The Pantry

5 Titus Rd., Washington Depot, CT - (860) 868-0258

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Posted By Michael Stern on October 4, 2000 9:23 AM

Connecticut abounds with fine gourmet food shops. We believe The Pantry of Washington Depot is the best. It is a place to buy all manner of exclusive groceries – olive oils, fresh-baked breads, salsas, etc. – as well as interesting kitchen implements, amusing hand-painted china, and delightfully old-fashioned picnic baskets.

What lures us back for return visits is neither the groceries nor the cooking tools; it is the fabulous food. Many people come to buy it buy the pound or piece to take home and eat, but there is a scattering of tables in the dining room where, after browsing at the counters to see what’s available, you can sit down and have your order taken by a waitress and served on pretty plates with excellent ice tea on the side.

We cannot suggest the single best thing to eat because the menu is always changing. One day’s lunch last June featured carrot mango soup, Sicilian seafood stew, and a breathtaking gingered carrot salad. Later in the summer we balanced a vegetarian chili made with big, fresh tomatoes and corn with a plateful of cool slabs of sirloin beef and zesty horseradish sauce, then came back a week later for chicken enchilada pie and a luxurious ham sandwich on rugged bread.

Best of all: the bakery case is always full of fruit tortes, caramel-crusted chocolate brownies, lemon cake, chocolate whiskey cake, and flake-crusted fresh berry pies.

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