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It's been a long haul for John and Elizabeth Hamilton.  The couple purchased the Rose Inn with its accompanying land and buildings... or what was left of them after a disastrous fire on March 12, 2004.  Rumor has it that the inn would have sold for as much as $2 million before the fire, but luckily for the Hamiltons they were able to pick it up at fire sale prices. 

After months of hard work, much of which they did themselves, the newly renamed John Joseph Inn opened on May 28th, just in time for Cornell graduation.  "That Friday I was still soldering pipes and fixing plumbing in the walls of the inn," says John Hamilton.  "People were moving in at the same time so it was very hectic.  We always thought that we would open the restaurant first because it was a lot easier to do that.  There wasn't half as much construction, but all the while we really wanted to open them up at the same time."

But things never quite work out the way you plan.  At the last minute they found they could open the inn, but not the restaurant.  "We had put in a new septic system for the restaurant," recalls Hamilton.  "We discovered that there was a bad pipe that had shifted from the original plumbing.  In order to fix that one spot so we had to dig all that up and that took every spare minute that we had for the rest of the weekend.  We were able to open the restaurant on Sunday."

Between October and the end of May Hamilton did all the work on the small house on the grounds where he and his family now live.  They settled in with their son Hunter (who is now almost three years old), and then Hamilton began restoring the restaurant himself, including designing and building a new kitchen.  While contractors did much of the work on the inn, he had his share of tasks there, too.  Meanwhile the couple was shopping for furniture and things to decorate both the restaurant and inn -- everything had been auctioned off before they bought the property.  On top of that the couple cleaned up the garden area, got the premises ready for guests... oh, and in their spare time they had a baby, their second son Lawson.

	Sunday Brunch at the Elizabeth Restaurant Family was visiting.  Karen and I had met and liked the new owners of the Elizabeth Restaurant.  I had seen the restaurant before it was restored, and we were curious to learn how it all turned out.  So we decided to try it out for Sunday brunch. So nine of us, four children from ages 5 to 15, three parents, and two grandparents, filed into the restaurant, a charming carriage house facing the main entrance of the newly restored inn.  We were seated at the chef's table, a long table just below the kitchen, with a view into the kitchen through a window wall.  Chef John Hamilton was there to greet us as we were seated and poured over the menu, which was unique for the day. Baskets of muffins and scones, baked by Elizabeth earlier that morning were soon going around the table.  Made that morning from fresh, in-season ingredients, I was afraid that we'd fill up with muffins and not have room for brunch.  They were so good they didn't need butter or jam.  The tops of the blueberry muffins had a delicate, crisp texture.  "The first bite of the blueberry muffins really stayed with me," Karen said later.  "It was the best muffin I ever had."  High praise from someone who herself is an amazing baker. The Hamiltons at the Chef's Table, with the kitchen behind The menu that day included such dishes as applewood smoked bacon with carmalized onions and three-cheese quiche, Hamilton Farm stuffed waffles filled with berries and cream cheese,  and sauteed baramundi filet with Hamilton Farm hash and applewood smoked bacon.  There were nine choices to fit every palate and the adults answered the childrens' questions: 'Do I have to have stuffing in my waffle?' and 'What's a quiche?' Chef John wasn't pushy about it but he asked us to try the dishes his way, and nobody was disappointed.  Once the kids bit into their waffles the table got quiet except for occasional 'Yummms' and 'This is good.'  Our teenaged boy went for the steak, a bit rare for his taste, but he had no trouble finishing it off. I had 'Eggs in a Basket,' which John said was one of his own childhood favorites.  Eggs were fried into a piece of freshly baked bread with plenty of toast made of the same bread. Prices ranged from $7 for Elizabeth's morning biscuits with country sausage gravy and eggs, to $16 for grilled ribeye with eggs hash and vegetable.  Karen had a chance to taste the biscuits a week or two later.  "I'm not a sausage and biscuits kind of girl,"  she says.  "But I tell you, it was delicious!" That day she saw 'Tia Maria soaked & baked French baguette toast in a mini Dutch oven with a baked egg' on the menu, and she mentioned to Chef Hamilton that I would like it.  The next thing she knew she was bringing one home.  By the time she got here I had eaten lunch, so she heated it up for dinner.  It was amazing, and I can only imagine how it would have been fresh from Hamilton's kitchen. A fully stocked bar is available John told me last Fall that his food is a kind of 'comfort food' taken to another level.  After trying the two brunch dishes I see what he means.  He takes a familiar meal, makes it with fresh in-season foods, and puts his own twist onto it.  The result is an experience that you hope will linger and makes you want to go back for more. As for the atmosphere, I grew up in the Boston area, and it was a rare treat to go to the Wayside Inn, immortalized in 1863 in Longfellow's 'Tales of the Wayside Inn.'  The old Carriage House Restaurant has something of that familiar flavor, mixed with something else -- a bit like the food.  The Hamiltons got a deal on a window wall and doors at an auction where they were selling off pieces of Cornell's Noyes Center, where, fittingly enough, food was served.  The result is a mix of two local food histories that mix strangely well. Our brunch got thumbs up all around from adults and children alike.  Even me, and I am hard to please, generally favoring things I know I like.  But I wouldn't hesitate to try something new at the Elizabeth Restaurant.

The Hamiltons are graduates of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA), with John specializing in culinary arts and Elizabeth focusing on baking and pastry arts.  Both Ithaca natives, they have worked in restaurants all over the United States.  But they dreamed of opening their own restaurant, and that dream included a grand vision.

"You can go anywhere and get a bed and breakfast," Hamilton says.  "You can go anywhere and create a restaurant, but there are very few locations that have all of the elements that have a nice inn with history, that has a restaurant that's separate from the inn because that gives so many elements.  It allows you to do different banquets and different spaces.  Then the other factor was to have some property.  We wanted to have at least five acres.  We dreamed of having an orchard but that was a long shot.  A pond, these were all things that we knew we wanted.  The other key factor was having our own living space that was separate from everything because we have the young children."

When the 13 acre Rose Inn property became available at a price they could afford, it was a dream come true.  Not only did it have all the elements they had envisioned, but they were familiar with the site -- it is where they got married.  "This property was a no-brainer," he says.  "We knew this property well, and in some ways this was kind of our stencil for what we wanted."


The kitchen Hamilton designed has two window walls looking over the dining room.  "I love open kitchens for a number of reasons," he says.  "It demands excellence from a chef, from your staff, from everything.  You have to have a clean kitchen, have to be on your best behavior, have to maintain a level of professionalism that is very easily transferred to your guests.  And I want the kitchen to say I have nothing to hide, so everybody can see what I'm doing, because you often go into those restaurants where you don't know what the heck is going on in the back of the house."

While both Hamiltons are happy to get back to cooking, they are doing what most new business owners do -- everything.  They hired Lansing Soux Chef James Volbrecht, and, so far, one server.  That means you get the personal touch whether you go to the Elizabeth to eat or if you stay at the inn.  The couple cleans the rooms, does the laundry, make the beds, take reservations, and are likely to be serving you in the restaurant even as they are creating meals.

The Hamiltons have turned the focus of the property 180 degrees from the Rosemann's vision.  While the inn was the main focus of the Rose Inn, the restaurant is now the hub of the operation.  "The inn pretty much runs itself ," Hamilton says.  "But we run everything out of the restaurant so when people check in they come into the restaurant and then we take them over to the inn."

Nevertheless, the Hamiltons paid close attention to every detail of the inn, naming each room after family members.  Each room is uniquely furnished with large beds, and featuring Jacuzzi tubs with a fireplace and a rubber duck.  The two downstairs rooms have private entrances, and are handicap accessible. 

Upstairs is a sitting area with a beautiful view of the restaurant.  But the pièce de résistance is what you see when you enter the inn -- a sunken reception room bathed in sunlight through a wall of windows, with a sitting area and piano.  MacKenzie Childs pots give a local flavor to the expansive room, with chandelier and sconces brightening the room even more.  This room is used for receptions, wedding rehearsal dinners, and other events.  It has also been used for retreats by Cornell, Ithaca College, and Wells College.

The first wedding was July 7th, with 160 guests outside in the garden.  "We had a beautiful reception and set up the huge tent," Hamilton says.  "It was gorgeous, it was great.  Then we did a big rehearsal dinner on the 20th and then we had another wedding Labor Day weekend.  You do the wedding here and we do all the food, we do all the alcohol, we've got the rooms.  You basically have total ownership of the whole property.  Other than the restaurant being open, the wedding goes on."

	Why a Pig? Whya Not a Duck? "There area lot of reasons why we have the pig as our logo," John Hamilton explains.  "We're creating something very unique and very original.  I want that to be like the spokesman for our business.  We had to come up with a logo that will stand alone, it will be real unique, and fun, and down to earth at the same time, and just different. Hamilton says his nickname in high school was 'Ham.'  And the argyle design speaks to his Scottish roots.  "I have been very fond of pigs ever since high school," he says.  "But this is a fancy place and people are going to have weddings here and who's going to want a wedding at the Pig Inn?  It's not very appealing.  So I said how can we make a pig kind of fancy and upscale.  Well let's fit it with argyle." Somehow it works.  With pigs placed all over the restaurant, it's a funky, fun thing.

Hamilton says that the summer has been slower than expected, but the couple remains flexible and optimistic, and business has been picking up.  When the restaurant opened they offered a 'fixed price' menu, where you got a five course meal for about $50.  But there weren't many takers.  'It's kind of like a sticker shock kind of thing to say, "Oh, I go out to dinner and I'm going to have to spend this amount,' Hamilton notes.  "In reality if they go to a lot of other restaurants in town, they're going to spend the same if not more.

"You go to the Heights and you will spend $10-$15 for an appetizer, you're going to spend upwards of $28 to $35 for an entry, you're going to spend $9 for a dessert, what's that $15.35.  That right there you got it, plus dessert you're over it.  At John Thomas everything's ala carte so you buy a $30 steak, you buy a $6 mashed potato, you buy a $5 veg, that's your entrée and you're over $40.  Plus you buy an appetizer for $8, $12 whatever it might be.  You're well over.  People don't take the time to really add it all up."

The couple chose the fixed price menu at first because it was easy after the tumult of getting the restaurant open.  "When we first decided to do it we said, 'Well, let's give it a go and see how people respond to it,'" he says.  "Everyone that came into the restaurant and dined with us loved it.  There was maybe a couple of people who said, 'We wish you offered ala carte as well.'  But for the most part people really said, 'Wow, this is really a great experience.'"

But on July 19th he changed the menu, keeping the full meal as an option, but adding entrees a là carte.  The menu changes frequently with entrees ranging from $25.95 to about $34.95.  "For us it's really about making people happy and giving them a special experience," he says.  "We want to be able to do that for more people.  But it kind of takes away that hump of the sticker shock up front and enables more people to come in.  People who go dining want to have options."

A part of the Hamiltons' vision is to make the property self-sustaining, growing crops and bringing back their orchard to provide ingredients for the meals they serve, as well as raising farm animals.  The plan is to make the restaurant and inn a unique Lansing experience.

That experience includes a beautiful property with an almost magical inn and restaurant, a sense of the familiar blended with a sense of something special.  It translates to the property, the buildings, the food, the grounds -- it has become a reflection of the way the couple sees their world.  "A lot of what Elizabeth and I do as chefs, a lot of chefs draw influence and inspiration from different things," Hamilton says.  "A lot of what inspires us are childhood memories, so I'll take a very basic simple thing that maybe my mom used to make or my grandparents made or my dad made for me, and I'll dress it up, make it gourmet, and put it on our menu."

They are gracious hosts who love to share those memories, and help create new ones for their guests.  "We have a beautiful family and now this great property and potentially thriving business," Hamilton says.  Getting to share a piece of their experience is well worth the visit.

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