If you're looking for such a combo, along with nice ambience, a good place to find them is at Zins in the Hanover Inn at the corner of Main and Wheelock. Zins has become a very popular, but still peaceful, wine bar and restaurant, with delicious and creative entrees and tapas selections, along with 30 different wines by the glass. Grilled Atlantic salmon, cod and lamb specials, lobster raviolis, and venison burgers are but a few of the tempting choices. Also in the Hanover Inn is the AAA four-diamond Daniel Webster Room. The 12-mile drive back to my lodging at Loch Lyme was a pleasure, winding along green forests and frosty fields sparkling in the starlight.
Prices go up, and rooms book early in fall, especially for football weekends.
It may have been the last room around, I later learned. Many people wind up opting for a school floor, a jail, a parking lot or a 50-mile drive. Fall and winter, four upstairs bedrooms with shared baths are open for guests. Twenty-four cottages, scattered about the woods and lakeside, are also available in summer, when swimming, boating, fishing, and picnics are added to the amenities. The inn was a real find.