Hostas at SRC  | Still River Caf� has gotten a couple of shout-outs recently that we are pretty excited about. First, we were notified a few weeks ago that we had received the AAA Four Diamond Award for 2011. This came as a complete surprise as a restaurant typically has to apply to be considered (which we didn't do), and it places us in some very select company: Barbara Lynch's No. 9 Park in Boston, for example, along with Tom Colicchio's Craft, Dan Barber's Blue Hill (where the Obamas enjoyed their date night last summer), Eric Ripert's Le Bernadin, Danny Meyer's Gramercy Tavern and Eleven Madison Park as well as restaurants owned by Gordon Ramsay, Alain Ducasse and Joel Robuchon in New York City.
Kobe Beef Carpaccio  | No sooner had we absorbed this news than Boston Magazine ran an article entitled "Connecticut State Fare" that listed the top 5 reasons to travel to Connecticut for food: white clam pizza at Pepe's, cheeseburgers at Shady Glen, lobster rolls at Lenny's & Joe's, chocolate-vanilla swirl cones at the Ridgefield Ice Cream Shop and the Kobe Beef Carpaccio at - you guessed it - Still River Caf�, described as follows:
"It's one thing to procure perfect Kobe beef, slice it thinly, and kiss it with just a touch of smoke. But to then wrap that meat around a delicate Parmesan custard? That's inspiration, a quality on ample display here in this charming, if unlikely, farm-to-table restaurant in the eastern hills."
 We honestly cannot say which award pleases us more, but I know that my Dad, who worked around the corner from Pepe's in New Haven and introduced me to the white clam pizza over 50 years ago, would be partial to the latter.
 Wherever you fall on the food spectrum, we hope you will visit us this summer. As an added inducement during this week of near-tropical heat, we should note how much cooler it is out here in the Quiet Corner than most other parts of Connecticut. When we used to make the commute from Hartford every day, it was exhilarating to watch the degrees peel off the thermometer in our car as we got closer to home. The phenomenon starts as you begin the climb on I-84 through Vernon and Tolland, but it really accelerates in the six short miles that separate us from the highway as you pass though first the Nipmuck Forest and then the Yale Forest. Yesterday was a case in point. The temperature in Hartford? 103 degrees. The temperature when we arrived home to Still River Cafe? 84 degrees! In only the 40 minutes it takes to get here from downtown Hartford, you are in a different world entirely. It's well worth the drive.
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