September 8, 2008
By: Ken Alan
kalan@aroundphilly.com
The following is a personal tale of woe and redemption…
The year was 1995 B.I. (Before Internet). I was young, enthusiastic and really enjoyed the relationship-building that was a part of my then-new job as a concierge, especially when it came to working with restaurateurs.
One day, a particular client request came my way: We’re having a dinner meeting for 50…looking for someplace nice around the Exton area…any suggestions?
After recommending the lovely Duling-Kurtz House just off Lancaster Pike, which, for years, had been renowned for its fine cuisine and traditional country charm, the client asked to see banquet menus. So, I called the restaurant to have them faxed over.
“We don’t fax menus,” D-KH owner, Michael Person, stated flatly. “Have your client come in. It’s best she experience the inn personally, and I can tailor a menu to her needs.”
It was a reasonable offer, quite cordial, actually, except my client wasn’t about to make the looong drive without a menu to peruse first, as I explained to Person.
Still, the proprietor continued to refuse, so I asked if he would consider bending his no-faxing policy since a party of fifty was hanging in the balance. The words he uttered then have rung indelible all these years: “We have enough parties, thank you. Frankly, we don’t need the extra business.”
Ouch.
At that point, cheeks flushed in anger, I made it my mission to never suggest or promote the Duling-Kurtz House. Why should I, I thought? The place was doing just fine without me.
Now, quite a few years later, I recently attended a bar mitzvah celebration there.
The day was sunny and brilliant, young Joshua beamed in knowing he was becoming a man (with lots of cool new gifts), and, quite impressively, the country house was a perfect venue for such a celebration.
| DINING TIP |
Request the "Duling-
Kurtz" table. It's one
of the most romantic
restaurant settings
in the Delaware
Valley.
|
Entering the charming 19th-century stone mansion, I marveled at the well-manicured grounds with its lovingly maintained gardens, a cheery creek tinkling beneath a tiny foot bridge, and nearby, the welcoming gazebo, home to countless vows of blissful matrimony.
Inside, the Duling-Kurtz features eight separate dining spaces of varying sizes; hunt room quarters walled with oil paintings and prints, gleaming brass lanterns, frilly chintz, and upstairs, in the Veranda, a series of wide, arched windows where the good light streams in. The entirety of the scene is like the inanimate subject of an Andrew Wyeth masterpiece.
Person, who, along with his wife, Gertie, has been running this piece of Exton area history for decades. It’s a throwback; a genteel country establishment remaining from the days when this neck of the woods was considered “out there,” rather than the suburban megapolis it is today.
The couple, Euro born and formally trained in great Viennese restaurants, maintain a reserved air about them, a refinement born out of an Old World style of service. Less than ten years ago, the couple took on another historic site for dining, the Ship Inn, also situated along the Pike on the easterly side of Exton.
Executive chef Joshua Taggart and his staff do a good job in working with fresh ingredients. Their menu is Continental to its core, found nowadays only at other, similar inns and country mansions.
Jumbo shrimp cocktail, oysters on the half shell and port wine syrup-laden pan seared foie gras are simplistic yet satisfying appetizers, which run in the $11-$15 range. Entrees are no less staid but sturdy choices: rack of lamb, Wiener schnitzel and Chateaubriand, with pricing that crests toward the mid-$30’s.
The bar mitzvah celebration, meanwhile, was in full swing as my own entrée was placed in front of me by Pam, our down-to-earth server, who joked with us throughout the meal. Other staffers working our room were no less pleasant, a bit of an irony, since my last experience with the Duling-Kurtz had been with its stoically unmovable owner.
I quickly turned the table where I was seated into a tasting section, encouraging everyone to share: Lynn’s petite filet mignon with exotic mushroom, Madeira wine and gorgonzola cheese was exceptional, as was Jeff’s (her date) rosemary crusted rack of lamb; the woman on the other side of me offered a (stingy but telling) bite of her seared chicken breast with summer succotash, which had been simmered in a pleasant and light chicken jus; and my salmon filet with accompanying salmon dumplings, saffron potatoes, and braised fennel in a red wine sauce was quite tasty as well, well worth its $26 asking price at dinnertime.
| MAKE A NIGHT OF IT |
| Stay the night; there is an adjoining inn with 13 well-appointed rooms. |
A cappuccino ice cream truffle, that big dome of hard chocolate filled with sweet praline and toffee crumbles, became a delectable, diet-busting dénouement.
The Duling-Kurtz House is a special occasion place to be sure, great for an out-of-the-city date or impressive business lunch and for ceremonies and celebrations--ideal for your
own Joshua after he’s been called to the Torah.
Like several of the other nearby historic inns--General Warren Inn, Dilworthtown Inn and the Kimberton Inn--the Duling-Kurtz earns it own esteemed reputation.
Though I’ve never been asked by any of these other restaurants to take my business elsewhere, I realize now the only grudge that’s been held all these years was by me. Michael Person surely would never remember such a triviality, and as I consider it now, to him, a personal visit meant more than an uninspiring piece of faxed paper.
Still, in the restaurant referral game, I have recently been able to suggest the D-KH twice to clients, now that I’m over all that petty snubbery. And when I need their menu, all I have to do is go online. Person may not believe in faxing, yet he sure as hell can’t argue with maintaining an informative website.
