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New England Restaurant Guide
Connecticut
Connecticut dining beckons from authentic pizzerias, glittering casino towers
 As in most of New England, Connecticut chefs know their way around seafood, and visitors can enjoy everything from cod to mussels to lobster -- accompanied by seaside views for visitors dining in the coastal cities of Fairfield County, New Haven, and the Mystic region. Connecticut’s Mystic region also is known far and wide as the home of two large casinos – Foxwoods Resort & Casino and the Mohegan Sun. These temples to entertainment understand the pleasure of good dining in every form, from a simple coffee and pastry at a kiosk on the gaming concourse to fine dining in the elegant restaurants, some with expansive views of the rolling countryside. Outsiders sometimes don’t know that New Haven is where the pizza was invented; Wooster Street, in fact, is the location of three rival pizza restaurants whose operators and their recipes are direct descendants of the original pizza created by Frank Pepe.
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Maine
Maine foods range from lobster to blueberries to a life-size chocolate moose
 The image that comes to mind with the mention of dining in Maine is the region’s legendary lobsters. Mainers know lobsters and are happy to set the big red crustaceans on your plate in every setting from a swanky, white-tablecloth restaurant to a rickety shack at the end of a pier, with lobster boats steaming past the windows. Portland is fast becoming a chic urban attraction, where visitors can wander the cobbled streets of the Old Port neighborhood; watch the local fishing fleet motoring to and from the docks; and stop into small downcity restaurants for great seafood and other fare. Mainers are eternally resourceful in adding value to their natural resources, so a trip through Maine can turn up blueberry preserves and other delicacies at Stonewall Kitchens, Cold River vodka made from Maine potatoes, and chocolate in all forms (including Lenny, the life-size chocolate moose, in Scarborough).
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Massachusetts
Colonial taverns to Cape Cod fish shacks show scope of Massachusetts dining
 The populous state of Massachusetts has many identities, from seaside towns on Cape Cod to the metropolis of Boston to historic farms in the Berkshire Mountains. Naturally, then, the cuisine is as equally various. Boston is an international city and home to many world-class universities, so any world cuisine can be found there. With its Irish heritage, Boston is probably the epicenter of the New England boiled dinner, a medley of corned beef, cabbage, and carrots. Boston baked beans are a traditional Saturday night supper. Any seafood that New England offers can be found in abundance on Cape Cod and the shore towns, while the lofty Berkshires hide many historic gems, like the 235-year-old Widow Bingham's Tavern at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge. Central and western Massachusetts also are awash in farms and orchards, where guests may visit and purchase produce, flowers, cider, baked goods, Christmas trees and more.
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New Hampshire
From grand hotels to chowder shacks, New Hampshire food is fine and fresh
 The personalities and culinary attractions of New Hampshire range from seafood along the state’s coastline to fun and frivolous vacation food in the resorts around Lake Winnipesaukee to game food and fine dining in the turn-of-the-century grand hotels of the White Mountains. The seaside town of Portsmouth has a delightful harbor front neighborhood packed with small, excellent restaurants. Also in Portsmouth is the historic Strawbery Banke living history museum, containing the cozy Dunaway Restaurant, which specializes in local and seasonal foods. Inland and northward, toward the White Mountains, visitors can enjoy seasonal game dinners in rustic surroundings. There is nothing rustic, though, about the trio of grand hotels – the Balsams in Dixville Notch, the Mount Washington in Bretton Woods, and the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield – that offer the upscale hospitality and tone of the Edwardian era. Restaurants at these grand hotels are as fine and elegant as their settings deserve.
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Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s Federal Hill leads a list of dining locations for fine ethnic food
 Rhode Island is blessed with a large variety of great dining options, partly because of the multi-ethnic heritage of the state, which has welcomed waves of immigrants -- and their cuisines -- from Italy, Portugal, French Canada, Ireland, and other lands. One dining hot spot is Federal Hill in Providence, which is the city’s Little Italy. Many restaurants were founded early in the 20th century and are still family-operated. Every nuance of authentic and superb Italian foods can be found “on the Hill.” The capital city of Providence, now into its second decade of a downtown revitalization, also is home to many fine restaurants, many of them scattered along a charming, walkable waterfront park. Finally, befitting its nickname of the Ocean State, Rhode Island’s seaside communities from Bristol to Newport to Westerly offer fresh seafood of all kinds, with an emphasis of the quahog, a large, prized local clam.
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Vermont
Cheese, chocolate, maple and beer are among Vermont’s home grown foods
 Vermont is famous for its dairy farms and maple groves, so visitors to the Green Mountain state will be greeted with the world’s best cheeses, chocolates, ice cream, and maple goods (just for starters). Vermonters are also fiercely protective of their beautiful natural surroundings, and that impulse leads to an emphasis by Vermont chefs on using organic, locally produced, and fresh foods. Burlington, located in the northwestern corner of the state on Lake Champlain, is a college city with an international flavor, so its restaurants offer a range of interesting, multi-ethnic cuisines. With a few exceptions, Vermont is mostly a place of small town and rural vistas, but anywhere you wander you are likely to bump into an interesting diner (the Farmers Diner in Quechee), a brew pub that features local, artisan-made beers (Flat Street in Brattleboro), and places to taste local delicacies (Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury).
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