this screams: NO GOOD CAN COME FROM THIS PLACE - RUN QUICKLY!!!! But after finding parking ( behind a barn or something - no joke ) it quickly became pleasant. The front of the place is CUTE as seen above and 2 friendly porters were there to greet us and open the door. I think it may have even been this guy, but I'm not sure. And we got 2 doormen, not just this guy ;-) They know we're special:


We quickly were greeted here in the entry:

Of course - we were there the week after New Years, and I don't think these pointsetta were there. Anyways - it's really charming in a cluttery victorianish way. Not GENERIC at all, thank god. Literally every surface was patterned, covered and decorated. Again - ignore the Christmas decorations.
Knowing us, they quickly escorted us to the bar.........and what a surprise............. Yes....it's the 'monkey' bar............there are monkey's EVERYWHERE........... SCARY monkeys!!! I mean -look at that guy! Trust me, he is even SCARIER after 2 Kir Royales ( with watercress and blackberries in it! yumm ) and a gin and tonic. And yes -those are carved monkey heads in at the bar.
They also had these little dried fruit and nuts that were AMAZING with this cyane pepper on them - even if you don't like spicey -this was DELICOUS. So after we were all sedated from the monkey's and the long drive -we were escorted to our table in the cozy dining room. This is actually even the exact table the 6 of us sat at!! Each table has one of those fringy lampshades -it really makes each table feel very seperate.
And just as a reminder -thats not us. We're not a group of 60 yr olds out celebrating.....god knows what....kids out of college? viagra 1/2 off at walmart?
But the crazy thing is that this cow cart thing was parked RIGHT near us..........
Yes, friends....that is a cheesey cow......pun intended!!! But it really is a lovely dining room, cow and all. But really - monkeys....cows....the place is a ZOO! I think I spotted a few rooster statues as well.Have you ever seen 'Hello, Dolly!' - the movie version with Barbara Streisand, not the GOOD version with Carol Channing? Well - imagine that on a smaller scale - that is the inn at little washington. Anyways....so it was all cute that they had about 9 waiters working us over. The water was poured in unison to all of us at once, our food as well. The wine list is a novel - like 100 pages long and has...I kid you not....an INDEX! It's not a novelette - this is a NOVEL. But it's a novel that someone should make a movie out of....the food is OUT OF THIS WORLD, darlings. Now it's a pre-fixe type meal -but 2 'extras' were thrown in. Before ordering we had a smattering of cute little bites on little soup spoons - creme fresh with caviar, an ADORABLE mini bite sized baked potato...some creamy beet thing I had with caviar and stuff - it was yummy. I'm sorry my food descriptions aren't very vivid, I'm really more visual. I'd say that Creme Fresh was on...everything -as well as cavair and truffles. They LOVE them some truffles....and boy...do I love them too! So after that we had our starters. Each starter was like...a work of art. So pretty you didn't want to eat it -but when you did - AMAZING. Every bite was like nothing you've ever tasted before. The flavors were so deep, rich and.......flavorful. LOL It was the sort of sensation where you just close your eyes and meditate on it for a bit while savoring each different flavor SENSATION then go........."DAAAAAAAAM thats good"

Unfortunately -I don't have the pictures of this food yet. They'll come, chickies. Each course was more meat filled ( except for my vegan friend ) and artful. After the appetizer that we ordered we were served this ultra creamy red pepper soup in a CUTE teacup. It was so delicious! And just the right consistency!
Everyone who knows me knows I have a china obsession. Well -this place did not disappoint. They weren't the normal boring restaurant china. This was like, the fine china your grandma ( or me ) has at home! No boring 'modern' or 'contemporary' china. And different for each course - not a boring matched set! That really helped out an aesthete like me. Well, I'll skip each course but let it suffice to say that they were all delicious beyond belief. The wine was also very good. The service was IMPECCABLE. Our very friendly and knowledgable waiter ( who was also cute if memory serves me correctly ) quickly became our conspirator for the evening.
Well - so down to dessert -about 1/2 the table got their FAMOUS dessert 'the 7 deadly sins' -which basically is a plate of 7 different little desserts. I DO have a picture of that...... Now, I do remember it being prettier than that....and larger..but maybe the night they took this photo they had an intern pastry chef do the plate who was disgruntled. However, I didn't get that - I ordered the apple tart.
I LOVE apple or pear anything -especially desserts. Well of course they were out of them and would have to make it for me from scratch, so that everyone at the table woudln't have to wait they brought me a apperatif while everyone else got their desserts: Gratis!! FREE! Now isn't THAT lovely :-) Now -this was SO YUMMY and such a great way to finish up the evening -and the apple tart was to die for of course.
Now anyone reading this, get thee to the 'Inn at Little Washington' , not to be confused with the Inn at Big Washington - which probably doesn't exist and if it does I can guarantee you it isn't as good!! I've never spent that much money that lightly or without some misgiving -but it was SOOOO worth it!!! Tell them a satisfied customer sent you :-) They'll have no clue who that is because I'm sure everyone who stops by is satisfied.