Hotel Fauchere - Bar Louis and The Delmonico Room - Milford (long reviews)

For my 40th birthday, my husband and I (and our dog) went to Hotel Fauchere in Milford, PA, in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania. We ate at the hotel two nights – the first night at Bar Louis, their more casual restaurant, and the second night at Delmonico’s. Fauchere was a chef at Delmonico’s in Manhattan (which I believe was considered the first true restaurant in Manhattan), and left to establish this hotel in the 1850s. The hotel was restored and reopened about a year ago. Instead of describing the ambiance of the two places, I’m including links below – the owners have done a wonderful job of restoring and keeping the traditional architecture/features – crown molding, wide planked wood floors – but have instilled a gracious contemporary feel to both the dining rooms and the hotel itself.

Bar Louis

http://www.hotelfauchere.com/dining/barlouis/bar.php

On our first night, we had hoped to try a restaurant outside the hotel, but since we didn’t arrive until almost 8:30 and were told that most restaurants in town shut down at 9pm, we opted for Bar Louis. The restaurant was bustling, including four or five tables that appeared to constitute a rehearsal dinner – I hope they felt okay in the morning!

I started with a delicious Appletini – just the right combination of sweet and sour – beautiful pale green color and not too strong. My husband, after checking out the bar to see if they had Lillet (he wasn’t sure the young waitress knew what he meant when he asked for it), decided on a milky sake. The wine list is shortish, but interesting and well priced – a lot of good selections under $75, with several under $30. We opted for a red blend – 70% Merlot – wish for the life of me I could remember what it was – I think from Napa, with German names for both the vineyard and the wine – it was about $45 and served at the correct temperature. Bread was brought by – beautiful little pillows of square crusty rolls, with a light but chewy texture inside – had to control myself to limit myself to one! I ordered a green salad with toasted pecans and a frico, followed by a hamburger, and my husband had an andouille sausage soup and a steak.

After we ordered and were sipping our drinks, the hotel receptionist came down to say that our dog was intermittently emitting some high pitched yelps, so I had to interrupt our meal to go take care of him. The restaurant kindly paced our meal and waited until my return to bring out our appetizers. My salad was a bit disappointing – the candied pecans and frico were delicious, but I though that lettuce (baby spinach?) was underseasoned. My husband said the soup was delicious and a lovely aroma wafted my way. All was atoned by the hamburger (Angus beef) – it was fantastic – perfectly done (medium rare), with a grilled onion, thinly sliced ripe tomatoes and lettuce, on a toasted thin English muffin. My husband steak was also perfectly done (rare) and both came with the tastiest truffle fries – crispy salty French fries with a hint of truffle – I don’t know if they use truffle salt or oil. So, we were very content as we went to rescue the pup – didn’t have dessert because of same. I thought the service was impressive, especially given the area (please forgive the Manhattan bias, but I’ve had strange service experiences at “high end” places in the country). The hotel receptionist walked us down to Bar Louis, handed us over to the host who seated us. Our waitress was young and very professional, without being stilted (a pleasant contrast to a dinner years ago at Nemakogan (sp?), where the young server had clearly been instructed as to exactly what to say and do at every step of the meal and was incapable of varying from it!). The bill with a 20% tip was about $125.

The Delmonico Room.

http://www.hotelfauchere.com/dining/d...

The price of our weekend package included a dinner here and a bottle of wine. We were given the same prix fixe menu given to all (marked $50) and easily negotiated upgrading the wine (the package allowed us a choice of two whites and two reds in the $25 - $35 range – the wine list was the same as the previous evening) – the host said he would just charge us the difference. I ordered another Appletini and my husband had a beer (Chinese – I can never remember the name – the choice of beers was a little pedestrian otherwise). Again I can’t remember the name of the wine we ordered – another red – but we were pleased with it. Lucky for us, the same rolls were served! I started with the frogs legs and then had the crown roast rack of lamb; my husband had the beef carpaccio and the boneless veal chop. The frogs legs were outstanding – came with a garlic coulis and a parsley jus – they were lightly battered and succulent. My husband pronounced his carpaccio to be excellent – it had a lemon caper aioli. Again, our meat dishes were perfectly done. Mine came with mashed potatoes and long thin sautéed carrots, my husband’s with polenta fries – so crispy and delicious – and thin spears of roasted asparagus. For dessert, I had crème brulee – which had my ideal ratio of crust to crème (lots of crust!) and he had the rum raisin ice cream. We had after dinner drinks – he had Armagnac and I had a glass of port. Our extras (the drinks before and after dinner, and the extra cost of the wine) were about $120. Again, the service was gracious and professional.

Breakfast – a continental breakfast was also included in the package – I don’t think a cooked breakfast option is available. The first morning I went down to the Delmonico Room – they serve breakfast in a glassed-in terrace room. Outside the room is a table with fruits, yogurt, granola (which I heard another guest complement), and an assortment of baked goods – and the New York Times. The waitress asked if I wanted coffee, and prepared a French press while I gathered my breakfast – she then also brought freshly squeezed orange juice. The coffee was very good – from a local roaster, I believe – the baked goods were decent but nothing to rave about. The next morning my husband asked if we could have coffee in our room (I love to do the Sunday puzzle in the morning in bed with coffee) and brought up a perfectly set little tray of coffee with some baked goods (the waitress offered to bring it up but he didn’t mind doing it).

So, all in all, a wonderful weekend of eating – our room also had complimentary bottles of mineral water, some local chocolates and a bottle of red wine – a Montes Cabernet that was also on the wine list. We had lunch on Saturday in Hawley, but I’ll post that separately.

PS - it took us a little over three hours to get there from the UES on a Friday afternoon leaving at 5pm, going through NJ - I-80 - on Sunday mid morning our return through NY took 1.5 hrs.