After a walk in the woods of Groton over the weekend hunger pangs led us to the Stagecoach Inn in the town’s center. umm. We must have been really hungry. It’s not that the food was lousy, it wasn’t. It was perfectly adequate. (How can you mess up apps, salad and fish and chips?) OK you can, but that’s not the point I’m making here. This 1600th century inn w/ wooden beams, a brick fireplace and all the charm of a North Country retreat could be so much more. It should be so much more.

Even though a sign out front said “Yes We Are Open,” we had to walk through the dinning room and holler to find a soul. Then we waited in library-like silence until menus, drinks and finally food was produced. Come on? Ambiance is half, maybe even more than half of why we choose to eat out. Most places serve up the same kind of grub we can put together at home, but we don’t want to. We want a break from our same-old kitchens. We want to feel comforted, stylish, ego-stroked. Give us a little ambiance for the love of it. It’s not hard.

With all the extra space the silence introduced in our conversation, we counted the ways. Light the fire (they ran out of kindling) light some candles (this was eventually done) play some music (it was deathly quiet) turn on a TV ( I don’t normally consider network news ambiance, but anything besides the hum of refrigeration would have helped), and lastly chat us up! The woman running the front lacked any sort of people skills, timidly requesting our order and then scurrying away. Funny you don’t really miss personality until it's gone. The stagecoach inn is a great structure and located right on Main Street in this New England gem of a town, it could be a legendary institution where town pols flock for lunch and a daytripper magnet on weekends. Instead the oldest inn in the country squeaks by. On the way home we spotted Gibbet Hill, lit up and lively in the distance on Route 40, now that looked inviting.