Critics’ choice: Three spins on destination dining

Sheppard Mansion

Hanover, Pa.

Pretzel Town USA is quietly building a serious new attraction, said David Hagedorn in The Washington Post. Just down the road from the snack-food giants Snyder’s of Hanover and Utz, chef and native son Andrew Little is drawing visitors to a 65-seat dining room where farm-to-market eating is getting a Pennsylvania Dutch twist. Inside Sheppard Mansion, now a stately inn, Little “combines the discipline of French culinary technique” with a sense of playfulness and a firm belief that, as he says, “Local is luxury.” Just outside is a converted carriage house that now serves as a market for local produce, dairy, and meats—including beef from the Scottish Highland cattle raised on the inn’s own farm. The setup is a foodie’s dream, but executed with a refreshing “lack of airs.” In Little’s hands, “the pork-and-polenta staple known as scrapple” is prepared and served the way other chefs would serve foie gras. He even finds room on his dessert menu to celebrate Hanover’s snack foods—offering a “buttered popcorn semifreddo with a salted pretzel crust.” 117 Frederick St., (877) 762-6746

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Press St.

Helena, Calif.

This wine-centric steak house is arguably the “ideal Napa Valley restaurant,” said Michael Bauer in the San Francisco Chronicle. With its handsome space, “majestic views,” and a goal of showcasing the hundreds of local wines its sommeliers are constantly pulling from the dining room’s floor-to-ceiling racks, Press sometimes gets too little credit for “consistently serving excellent food.” Start with the beef tartare, using accompanying dishes of salt, mustard, and capers to match its flavor to your wine. Press’s 10-ounce strip steak is “one of the best around,” and “fish is equally well prepared.” The kitchen’s homey desserts include not just a huge caramelized banana tart but an excellent strawberry shortcake. “It’s simple, to be sure, but everything in the valley should be this simple.” 587 St. Helena Hwy., (707) 967-0550

Willows Inn

Lummi Island, Wash.

A worthy offspring of “the world’s best restaurant” recently sprouted up on one of Washington state’s scenic San Juan Islands, said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. Chef Blaine Wetzel, who apprenticed for several years at Copenhagen’s renowned Noma, has planted his flag in a locavore-crazy corner of the U.S. and is doing his mentors proud. Wetzel “faithfully—even slavishly”—reproduces Noma’s theatrics. Like the chefs at Noma, Wetzel fashions meals heavy in “arcane greens” and “vivid flowers,” many of them plucked that day. He and his chefs also deliver the dishes themselves, “so they can brief you on the backstory of each ingredient and how very nearby it sprouted, bloomed, grazed, or swam.” Seared spot prawns float in a cloud of mussel-broth foam; they “put me in mind of Lilliputian lobster tails.” Equally tender fingerling potatoes, topped with melted Havarti and buttermilk whey, taste as if they’ve been marinated in “some magical potato extract.” Is the staging all a bit twee? No doubt. Even so, “the atmospheric and gustatory joys of the dinner redeem the preciousness.” 2579 W. Shore Dr., (360) 758-2620