The Perfect General Store

One of the many pleasures of working at Yankee is that our offices are just a short drive from one of New England’s great general stores.

Like the best of its kind, the Harrisville General Store is part market, part eatery, part gallery, and part social hub. Incidentally, there were people all around me as I took this photo, but since they were eating, I kept them out of the frame.

The setting of the store couldn’t be more charming. Harrisville boasts remarkably well-preserved 19th-century mill buildings and homes and an abundance of beautiful lakes. Here’s the view from the porch of the store.

Inside, you can find grocery staples, wonderful breads, and the best eggs in the world, all brought in from local farms. There’s a rotating cast of suppliers, but today’s eggs are from Wellscroft Farm.

But perhaps the best part of the Harrisville General Store is the incredible food: homemade soups, panini, burgers made with local beef, organic salads, pot pies, pizzas, cider donuts made fresh daily, towering carrot cakes, a wonderful mac n’ cheese.

Much of this baked good greatness is the work of M’Lue Zahner, whose daughter, Laura Elizabet Carden, runs the place. Laura was out today, but M’Lue was gracious enough to pose for a photo.

But as great as M’Lue’s sweets are, my real addiction at the moment is to the seasonal raw kale salad. This is not a joke. Tossed with walnuts, feta, and dried cranberries in a shallot-rice wine vinaigrette, it is sweet, salty, tart, nutty, and crunchy. A perfect mix of flavors.

So thanks, Laura and M’Lue, for all that you do to feed us so well.