May Graduation Dinner suggestions CT & RI
 

DD is graduating in May from College in New London CT on Sunday, May 24. I will have my parents, Inlaws, DS, DD and her BF and my uncle for 10 people total to take out to dinner on Sat night. We will be staying at my parents house in Jamestown RI. DD wants to sleep in New London that night as it is her last night of college. It is exactly 1 hour between New London and Jamestown. Those that are driving don't mind driving the hour at night. I want DD to not have to drive the whole hour or longer back to New London, which is why I'm not considering Newport restaurants for this event.

Looking for a restaurant that can handle 10 people, not in New London or Groton, which will be crowed with other graduate families. but someplace between Jamestown and New London. The food just needs to be good, with good service and likely to have fish on the menu. And good wine for me, I will be stressed........;)

Is there anything worthwhile in Mystic? How about Stonington? Narragansett?? Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

Hi there - first, congratulations to your DD! What an accomplishment! I can think of the following places which may be off the beaten path just enough to be less-stressful on you, but note that you should call and see if they accept reservations as I'm not sure about all of them...

Mystic - Rice, Spice, Noodles has vg asian fusion fare, but it can be noisy. It's right near the train station on the way out towards Stonington Borough so might be far enough away. I would also recommend The Captain Daniel Packer Inne on Water Street in Mystic - pricier, but good seafood, though I tend to enjoy their downstairs pub more than their more formal dining areas.

Stonington Borough - for more casual seafood with the summer-home owning crowd who don't blink at $18 for fish and chips, Skippers' Dock is nice, with a gorgeous deck right on the water. Other options in the Borough are the Water Street Cafe, owned by a talented husband-wife team, and Noah's. Both do seafood quite well, and again I'm not sure if they take reservations. Eating in the Borough has its advantages as you can walk around the beautiful Federal neighborhood, it's not as touristy as Mystic.

Can't help you with Narragansett. Good luck, hope this helps!

Agree with AHaugeto on the options in the Mystic/Stonington area, 15 minutes from New London, and do make reservations if you go to Captian Daniel Packer or Noah's, both do take res.

Thanks to you both, I'll take a look at all your suggestions.

A silly question....is Stonington Borough the same as Stonington? Or just an area within Stonington? Or, whenever anyone says Stonington, they really mean Stonington Borough? I'm a bit confused.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

Hi Liz - not a silly question at all. The "Borough" is in fact an area within Stonington, the spit of land on the water with docks etc. Stonington itself goes from the Eastern side of the Mystic river to the Rhode Island border - to confuse you further, half of "Mystic" is in Groton, half is in Stonington, with the dividing line being the River.

So in fact Stonington contains part of Mystic, the Borough, and Pawcatuck. It's just the way things are divvied up in Connecticut. Hope you have a nice relaxing dinner!

AHaugeto...thanks for that explanation. It all now makes sense!

Another question. I usually take I95-> exit 92->RT 2->Hwy78
->US 1->RT 138 to get from New London to Jamestown.

It looks like I would get off 95 at exit 91 and go east for Stonington, correct? It also looks like we can just pick up US1 in Stonington and stay on it till the exit for 138. Anything that is confusing that I'm not seeing on the map? Thanks for your help.

If you want to go to Mystic area of Stonington, get off at exit 90 and go right (south) on rt.27 to rt. 1. From there you can continue east (north) on route 1 to get to the Borough or stay on 95 till you get to exit 91 and follow the signs (it is marked but you . This goes along the coast and you can get a glimpse of the water every now and again in the 3 or 4 miles from Mystic to Stonington Borough (a right off route 1). When you get to the Borough, be aware that the road through town is one way for part of the way, then changes to two way but there is only room for one way traffic, so southbound folks are expected to pull over to let the northbound folks go by. There are yellow places along the curb where people are not supposed to park so that you can pull over, but you do see folks who don't get with the program all the time. There is a nice area to park and look at the sound and fisher's island at the end.

You have your choice on using 95 or rt. 1 to get to 138. There will be stop lights and a bit of traffic until you get past Westerly RI but after that 1 has two lanes each way for a large part of the trip and there is sometimes something interesting to look at and if you go towards the shore you can come upon some very nice beaches.

Liz5959 I'm not sure if you're peeking at this thread or not, but I wanted to check back in and say that emalloy's 1st option to get back to Jamestown from the borough is likely faster - take North Main back to 95 N (follow the signs to 95, they're all over the place from the borough) and take 95N to exit 3 in RI = Route 138...it might be quicker than Route 1 if post-prandial speed would help.
Good luck!

Just thought I would report back now that I am the parent of a college grad :)

We went to Trio in Narragansett and had a delicious dinner. Enough food variety for all, good service and decent wine. We were pleased. Thanks to everyone for their help and advice.

http://www.trio-ri.com/

Narragansett - Seconding Liz's suggestion of Trio - an excellent restaurant I think the wine selection is actually above average.

The trip down to Narragansett may take you a little out of your way, though.

Oops, misread Liz's post. I didn't see that you were the original poster. Congratulations to your daughter.