After our dinner at Out of the Fire on Thanksgiving eve, we
retired to the Inn, and spent a restful night, no doubt aided by the
Syrah.. Part of the deal with the Inn is
the “breakfast” part of the B&B. It
is included in your stay, and it is always great. Thanksgiving morning we were treated to fresh
squeezed orange juice, French press (always) coffee and a wonderful omelet made
with farm fresh eggs, and a local cheese, over a bed of tangy wilted greens, local
plum jam with homemade bread.. Normally
I am what a well known hamburger chain now describes as a “skipper” when it
comes to breakfast, but not when this kind of thing is available. Breakfast is of course served on the same
white tablecloth setting as dinner. After recovering from breakfast, we spent
the morning driving around in the country some enjoying the scenery, and had a lunch of the pizza from Out of the
Fire (cleverly ordered with the previous evening's dinner), and then returned to the Inn, did a bit of
window shopping around town and retired for a pre Thanksgiving dinner
rest/nap. As mentioned earlier, our
reservation for dinner was for 6:00 at the Robert Morris Inn in Oxford, about
twenty minutes from Easton. It proclaims
itself as “America’s Oldest Inn” dating from 1710. We had previewed the prix fixe menu which is
a choice of one selection from three courses (starter, entrée, and dessert). So I had decided upon the fried local oysters
with lemon and remoulade, Pennsylvania Dutch free range Turkey (with… etc.);
and pecan pie with bourbon ice cream.
MFO pre selected the same traditional main course but took a beet salad
and apple/blackberry crumble for dessert. We had
driven to the place in the daylight earlier in the day just to make sure we
could find it in Oxford. It’s not hard, and proceeding
further on main street you would need a boat.
When we arrived for our evening meal we entered through the street side
door which dumps you into the dining room.
Robert Morris Inn is split into two places to dine, the “dining room”
and the “tavern”. Turns out you’re
supposed to enter through the tavern side as that is where the “stand” is. Kind of awkward traversing the dining room,
but we did and checked in with the hostess who found us on the list.
A(side) Number One:
…if you go to restaurants a lot, as we do, you can always
notice one table that is kind of stuck someplace usually for overflow. For instance, in the original Dry Dock
location in the blockhouse, there was one two top on the wall between the far stair
entrance and a window that was kind of an afterthought. If the door opened, your napkin might blow on the floor. On the wall above the table was a duck print of some
kind, and in MFO’s and my lexicon it got to be known as the “duck table”, to be
avoided at all costs. Henceforth
whenever we encounter such a table it is referred to as the “duck table”.
back to the meal...
Well, we were conducted back through the
tavern side (which looks rather nice) and into the dining room and shown to
what was their duck table. It was stuffed
against a wall between the entrance to the dining room and the door to the ladies room, as
well as where the staff emerged with the meals and such. We did sit down, but after MFO narrowly
avoided a plate of turkey in the ear, I went back and asked to be reseated and
fortunately we were shown a much nicer table next to a window. We then settled in and gazed around us. The dining room is rather cavernous
And tables were kind of scattered around. The décor sort of lived up to their “the
oldest Inn in America” claim. It seemed
to us to have gone past quaint or cute into well, shabby. Things were tired, and looked like a good
cleaning and general freshening would be in order. Before
proceeding, let me state unequivocally that this was Thanksgiving Day, at six o’clock
of probably what was a long day for staff, so maybe some allowances might be
made. That being said, throughout the
meal, our server punched (almost) every hot button I have. “Hi, I’m <….>, and I’ll be (sic) helping you tonight” (do I look like I need
help?); “are you still working on that?”;
“I’ll be right back with that bread”
(ten minutes later, no bread nor bread plates); “are we ready to order?” (Three minutes after
first approach with menus and several more times); “how is
everything?” (were you worried?); and so on.
First attempt at DMOTRWAT was a failure, although she did seem to know
that dry vermouth was called for, drink replaced with an apology from
bartender. And during the meal,
arriving guests (apparently as confused as we were) continued to parade through the
dining room. While consuming our
cocktails I perused the wine list, and found a nice bottle of ’09 Premier Cru
Rully “Les Cloux” at not too dear a price.
Okay, it’s a celebration, we’ll have a bottle of number 21 (a practice I
am not really fond of, but probably works for staff).
And before resuming the meal, I’ll have to admit I let
myself down here. Unexcusable. But in full disclosure, the young lady
appeared with a bottle of wine with Rully prominently displayed on the label. Quick glace (my downfall)…okay, thanks. So it
was opened and poured, after tasting, I said that’s fine, but I really wasn’t
bowled over by it. After she left, I observed
the bottle was in reality a ’10 J. M. Boillot Chatalienne Rully. It was NOT a Premier Cru, although Boillot
does have a good reputation, it was not what was ordered. At this point we were into what the hell, it
isn’t bad, don’t make a fuss.
A(side) Number Two:
So the question is, whose job is it to assure the wine that
was ordered is brought to the table? As
a consumer I expect that if the wine is on the wine list, Number 21’s
description is what the hell should be brought to the table. In this case, I would hope that server would have returned
and said: “I’m sorry sir, the wine list has apparently not been updated, and
that particular selection is no longer available, but we do have…. Should I bring
that to taste or would you like to look at the wine list again?”. THAT would be “helping us”. It seems
to me that I should NOT have to study the wine (after the wine list has been removed
from the table) to determine if I got what I ordered. And should I be expected to pay the same
amount for a different bottle? I was.
Back to the meal
Our
starters appeared, with my oysters
They were pretty nice, although maybe the green stalk could
have been removed and the remoulade was a lot like tartar sauce. The bread and bread plates had made their way
to the table by this time, so we were mellowing. The main deal arrived soon
after we finished the first course, and indeed was a testament to the bounty of
Thanksgiving..
There’s the turkey (with ham peeking out underneath), the hand formed roasted
potato, the sage onion and celery dressing, the glazed seasons vegetables,
cranberry orange and ginger dressing, and hey, let’s throw in a bacon wrapped
sausage end for good measure. I don’t
remember what the roasted potato is resting upon, I think maybe it was my
"favorite" mashed sweet potato. In
actuality everything was fairly tasty, and anyway indulgence is the order of the day
for thanksgiving.. A few “how is
everythings?” later we surrendered our plates and dessert soon followed. It was perhaps the best course of the
evening. I am a sucker for pecan (or is
it “pee-caan” pie?) and this was pretty good as was the bourbon ice cream
and the crumble was enjoyed by MFO
Each meal was fixed at fifty eight dollars. Pretty steep methinks for what I got. Again, let me say that our experience was on a
special day under special circumstances.
One would hope they would carry it off, but it was not outstanding. That darn service thing, and expecting us to
accept the duck table. Oh, another couple
who was staying at the Bartlett Pear was offered the same table and had the
sense to also decline it. We chuckled
with them about that later. It was an interesting
Thanksgiving to be sure. Regardless, we didn’t have
to cook or wash dishes!!
So, anyway, next time I might return to Bobbie Morris Inn (it is in a lovely setting),
but I certainly would try to sit in the tavern section and perhaps enjoy food
at that level, although I would look for other options for a special meal in the
dining room. Oh, and yes we were
certainly
DFD
The next day (Friday) was the out and out best day of the
whole trip…
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