TRR photo by Tom Kane Hosts, Dick and Carol Barrett greet guests at their Tyler Hill Farm Country Inn. (Click for larger image)

Get away...to Tyler Hill

By TOM KANE

TYLER HILL — If you can’t go on vacation to the coast of Maine or the hills of Vermont, you can do the next best thing—stay and dine at the Tyler Hill Farm Country Inn on Route 351.

Dick and Carol Barrett are the genial host and hostess, who will make you feel as though you are at home and on vacation at the same time.

Sitting on their front porch, overlooking the rolling hills and serene hay fields of Wayne County, one can smell the aroma from chef Jason Miller’s kitchen. Miller studied at the famed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

Dick and Carol, who lived in Westport, CT where Dick had a marketing consulting firm, have been coming to the area for 12 years. They moved here full time and drove daily past the 1800’s Victorian house on Route 351 that belonged to the Alfast family. The house looked like a great place for a country inn, Dick said. So they bought it.

The house has two guest rooms and the restored barn has six units, each with a separate bath. Each of the barn units is two-floored, with a loft for sleeping.

Restaurant hours are Thursday through Monday from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Sunday brunch is served from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

“Mondays, we serve family style, where the food is offered on platters,” Dick said.

“All the produce is locally grown and as farm fresh as possible,” he said. The sheep, steer and veal are local and free-range grown, he said

Salad ingredients and some vegetable come from their garden. “The menu changes in the dining room depending what is fresh and in season,” Dick said.

A country store is located in the barn where items produced by local craftspeople are on sale. “The vendors are all local,” Carol said.

The Tyler Hill Farm Country Inn can be reached by calling 570/ 224-1131. Their website is www.tylerhillfarmcountryinn.com.