Offbeat Eats

In early February, we gathered with a bunch of our friends for Nor’Easter Island, which is a wintertime event put on by the Greater Boston Vintage Society where we gather at the Sturbridge Host hotel in Sturbridge, MA for several days of vintage vending, swing dancing, and tropical drinks (all communities with more than a little overlap). However, in the middle of the winter, the Sturbridge Host is more than a bit of a ghost town, with no on-site dining, so when it came time for dinner, a bunch of us all decided to meet up at an old standby dining spot in Sturbridge’s downtown: The Duck.

One of the things we’ve committed to here at Offbeat Eats is to take several of those places we’re always driving by, saying to ourselves “I should check out that place sometime”, and actually stopping to check it out. In this case, we regularly drive through Hopkinton, NH when taking the “back way” to Bedford, Manchester, or a lot of Northeast Massachusetts; it’s a nicer drive than the interstate, it’s more fuel efficient, it passes right by Flight Coffee in Bedford, and it saves the toll. The back way takes us right through downtown Hopkinton, NH, and just east of downtown, on the shore of Kimball Pond, is the Lakehouse Tavern. We finally decided to stop in for dinner after a day of errands in Manchester.

(Closed) One of the rules I generally observe when selecting places to review here at Offbeat Eats is that I tend to avoid doing writeups on special holiday dinners and events, since those events aren’t necessarily representative of the restaurant in general. While I do make the occasional exception, such as my occasional visits to the Cabane à Sucre, all too often special events (particularly “dining out” holidays like Valentine’s Day or Easter) end up being a below-average experience: the restaurant usually has a higher number of tables, a busied staff, and a menu of unusual specials. But the occasional place will shine under these circumstances, like our trip to Black Krim Tavern in Randolph, Vermont, for an Easter brunch (yes, those looking at a calendar will realize that despite my best efforts, I’m again 4 months behind in reviews…)