Gibbet Hill Grill

If you live in the Boston area and haven't yet tried the Gibbet Hill Grill in Groton (http://www.gibbethill.com/index.htm), you're definitely missing out. We went last night with 3 other couples. Our friends Harry & Christine, Denise & Nate, and Jen & Ronny were nice enough to join us. We had a really fun time...and getting four couples together is no small feat! Steak is the big thing at this place, and I can personally vouch for the filet mignon. I've never heard a complaint about anything else on the menu though, so you can feel safe ordering anything.

The desserts are out of this world, and huge (that is half of Christine's chocolate layer cake in that bag!), so save room! Between all of us we also tried the raspberry cheesecake, the chocolate brownie sundae, and the apple crisp. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

Gibbet is pronounced with a soft 'g' and a gibbet is an English gallows, generally situated on a hill for public executions! You may be thinking, "hey, that doesn't sound like an all that appetizing place to eat." But if it helps at all that this hill in Groton was named in 1655, then maybe you'll give it a chance.

After a period of time as a sanitarium, in the 1930s the Groton Hunt Club used the property for fox-hunting parties, dinners, dances, and nature outings. From the 1940s through the 1990s, the property was used as a cattle farm, breeding Black Angus. In the late 1990s, the property was put up for sale and was about to be purchased by Modern Continental (for those of you who don't live in the Boston area, this is one of the construction companies responsible for the infamous Big Dig)...who planned to build a 78-home tract on the property.

Amazingly, the 338 acre farm and adjacent 188 acre orchard was whisked out from under their nose by Steven Webber, founder of Geotel Communications, and a Groton native, who purchased the property for $10 million. He vowed never to allow residential development of the site in order to maintain the rural setting of the town. The Gibbett Hill Grill, which opened in 2004, is run by the Webber family in a refurbished barn on the property. There is also an extensive network of trails on the property that the public is welcome to walk or hike.

It's an inspiring story of someone using his money to preserve green space for future generations...and in the meantime, we get to enjoy the fantastic food, homey atmosphere, and great service of the restaurant. So go check it out and make sure you give me your reviews! Here's a pic of the place: