This is a stretch, but.... One of my favorite historic dining places is not by any means local to DC. I'll post this info anyway, just in case someone following this thread occasionally, or perhaps even on purpose, travels through central New Jersey. In western central New Jersey, south of Flemington on US Route 202, and near the town of Ringoes, is a restaurant named Muirhead. It is located directly on Route 202 in a house which was a coach stop on the original New York to Philadelphia stagecoach route in Revolutionary War times. The house is now lived in and operated as a very small and specialized restaurant by Doris and Ed Simpson. It has been in operation for at least 15 years that I know of. Muirhead is normally open on Friday, Saturday, and major holiday evenings for dinner only. Reservations are required, and entrees must be selected at the time reservations are made, from a list of (usually) four offerings fororfor each evening. The dinner price is fixed, and varies somewhat with the season and for holidays; the last time I was there, it was $35 per person for a normal weekend. Dinners are typically five courses minimum. Everything served and used in food preparation is either home-grown or purchased fresh from local providers. The food quality has been uniformly outstanding over the years. I am not a beef lover, but Muirhead's individually-crusted Beef Wellington with homemade black currant sauce is a dish I'd fight over... In addition, Ed Simpson will work with you to design a meal. For a minimum of six diners desiring a particular entree, he will prepare anything you desire for which the ingredients are available. If you have a party of 15 or more, Muirhead will usually welcome you on evenings other than Friday or Saturday. One of the curses and blessings of New Jersey politics and dining is that the state allows only a limited number of liquor sales licenses, and these are extremely expensive and hard to get. The result is that there are many fine restaurants which do not serve liquor, so you bring your own - wines as well as hard liquor. Typically a small corkage fee may be charged. Muirhead is such a restaurant; you bring your own wines, cognacs, single malts, etc. You may not care for such an arrangement, but I've saved a lot of money over the decades, and enjoyed much better wine than I could otherwise have afforded (not to mention avoiding bar prices for XO cognacs 8'). This practice also lends a degree of involvement with the meal that you don't have otherwise when dining out. It makes it feel as though you are the host for the evening. Should anyone wander up that way, please let me know about your experiences. -- Larry (no interest in Muirhead, other than having taken groups there on New Year's Eve for about ten consecutive years, etc. 8')
New Jersey