News - The Colby Hill Inn - Henniker, New Hampshire

Welcome to Colby Hill Inn, Henniker New Hampshire
CLASSIC NEW ENGLAND LODGING AND DINING
A NEW HAMPSHIRE BED AND BREAKFAST

Colby Hill Inn-Finalist in National Pancake Contest - read full article

Colby Hill Inn wins a "Best of New Hampshire" award for "Best Adult Dessert - read the full article (pdf)

More Magazine, February, 2007- read full article

Renown Author tries Hand at Innkeeping

Boston Globe Review , March 5, 2006 - read full article

New Hampshire Magazine's Bride - The Perfect Setting

Intimate Inn
Most people choose to get married at a country inn because they want their family and attendants to stay with them, says Cyndi Cobb of the Colby Hill Inn in Henniker. “In a lot of ways families and friends can come together for longer periods of time than just the wedding and reception, so it’s more like a destination as opposed to just going to a wedding.”

The inn usually does a mix of a lot of smaller weddings that tend to be under 50 people from the area who want a small, intimate ceremony and dinner to larger events under tents in their garden. “Our guests have had a lot of different ways to have their weddings,” says Cyndi. She says she’s done a casual poolside buffet with volleyball, badminton, bocce and lawn chess. But she’s also done smaller, more formal sit-down dinners inside the inn. Last year they hosted an English couple who had lived in Hong Kong for a time. “They had an eclectic group of friends from all over the world staying at the inn for the weekend. At the wedding reception they had 100 Chinese lanterns in the tent, specialized flowers, and pence baked into the cake for good luck.” Plus, the couple had taught swing dancing, so Cyndi and her husband arranged for guests to have swing dancing lessons on their back lawn during the weekend.

“We can’t do everything perfectly, but we know what we’re good at,” she says. And what they’re good at is adapting to their guests’ needs, especially when it counts. For instance, when Cyndi and her husband first starting running the inn there was a wedding where the bride forgot the cake knife. So Cyndi ran home, dug around in her hope chest and got the cake knife from her wedding day. “I cleaned it up and shined it and used it for that wedding. Well, that knife has now cut hundreds of wedding cakes through the years. I hope that’s good luck; after all, we’ve been married after so many years.”

Colby Hill Inn Receives Coveted Wine Spectator Award of Excellence

The Colby Hill Inn has been awarded the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator Magazine for the second year in a row. The award will be announced in the August issue of the magazine.
The award recognizes a commitment to wine characterized by a list that offers varied selections, has a thematic match to the menu in style and price and that is presented in a clear and accurate way. Currently less than 3000 restaurants worldwide hold a Wine Spectator Award.
"It's a great honor to receive the award again, it puts us in great company with other fine dining restaurants who provide a wide selection of wines," said Mason Cobb, Innkeeper and wine buyer for the inn. Cobb has spent four years developing the wine list to match the creative menus of acclaimed Executive Chef, Jeannine Carney.
The Colby Hill inn is a classic New England country inn with 15 guest rooms and fine dining open to the public nightly. The inn is also a member of Select Registry, Distinguished Inns of North America.

(photo credit)
Jeannine Carney, Mason Cobb and Cyndi Cobb

Colby Hill Inn Offers Regional Food and Wine - Concord Monitor, March 3, 2004

BEST ROMANTIC PICKS FOR VALENTINE'S DAY FROM BEDANDBREAKFAST.COM- BedandBreakfast.com Releases its List of Best Undiscovered Incredibly Romantic Inns and the Colby Hill Inn was on the list, read the review here! To read more on this article please Click here.

To read about our wonderful Chef Jeannine Carney's options for Thanksgiving meals, please Click here.

Ski Magazine - Dec. 2004 issue features
The Colby Hill Inn in a story titled "Bread and Board" .

"SNOWED INN with a dining room as sophisticated as its inn is charming, Colby Hill typifies surprisingly rich dining and lodging options in southern New Hampshire ski country." Southern N.H., by Sandy MacDonald

Though falling shy of the majestic White Mountains to the north, southern New Hampshire's peaks (monadnocks, mostly, from the Algonquin word for "stands alone") can still pack a wallop. Families, in particular, will find all the skiing they could possibly require at the local day areas, which have shown a remarkable resurgence in recent years following a decade of decline.

With eight lifts and 1,510 feet of vertical, Mount Sunapee reigns supreme in the region. The owners of Vermont's Okemo (and now Colorado's Crested Butte) have sunk more than $14 million into this formerly state-run complex since leasing it in 1998, and the TLC shows. Skiers can enjoy gorgeous lake-view lunches at Sunapee's Summit Lodge.

Next up, height-wise, comes Tenney Mountain, a midstate sleeper with a troubled past but promising future under energetic new owners, who see it as a showcase for their warm-temperature snowmaking system. Gunstock, at the south edge of enormous Lake Winnipesaukee, has been around since 1938. Like Tenney, it offers 1,400 vertical feet of terrain, and like Sunapee, it has marvelous lake views. Ragged Mountain boasts a handsome base area built to resemble a New England farmstead and the state's only high-speed six-pack, accessing 1,250 vertical feet. Small but feisty Crotched Mountain (875 vertical feet) is best known for its nightskiing. The Swiss owners, who last year resuscitated it after 14 years of dormancy, borrowed a page from the Midwestern resorts they own and started running the lifts till 3 a.m. on selected weekends.

For those of us who occasionally need to sleep (and eat), New Hampshire's southern half isn't as rich as the White Mountains in dining and lodging options. If you know where to look, however, it's possible to find charming rooms and extraordinary cuisine.

BEST DINING

Home Hill Inn in Plainfield (603-675-6165; homehillinn.com) is an 1818 Federal farmstead turned Provence-inspired Relais & Chateaux oasis where Ritz-Escoffier-trained chef-owner (and competitive triathlete) Victoria du Roure translates both locally sourced and jetted-in delicacies into exquisite nouvelle fare. (Examples: roasted pumpkin risotto with black truffle butter or line-caught wild Brittany sea bass.) A hearty bistro menu-coq au vin and similar classics-is offered for a very reasonable $39 prix fixe, but the only sensible strategy is to indulge in the six-course gourmet tasting menu ($89, $154 with wine pairings) in order to fully experience du Roure's genius.

Though the setting is less sophisticated (owners Cyndi and Mason Cobb have spent the past four years de-quainting their 1820 tavern), the fare at the Colby Hill Inn in Henniker (800-531-0330; colbyhillinn.com) represents New England regionalism at its finest. Entrees ($23-$32) range from roasted vegetable cassoulet to maple sugar-rubbed venison with rhubarb chutney. Chef/owner Brian MacKenzie, a Beard House honoree and Culinary Institute of America grad, is pursuing a similar path with his five-course, single-seating candlelit dinners ($52) at the Inn at Pleasant Lake in New London (800-626-4907; innatpleasantlake.com), and fellow CIA alum Jeff Woolley puts out an impressive spread (entrees $22-$38) with a splash of fusion at the Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness (800-545-3141; manorongoldenpond.com). The Hancock Inn in the colonial town of that name (800-525-3318; hancockinn.com) has been welcoming wayfarers since 1789, though travelers of yore probably didn't get pumpkin ravioli finished with cider cream. Among the entrees ($21-$32) is a particularly delicious house specialty, Shaker cranberry pot roast.

BEST LODGING

All of the inns mentioned above double as legitimate sleepover possibilities. Most luxurious among them is the Manor on Golden Pond. Owner Mary Ellen Shields, who started overhauling this grand 1903 country house in 1999, has a gift for creature comforts as well as aesthetic juxtapositions, so each of the 27 rooms ($180-$375) is uniquely poised to surprise and please. The fireplace suites with double jacuzzis are particularly nice.

The Colby Hill Inn ($115-$265) is nearly as luxe, with two similarly accoutered carriage-house suites. Fifteen other rooms, tastefully decorated in a traditional mode, are variously configured, some so as to suit families. Built in 1850 and at one point a hit with the Hollywood in-crowd (Pickford, Gish, et al.), the Rosewood Country Inn in Bradford ($119-$269; 800-938-5273; rosewoodcountryinn.com) is the kind of B&B that's decorated from floor to ceiling. Some rooms are frilly enough to set your teeth on edge (or, conversely, seduce couples who are big on Victoriana). Others are merely formal and lovely. Everyone gets to enjoy a hot tub set under the stars, as well as a truly stellar breakfast. For a classic ski inn of the type you might remember from childhood (a jumble of comfy furnishings, with jigsaw puzzles always at the ready), consider the Inn at Crotched Mountain in Francestown (603-588-6840; innbook.com/crotched), an 1822 farmstead on 65 hilltop acres crisscrossed with five miles of cross-country trails. Not only are your offspring welcome, pets are, too. And the room rate is a retro, family-friendly $80-$140 a night.

BEST NIGHTLIFE

Nightlife? Ask a local, and you're likely to get a laugh. However, culture-seekers have a world-class resource in Dartmouth College's Hopkins Center for the Arts (603-646-2422; hop.dartmouth.edu), which imports big-name acts. Hanover also has the Canoe Club (603-643-9660; canoeclub.us) a music venue done up like an Adirondack camp. The Rynborn Restaurant and Blues Club in Keene (603-357-1313; rynborn.com) is another college-town option. For a lazy night out, claim a couch at the nostalgia-laden Common Man Inn's Boiler Room in Plymouth (866-843-2626; thecmaninn.com), where ski movies are projected on an expanse of industrial brick. Or hey, you could always ski the night away at Crotched.

Gift Certificates

Colby Hill Inn
New Hampshire Bed and Breakfast
Cyndi and Mason Cobb, Innkeepers
3 The Oaks, PO Box 779, Henniker, New Hampshire 03242
Telephone: (603) 428-3281 Fax: (603) 428-9218
For Information and Reservations, U.S. and Canada Call Toll Free (800) 531-0330
E-Mail: innkeeper@colbyhillinn.com Website: www.colbyhillinn.com

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