CITY GUIDES | NORTHEAST
The House of William & Merry: Michelin-Quality Dining in a Historic Farmouse
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By Maria Rodriguez | Feb. 4, 2026
The House of William & Merry is a small, chef-owned restaurant inside an 1890s farmhouse, and it feels like dinner in someone’s well-run home because it is. The best seat is at the cozy bar, where the open kitchen stays in full view, and chef William Hoffman cooks with the calm precision of someone who has done time at Hotel du Pont and still wants to surprise people.
The food leans classic-French at its core, then swerved just enough to keep me paying attention: pork belly that shows up absurdly tender under a snowfall of shaved truffles, and rockfish plated over an open-faced raviolo filled with white asparagus and local mushrooms, with a prawn-bisque froth that tastes like it had to be made that day.
Then Hoffman does his party trick. Confit duck wings get puffed into chicharrones and glossed with Calabrian honey, which lands and suddenly it is the only thing anyone is talking about. Even the wine angle feels personal, with the restaurant tied to Relyea-Wood Vineyards through co-owner, and Hoffman’s wife, Merry Catanuto’s family.
Hoffman and Catanuto live on the property with their son, and it’s that personal connection that makes a meal here feel very much like you’re visiting friends—albeit ones who serve food and pour wine that feels very much like you’ve stumbled into somewhere very special.
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