|
| |
Western Lancaster - Part 1
Hanging with the Innkeeper
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Staying at the Maytown Bed and Breakfast, our reviewer discusses the differences between a hotel and a bed and breakfast.
Most people travel to Lancaster County to see the sites that are located in Eastern Lancaster, such as the outlets. There is however, a lot to do in Western Lancaster County as we found out from Jeff and Julie Clouser from the Maytown Manor Bed and Breakfast. Jeff and Julie were excited to show the sites of their surrounding neighborhoods.
We arrived Friday evening and were greeted by Jeff right outside the front door of his inn. Standing on a corner outside of the Maytown town square, this bed and breakfast is an immaculately clean and well-preserved home built in 1880 sitting on a large lot with beautiful surrounding gardens. Inside it's beautifully decorated with items from both Jeff and Julie's past increasing that feeling of home. It is a great place for a romantic getaway weekend. It was very entertaining to hear the stories behind certain pieces of furniture; especially the thirteen-dollar table, which Margherita fell in love with.
Jeff and Julie's accommodating personalities break down all boundaries and immediately make you feel at home. Jeff was extremely hospitable and very jolly. He has a very whimsical, theatrical like personality, a bit like Nathan Lane in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Every moment there seemed to be some reason to laugh or smile. We unfortunately did not get to spend as much time as we would have liked with Julie for very understandable reasons.
The first night, after getting a quick tour of the premises we got in the car and went to Bube's Brewery and the Catacomb's restaurant located in Mount Joy. Yes, it is pronounced like the female body part that caused me to giggle like a schoolgirl every time I said it. Even if you pronounce it with one syllable you still get one of the pair of female body parts. Bube's Brewery is the oldest standing brewery in the United States. It has been in existence since 1876 and was saved because Mr. Bube's brewery success led him to build an adjoining hotel. Since the hotel and brewery shared the same foundation, the brewery was saved during the prohibition. Since prohibition, the building was saved by the lack of motivation of Mr. Bube's descendants. While laziness doesn't always have such privileges, in this case, the lack of drive caused the descendants to not improve the building keeping it in its original state.
We were given a tour by Sam the owner. On the first floor of the adjoining hotel, (which is no longer in operation at this time), there remains an old bar which looks like a movie set perfectly fixed in the 1920's. This room alone is worth a visit. Not one detail is changed from the 1920s. The catacombs, where the restaurant is located, is where the barrels of beer were stored and are very much akin to a medieval catacombs that could be found in Europe. The juxtaposition of finding this in Lancaster was very entertaining.
| | |
Bube's Brewery and Cavern | |
A restaurant is usually described by its food and it's atmosphere. The seafood and beer brewed right on the premises were spectacular, but I'm not going to waste time describing how great they are and jump right to the atmosphere. The stonewalls and cavernous surroundings are so unique that it will save you a few hundred dollars on a round trip ticket to England for the next best thing. There is nothing like eating by candlelight in a cavern with servers and staff dressed in medieval garb. Why the medieval garb? Bube's has feasts or theatrical theme dinners, one of them being a medieval feast. Most of the staff were in costume as well as Sam. While we had dinner, we were visited by a fire-eater and beggar.
After a great meal, we drove back to the Maytown Manor, and we admit it did feel a bit like sleeping over at a friend's house. There were midnight snacks on the dining room table, which is so much cozier than a hotel.
The next morning we woke up and had a delicious breakfast including English muffin bread, cheesy bacon and broccoli quiche, and peachy fruit salad with marshmallows. Any breakfast with marshmallows is good in my world.
After breakfast, we got in the car to hit the sites as per the suggestion of Jeff. Most visitors' bureaus are not as organized as Jeff and Julie in planning the best itinerary to spend a day in Western Lancaster County. The first stop on the trip was to George's Woodcrafts in Marietta.
George has been making his furniture for years and it's beautifully handcrafted albeit a bit out of our price range. It did feel like steel it was so well constructed, and to demonstrate the strength of their "thirty seat" dining room table, an employee sat on the middle of the table, expanded without it's leaves in place and bounced up and down without a problem. We were able to tour their entire operation, which impressed me with how they even recycled the woodchips and shavings to heat up the wood drying room and thereby have an even more efficient operation.
Read part 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
