New York may be the hub of American style, but it’s not the only cultural hotspot in the area.  Head northeast along the coast, and in an hour or so you’ll find yourself in Connecticut.  Famed for its sophisticated, yet suburban residents, the small state has many personalities.  Even in the small, coastal towns that line the eastern seaboard, communities are a mix of rural sophistication.

Old Lyme is one of these places.  Its breathtaking landscapes lured artists of the American Impressionist movement in the late 1800s.  Artists studied at home and abroad, focusing on light, and landscapes.  But, different than their French predecessors, American Impressionists’ work was more structured and realistic, often painting outdoors to capture subjects and atmosphere.   They flocked to rural areas close to urban centres, to enjoy the best of both worlds – inspiration for their art, yet access to patrons, and salons.  Old Lyme, on the Lieutenant River, halfway between New York and Boston, provided the perfect backdrop.

Florence Griswold was the daughter of a once prosperous sea captain.  At the age of 50, Florence was single, and had survived her entire family.  She inherited the house, the grounds, and the debts. Florence turned the family home into a boarding house to pay the bills, and soon attracted the forefathers of the American Impressionist movement.   The house became a destination for creative painters who could toil away their hours in front of the river.  They paid a modest sum, and also earned their keep painting panels all over the house – on doors and above fireplaces.  They painted 38 panels in the dining room, alone.

The house is preserved, and filled with nearly 200 pictures given to the museum by the Hartford Steam Boiler and Inspection Company.   But there’s a catch – the museum can never loan or sell any of them.  So, if you make the trip, rest assured, these are something special.  The collection represents the important contribution of American art during the 19th-20^th centuries.

This is a museum with just as much to offer outside, as in.  The grounds are luscious.  A modern gallery houses rotating exhibits, and guests are encouraged to lounge by the riverside on Adirondack chairs.  If you visit on a Sunday, you’ll be given canvas and paints.  Sculptures fill part of the garden, along with a vegetable patch which supplies the Flo Cafe, housed in a lovely barn, with local produce.  The crab cakes and fresh salads were hard to pass up.  You can also picnic, there’s plenty of room on the lawn.

About 15 minutes’ drive from Old Lyme, is New London, where the Lyman Allyn Art Museum makes a good pairing.  The Neo-Classical building houses a permanent collection of more than 10,000 pictures, sculptures, furniture and decorative arts.  Most of the works are American art from the 18^th-20^th centuries.  When I visited, a temporary exhibit called, “Face-Off” filled the upstairs with the work of legendary modern photographers like Annie Liebovitz and William Wegman, save for a small corner devoted to maritime art.

These two stops on the Connecticut Art Trail are a great break from shell-collecting, or for riding out a storm.

www.flogris.org

www.lymanallyn.org

Amy Hughes

Seafood restaurants line Connecticut’s eastern shoreline, but many are either very limited, with choices of fried or broiled, or are so gourmet, one wonders how the seafood can possibly be tasted after it’s been glazed with an emulsion of at least five different ingredients.  A middle ground was all I wanted.  A place where I could get great local fish, with an option other than butter.  And I found it.

Liv’s Oyster Bar in Old Saybrook strikes the perfect balance of great, locally-sourced food, with gourmet influences kept simple.  The town is interesting in its own right, having been the home of actress Katharine Hepburn for most her life.  The Kate, a local arts centre and theatre, just down the road, is named after the town’s most famous resident.

But Liv’s is more than a neighbourhood place.  Owner and chef John Brescio trained at the French Culinary Institute and earned his kitchen whites at New York’s Tavern on the Green, and Judson Grill, before heading to Connecticut to open his own restaurant.

The atmosphere is casual and relaxed, with locals propped up at the oyster bar, where the choice is clams and five different kinds of oysters, all from neighbouring seaside spots.   Little flags with the provenance of each oyster make it fun to do a tasting test.

There’s a fantastic cocktail menu, and it took considerable willpower for my sweet tooth to pass up the Oatmeal Cookie Martini.   But, I’d rather chew my calories than drink them.

We started with the lump crab salad which melted in my mouth. The crab was sweet, moist and tender – everything it should be.   My companions went for tradition, taking the New England clam chowder, which passed muster with a local, and a deconstructed caesar salad.

The appetizers were impressive, but the mains really wowed.   Scallops carbonara tasted sinfully rich, creamy and buttery.  The scallops were bigger than quarters, and cooked perfectly.  The asparagus and shitakes added an illusion that this was a “healthy” dish; an illusion we were quite happy to buy into.  The lobster risotto came with sweet lobster tails on top, which had everyone reaching for a taste, and left no one disappointed.  But for me, the real star of the meal was the seared yellow fin with a fennel and pepper crust, to my mind, one of the best flavour combinations, and one I wish would appear on more menus.

It’s easy to get tuna wrong.  Over-cook by just 30 seconds, and it’s gone.  This was divine.  I barely remember the broccolini it sat on, which was lovely, but nothing compared to incredible flavour of the tuna and fennel.

It would have been foolish to resist dessert in a restaurant with its own pastry chef, which is not the norm outside big cities in the States, or anywhere, I’d imagine.  So we shared two blissful plates.  One was a scrumptious almond-coconut cake with milk chocolate frosting.  The dense, aromatic, nutty flavours stood out, and were well complemented by the soft, milky chocolate on top.  The other, fried peach cobbler was a trio of miniature pies, made with local peaches, and deep fried into little round orbs of sweetness.  They were tasty, but the real feature was the home-made sweet corn ice cream.  In fact, it’s what made us order it.  At first it seemed unusual, but when you think about it, corn is quite creamy, often served that way, and is a natural for ice cream.  Somebody call Ben and Jerry’s.

While we were devouring dish after dish, the service was superior.  Yes, we’re in America, where we’re bred to give “service with a smile.”  But trust me; it is possible to get bad service here, too.  The owner was off that night, but his manager ran the house effortlessly and seemed to make everyone feel well looked after.

Owner John Brescio’s New York experience shows.  The night we were there, Liv’s ran like a well-oiled machine.  It’s rare to find a restaurant that gets absolutely everything right, and can cater to both traditional and slightly more sophisticated palates, but Liv’s pulls it off.  I was expecting good food, but this place blew me away.

Liv’s is a great excuse for a coastal adventure in Connecticut.

www.livsoysterbar.com

166 Main St
Old Saybrook, CT
+1 860 395 5577