Scott M.
Yelp
If you're looking for a nice place to spend a long weekend in this part of the state, The Inn is certainly a strong choice. A little off the beaten path, it is not hard to find, seated along a hill just outside of downtown Millersburg.
We arrived an hour or so early for our Check-In along with a few other guests. The front desk staff was friendly and efficient and got all parties in-and-out within a few minutes.
Our room was located in "the honeycomb" - a two-story building nestled into the hill that reminded us a little bit of Hobbiton. It was a relatively spacious room with a seating area, fire place, and a stone porch looking out into the valley below. The room was clean and cozy.
Our Club-Level room came with the perk of complimentary drinks and small plates between 3 and 5, so after settling in, we made our way over to Juniper Lounge, directly adjacent to the Inn's restaurant, Tarragon. It took quite a bit of time to corral a host and get seated. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a recurring theme with the lounge and restaurant. Once seated, our server fulfilled our request for Fried Fontina and a couple glasses of wine. Well, you can't really mess up fried cheese, but to say this was good would be an understatement - it was FANTASTIC. A bit of a downside, though, we would come to find out that the complimentary service was only good for one small plate and one drink each. It's not an unfair policy, but it was not well explained when I booked the room or when we arrived for the service. Similarly, we did not know that our room would not be cleaned during our stay. For a short stay it was fine, but the policy should have been clearer.
We returned for dinner later that night. Reservations were recommended and made. We were a little early and were told we'd have to wait a moment while they prepped our table. They temporarily seated us in the lounge with a couple menus and...promptly forgot about us. The menus proved to be a bit useless because nobody was working the lounge area. Adding insult to injury, another couple showed up after us with a later reservation and they were seated immediately (probably in our seats, I'm guessing). I'm assuming some of our waiting is the result of a lack of staffing, but this was never explained and the place wasn't terribly busy either. It was by no means tragic, but they just seemed to lack some presence and some organization.
Thankfully, our meals were well worth the wait. Tarragon offers a bread service, with warm quarters and an Heirloom Tomato sauce. Pure excellence! For my meal, I enjoyed the Gazpacho as my main course. My date ordered the Miso Mushroom Soup and only vegetarian main course, the Fire Roasted Pepper with couscous.
The mushroom balanced well with the miso, and even though I'm not a big fan of miso soup, I enjoyed it. The Gazpacho was easily the best I ever had. It was full of flavor and had a little bit of kick to really finish strong. I understand many people do not care for cold soup, but even my date thought it was superb. The Fire Roasted Pepper was also excellent. It disappeared in a hurry. Since we were celebrating, we decided to splurge with a couple desserts. I enjoyed the Fried Apple Pie, which reminded me a bit of Chi-Chis Fried Ice Cream, but felt that a scoop of ice cream would have been a stronger pairing than the whipped topping. My date also enjoyed the Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake, which seemed to be a staff favorite. To summarize, dinner was outstanding and totally made up for the early service snafus.
After a night's rest in one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in, we enjoyed breakfast at Tarragon in the morning. They have a wonderful selection of unique teas that we both tried. My date thoroughly enjoyed the Broccoli and Four Cheese Quiche, while I happily had The Usual, their take on the prototypical eggs, meat, potatoes, and toast. Again, the food was on point.
Following breakfast, we had decided to spend a couple hours exploring the trails around the Inn. They are not tremendously long, the longest stretch being a mile and a half, but they were enjoyable, even in the rain. We did the open air art museum trail backwards, because we didn't quite understand the trailhead markings on the map, even with Inn resident, Hank the gray-haired tabby, who tailed us for the entirety of the circuit. The trail had some interesting pieces and some less so, but it was worth hike. The Creek Trail and a portion of the Garden Trail were inaccessible due to the profusion of rain flooding the creek. The Garden was also closed for the winter, which was understandable. We took a peek anyway, and it appeared to be fairly young with the orchards being about chest-high.
There was not much open in Millersburg that day, so we made it back to Tarragon in the evening and after a bit of a "now you need a reservation even though it's still quiet" kerfuffle we enjoyed another excellent meal.