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By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
Rappahanannock Special Writer
A decade ago, when the new restaurant opened in Washington, Virginia, mail came addressed to “The end of Little Washington.”
Twq weeks ago, that same restaurant basked in the honor of being the launch site of the Relais & Chateaux’s first guide devoted entirely to the finest inns of North America and luxuriated in the applause from the acknowledged experts. “Of all the inns and restaurants in the United States, this is the greatest!” rhapsodized Craig Claiborne, the dean of food writers, cookbook authors, and restaurant critics.
Mr. Claiborne was just one of the notables on hand for the momentous occasion — momentous at least in the world of food, wine, and the art of hospitality.
The Relais & Chateaux, with its exacting standards and ratings for the five “C’s” of hospitality (character, courtesy, calm, comfort, and cuisine), has long been the Bible for the sophisticated European traveler. The inclusion a few years ago of properties on this side of the Atlantic was “acknowledgement that America was growing up in terms of taste, style, and cuisine,” explained Patrick O’Connel, chef and coowner of The Inn at Little Washington. This year’s presentation of the first mini-guide, listing only inns in the United States, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean, is an effort to make the Relais & Chatemix as understood here as it is in Europe, Mr. O’Connell said, adding that “practically everybody on the street in France is conversant with the organization.”
It was an honor for The Inn when it was tapped in 1986 for inclusion in the prestigious guide to hotels and restaurants. But it was an even greater honor to be selected for what grew to be an extravaganza of dining and hospitality.
Every year, the latest edition of the Relais & Chateaux is presented to the world at a grand luncheon for sponsors and representatives of the food and wine press. “I was asked originally to do the launch in New York. Formerly, they’ve always had a French chef come over from France to handle the food, but this year, they really wanted an American to cook for the press,” Mr. O’Connell explained. “I was willing to do that, but then they went a step further. They wanted
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