Dorset Inn

Posted By Michael Stern on June 5, 2008 9:34 AM

The Dorset Inn is a picture-perfect hostelry in a picture-perfect Vermont town. Located on the village green, with a broad front porch just right for rocking and a cozy hearth just inside for cold-weather comfort, it is the state's oldest inn, welcoming guests since 1796. It is such a friendly place … and a glorious eating destination, three meals a day, seven days a week.

Although a sign outside the inn reads only "Lunch and Dinner," one night at dinner we overhead Noonie the waitress chatting with guests about how chef/owner Sissy Hicks planned to make corned beef hash the next morning. After sunup, we were there with appetites at the ready. During the meal, Noonie informed us that "Breakfast" is not on the sign simply because there wasn’t room for the sign-painter to list three meals.

Breakfast in the Dorset Inn’s garden room is our vision of morning in heaven. Irregular-shaped buttermilk pancakes come studded with brilliant blueberries; crunchy raised waffles have the old-style, small-tread surface that holds countless droplets of swirled melting butter and maple syrup; and the corned beef hash is a patty with an outside crunch that surrounds a glistening center of ragged, brick-red beef shreds, nuggets of carrot, and caramel-brown ribbons of onion.

Dinner is pretty darn wonderful, too. Steaks, chops, seafood are all the work of a master chef; old-fashioned turkey croquettes are spectacular, sided by cranberry relish and stout mashed potatoes. But the dish that made us swoon the most was calf’s liver. It is tender as foie gras, saturated with the sweetness of onions and the savor of bacon and sided by creamy succotash. “People come just for her liver,” explained Noonie; and chef Hicks later told us about the pilgrims who have heard about her cooking and demand to sample the one meal she considers her best work. She makes them calf’s liver. “Not everyone is a fan of it,” she chuckled. “But I’d have to say it’s my signature dish.”