The Flood Tide Restaurant, Mystic, Connecticut

Inn at Mystic Restaurant Overlooking Mystic Harbor

Oct 19, 2008

A wood-fired brick oven and rotisserie and the use of local organic ingredients are the chief draws of this New England restaurant.

Looking for true Mystic pizza? Abandon your fantasies of watching Julia Roberts serve up a pie with special sauce, and head instead to The Flood Tide Restaurant, on the grounds of the Inn at Mystic overlooking Mystic Harbor.

The culinary ethos of the restaurant centers on an open kitchen with a wood-fired brick oven and wood-fired grill and rotisserie. The mere sight of the grill is enough to warm chilled guests.

Flatbread Stands Out on the Menu at Flood Tide Restaurant

From this kitchen come both pizzas and what the restaurant calls “tarts” – flatbread made on site from Tuscan bread dough, topped with locally grown and made items like goat cheese, thyme, mushrooms and herbs, and fired in the brick oven.

From the Wood-Fired Brick Oven: Pot au Feu, Mystic-Style

The French/Continental menu combines the traditional dishes of France with the flavors of New England. The lobster pot au feu, for example, is cooked in the wood-burning oven and served with roasted potatoes and corn hash grown in the region and smoked bacon.

The lobster itself, naturally, comes from the waters of Mystic and the surrounding areas.

The filet mignon, porterhouse and Alaskan King salmon dishes, all prepared from the catch of the region, are wood-grilled, and a wood-burning rotisserie turns out succulent, organically raised chicken and cinnamon-rubbed, Calvados-glazed rack of pork.

Dessert at the Inn at Mystic's Flood Tide

Several dishes are even prepared tableside for between two and eight diners: a Caesar salad with rosemary-garlic croutons and anchovies, a Chateaubriand and, for dessert, Bananas Flood Tide, the restaurant’s version of Foster and made with flamed banana liquor and rum.

On a winter’s night, the warm apple-rosemary crumble, served with vanilla ice cream and fig molasses, is comfort food raised to its most fragrantly appetizing level.

The Flood Tide serves daily breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner; Junction of Routes 1 & 27, Mystic, CT; 800-237-2415.

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