The Distracted Wanderer

Dating back to before America's Civil War days, Manchester, Vermont has long been a destination for tourists who flocked to this idyllic New England town nestled between the Taconic Range and Green Mountains to enjoy unsurpassed beauty, peace & quiet, and fly-fishing on the Battenkill. The town is home to Equinox Mountain - the highest summit in the Taconics with an elevation of 3,850 feet that features a spectacular Skyline Drive; the flagship store of  Orvis  - a family-owned retail and mail-order business specializing in high-end fly fishing, hunting and sporting goods founded in 1856;  Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home which was the 412-acre summer estate of Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife Mary Harlan Lincoln along with their three children built in 1905; the Southern Vermont Arts Center - a nonprofit art center featuring both visual and performing arts in a National Historic Trust Mansion on the slopes of Mount Equinox; and the American Museum of Fly Fish...

One might not think that words from Henry David Thoreau's Walden  would apply to dining choices but sometimes they most definitely do, especially at Manchester, Connecticut's Shady Glen Dairy Stores where their motto could definitely be: "Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify."  For those of us who enjoy a simple meal in a simple place that not only tastes great but takes us back to the simplicity of our youth then this is the place to wander to - even if the cheeseburgers are not exactly what one is accustomed to! Shady Glen got its start when John and Bernice Rieg opened their first store on the Manchester/Bolton town lines on June 12, 1948.  Prior to opening the store with 47 stools arranged around the kitchen and soda fountain, the Riegs worked with Leonard R. Dowd, Professor of Dairy Manufacturing in the University of Connecticut's Department of Animal Industries, on their ice cream formulas using milk from their own herd of cows. ...