The Brushmill by the Waterfall in Chester, CT

We just had the greatest day. Laura had an idea that led us to the Connecticut shore and then a few things afterwards. I will share those few things here and will save the shore adventure for the next post.

Okay, you know those things you experience that you are positive you will remember forever? They don’t come around all that often, but when they do, you just can’t shut up about them. For me, tonight was the second time it’s happened in two years. The first time this occurred, I was standing in Essex, CT, but I’ll get into that later on in life. For now, I just want to tell you about tonight.

After we visited the shore, we drove back up towards Chester, CT. We took the back way (145 North), instead of the Route 9 that we usually head up. I felt like the crisp September air deserved some respect. Jumping on a highway with the windows closed wouldn’t do on a day like today. The back way it was and the back way is what made today even more special.

Every time we move off the beaten path, we learn something. Today, we learned that there is a very pretty area of Connecticut West of the Connecticut River. It extends all the way from the River to New Haven. You know, now that I am writing this, I wonder if this is where they filmed the Blair Witch Project. That would make sense. Hmmm…

Anyway, on the way to the water, we passed the Camp Hazen YMCA. That looked like a pretty cool place. Then, we drove West of the Chester Airport. That’s a very small airport hidden in the woods. It’s a great little airport to land at if you are learning how to fly. I never flew to it, but by the looks of it, I should have.

I don’t want to get too much into that part of today, so I’ll tell you what we did when we drove back North on 145. We made a right on West Main Street (148) and continued back towards Chester. After we passed under 9, we made a right into the parking lot of a restaurant called, The Brushmill by the Waterfall. This restaurant is a place Laura recently learned about from another restaurant we recently visited, called the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT. I guess the Brushmill advertised in a paper or something.

A few nights ago, Laura told me about the Brushmill. As she was telling me about this place, my ears perked up. I love new restaurants. Especially ones with character. I ran upstairs and checked out the Brushmill’s website. Boy, was I in for a treat. It looked great.

Since the Brushmill in Chester was on the route we were taking to the shore, I had a secret plan in the back of my head that would bring us to the restaurant for dinner. We weren’t dressed for the occasion, but the staff was very accommodating. I mean, I was wearing a fleece and jeans, it’s not like I was in flip flops or anything. It’s just that everyone else there seemed to have planned their visit. I’m not all that much of a planner. The extent of my plans for the day were, “Get in car and drive.” Yeah, that’s me.

Let me tell you about the Brushmill. Whatever people say about it, it’s true. This restaurant was really great. Just the ambience is worth another visit. Take a look at the quick photos I took below. It’s an old building situated next to a river with a small waterfall. There are really nice dining areas along with an inviting tap room. You can eat outside on two patios (that I know of) as well. As we were talking with the hostess after dinner, we learned that some live music was going to start at about 8:30. Since we were ready to leave at 7:30, we are going to have to save that for another night.

We had dinner out a few nights ago at another restaurant. It was good and all, but one of our complaints was that there was no color on the plate. We kind of felt like we paid too much. It’s just one of those things for us. Tonight’s dinner was different. I had the stuffed shrimp and she had the salmon. We both had the mashed sweet potatoes and asparagus. You can see the color, can’t you. It looked great and tasted ever better. I am proud to say that we will be going back to the Brushmill by the Waterfall. We really liked it.

Take a look at these pictures. They don’t do the Brushmill justice because it was getting dark, but you get the idea. I’ll get more during our next visit.

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This is just a follow-up to the post above. I mentioned that I was going to write a brief post on “The Brushmill by the Waterfall in Chester, CT.” Well, here it is.

This is the restaurant we visited last night. We had a great dinner. We arrived after the crowd left so it was perfect. When dining at this restaurant, you need to be careful because it can get quite busy on Friday nights and nights there is a show at the “Goodspeed Opera House.” Last night, it was just us and a few other people. Perfect.

I wanted to show you a few photos of the restaurant that I never got to post (above). I took these a while back, during our first visit. I think two people are going to get a kick out of these pictures, my brother and my mother. My brother because we just went there and I know he’ll show someone and my mother because…well because she just likes this kind of stuff.