GETAWAYS • Vermont
In my trips to Vermont, too often, I’ve had to sacrifice an obsession with eating excellent food in favor of any desire to vacation in a Fragonard landscape. At The Weston, no such sacrifice is required.
At the end of our five-hour drive from the city, my husband and I were greeted in the Weston parking lot with iced tea in cut-crystal glassware, garnished with herbs from the garden a few feet away. From the outside, The Weston looks like any other quaint New England bed and breakfast. Then we were shown to Suite 8 — nearly a thousand square feet of museum-quality paintings and furniture complete with two working fireplaces and Green Mountain vistas outside every window.
Our room felt like it belonged in a Gilded Age townhouse, but we were five minutes away from endless hiking, swimming, and boating. The blend of country convenience and decadent environs makes sense when you consider that The Weston is run by the family behind places like The Carlyle and the Beverly Wilshire. Every detail is fully realized, from the bathroom layout (double sinks, double showers, massive soaking tub with a view) to the chocolate espresso macarons in the parlor that rival ones you’d wait in line for at Ladureé.
But as I said, this sort of setting usually comes at the cost of an on-site restaurant featuring anything better than a menu straight out of a 1990s CIA textbook. But our first dinner at The Left Bank was so good, we returned for every single meal of our stay. It is the single best hotel restaurant I’ve dined in. That’s in large part because chef Bretton Combs works directly with staff farmer Antoinette Kessler to create a constantly changing menu based on whatever’s coming out of the on-property 50-acre, four-season farm.
Farm-to-table isn’t a played-out trope here, it’s the backbone of what makes this a destination-worthy hotel and not just a really nice place to stay. Every guest is invited to tour the farm with Brett and Antoinette to help decide what’s for dinner. So we spent our mornings among the radishes and tomatoes and our afternoons hiking and swimming before lounging in our suite with a pile of books. Each night we headed down to the restaurant’s patio where we ate vegetables we’d selected paired with La Garagista’s funky Field Study ferments and premier grand cru Chardonnay from Chassagne-Montrachet.
This fall, they’re adding a 2,300-square-foot bakery to their culinary arsenal. And, for those gearing up to Ski The East, note that Okemo is a 15-minute drive away, and Stratton a little more than twice that. –Carina Koeppicus
→ The Weston (Weston, VT) • 630 Main St • Fall rates from $686/night.