Broad Street, Milford. October 2009
[from FB post: May 29, 2010]
Just back from a lovely dinner with friends at Hotel Fauchere. It's ridiculously expensive for our little town, but with NYC nearby.... people are willing to pay the prices. We topped it off with some home made ice cream from the Dairy Bar. Now THAT is good stuff and reasonably priced and in town TOO!!! On holiday weekends, my little town seems like such a nice place to live.... LOL
[from FB post: August 17, 2012]
Just back from Martini Tasting/Creation with Annmarie Rufolo at River Rock. Not for the faint-hearted. We tasted 15 new drinks! I am a little... "blurry"....
Milford Idyll
When Milford had its A-game on, it was just a damn nice place to live. A quaint little shopping district, a lot of bars and restaurants compared to its tiny population of 1,000 or so residents, beautiful old homes on streets lined with huge old trees.... what was not to like?
When I wax nostalgic about Milford I remember good times and good places to hang out after a long, hard day of gardening and home renovation down at "Matt and Brian's Museum House".
Driving over to the Muir House just out of town when BG and HN were running the place was like visiting my home away from home. That bar attracted a wide range of clientele and I met some fascinating people over the years. I even worked there for a time when my friends first took it over. The place was supposedly haunted and I heard many strange stories of occurrences in the building from trusted friends over the years. It remains one of my favorite bars ever.
Back in the boro proper, Wednesday nights were live-music nights at the Water Wheel which had a loyal following. What other town Milford's size had regular live music? Many friends and children of friends over the years got their first taste of performing live at the Water Wheel. The building itself had a cafe and actually sported a working water wheel. It was the kind of place out-of-towners would visit and remember due its sylvan setting down on the Sawkill Creek.
Apple Valley on the other end of town was filled with colorful characters at the bar and drew the interstate highway crowd (Apple Valley paid for a sign at the exit and was the first place people saw coming into town). They had a huge menu and were Milford's answer to Applebees or TGI Fridays. My parents liked Apple Valley when they visited because it felt manageable to them (even though the place was as large as its menu). I think the "non-fou-fou" food served there made my less-than-adventurous parents comfortable. On one visit after a particularly challenging renovation day, my tee-totaling father said, "I think you better have a beer." I didn't go there often, but I only have good memories of the place.
The Victorian Tom Quick Hotel was renovated after a long decline and had one of the best looking bars in town. I made a stop once with my friend Adrian from London shortly after he arrived in Milford for a visit. We were drinking beer and he saw the bartender make a martini "free pour" (in London all cocktails were strictly measured). He asked me, "what is THAT?" I told him I thought it was a martini. He said, "what the hell am I drinking beer for??" You could say Adrian fell in love with the TQ in a heartbeat - love at first pour.
The Dimmick Inn on the main town cross roads was a long-time favorite of locals. The Dimmick always had bartenders filled with personality - they needed it to manage the place. The Dimmick's evening crowd could get a little rowdy, but nothing, of course, like the bars in Milford's unsavory, nearby step-sister, Port Jervis, NY. The Dimmick had a wraparound porch and people just loved to sit outside and watch the small town world of Milford pass them by over lunch. The bar there sponsored a popular weekly trivia night. The Dimmick really WAS Milford more than any other bar/restaurant.
Of course, as mentioned above, there was the "too cool" Bar Louis in the classy Hotel Fauchère. Bar Louis was expensive, but it was Manhattan-chic and anyone who was anyone ended up there for drinks at some point. The bar's focal point was a huge photo of Andy Warhol kissing John Lennon. Bar Louis offered craft cocktails and the food was always cutting edge. Its signature dish was "sushi pizza" (which tasted far better than it sounded). TFR bartended there one summer during college. Another of the young bartenders, Kevin, was a true mixologist who once made tonic water from scratch (that is some nasty stuff), so I could understand what a "real" G&T tasted like. It may have been overpriced, but it was way cool for a little town like Milford. I didn't go often, but visits were bound to be colorful.
Finally, across from my old house was the Laurel Villa, one of the oldest continually running hotel/restaurant/bars in the area. The bar was tiny, and it opened onto a salon area with a fireplace. When the place was hopping it was almost like a party in someone's home who happened to have a bar in their living room. That made for an incredibly unique vibe. It was a place I could drink as much as I wanted - I only had to walk across the street and stumble through my front door. I needed it since one of the bartenders would invite me over to try "new cocktails" she was experimenting with for the menu and she knew I could get plastered and not have to drive home.
But Milford was not just restaurants and bars....
Let us not forget there was a real Italian deli like one would find in New York City, Fretta's. They made incredible prepared food for takeaway. The place also sold a lot of hard-to-locate ingredients for upscale cooking as well. Their lunch sandwiches were to die for - I was partial to the fresh mozzarella, tomato, roasted red pepper, and pesto on French bread. Across the street was Jorgenson's, yet another New York style deli that served up amazing takeaway food. Two delis in little Milford!
The Dairy Bar near the town center was run by a local guy (who also owned the attached laundry). He bought the Ben and Jerry's recipe book and made all his own ice cream. The place was takeaway only, but there were a few picnic tables next to the shop or people just ate the ice cream in their cars, so it was humming with activity. A throwback to simpler times in America, it was usually mobbed on weekends. Nothing more nostalgic than going for an ice cream on a hot summer night.
Last but not least, the Milford Diner. The diner was classic Americana and run by a Greek family extraordinaire whom everyone loved. They took a previously moribund diner and rejuvenated it. Everyone (I mean everyone) ate at the Milford Diner. Most importantly, compared to all the surrounding establishments, it was cheap. When my parents house-sat for us, they loved that they could walk out the front door, up a quiet tree-lined street to the diner for lunch and have enough served to them to bring something home and have leftovers for dinner. The diner along with the Dimmick were pretty much the twin beating social hearts of our little town.
Like I said, this was Milford at its best. This is what sold people on the place and why New Yorkers pulled up stakes and moved there in droves. They came for that small town on a bluff over overlooking the Delaware River with its oversized entertainment industry and throwback charm. Most of them soon learned that there was much more to Milford than its country idyllic charm - there was a flip side. After all, no place can be as good as I described all the time.