Hi there! Just a quick note to keep you up to date on a new endeavor we are getting involved with here at The Shoreham Inn. The Global Soap Project is an organization “working to save lives and improve global health by recycling used hotel soap and turning it into new bars that are distributed to vulnerable populations around the world.” How cool is that? So we have signed up and will be sending off all our used bars of Vermont Soapworks soap to this project.

For those of you who have never stayed here – we do try and keep things as green as possible and minimize waste for products like this. In our showers we use large dispensers for liquid soap, shampoo and conditioner. We also have liquid hand soaps on all the sinks. We do however provide a small bar of organic soap for all guests, in part because some people really prefer a bar of soap and also so we can highlight the great products made by Middlebury’s own Vermont Soapworks.

Now, admittedly, The Shoreham Inn’s use of bar soap is teeny tiny compared to big chain hotels, so we won’t be providing much, but it feel so much better than throwing away those mini bars of soap after one customer use. And every little moment counts, right?!

It’s coming! St. Patrick’s Day 2013 will be here sooner than we can imagine.

Most of you know that we throw a party on St Patrick’s Day every year. March 17 2004 we opened our doors for the very first time to see what would happen.

March 17 has become our annual thank-you-for-helping-us-survive-and-thrive party, thank-you-for-being-such-loyal-customers party and thank-you-for-being-a-great-town party. It’s always a lot of fun (and I am always glad it only happens once a year!) You buy your drinks and we provide the food and we all have a good time.

BUT……if anyone has done the math…..you will have figured out that this will be our TENTH party! Ten of them! 10!!!!  I know there are people in this town just as stunned as we are to have found ourselves here.

And so it will be, March 17 2013, the tenth THANK YOU party we’ve thrown and we still thank you this day and all others. You’re fabulous, each and every one of you.

And just for fun, wanna see what the pub looked like about one week before that first night? (Stressed? Us? No, that doesn’t look stressful, does it? No bar top, no bar stock, no cash register…..ahh, the good old days!)

Ever since Ermintrude the Cow took up residence here at The Shoreham Inn, Dominic and I have noticed how many people use her in their photos around the place. We’ve done the same ourselves, she was the central feature of our Christmas cards one year. So, we got to thinking. Firstly that we’d love to see some of those photos, secondly that we’d love to show them off to others and this led to thought number three….let’s make it a contest of some kind!

In all honesty, we have no thorough concept of this contest, and mostly what I’m thinking is that we’ll randomly choose winners once in a while and send them a prize. Little prizes, medium prizes, maybe a big prize or two. Does that sound like enough of a contest to get you involved? If you have an idea for a better way to structure this, please let me know. I hesitate to ask for ‘Most Creative’ pictures, as I worry about some of you…..yes, I mean you….you know what I mean….!

In the meantime, send us your photos! Probably the best way is to email them to me (info at shorehaminn dot com) and then I can put them up on our Facebook page, or maybe here on this blog. Larry will be so pleased to see new content on this Psst….page!

Hello and happy Labor Day! I hope you’ve had a good summer. We’ve had a great summer, a real summery summer. We have also had a spectacularly busy summer. Some of you may have been here and noticed this. I’m here to say, we’ve noticed it too and it’s actually becoming a problem and we want you to know we’ve noticed that too. Being busy is a good problem to have, much better than the problem of being not-busy, but a problem nonetheless.

So, I’m not sure exactly what we need to do, but I just wanted to say publically that we are trying to figure it out. We’ve had a couple of nights this summer that have not been a lot of fun; for you or for us. Too much, too fast and we’ve gotten overwhelmed. Many of you are generous and kind and say lovely things and forgive us, but that is much more than we can expect.

We want to deliver on our goal of providing good food and good service in a casual atmosphere and we hate the nights that end with us sat here, glass of wine in hand, recounting the moments that did not go as planned. Where we can list several things that went wrong.

So, that’s all, just wanted to say out loud that we are plotting and planning. It might mean some changes are in the air, things you may or may not notice. Well, hopefully the one thing you will notice is less of those nights where you can see the steam coming out of Molly’s head or watch waitresses moving so fast they could qualify for Olympic events or hear Dominic saying unprintable things.

Have a great weekend and welcome Fall!

Reviews, public reviews, they are a fact of life in the inn and restaurant business. We struggle about whether we should encourage them, does this seem pushy? Is it denying a fact of doing business of we don’t invite people to review us somewhere? (On one of the seemingly kagillion reviews sites there are….) It’s a dance with the devil either way as far as I’m concerned.

“From the moment you enter the door, Molly & her team do a great job anticipating your needs. Dining in the Gastro Pub on Chef Dominic’s creations is a treat for the senses – it’s little wonder why folks living or visiting in the area flock to the Shoreham for dining.”

“The hosts are very friendly and very accomodating. The wait staff at the pub were superb, friendly and very helpful. The room was spacious, clean and comfortable.”

“The dining area where we sat was small but not crowded. The food was outstanding. New York strip steak done exactly as asked — seems like that never happens anymore. Succulent pork tenderloin. I love the low key atmosphere. This place is not pretending to be anything other than what it is, a country inn with great food and good service.”

“The food I believe is overrated.  I do not have a single bad thing to say about it.  You will never ever get bad dish here.  However I feel that the fact that it is one of the only quality restaurants in the area it gets accolades beyong what it deserves.”

“We did decide to have dessert because they had a peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting. Again, it was ok but tasted like something I could have made at home.”

….screeech……gulp.

I don’t think I need to explain how reading things like these last two make you feel like you’ve taken a serious one-two punch to the gut. I mean, maybe you’ve had a slightly less than stellar performance review at your job, but I bet it wasn’t published on the world wide web. Feedback is very welcome, we try to take it all on and make sense of the things we need to change, and we have made many, many changes over the years. We have apologized about mishaps, we have bought meal and drinks for unhappy people, we smile, we listen. We truly hate getting things wrong, but we do get them wrong. There are a lot of us, sometimes a lot of you, and we just can’t be exactly right all the time for every person.

I am not making excuses here at all. I’m trying to embrace this wide new, wide open, world we live in. I’m just musing on the whole online review situation. It’s a lot of power we all have as consumers. Its a whole lot of vulnerability we have as business owners. I guess I am asking you to understand the dread with which I read the notification ‘a new customer review has been posted on XXXX site!’

Despite knowing we can’t be perfect, you just can’t take the oldest-sibling-overachieving-perfectionist out of this girl.

When you live in a place with seasons, one of the joys is marking the change from one to the next. Seasons are generally just long enough to get excited about, revel in and then get a little bored of, before the next one comes along. Some people have a favorite one, some wish certains seasons were longer, me, I love them all. (yes, I even love a cold, rainy day)

Anyway, since we are headlong into summer now, I thought I’d just recount the steps that lead us there, or the ones that occurred to me Friday when I picked strawberries at Douglas Orchards on their opening day of the season. Because once strawberries arrive, there is no turning back. Summer is most definitely here.

But first, there are peepers. This year’s peepers were a HUGE tease, I heard one on March 18, when we are certainly not out of the woods for a major snowstorm. (No late snow for us this year, instead it went to a crazy 80 degrees! the following week – that was a first!) Next there are forsythia, one of the earliest trees to bloom – and bloom ours did this year. Bright, bright, almost-couldn’t-look-at-it-in-sunshine bright yellow. Then, particular to Shoreham and maybe even only to Shoreham Main Street residents, one neighbor unwraps his porch furniture for a summer’s worth of late afternoon porch-sitting and another neighbor takes down the light-up Santa Claus (his deadline for himself is Memorial Day on that chore).

And then the smell of new mown grass, The Fort Ticonderoga Ferry opening, first hay being baled, manure being spread (no one’s favorite smell, but must be included in a list of summer heralds!) And finally the call, the sneaky-come-before-we-can-officially-open call from Douglas Orchards that says the strawberries have begun. And they are spectacular this year!

Here’s to a spectacular summer for us all!

Yes, you read that right. After three (I think?) years, we must say goodbye to our Irish music nights. I would like to say this was a well thought out plan. Or a need for a change of venue. Or major musical success for our community musicians. Or anything, really, that had an element of local control to it. But, alas that is not the case. Instead, you are going to get a little innkeeper rant.

I’m guessing that if you are here reading this, you know me, or my Inn or my town, or all of the above. (In reality I’m guessing that about three people read these posts, but that’s OK, it’s lovely that you are here!) Back to my topic – so you get Shoreham. How small we are. What a perfect Vermont community we are (warts and all) Maybe you have been here on a Sunday night to hear some Irish music. This motley (said with the utmost fondness) group of local people who love playing Irish music together. One person in town had the idea that The Shoreham Inn would be a great location for these informal gatherings; ‘sessions’ in Irish speak. Musicians getting together, of all sizes, shapes and aptitudes, to make traditional music together. Perfect. They were right, the Inn was a perfect setting for this. Dominic didn’t get to hear the music much, as he’s slaving away in the kitchen, but when he did it would always spark the memory of being a young boy, made to go to bed in the room above the bar in his aunt’s pub, while the music and singing went on below him. Very soothing, the sound of Irish music through floorboards. If you came to any of these nights, you might have seen the young boy and his father playing together, there might have been singing, maybe you were here on one of the nights a world-class fiddler came along just for fun. I’ll stop, you get the idea.

So, why would we put an end to this magic? We’ve been contacted by the first of potentially three major music licensing companies, demanding that we pay them yearly royalties for the right to have live music on the premises. Royalties that they distribute to the songwriters of the songs in their catalog. Doesn’t seem to matter if they know whether these musicians play their songs or not, we must pay regardless. And, as I am told, the other licensing companies will be on my doorstep in moments, also demanding payment. I get the principle, I really do, but you would not believe the heavy-handedness with which they have been in touch with us here at the Inn. And the money they demand. Which, just isn’t feasible for what really feels like a tiny piece of community-building that we supported here at the Inn. I have had many conversations with other business owners and the resounding opinion is, don’t fight it, they are big and ugly and unfair and they will win. Apparently they shut down a coffee house’s music night in Rochester VT late last year. I am trying not to be too bitter but it really makes me want to stamp my feet and throw things. (Seriously, does this strike anyone else as EXACTLY identical to schoolyard bullying?)

OK, rant over. The important message for today is that we have to say a fond farewell to Irish music nights. Thank you for being such fun and putting smiles on so many faces. We wish all our musicians happy, happy playing wherever they land next.

Of course, all of this leaves me unsure as to what I’m supposed to do if someone wants to sing Happy Birthday on my premises……

One of the events of last summer that you missed hearing about (through no fault of yours, completely me and my unplanned blog break last year!) was the extensive, detailed description of a friendly ghost, named Claire. I really, truly don’t know where I stand on the whole ghost issue. I’m a pretty practical person and so common sense rules a lot of what I think about the world. On the other hand, owning a 200+ year old building, it often crosses my mind just the shear number of people that have passed through here. Who am I to say a few of those souls haven’t lingered around? It is a lovely part of the world. The Inn was built as an inn and has been an inn most of its life. That is a LOT of people. Coming and going. Living lives, having experiences, all within these walls. Other owners (and I say ‘owners’ – if there was ever something to make you feel less like you own a place and more like you’re just taking care of it for a while, it’s owning a building this old. I know the bank would disagree, but even if we own the Inn for 25 years, which would be huge in our lives, it’s still so tiny in the life of this place), managers, staff, guests. One of the many projects I always thought I’d find time for in the ‘quiet’ season was researching more about the life and history of this building. If someone could find me the ‘quiet’ season, I’d still love to tackle that project.

Anyway, back to Claire. One morning last summer guests came down to breakfast after their first night here and one woman was quite excited to tell me about the ghost that had visited her room the previous night. She was calm, extremely thorough, detailed and pleased with the whole experience. She had spent quite a bit of time with a young woman named Claire. This guest physically felt Claire next to her, described what she looked like, told me about the conversations they had about her life. Claire even showed her photographs! Claire had lived here at the Inn and told her that she likes having guests in her house (that was a relief!).

So, like I said, I don’t know. You might be able to imagine the variety of thoughts that were gong through my head as I heard all of this. I certainly am not looking to become a mecca to ghost hunters but I also feel like I can’t just dismiss it. When we first got here, the hubby was sure there was someone moving pots and pans around in the kitchen for a while (I just put it down to forgetfulness. Practical, organized me.) There certainly is a LOT we don’t understand about the world and somehow the older I get, the more and more I find that to be the case.

I make no promises about meeting a ghost when you come here but I thought you might want to know, in case you run in to her, that her name is Claire and she’s happy to meet you.

Hi there, can’t stay long, lots to do. But, I wanted to make an exciting announcement! Starting tonight, and continuing every Monday night, The Shoreham Inn and Whistlepig Straight Rye Whiskey are partnering to bring you Shoreham Appreciation Night. All Whistlepig drinks will be half price.

Can’t ever say we don’t love you!

One of the very best parts about being a restaurant owner is wine tastings. I mean, it’s a rewarding business and customers are lovely and it provides a nice life and it’s a way to be integrally involved in the community and it’s creative to be involved in making food and you get to know all kinds of wonderful local food producers and purveyors. But, really, wine tastings are a lot of fun.

Here at The Shoreham Inn we are in the midst of making a few changes to our wine list. We ideally do this every year, usually in this quieter season, but it’s been a couple of years since we’ve done any major changes. So, we’ve spent quite a few Fridays with a wine rep and a lot of wines; sampling, discussing, choosing. And every time we do anything like this I think, how on earth are there people in the world who claim to be able to tell me what the ‘best’ wines are? Firstly, that would involve a LOT of wine tasting – you may not pay as much attention as I do, but there are wines; new wines, old wines, new regions growing grapes, that seem to appear at an alarming rate. How could anyone keep up? (hmmm, doesn’t sound like a bad job though, does it?) Secondly, isn’t taste very personal? I mean, what I really like might not appeal to you and vice versa. So, how can there be a best? Compared to what? One of the tougher parts of wine tastings (I know, ‘tough’ and ‘wine tasting’ don’t really belong in the same sentence) is trying to come up with a relatively small, manageable wine list that is still diverse enough to keep a majority of people happy. It means having to taste wines and think about things I don’t necessarily want or like in a wine. Anyway, for you, we struggle on!

Be on the look out for some new wine list items – we’re shifting a couple of old faithfuls, adding back a few Old World wines and trying to honor the growing Vermont wine industry too. Next up – we’re considering a shake up in the world of the Shoreham Inn menu too! I don’t know what’s going on, maybe this lack of snow has given these innkeepers a bit more time for plotting and planning this year – We’re excited about these upcoming changes, we hope you will be too!