Restaurants Everywhere

I once worked in New Haven on a corner that managed to have five gas stations. People would come into our Exxon station, look around and say, "How do all you guys make a living?" I found myself asking the same question about the abundance of eateries per capita when I drove through Old Saybrook and Westbrook. We publish a Shoreline Dining Guide mailer, and even in this economy there is no shortage of potential advertisers. It is practically impossible to cruise along Route 1 and not have a restaurant in your field of vision. I realize this is a charming area where the population explodes in the summer, but you'd have to explore much larger cities to find a similar concentration of places to eat. Restaurants continue to open, and some spots have been favorites to generations. From Pat's Kitchen to the Cuckoo's Nest to Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale, you'll find just about every variation of dining. Even the popular watering hole - The Monkey Farm - served up excellent food. Johnny Ad's is the hot dog and hamburger stand. A search around the marinas can prove very worthwhile, with seafood stops like the Dock n' Dine. You'll even find Indian and Thai specialties. New Haven may be a pizza destination, but the Elm City has nothing on the this stretch of Connecticut shoreline. The restaurant business can be tough in the best of times, but I can only conclude that Old Saybrook and Westbrook draw diners from miles around because a lot of them know what they're doing. That's been my experience.