Centralparkgirl

I'm heading to the Brandywine area tomorrow morning for a wedding in the evening. I was thinking of going to Winterthur for the afternoon. Could anyone suggest a nice place for lunch? Casual with simple, good food preferred - salads, sandwiches would be fine. Thank you!

yk

Hi CPG, I have no suggestion, except that I'm so jealous! I lived in Philadephia for quite a few years but never bothered to visit Winterthur. Enjoy your visit.

Centralparkgirl

Hi yk - I just 'woke up' and realized that I have time to see something tomorrow afternoon. Then I realized that the wedding starts at 6:15 - it looks like you can spend a very long time at Winterthur. Oh well. BTW - I'm planning a quick 'art' weekend to Philadelphia in August. I'll be picking your brain then!

yk

Here's a thread on Chowhound that has some suggestions, though some places may not be open for lunch.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/562146

I'm surprised Winterthur doesn't have a cafe or restaurant on site!

Centralparkgirl

I did say that I just woke up - of course they have a cafeteria. Since we don't have a lot of time, that's probably the best solution. Thanks yk.

Centralparkgirl

yk - just an update - we had very limited time, but Winterthur is an amazing place. I would like to return at explore it at length. We did a quick garden tour with a docent and the general overview tour of the house with a docent. Du Pont was an amazing man and his collections are beautiful and vast.

yk

Hi CPG, thanks for reporting back! I hope you get to return soon so that I can visit Winterthur vicariously through you! How was the wedding?

Centralparkgirl

Hi yk - soon is doubtful, but I can see it being a part of a nice trip to Baltimore/DC. As soon as I realized that the admission ticket was good for two consecutive days, I knew our visit would be a tease. Du Pont collected the most wonderful Americana - silver by Paul Revere and father, many paintings of George Washington, beautiful furniture, etc. He even bought woodwork, mantels, etc. from plantations that were to be destroyed and had them installed in his display rooms. And his gardens.......sigh!

The wedding was wonderful - the ceremony was very warm with some humor - very genuine! Around 11 pm, the bride changed from her cumbersome gown to a short, pretty white dress. I never saw that done before. I asked her why she changed so late. She said her mother would have killed her if she didn't wear her wedding gown most of the evening!

yk

CPG, I forgot to ask you the most relevant question: Did you eat at the cafeteria at Winterthur? How was the food? (Wasn't this the reason you started this thread? )

Centralparkgirl

yk - yes, we did eat in the cafeteria. It was quite adequate. I ate from the salad bar which was very fresh (translation: no wilted, turning black lettuces) and dh had a veggie lasagna - not gourmet, but it was fine. I'm going to start another post and hope you will respond. My ds was supposed to have surgery today, but it's postponed to next week. So, very last minute, I'm going to Phillie for the weekend. I'll go post now.

NatureGirl19317

My (former) neck of the woods!

For the future:

An excellent choice in the brandywine is Buckleys Tavern (my all-time personal fav)
http://www.buckleystavern.org/
Laid back, great ambiance, locals. Been there a hundred times and every time was great!

Also good is The Gables
http://www.thegablesatchaddsford.com/

Another popular one, but not one of my favs, is Dilworthtown Inn
http://dilworthtown.com/

Chadds Ford Inn used to be fantastic but I hadnt gone since it changed over
http://www.brandywineprime.com/

These are all in the general area of winterthur

Lots of great choices!