The interior of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
In June 1776 the newly finished warship, Oliver Cromwell, built for the Connecticut State Navy was launched in Essex, according to ConnecticutHistory.org. The ship was named, potentially to antagonize the English king, George III: Oliver Cromwell, a leader of the English Civil Wars responsible for the death of King Charles I. The ship was one of the largest full-rigged ships built after the establishment of the state’s navy and is credited with capturing nine British ships during the war, according to ConnecticutHistory.org.
Given the revolutionary atmosphere, it’s easy to imagine that the Connecticut Yankees who built the ship were angry at the tyranny of the king; they were determined, they were hungry and hard-worked. They needed a meal and a bed, and according to The Griswold Inn’s website, it was created to serve them. The Cromwell would sail, fight, win, lose, be captured and re-captured over its career, but its lifetime was a blink in the eye of the Inn, now celebrating its 250th year.
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Stuffed chicken from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Food, drink, and a bed are still promised at what locals call The Gris, where a yearlong celebration in 2026 invites guests to step inside living history. The white clapboard inn’s porch still fronts Main Street in Essex, and your first steps inside tread over the slightly uneven, centuries-old floor, through the small reception space, and straight into the taproom: originally built in 1738 as the first schoolhouse in Essex, and pulled here by a team of oxen in 1801 to serve another purpose.
“Those children had to grow up sooner or later,” laughs Joan Paul, the current co-owner with husband Doug and brother-in-law, Geoff. She points to the rounded ceiling, original plaster of horsehair and clam shells, still holding its shape — though the original white is now stained the deep mahogany of pipe, cigar and fireplace smoke, plus the absorption of tall tales, quiet secrets and loud song. A centrally located wood-burning stove which once warmed the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam now burns with the warm light of a Christmas tree year-round, currently decorated red, white and blue for the Gris 250 celebrations. The old room is alive with guests and piano music as I take in the scene and listen to Joan tell its history.
In April of 1814, British raiders briefly took control of the inn, and their demands of a meaty English fare the next morning are said to be the origins of the Griswold Hunt Breakfast, served as part of their Historic Dining program. The June 5-7 “Taste For History” event this year will include traditional food and drink, visits by actors starring in 1776 at the nearby Ivoryton Playhouse, the Essex Sailing Masters of 1812 fife and drum corps and, appropriately, a good deal of rum. This last would be quite the affront to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Essex Cold Water Army, Saybrook division, whose 19th-20th century banners hang in the main dining room.
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Bar manager Frank makes a One if by Land cocktail at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
“Large streams from little fountains flow, great sots from moderate drinkers grow,” states one framed example, which may be considered either a warning or an aspiration, depending on viewpoint. I sipped the house Revolution Ale and considered.
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This dining room, called the Covered Bridge room contains one of the finest collections of maritime art in the country, with everything from tattered banners to museum-quality prints framed and tiling every vertical surface. Many were collected and preserved by brother Arthur “Bud” and Willard “Will” Ladd, inkeepers from the Lovell/Ladd family who ran the Griswold from 1945 to 1972, and William Winterer, who kept the story of the Griswold alive before selling to the Pauls in 1995 when art collector Geoff Paul offered to buy a painting of the Griswold from Winterer and was asked, “Why buy the painting when you can buy the real thing?”
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Grilled Angus burger branded with the 250th logo from The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
You are never — figuratively or literally — far from the water at the Griswold. Sea chanties are still sung every Monday night in the taproom and will become especially rollicking when The Connecticut Sea Music Festival comes to Essex this June 12-15. Come sit at the bar in the newest section of the Gris, the wine bar (built around 1969), and a mural takes you to a view from a 19th century steamboat leaving Essex: a wake trailing behind with the dock and steeples receding into the distance. Joan explains it was painted by Aldis Browne, Depression Era painter or murals at the U.S. Treasury and Coast Guard Academy while flipping a switch, causing the entire mural to rock, port to starboard, like you’re standing on the ship’s stern. It’s a view both captivating and dangerous for people with a few glasses of wine in their personal rearview.
The interior of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
It’s finally dinnertime at the Inn when my companion and I visit, and we choose to sit where Frank, Dean and the rest of the Rat Pack did during the 1960s, according to Ladd: the Gun Room. This little area is liminal space between the Covered Bridge, Tap and Library rooms, with a case of armaments from the 16th century onward. A musket from Revolutionary War is displayed next a note found stuffed into its barrel:
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7th July 1776.
My dear son Jared, take this my gun, do not handle in in fun, and with it join ye ranks of Washington and make the British run, and when our independence is won take a good old drink of rum! – John Frances Putnam
Braces of pistols, rifles and blunderbuss are arrayed in their dust, and it’s strange to think they were all once fired at men. A cheery piano tune plays from the tap room around the corner.
Courtesy custom chocolates for inn guests from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
We enjoy our dinners immensely in this space with its many layers of time somehow weightless above and around us. She has a chicken madeira with buttery potatoes and red wine — a dish inspired by the preferences of Thomas Jefferson — and I dig into the flaky crust of a New England staple: chicken pot pie.
Bar manager Frank makes a One if by Land cocktail at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Bar manager Frank makes a One if by Land cocktail at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
The Griswold has a special beer just for the 250th on tap at The Griswold Inn in Essex Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Bar manager Frank makes a One if by Land cocktail at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
The exterior of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Grilled Angus Burger branded with the 250th logo from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Chicken madeira from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Boneless short ribs of beef from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Grilled Angus burger branded with the 250th logo from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
250 Spritz from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Stuffed chicken from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Half chicken from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Diners toasting with Griswold Madeira at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Carrot cake and a coffee drink from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Carrot Cake from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Carrot cake and a coffee drink from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Fish and chips from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Carrot cake from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Courtesy custom chocolates for inn guests from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
The exterior of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
The interior of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
The interior of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Bar manager Frank makes a One if by Land cocktail at The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
250 Spritz from The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Gris “wedge” salad from The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Grilled Angus burger branded with the 250th logo from The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Diners at The Griswold Inn in Essex, CT on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Boneless beef short ribs from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Chicken Madeira from The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Executive Chef Ian Matheson of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Executive Chef Ian Matheson of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
Diners toasting with Griswold Madeira at The Griswold Inn in Essex, Conn. on April 23, 2026.
Lisa Nichols for Hearst CT Media
The Lovell/Ladd brothers used the taproom at the Gris as a test case to prove it was acceptable for women to order their own drinks at the bar in Connecticut. A who’s who of celebrities has stayed at the Inn. Marriage proposals take place almost weekly in the Library room, and a renovation once revealed a nearly functional Prohibition-era copper pot still hidden in a ceiling. The Inn recently launched a #GRIS250ShareYourStoriescampaign, inviting guests to share their personal stories, photos, and memories through the years. Share them online or via email: stories@griswoldinn.com.
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“We’re always making history,” Joan says before leaving us to our meal. “We don’t think of it all the time because we think of the pictures and dusty books as history, but we’re all making it, preserving it, every day.”
36 Main St., Essex
Griswoldinn.com; 860 767 1776
Open: always and forever.
The Space
The Griswold Inn is like no other place America. The oldest continually operating inn in the U.S. still offers 34 guest rooms, a taproom, two dining rooms awash in history and a wine bar. Food, music, art and American culture are available every day.
The Vibe
The taproom hews to tradition by being loud with conversation and singing, with the library and wine bar rooms offering quieter spaces — one comfy, and the other bright, airy, and nautical. Art, stories and a deep connection to the ages of Connecticut are everywhere.
James Gribbon is a Connecticut native, CRAzies Awards panelist and Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists award-winning writer with over a dozen years’ experience covering the state for Connecticut Magazine, CTBites and Fodor’s Travel.
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Dining and Cooking