Spring Weekend in Madison, Connecticut

In early spring, when much of northern New England remains snowbound, Madison, Connecticut, feels like a gift from the future. Crocuses have emerged, trees have budded out, and lawns are being mowed. Time it right, and it’s sitting-outside-drinking-iced-coffee weather.

The weekend lure of this abashedly wealthy community on Long Island Sound, of course, is the ocean. There are three town public beaches, and in its eastern reaches, Hammonasset Beach State Park, whose nearly 1,000 protected acres encompass woods, marshes, a river, and a two-mile-long stretch of sand.

But here’s the thing about Madison: It’s an ocean town without being a beach resort. This is not a place filled with kitsch and fried food. The main drag is lined with local businesses that play to tourists and residents alike: an art-house movie theater, a cheese shop made for nibbling, a cozy French bistro, and one of the best bookshops in New England. The Atlantic may be what pulls people to Madison, but it’s far from the only thing that keeps them there.

Spring Weekend in Madison, Connecticut

FRIDAY

Establish a beachhead.

Madison has good lodging options to choose from, including the Scranton Seahorse Inn, where owner and pastry chef Michael Hafford will have you gleefully tabling that no-carb diet. But for the full ocean experience, check into the Madison Beach Hotel, which sits on a curve of the coastline where Long Island Sound is at its widest. A decade ago the original 19th-century building was razed, and in its place rose a light-drenched boutique hotel with larger rooms, a spa and fitness center, a honeymoon suite, and an expansive version of the wraparound porch that defined its predecessor. Everything about this 32-room hotel orients to the sea, most notably the guest suites, all of which have water views.

Then, follow your appetite.

Among the options for dinner, of course, is to simply kick back on the porch at the Madison Beach Hotel and feasting on hearty seafood specialties from the on-site restaurant The Wharf. But if you’re up for getting a taste of the local scene, you’ll find polished Italian-Mediterranean cuisine at Café Allegre, hip cocktails and American pub food at Moxie, and an upscale seafood-centric menu at Sea House.

SATURDAY

Go bowling for breakfast.

The day begins with some healthful fortification at downtown smoothie shop Life Bowls. Owners Jonathon Bone and Justin McLaughlin are 30-something Madison natives who opened the place in early 2019 after four years of churning up fruity concoctions in a pair of food trucks. The standouts here are the açai bowls: little works of art topped with chia seeds, fruit, homemade granola, peanut butter, and cacao nibs, among other things. (You’ll be forgiven if you end up photographing yours before digging in.)

Check out a shore bet.

Grab a caffeine boost at Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea just across the street, then hit the road for the 10-minute drive to Hammonasset Beach State Park. Each year the park draws roughly a million visitors—more than some national parks receive—but in spring it’s largely empty, plus there’s no entrance fee. It’s a haven both for birdwatchers on the lookout for avocets, rails, and loons and for hardy beachgoers. You might spy a few brave souls decked out in bathing suits, or overhear a visitor sigh while looking out to sea and nursing an ice cream bar: “This is the kind of day you need to take a picture of, just so you can remember it.”

A visit to Hammonasset should also include a swing through the Meigs Point Nature Center, which debuted its current $4 million home in 2016. Bone up on the history of the landscape and then see (and in some cases, hold) some of the vital wildlife that resides in it, from snakes to turtles to crabs.

Is it OK to go from a place celebrating sea life to one that serves it? Of course! For lunch, head just a few miles northeast to Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale, a down-home seafood eatery that’s been serving whopping mounds of fried things (scallops, clams, fish) since 1979. Its biggest seller is the lobster roll—and, this being Connecticut, you should forget about the mayo. Lenny & Joe’s serves only meat on a hot buttered bun.

See what’s in stores.

Next you’re off for a retail stroll through Madison’s town center, which boasts a 6,000-square-foot locally owned bookstore as its anchor. R.J. Julia Booksellers got its start 30 years ago, when corporate tax accountant Roxanne Coady decided to reboot her life and, together with her husband, left New York City to come to the shoreline.

Back then, downtown Madison wasn’t an obvious spot to launch a new business: Main Street was checkered with shuttered spaces, including the one Coady settled on, an early 1900s storefront most recently used as a dive bar. In the years since, she’s transformed it into a book lover’s haven, with restored tin ceilings, a welcoming café, and custom mahogany shelves filled with the latest and greatest fiction and nonfiction. Even better, R.J. Julia has become a favorite stop on A-list book tours, with recent guests including President Jimmy Carter, John Grisham, Anna Quindlen, and Neil Patrick Harris.   

Elsewhere, there’s art and treasure to be had at Junk-2-Junque, a vintage furniture and home furnishings store, and Neighborhood Vintage, which combines California cool with New England tradition in its array of old-school clothing, art, and decor. Meanwhile, the Audubon Shop promises to lure avian enthusiasts with its wealth of birdhouses, books, and birding supplies.

On the snacking front, you can find superior scoops at Ashley’s Ice Cream, part of a mini chain founded in 1979 in New Haven. And don’t miss Madison Cheese, whose selection of up to 95 different cheeses might just awaken your appetite again. (If so, the Mousetrap grilled sandwich, filled with a secret seven-cheese mix, is a recommended starting point.) Otherwise, simply make note of the ample picnic provisions—meats, breads, crackers, olives—for your next trip to the beach.

Do dinner and a movie.

For dinner you’ll want to reserve a table at Bar Bouchée, the creation of celebrated chef Jean Pierre Vuillermet, who also heads New Haven’s Union League Café. This Parisian-style bistro invites you to linger over such elegantly simple French cuisine as pan-roasted half chicken, braised lamb shank, and steak tartare. The main dining room seats just 20, which means that reservations are essential—but also that you’re in for a joyfully communal night with your fellow guests. Start with the charcuterie board or the duck leg confit, and let the evening unfold.   

Close the night with an art-house flick at Madison Art Cinemas and the opportunity to pair your popcorn with quite possibly the best cappuccino on the Connecticut coast.

SUNDAY

Dig into a stack of flapjacks.

A final trip to the sea is in order. But first, hang a left out of the hotel parking lot and walk two blocks to Cristy’s Madison for breakfast. Although you can opt to fill up on omelets or chicken and waffles, the real stars here are the pancakes, which are not only huge but also available in 40-plus varieties (macadamia nut chocolate chip, pumpkin apple, and raspberry oatmeal crunch, to name a few). 

Cycle into springtime.

Next it’s back to Hammonasset to pick up the Madison section of the Shoreline Greenway Trail. This is just one stretch of a work-in-progress walking/cycling route that eventually will be a 25-mile coastal corridor from New Haven to Madison. The local section features a mile of pathway that cuts through forests and along the water and links up with existing roads to connect the state park and downtown.

Finally, because you’re already in the neighborhood, pay a visit to nearby Guilford, home to one of the prettiest town greens in all of New England. Ringed by the shops of the village center, this 12-acre parcel feels almost like a Hollywood set. There are the big maples. There’s the white steepled church. And there’s all that early spring green—a most welcome sign of the summer to come.

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