More than 160 years ago, passengers on boats floating along northeast Ohio's Sandy and Beaver Canal docked at this red brick tavern (30 miles southwest of Youngstown). The Canal long ago silted in, but you still can relax in the historic restaurant's seven period-furnished rooms.
Peter and Jean Johnson, renovators of buildings with heritage, rescued the decaying three-story and a neighboring 1820s structure. After a 2-year restoration, they reopened this vintage American tavern. Overnight guests also can stay in five upstairs rooms, filled with antiques Jean collects.
The old building inspires Chef Angus McIntosh, an Ohio native who finds the freshest ingredients in this rural area. Beans and tomatoes sprout in a garden across the street. Desserts might include apple crisp baked with locally grown fruit. Signature meat dishes from old-fashioned smokehouse in the nearby courtyard include pheasant and rack of Ohio lamb.
Angus honed his cooking skills in restaurants from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest. He serves Louisiana-inspired sweet-potato-encrusted snapper with pickled okra-tomato vinaigrette. From Seattle, shrimp dumplings mingle different flavors that remind diners of authentic dim sum.
Guests often linger over coffee downstairs in Gaver's Rathskeller, a room with hand-chiseled stone-and-brick walls. In the wood-paneled Patriots Tavern Room, Revolutionary War artifacts recall evenings long ago, when diners strolled in by torchlight from canal boats docked nearby.
Spread Eagle Tavern, 10150 Plymouth St., Hanoverton, OH 44423 (330/223-1583). Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; dinner 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to 10 p.m. Lunch from $8, dinner from $15.