Restaurants Where Romance Is on the Menu

Whether on a honeymoon or simply a retreat, travel can inspire romance. Find a small hotel with gardens for quiet walks or secluded parlors for long talks, combine it with memorable dining and you have a sure recipe . . . at least we think so.

What follows are a few of our favorite places.

Candlelight bathed the dining room in a golden glow that gilded the white linens and fresh flowers on each table. Our table was in a corner, next to tall windows looking out onto a lily pond. Black walnut, elm and ginkgo trees at the edge of the woods beyond were illumined to create the vision of an enchanted forest. It was a setting made for romance.

Langdon Hall, a country house hotel about an hour’s drive east of Toronto, is one of many small hotels and inns that combine a striking setting with good food to create a romantic getaway. And you don’t have to travel all the way to Paris or Tahiti to find your special hideaway. Some of the best places are here in North America.

Set on 40 acres of rolling lawn, Langdon Hall is a 41-room hotel created from a 19th-Century mansion of red bricks and white pillars. It’s comfortable and secluded, and one of the main attractions is the food. British chef Nigel Didcock, who worked with Michel Bourdin at London’s Connaught Hotel and at the famous Troigros Hotel in Roanne, France, uses ingredients from local farms and his own herb garden.

Our dinner began with baby squash filled with porcini mushrooms, fresh spinach and smoked British Columbia salmon in a light champagne sauce. The main course was red snapper, grilled and served with fresh coconut and a sauce of lemon grass, coriander and red wine vinegar. The combination of sweet and sour flavors was arresting, and after the initial surprise, we enjoyed every bite. A zucchini flower filled with goat cheese was a creamy and delicious accompaniment.

To complete the meal, we had a wildly rich, bittersweet chocolate mousse cake served with fresh mango, as well as another dessert of delicate puff pastry encasing caramelized pineapple. It was still warm from the oven.

Throughout the meal, the service was so good, it was almost invisible. Afterward, we were served coffee in demitasse cups as we sat in the lounge in front of a fireplace. The meal came to about $45 per person, without wine.

New England is famous for its romantic bed and breakfast inns, and one of our favorites is the Jared Coffin House, on Nantucket Island, Mass. Built in 1845 by a wealthy ship owner named Jared Coffin, the red brick house is on a tree-lined street and has nine guest rooms furnished in 19th-Century antiques. Impossibly crowded during the summer, Nantucket is perfect for quiet walks in spring and fall.

Innkeepers Philip and Margaret Read have faithfully restored the inn and captured the feel of Nantucket in its whaling heyday. The restaurant, Jared’s, has peach-colored walls, white lace curtains and some of the best food on the island.

We began with freshly baked blueberry-lemon bread. A lobster bisque was lightly scented with curry spices and topped by a light pastry. Golden tomato soup was overpowered by garlic, but fresh Nantucket bluefish, a local specialty, in a sauce Nicoise of tomatoes, onions and olives was excellent. Vegetable accompaniments were locally grown and fresh.

For dessert, there was a tart of fresh raspberries. Main courses are $16 to $20, appetizers $3-$8. A $27-$29 fixed-price dinner includes appetizer, main course, salad, dessert and coffee.

The sun was just beginning to set over Little Traverse Bay as we walked into the Garden Room at Stafford’s Bay View Inn in Bay View, Mich. Built in 1886, the 30-room hotel has been restored by owners Stafford and Janice Smith, who have used handmade quilts, brass beds and antique wicker to create the feel of a Victorian summer hotel.

We sat at a table by a window in the cozy dining room and watched the sun go down behind a grove of birch trees as the sky turned bright purple and magenta.

For dinner, we began with a spicy pumpkin bread served warm with a creamy vegetable soup. After the soup, we opted for greens with walnuts, mushrooms and dried Michigan cherries, a local specialty. Lake Superior whitefish was sauteed with almonds and butter.

You could almost taste the cold, crisp water of the lake. Dessert was old-fashioned strawberry shortcake with light biscuits, real whipped cream and naturally sweet strawberries. Main courses are $16-$20, appetizers $5-$7, desserts $3-$3.50.

The Boulders in Carefree, Ariz., just north of Phoenix, captures the romance of the Southwest better than any place we know. The 136 casitas, or small villas, resemble Indian pueblos, and all the buildings seem sculpted from the giant red granite formations that carve strange shapes against the cobalt blue sky. Desert walks wind past giant saguaro cacti, palo verde trees and desert lavender.

In the Latilla dining room, the trunk of a giant Ponderosa pine stands in the center, and beyond the window, a waterfall cascades down the red rocks and through a small desert garden. At breakfast one morning, we were startled to see a road runner streak past the window.

Chef Chuck Wiley uses influences of the Southwest in such dishes as corn bread with green chilies and open-face omelets with chorizo and salsa.

At dinner we began with a soup of white beans and roasted tomatoes, aromatic with garlic. Herb-crusted pheasant, perfectly roasted and still moist, was served with mashed potatoes mixed with bits of fresh apple. Blue corn polenta accompanied a perfectly cooked steak, charred to near black on the outside but nicely pink inside.

For dessert, we split a rice pudding tart topped with a apricot caramel sauce. The meal was about $45 per person, without wine.

Right here in California are several small, romantic hotels and inns. Madrona Manor, in Healdsburg, in the Sonoma Valley north of San Francisco, is a 22-room inn built in 1888 as a summer home for San Francisco businessman John Paxton.

It is a particular favorite of ours because it is in a rural part of the valley, away from the towns along the highway. Owners John and Carol Muir have brought back a sense of elegance to this Victorian mansion set on a knoll. Rooms are large, with high ceilings, fireplaces and large antique beds. Many have views out over the gardens.

The Sonoma Valley is filled with fresh produce: apples, blueberries and persimmons, as well as premium grapes for wine making, grown in abundance. The Muirs’ son, Todd, the inn’s executive chef, uses almost nothing that isn’t locally produced. The restaurant is popular and guests usually make dinner reservations when booking rooms.

We began dinner with cold tomato soup, accented with roasted peppers. Pine nuts and chopped fresh basil were sprinkled on top.

We also tried a very nice Petaluma duck pate with pistachios and peach chutney and excellent poached local Bodega Bay salmon in an herb mustard sauce. The wine list includes a good selection of local vintages. Meals are about $45 per person, without wine, and a five-course fixed-price meal is $50.

GUIDEBOOK

Romantic Retreats

Recommended:

Langdon Hall, R.R. 33, Cambridge, Ontario N3H 4R8, Canada, telephone (800) 677-3524. Rates: $135-$180, suites from $245.

Jared Coffin House, 29 Broad Street, Nantucket, Mass. 02554, (508) 228-2400; $100-$175.

Stamford’s Bay View Inn, U.S. 31 North, Petoskey, Mich. 49770, (616) 347-2771; $88-$160, breakfast included.

The Boulders, P.O. Box 2090, Carefree, Ariz. 85377, (800) 553-1717; $285-$495 for two, including breakfast and dinner. Closed July and August.

Madrona Manor, 1001 Westside Road, P.O. Box 818, Healdsburg, Calif. 95448, (707) 433-4231; $125-$200.