The Tom Quick Inn
411 Broad Street
Milford, PA 18337
570/296-6514

Long an institution in the Milford area, the Tom Quick Inn continues to offer excellent food, gracious service and an ambiance of abundance and comfort. The 1882 red and white landmark has been preserved where possible and restored where necessary. Entry through the beautifully wainscoted bar room, with its spectacular heavy curved bar, leads to dining rooms and a banquet hall that are Victorian both in spirit and in most details.

Where better to have Christmas dinner, that most Victorian of celebrations, if one isn’t at home for the holiday? My party of three enjoyed the Inn’s sumptuous Christmas buffet, a showcase for the substance and style, which has made the Inn a favorite restaurant of many.

If food were poetry, the buffet would be an epic. In the spirit of the Inn’s abundance and comfort, I am listing the choices available, realizing full well that I’ve probably omitted something(s). There was, beautifully presented despite the buffet traffic, beef barley soup, tossed salad, carrot salad, cole slaw, crusty-tender dinner rolls, carving stations of roast turkey and prime rib, roast chicken, chicken francaise, roast pork and sauerkraut, red potatoes and green beans, rice pilaf, Swedish meatballs, linguine with clam sauce, mussels, ziti, and sausage and pepper. Even with three people wearing down the handsome carpet with multiple trips to the buffet line, we collectively couldn’t sample everything. What we could do is agree that what we individually enjoyed surpassed excellence and achieved luxury.

The buffet was $22 per person. A round of cocktails and two shared desserts, a slice of apple pie and a lovely light tiramisu, with coffee, brought the total to $89 before the tip. (In years past, assorted desserts were included in the buffet. I suspect that patrons, like me, more enamored with the idea of dessert than the ability to see it through, wasted much of that loveliness and led the management to a more economical measure. For those who really wanted dessert, several choices of pies, cakes, cheesecakes and sherbets were available for $4 each.)

A few lunches at the Inn over the last few years have convinced me that the quality of the holiday fare is consistent through the calendar.

The lunch and dinner menus share a long list of appetizers ranging from the homemade soup of the day to escargot. The dinner poultry, seafood, beef and veal selections are straightforward preparations ranging from roast half chicken with stuffing at $12.95 to twin South African rock lobster tails at $36.95. Entrees average at $16.95; a nice touch is the inclusion of a daily combination vegetable platter as an entree for $10. 95. All dinners include a bread basket, choices of salad and potato, vegetable and coffee or tea. The Inn’s signature dishes, banana bread, carrot salad, and, my favorite, potato pancakes, are all represented in the dinner inclusions. Early bird dinners at $11.95 are served from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The lunch menu is slightly more varied than the dinner, with salads, hot and cold sandwiches and platters, and specialty sandwiches, such as smoked pepper turkey or prosciutto and roasted peppers. Daily lunch specials start at $6.50.

Freshness and attention to detail are also signatures of the Tom Quick Inn. It should be on your short list for either an intimate lunch or a party for 200, accommodating events from breakfast meetings to wedding receptions. The Inn is named after local legend Tom Quick, lately controversial for his enmity of Native Americans. What is not controversial is the success of his namesake enterprise, a river valley legend in its own right.

• Open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

• Open Monday on holiday weekends.

• The Back Door Saloon Sports Bar is open until 2:00 a.m.

• Credit cards accepted.

• Ample street parking.