"If the only part of Connecticut you have seen is adjacent to I-95, it’s time to go deeper. Take the off-ramp and find a New England of stone walls, spectacular old barns, and winding lanes, a vibe that reaches its crescendo in Litchfield County. The local landscape is the Yankee ideal—you almost expect to see a sharply dressed young Katharine Hepburn walking briskly with a leatherbound book under her arm. (Because the area’s only 2.5 hours from Manhattan, you may actually see some celebrities here, and maybe some ghosts, but no guarantees of celebrity Yankee ghosts.) Against that backdrop, the Mayflower Inn & Spa grandly rests, a boarding school that was bought and converted to an inn in 1920 by a former student. In 2018, luxury hotel group Auberge Resorts took the reins and brought in interior designer Celerie Kemble to reinforce the “new” in Mayflower’s New England vibe. Four-poster beds, gleaming wood floors, and chintz remain, but you’ll note an energy and wit to the handmade furniture, artwork, and color combinations. Auberge also imported the Well, a bespoke New York spa that combines Eastern and Western sensibilities. The other recent import? April Bloomfield, the renowned British chef who rose to fame through the kitchens of London’s River Café and New York’s the Spotted Pig, John Dory Oyster Bar, and the Breslin. Chef Bloomfield arrived at the Mayflower Inn during the pandemic to take part in a new residency for notable chefs. She quickly forged relationships with local farmers and purveyors (the prosperous northwest Connecticut region traffics in all manner of good taste) and began to shape menus that served the appetites of the ascetic-minded spagoers as well as the guests there to indulge in the inn’s two restaurants, the casual Tap Room and the fine dining venue, the Garden Room. Fans of Bloomfield’s time at the Breslin and the Spotted Pig will be pleased to see the deviled eggs have made the trip to the Tap Room menu, alongside country pâté served with a seasonal chutney. Depending on the time of year, the more veg-focused Garden Room may offer a pickled celery encased in a tempura crust for starters with a main course of a duck breast in smoked broth, alongside a wine-poached pear. Chef Bloomfield also oversaw an expansion of the property’s kitchen garden, which inspired another collaboration—this one with luxury champagne house Veuve Clicquot. Throughout 2022, Bloomfield’s Garden Gastronomy series will showcase at-peak ingredients from the kitchen garden by pairing them with Veuve’s most recent vintage, La Grande Dame 2012." - Ann Shields
