United Airlines' Hemispheres, October 2001

Roving Gourmet

Foliage and Food

The beginning of Autumn in New England is a time to savor the last precious moments of summer against the countryside's mosaic of reds, yellows, oranges, and purples before the chill of winter enters the air and the trees grow barren. This is not news to most of us. Indeed, leaf peeping in the northeast has become cliché. There's 24-hour 1-800 hotlines in each state to keep you informed of nature's progress and then there's the traffic. It seems like the entire population of New York City and Boston is behind the wheels of a car on the congested roadways of the region.

On this five-day culinary tour of New England, we'll steer clear of the masses, avoiding popular routes like Route 7 in southern Vermont. Starting on the shores of the Atlantic in historic Portland, we'll head west across the state to the dramatic granite carved notches of New Hampshire's White Mountains. You'll pass the highest mountain in the northeast, 6288-foot Mount Washington, before having dinner that evening in the hamlet of Jackson, which has been welcoming guests since the 1850s. Rugged peaks give way to fertile farmland the following day as you border Vermont and cruise under the sugar maples along the Connecticut River. After dining on a deck atop a waterfall, we'll send you on your merry way south into the heart of fall foliage country, along the backbone of the rolling Green Mountains. You'll cross into western Massachusetts and the Berkshire Mountains before reaching Pittsfield. The final day heads back east on the scenic Mohawk Trail. High above Deerfield Valley, this twisting route has been a local favorite for touring since the road was built in the 20s. It leads to Boston, where you can end your trip or drive north to finish the loop in Portland.

Portland's four centuries of seagoing heritage endures, but now it's seasoned with big-city refugees who want to live by the ocean in a close-knit community of some 65,000. Like most American waterfronts, the Old Port district of the city has been gentrified, but the feel of yesteryear endures. Walk down the old cobblestones of Portland's narrow Wharf St at twilight and you'll feel like a tough fisherman might pop out of nowhere to shanghai you (Not to worry, Wharf Street is far too upscale these days for drunken sailors). When the rush of commercial development came close to washing out this working waterfront in one big 80s tsunami, the people of Portland unanimously decided to protect and rebuild the dilapidated fish pier. Today, the Portland Fish Exchange is a thriving fish auction and the Port of Portland handles the largest volume of fresh seafood in the northeast. Add the Portland Public Market, a 37,000-squre-foot large open food hall that features local produce, Maine cheeses, and regional wines, and you begin to realize why Portland has more high-quality restaurants than cities two to three times its size.

Sam Hayward, owner and chef at Fore Street, takes full advantage of his locale. He has made apple-wood grilling and roasting his forte, and whenever possible, he chooses local meats and fish The airy, exposed brick and pine panel room, a former munitions warehouse, features an open-air kitchen where all tables have center seats to the show. Chefs busily sauté food and finish plates on three long farm tables around a massive wood-burning brick oven. But the real spectacle is the food itself. Start with roasted Blue Hill bay mussels, piled high on an iron skillet with chunks of almonds and garlic, served in a broth that will leave you craving for more. Stick to the wood oven for entrees as well. There's the grilled juicy hangar steak or the tender Atlantic striped bass, moist on the inside, skin crackling on the outside. To complete this memorable meal, finish with the maple crème brulee.

Portland's West End, near the Western Promenade, is a quiet residential neighborhood with many grand Victorian houses, some of which have been converted to inns. Opt to stay here and the next morning, start your drive on Route 302 North through a web of waterways like large Sebago Lake. The road gets crowded as you enter New Hampshire and pass the outlet stores in North Conway. In Glen, turn north on Route 16 and a mile later, you'll go through a covered bridge into another era. The circular green of Jackson, ringed by inns, antique stores, and requisite white steeple, has been thriving as a resort town since the mid-nineteenth century. The allure is its proximity to Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range. Just six miles up Route 16 is Pinkham Notch, home of the Appalachian Mountain Club and base of Mt. Washington. If you want your fall foliage drive to continue, take the Auto Road all the way to the summit. Or get out of the car and climb to Lowe's Bald Spot, a 3,000-foot opening on Mt. Washington's eastern slopes that rewards you with views of Mount Adams, Mount Madison and other presidential peaks.

A less strenuous walk is minutes from the Christmas Farm Inn in Jackson, where you'll be having dinner that evening. Stroll alongside Jackson Falls and watch the water plunge over the large slabs of rock under a canopy of golden leaves; the village of Jackson sits below, dwarfed by the White Mountains. On a hillside above Jackson, the Christmas Farm Inn is an assortment of white and red clapboard buildings, many of which date from the late 1700s. Varied accommodations are found in a sugarhouse, once used for making maple syrup, and a converted barn. Christmas lights and wreaths pepper the property year-round, but it's subtle, not cloying, enhancing the festive mood.

Dinner is served in padded booths and wooden tables of the Sugar Plum room. The darkened hues and short ceilings give the room a sense of history, the ideal setting for chef Paul Rocheleau's classic dining. Rocheleau merges his French training with his upbringing in Maine to create such dishes as lobster cakes with cucumber mint salad. Chunks of rich lobster meat, colored with slices of ripe tomato, is as soft as the restaurant's fresh baked bread. Wash it down with the ground's artesian well water or something from the extensive wine list, like a crisp Sancerre. Rocheleau's signature dish is duck with lingon berries. Lean on the inside and charred perfectly on the skin, the tender meat is complemented with the light juniper sauce. If you still have room for more, the fresh blackberry pie, also cooked on the premises, is a good finale.

A right turn in Glen on Route 302 and a left turn in Bartlett onto Bear Notch Road begins your ascent the next day into the White Mountain National Forest. If you're a mountain biker, you're driving though one of the finest trail systems in the northeast. Doubletracks, groomed snowmobile trails in winter, fly off in every direction likes spokes on a wheel. Eventually, you'll reach the 34-mile Kancamagus Highway (Route 112), or "Kanc" as the locals call it, the state's centerpiece for leaf looking. Rising 3,000 feet, the Kanc snakes through the verdant forest of the Whites. You'll have plenty of places to stop and picnic, even take a hike as you travel west.

Continue on Route 112 past I-93 and head south on a little known gem of a road, Route 10. The rising and falling route hugs the Connecticut River, hemmed in by farmland on either side. Patches of pumpkins, zucchini, and butternut squash line the route prior to entering the handsome village of Haverhill and its double Commons. Next up is Orford, New Hampshire, listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its seven Federal-style buildings, known as the Orford Ridge houses, constructed between 1773 and 1840. Finally, you reach Hanover and its ivy-covered Georgian-style buildings, otherwise known as Dartmouth University.

Head west on Route 4 to reach Woodstock. Home to one of the oldest operating country stores, a premier resort aptly named the Woodstock Inn, and the Marsh-Billings National Historic Park, Woodstock has long been a popular fall foliage destination. Not to be missed, however, is the sliver of a town you pass to get here called Quechee. In a converted wool mill on the banks of Ottauquechee River, Irish glassmaker Simon Pearce has created a workshop, showroom, and restaurant. Reserve a window table with a spectacular view of a covered bridge and a waterfall that powers Pearce's furnace. For starters, have one of Vermont's microbrewed beers in a sturdy hand-blown goblet created by Pearce next door. There's also a long wine list with over 1,000 selections. You can't go wrong with the salads which all use fresh produce from the surrounding farms, including Vermont goat cheese. Main dishes on the menu have a refreshing simplicity that befits such a setting-slow roasted salmon with native corn salad or a grille black angus filet. If you want a souvenir, the Simon Pearce stemware used at the restaurant can be purchased next door, but note that one glass might cost more than dinner for two.

South of Woodstock on Route 106 is serious horse farm country where you can saddle up for a ride at places like Kedron Valley Stables. Veer right on Routes 131and 103 to reach Route 100 south. This is one of the finest stretches of country road in America-a bucolic mix of rolling farmland, covered bridges, and freshly painted churches-all in the shadows of the Green Mountains. You'll pass some of the better known Vermont ski resorts like Okemo and Mt. Snow before reaching the Massachusetts border. Stretch your legs at Jamaica State Park, where a stroll along the West River leads to a waterfall. In Massachusetts, take Route 8 south into the industrial towns of North Adams and Adams, home to the state's new Musuem of Contemporary Art. If you can't get enough color from the foliage, enter this converted warehouse for a splash. The road becomes more rural as you enter Cheshire and the Berkshire Mountains, topped by 3,491-foot Mt. Greylock.

Turn right on Route 9 in Pittsfield for dinner at Elizabeth's. A far cry from the pristine setting of your prior night's dinner in Quechee, this nondescript pink building sits across the street from a vacant General Electric plant. Don't be put off by the setting. Chefs travel from New York and Boston to sample Tom and Elizabeth Ellis' innovative pasta dishes. The two-tiered restaurant overlooks the kitchen to give you a bird's eye view of the chefs. Start with the insalata mista, a house salad overflowing with crisp greens, veggies, fruits, and cheeses. Then choose the special pasta of the day, often something as imaginative as linguine with clam sauce, infused with the Thai spices lemongrass and ginger.

For your final day's drive, skip the Mass Pike and head back to North Adams to take the smaller Route 2 east. This is the start of the scenic Mohawk Trail. Bordering an old Native American hiking trail through the mountains, the Mohawk Trail is a serpentine road that offers stunning lookouts onto the countryside. In Charlemont, the rapids of the Deerfield River come into view. As you get close to Boston, you'll pass Concord, site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, now the Minute Man National Historical Park. To return to Portland, simply take I-95 north for two hours. Or continue on Route 2 into Cambridge and Boston for one last meal, say, The Union Oyster House, near Faneuil Hall. Opened in 1826, John F. Kennedy has his own booth here and rumor has it that Daniel Webster used to sit at the bar and order three dozen oysters and six tumblers of brandy for his dinner. After dealing with Boston's infamous one-way streets and traffic after days of relaxing drives on backcountry roads, you'll be inclined to order the same.