Life is an adventure, with many faraway lands to explore, fascinating people to meet, exotic foods to try, and new experiences to savor. That is the philosophy that the owners of the Hummingbird Room live by. After a 10-year hiatus, the Sarnows are back doing what they love, but not in the traditional sense of owning a full-time restaurant.
When the renowned and much beloved fine dining restaurant in Spring Mills closed its doors without an explanation 10 years ago, rumors began to spread that the restaurant went bankrupt or the owners had divorced, but close friends of Eric and Claudia Sarnow knew the truth. The Sarnows were off exploring a new chapter in their lives.
Some longtime residents of Central Pennsylvania may remember that in 1993, the the Hummingbird Room, which was housed at the Woodward Inn at the time, served gourmet farm-to-table seasonal menus that brought European cuisine to the community.
“Eric is a classically trained chef who lived in France and worked at Chateau d’Artigny and Domaine de Beauvois in the Loire Valley, as well as six years at Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia. I also spent some time in France, as well,” says Claudia Sarnow. “Long before this mentality of farm-to-table became anything that people even talked about, we were canning cherries, making our own charcuterie, and using locally sourced products in our menu planning.”
Two years after being at the Woodward Inn, the Sarnows visited a family who lived in a historic 1847 manor in Spring Mills and fell in love with the property. Out of the blue, the owner called and asked if they were interested in buying the home.
“I was enamored by this house and the beautiful setting with the rolling hills, the fertile farm lands, and lush weeping willows,” explains Claudia. “But there was a competing offer on the house, so the owners of the house, who had 10 children, put it to a family vote. They loved the idea that their beloved home would be turned into a restaurant for people to appreciate, so we got the house!”
The Sarnows converted the four-story brick house, located at 4188 Penns Valley Road in Spring Mills, into the new Hummingbird Room restaurant, with two floors of dining rooms with seating for 100 diners, a little lounge area, and a bar with 20 seats, and they ran a successful business for 13 years.
“As the business grew bigger and bigger, it became unmanageable,” says Claudia. “We had moved from Philadelphia to the area so we could spend more time with each other and raise our son, Evan, but we were under so much stress of making this full-time thing happen day after day, and our guests loved it, but we weren’t having fun anymore!”
One night after watching a TV program about megayachts, Claudia had an idea.
“Eric liked boating, we loved to travel, and these megayachts had onboard chefs. What a great combination that could be!” Claudia says. “So I sent him on a reconnaissance mission for six months to work on yachts and see if this is something as a family we should do, and in the meantime, I continued to run the Hummingbird Room.”
At the end of the six months, the decision was made that they would move to Florida where most of the yachting was headquartered. They kept the house in Spring Mills and simply closed their doors to the Hummingbird Room. For the next 10 years, Eric worked in the galley of a 145-foot long yacht, where he sailed in the Caribbean in the winter and in the Mediterranean in the summer.
“A few years ago, our son, Evan, and I started coming back to PA in the summers, and we realized that our frustration and tiredness had nothing to do with the area and everything to do with the kind of business we were running. We never had a chance to appreciate the beauty of this place,” explains Claudia. “So this time, we were going to do it our way and have fun meeting new people, serving the best food that we can, and creating magical moments here, from engagements to bridal showers and weddings.”
Since fall 2015, the Hummingbird Room has been open as a venue for special occasions and private parties, seasonal tasting dinners (by e-mail reservations only through [email protected]), and themed cooking classes. For the Sarnows, the next chapter for the Hummingbird Room is a place where more memories and new friends are made.
True to the spirit of locally sourced ingredients, the Sarnows tend their garden, raise chickens, ducks, and honey bees, cure salmon, make their own sausages, bake all their breads and desserts, and can the fruits and vegetables that grow on their property.
Some dishes that diners can expect to see on the seasonal tasting menu include a five-spiced rubbed Hudson Valley magret of duck, diver sea scallops with elote corn salad and house-cured pancetta, and hand-churned burnt honey ice cream with cardamom poached pear and gingersnap.
The Sarnows do a lot of private catering and, during certain special occasions, they also will send out e-mails in advance about complete to-go gourmet dinners such as Thanksgiving dinner with the turkey carved and sliced, as well as all sides and a dessert. Other upcoming dinners include Valentine’s Day.
“What we do is get everything restaurant ready. Everything is prepped and partially cooked, so when you get it home, you follow the instructions we give you on how to finish it,” Claudia says. “For example, we package the white wine stock that you need to finish the lobster risotto, and the steak filet is pre-seared, just needs to go in the oven at 450 degrees for seven minutes for perfect medium rare!”
Cooking classes begin in January and can be booked by e-mail. For $75 per class, the Sarnows will provide everything, including a cookbook with all the recipes.
“It’s a hands-on class that people can learn how to roll pasta, break down a chicken, make a reduction sauce, and, at the end, sit down in the dining room with French music playing and enjoy your meal,” says Claudia. “I invite people to send me an e-mail to be included on our newsletter, and that’s where you will find out when we are having our twice-a-month seasonal tasting dinner, what’s on the menu, when our retail barn is open for gourmet lunches or dinners to go,” says Claudia. “When we have the barn open, we sell our homemade breads and desserts, honey from our bees, my salted caramel sauces, Eric’s finishing sauces, such as his black truffle sauce, locally foraged wild mushroom raviolis, in-house smoked salmon, country pâté, and (French) Boudin Blanc sausages!”
For more information on the Hummingbird Room, visit thehummingbirdroom.com or send an e-mail to [email protected].
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