Music, restaurants and more around Connecticut

By Frank Whitman

It didn’t start out to be a tour of some of Connecticut’s best music, art and natural attractions, but our two-night, three-day jaunt ended up that way. Of course, there was the added benefit of some good food along the way.  Friends, Ron and Mary, had encouraged us to drive to Old Lyme to hear their favorite jazz piano player, and the rest just fell into place.

The first stop was to drop off Mr. Pinky at his second home in Fairfield – dogs were not welcome where we were headed. The timing worked out for lunch in New Haven. Clair’s Corner Copia, a New Haven tradition, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a landmark vegetarian restaurant. On the corner of Chapel and College, catty corner from the Green, the restaurant has fed generations of Yalies.  A very satisfying three-cheese quiche was perfect on the rare (for this season) rainy day.  

One block up Chapel we found the Yale Center for British Art, the four-story Louis Kahn building that is home to Paul Mellon’s passion for British painting. The entire top floor was dedicated to In a New Light: Five Centuries of British Art, a massive collection of important works.  We made it halfway through – there’s only so much that our brains can handle.  The pictures are stunning and the stories they tell are fascinating. 

The charming Griswold Inn, in business since 1776, was our next stop. Historic Essex with its centuries-old buildings is the antithesis of bustling, architecturally urban New Haven.  After checking in, we strolled down to the banks of the Connecticut River, passing well-preserved colonial-era homes, to the docks of the Connecticut River Museum with views of the sloops resting at their moorings in the Essex anchorage. 

A quick hop on I-95 over the Baldwin Bridge led to Old Lyme where we were meeting Ron and Mary for dinner at the Old Lyme Inn and Jazz at the Inn’s Side Door Jazz Club. The Inn, with thirteen guest rooms, dates from 1865 and was originally the center of a 300 acre farm. Now beautifully restored, it also has a charming restaurant where I enjoyed a moist and tender roast pork tenderloin with mustard sauce ($34), while Marsha raved about her Asian-accented pan-seared halibut ($38).

After dinner we walked through the Inn to the Side Door Club for an incredible evening of piano playing by the Bill Charlap Trio ($40 per person).  Charlap, a second generation New York jazz musician, played and improvised through standards – both familiar and obscure – with flair and originality. The tunes were interspersed with his comments on the composers and anecdotes about how the pieces were composed. Accompanied by David Wong on bass and Dennis Mackrell on drums, the music-making was incredible by any standard. 

The next day, we walked more of Essex for a quick breakfast at Olive Oyl’s Carry Out Cuisine. There we picked up a sandwich to take on our Connecticut River Cruise. The 64 foot RiverQuest departed from the Museum dock for a two-hour wildlife and ecology cruise ($40 each) upriver to the Gillette Castle and back. Even on a sunny day, sweatshirts were needed for the upwind portion where bald eagles, osprey, and other marine birds were plentiful and the history of the river fascinating. Did you know that ships sailed from Deep River to Africa and returned with cargos of Ivory that were manufactured into piano keys and combs in (you guessed it) Ivoryton?

Early that evening, joined by Marsha’s sister Jana and her husband Whitney, our destination was the historic Gelston House Inn in East Haddam for dinner before the show at the legendary Goodspeed Opera House. 

The Gelston House, next door to the theater, specializes in feeding a pre-theater crowd with prompt, professional service and excellent food.  Everyone finishes up well before the curtain. A shared beets and cranberry salad ($13) led into parmesan-crusted Gelston chicken ($28) for Marsha and lobster ravioli ($35) with saffron sauce and a garnish of mussels for me.  Our companions enjoyed schnitzel ($29) from the seasonal Oktober Fest menu and halibut with lobster sauce and risotto ($43). I bumped into the chef on the way out and congratulated him on serving roughly 250 delicious meals in such a timely way. I can tell you, it’s not easy, especially night after night. 

A Chorus Line, celebrating its 50th anniversary, was the show at Goodspeed.  A masterful display of singing, dancing and acting talent by  exceptional young performers. The theater, built in 1876 and restored in 1963 is a charming 400 seat slice of history.  Its modest size allows performance of the highest caliber – without microphones, but with a live orchestra.  Many shows, including Annie, have gone on to Broadway from their debut at the Goodspeed.

In the morning, the four us recapped the show over the modest continental breakfast at the Gris and then went our separate ways. 

For a small state, Connecticut has a rich cultural basket of art, music, and theater along with natural beauty and history, all close by and easy to get to.   The definition of a jaunt is, “a short excursion or journey for pleasure.”  That’s exactly what we enjoyed.  

The Bill Charlap Trio