Enfield, N.H., inn remains a home, too
ENFIELD, N.H. - When they decided 12 years ago to open a bed-and-breakfast, Nancy and Allen Smith also resolved to hedge their bets.
Innkeeping isn't for everyone, and they didn't want to become trapped in a business that might not turn out to be their cup of tea. So as they shopped for a property in this sleepy town near the Vermont border, they had a precise specification in mind.
"We decided we'd get a house big enough to try a business," Nancy Smith says, "but small enough that if it didn't work out we could just live there ourselves."
More than a decade later, their Shaker Hill Bed & Breakfast is still going strong. With only four guest rooms, it's a manageable size for a husband-wife team and it doesn't force the Smiths to sacrifice their personal lives to run the inn. They sometimes leave the house in the evenings to go out to dinner, for example, without fretting about guests feeling marooned.
"The way we've chosen to run our business lets us have a life of our own," says Nancy, "and we think that's important."
They make sure their guests are well tended for in their absence, though. During our two-night stay at Shaker Hill last month, we were the only visitors, and when we found ourselves in an empty house one evening we didn't feel the least bit abandoned.
The living room was stocked with books, magazines, games, puzzles, and old movies; snacks were scattered about, from peanuts to peanut butter cookies to bowls of white chocolate almond bark and dark chocolate buttercrunch on the mantle; and bottles of wine and sherry were free for the pouring. It was an ideal setting for a quiet, cold winter night spent holed up inside (albeit potentially damaging to the waistline).
Casual, country-comfortable, and no-frills, the inn is furnished with a collection of modest antiques, including vintage toys accumulated by the Smiths over the years. Downstairs, guests have access to the dining room, where breakfast is served at a communal table, and the living room, with its mismatched, slightly worn couch and chairs.
Upstairs, true to the inn's name, the rooms are decorated Shaker-style, with a simple, spare look. Quilts are draped over the second-floor staircase railing, and some of the handsome wood furniture was made by a local craftsman. One striking feature: the inn's unusually wide pine floorboards - some of them 22 inches - with their beautiful gold patina.
We stayed in the airy Shaker Room, which offered a pretty view of Shaker Mountain and the snowscape outside. The furnishings were basic but met all our needs: queen bed with silky cotton sateen sheets, two end tables, two chairs, a small desk, a mirrored bureau, and an armoire. In a cute touch, above the bed is a quilted square of two hearts knitted together. The bathroom was bare-bones, with a linoleum floor, cramped plastic shower, tiny sink, and distinctive oval window overlooking a snowy field.
Much of the inn's business is generated by nearby Dartmouth College, a reliable source of parents, alumni, and prospective students who need a place to sleep. The inn also draws people who come to Enfield to visit its Shaker Village complex or LaSalette Shrine; swim, fish, or boat at Mascoma Lake; or ski at Whaleback Mountain. (There's another inn in Enfield, by the way, with a similar name - the Shaker Farm Bed and Breakfast - that we imagine sometimes causes customer confusion.)
Besides the Smiths, who took up innkeeping after retiring from the federal government (she worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, he for the Forest Service), there are three other full-time residents of the inn: Bungie, an aging cat we barely saw, and Ben and Willie, two Vizslas (short-haired hunting dogs that resemble red Weimaraners) whose presence we were aware of the whole time.
I like dogs. But Ben and Willie, adopted when they were past puppyhood, are a sometimes rowdy pair, and they often seemed to have the run of the house. When we first arrived, 65-pound Ben greeted us by barreling down the first-floor hallway, rearing up on his hind legs, and planting his front paws on my husband's chest. At breakfast, 55-pound Willie rested his large head on the table next to my elbow, gazing longingly at the butter dish. And when we returned home from our Shaker Hill stay, we picked more than a few short, red hairs off our clothes. So if you visit, make sure you're an animal lover with a high tolerance for two lovable but rambunctious canines.
Those breakfasts, by the way, were delightful. Nancy, a talented cook, fed us generously: Our first morning brought cinnamon swirl coffee cake, blueberry muffins, glazed baked pears with sliced bananas and strawberries, toast, and a sauteed portobello with tomatoes and scrambled Egg Beaters. On day two, we were served more cake and muffins, as well as yogurt parfait and baked apple pancakes sweetened with cinnamon and sugar.
Nancy makes those pancakes in a pie plate with apples on the bottom and batter on top, and the mixture puffs up impressively while it bakes. Unfortunately, it collapses before it arrives at the table, so if you want to catch a glimpse of the show, you'll have to peer through the oven window or be there when the pancakes are taken out.
Sacha Pfeiffer can be reached at pfeiffer@globe.com.
