Spoon #9: The Milleridge Inn

This past Sunday the whole family, Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Baby Brother Bear, Ms. Dish and myself all went out to the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, New York to celebrate Mama Bear’s birthday! 

When I was a boy growing up in the pine barrens and potato fields of Long Island, the Milleridge Inn always had a certain mystique about it.  A mysterious place that was very “adult”, very “fancy”.  The kind of place your parents went for their anniversary, or for company holiday dinners.  When “Milleridge” was mentioned, you knew you would be spending the evening at your grandparents!  In fact, it was only five or six years ago that I was actually invited to join my folks at Milleridge for the first time, and its secrets were revealed.

The Milleridge Inn is old!  Circa 1672 old!  Their website has a detailed history outlining major miletsones, from the original construction in 1672, to its first use as a roadside stopping point by Elias Hicks in 1783, to the boom brought about by the newly constructed Jericho Turnpike in 1815.  With these milestones the building was repurposed, remodeled, or added to.  What you see when you go inside is like a patchwork quilt of various eras, from the original fireplace now well over 300 years old, to the more recently added neon sign in front. 

So how does this all compare to the image of Milleridge when I was young?  Well… it is adult, it is fancy, but it is most certainly not pretentious.  It’s the type of place that changes, but so slowly you don’t notice until plenty of time has passed – just like Mama Bear and Papa Bear!

Here now we have Spoon #9, which very proudly bears the WALCO mark:

Since this is our first Walco spoon, we might as well look into their company a little bit.  The Walco website explains that Walco is a division of the Utica Cutlery Company, focusing primarily on the hotel and restaurant industries.  Here is a rendering of Utica Cutlery Company World Headquarters in beautiful Utica, New York:

Walco manufactures in the good ol’ U.S.A., but also imports some products from overseas.

The Walco website banner says the company celebrated their 100^th year anniversary in 2010!  If you’re like me, you may be a bit worried that being that old, Walco could be a little “out of date”.  Not to worry!  Recently Walco introduced their new “Freya Norse Goddess of Love” collection, featuring what they call the “latest trend in flatware”, Stand-up Knives! 

Stand-up Knives?  Now that's cutting edge!  Ba-dum ching!