The Grazing Room serves exceptional dinners with grand hospitality year-round to inn guests and the public. Our Chef's Menu is offered Wednesday through Sunday and features the freshest from each week's local harvest.
The Grazing Room is certified as one of three gold-level Farm-to-Table restaurants in the state by the NH Farm to Restaurant Connection.
Colby Hill Inn is fortunate to have a 56-seat restaurant with wonderful views of our gardens. In fact, we welcome you to sit on the patio or in the gardens to fully enjoy our outdoor spaces.
The Henniker Room can also be transformed into a private dining room for 12-26 guests.
We always recommend reservations in advance.
Seatings are available Wednesdays - Saturdays from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m. The dining room closes at 10:30 p.m.
Sundays we offer seatings from 4:00 -7:30 p.m. The dining room closes at 9:30 p.m.
We are closed for dinner on Mondays and Tuesdays except for private parties and some holidays.
History & Setting
Our chef brings a global flare to the freshest and finest foods sourced in New Hampshire and within no more than 150 miles from the Inn when possible. We are so fortunate that New Hampshire has such a diversity of outstanding farms, distilleries, vineyards, and fishermen.
We chose the name The Grazing Room because we want our guests to take time to appreciate the finest, freshest local ingredients brought to the table with our Chef's recognized culinary talents. So, we hope you slowly enjoy every bite of our food and explore the menu by sharing across the table with your companions. Our dining rooms have wide-planked flooring and provide an excellent view of our gardens and barns where you will surely see our four French Alpine goats grazing. The dining room tables were crafted locally by Gil Misiaszek from a 1740 barn (due by late April), to further connect diners to our environment. The Henniker Dining Room, decorated with a Rufus Porter-style mural by Judy Dibble, has removable panels that allow us to offer an ideal spot for your private wedding reception, meeting, retreat, or party. Both rooms showcase some of our original artwork of farm scenes.
Local Farmers' Cheese & Charcuterie Plate – a selection of four local kinds of cheese and two charcuterie; house-made pickled vegetables; grilled bread, artisanal crackers, accouterments such as fig paste, honey (no meatless $6) – $29
Mexican Chocolate Pôt de Crème – bourbon caramel, chocolate crumble, whipped cream Sorbet Duo – ginger pineapple sorbet; blood orange and olive oil sorbet; citrus tuille (gf) - $10
Dine & Stay Specials
Dining Destination Package – add $120 (not incl. tax and grat.) to your guestroom for a 3-course dinner and a glass of wine for two. (must be booked when reserving your room)
Dine & Stay – Any diner inquiring for an available guestroom after 9:00 a.m. the same day of your dinner reservation — $239 (not incl. tax and grat.) for room and Dining Destination Package!
Wine Lounge & Barn Bar
If dinner is not on your agenda, join us in the Wine Lounge by the fireplace or its front parlor for selections from our extensive wine list or enjoy some of our craft signature cocktails. The WineLounge also easily extends to the patio.
Wine Pairing & Appetizer Special for Two $100 per couple
Three top wine pours (3 oz pours)
Farmer's Cheese & Charcuterie Board
Pick two more appetizers, including soup and salad to share
Outdoor Raw Bar & Barbecue Sundays, May 2 - October 17. 3:00-7:00 pm
Craft Beer, Sake & Wine Flights
New Hampshire Oysters and other Seafood served by the outdoor Goat Barn Bar (*event Barn in rain)
Bringing out the grill and smoker for delicious meats and sides
Live Music weekly
Bocce court (coming soon) and lawn games
The Chef Proprietor
Meet our Chef Proprietor. Prior to leaving D.C. in 2015, Bruce R. Barnes was the senior executive Chef at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., a top account for his company Restaurant Associates where he oversaw daily food service for over 6,000 guests, including royalty and heads of state. Over 14 years, he earned top chef status at Restaurant Associates where he led accounts at renowned cultural institutions and top corporations in New York City and Washington, DC, and winning the "Chef of the Year" title in 2012. He has often been a guest chef at high-profile events, including D.C. Cultural Tourism's Embassy Chefs' Challenge; on "Good Morning America," he won the Polar Bear Chef's Challenge in 2003. In the 1990s, he owned the popular Harvest and Universal Grill restaurants in NYC's East Village. During Harvest's heyday, Velvet Underground leader and solo artist Lou Reed closed Harvest for private Thanksgiving dinners with his wife Laurie Anderson. Bruce gained his early culinary training from chefs in Provincetown, Mass., and NYC. He has regularly worked with food stylists and developed a cookbook for the Mitsitam Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian.
