Online - August 20, 2005

Basket Cases

The Country’s Best Picnics

There’s something about eating outside that just makes food taste better. And when the food is stellar to begin with and the setting is a natural wonder, well, you’ve got yourself a little slice of utopia. Here’s a cheat sheet on five of the country’s most outstanding picnic spots — inns and resorts that have both a chef with picnic-packing chops and a setting splendid enough to back it up.

Place: Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley
Setting: Overlooking a patchwork of glowing vineyards.
Meal: Grilled salmon with lentils and pinot noir sauce, lemon meringue terrine.
Upshot: Can you bottle scenery?

Place: The Chanler, Newport, Rhode Island
Setting: “Beach butler” service on a breezy beach and the Cliff Walk, home to a dream team of Gatsby-esque mansions.
Meal: Seafood BLT’s on ciabatta, donut peaches, and lavender lemonade cunningly spiked with limoncello.
Upshot: Sandcastle-cool.

Place: Canoe Bay, Rusk County, Wisconsin
Setting: A perch peering out to a private lake ruffled with fiery orange daisies.
Meal: House-cured Six Point Berkshire ham sandwich with five-year aged Wisconsin cheddar and apple slices, Caymus Conundrum.
Upshot: Utter bliss. Thoreau-ly.

Place: Enchantment Resort, Sedona, Arizona
Setting: Smack center of red-rock formations.
Meal: Golden tomato gazpacho with grilled shrimp, seared sesame scallop salad, fresh limeade.
Upshot: Seventy acres of blue sky and brilliant canyon? Now that rocks.

Place: The Inn at Sawmill Farm, West Dover, Vermont
Setting: Rolling hills, fishing ponds, gazebos, and some of the best fall foliage anywhere.
Meal: Grilled quail, deviled eggs, chocolate and fruit, a bottle of Château Margaux.
Upshot: Oh, naturale.

Now take it outside, will you?

  Foodies, Hot Date, Outdoorsy