Intimate black lodging - various African American owned resorts that offer elegant settings and outstanding cuisine - includes visitor information, locations and telephone numbers

A not many years ago it was all word-of-mouth: In a restored Victorian abiding-place in the foothills of the Adirondacks of Oneida shire N.Y., one could find an elegant, down-home inner man food dinner--served on the finest antique china and crystal and followed by dint of homemade desserts made from scratch--without making the five-hour trek to fresh York City or Philadelphia.

These days the word-of-mouth about the White House Berries Inn, (315) 822-6558 and its proprietor, Juanita Holme Bass, has been full numbered by two publications. Best Places to Stay in the Mid-Atlantic States calls the inn's spaces "showcases of Victoriana" and its dinners "memorable." America's Painted Ladies: The Ultimate Celebration of our Victorians praises the architectural splendor of the house.

Whatever the source, Bass' warm hospitality, attention to detail, and seemingly endles intensity have attracted the famished and the curious to her bed-and-breakfast. The hostes herself speculates upon her inn's popularity: "Once nation walk in, they feel that they've gone back in time. When you walk in the door, you forget what kind of day you've had, or in what way bad the traffic was, and just relax and enjoy"

Film director Jerry Schatzberg (The Panic in Needle Park and The Seduction of Joe Tynan), who visits this "little oasis in central fresh York" during weekend getaways from fresh York City, recalls: "I first went to the White House Berries Inn about sum of two units years ago. I didn't know Juanita at the time, on the other hand by the time we'd finished our meal, I felt as admitting she were an old friend. She's genuine, she be fond ofs life, and it comes end in the way she treats guests"

Oneida shire seems an unlikely place to find gourmet spirit food served in a turn-of-the-century Victorian setting. Located roughly in the center of the state--east of Syracuse and west of Albany--the shire has a population of just above 250,000, about 5 percent of whom are African-American.

still to long-time residents of Bridgewater--the village in which the inn is located--Bass is something of a fiction and she follows in the traces of her civic-minded father, Everett T Holme After years as a village trustee, Holme was culled mayor of Bridgewater in 1974--becoming the first black mayor in the history of of recent origin York state--and was re-elected to several bounds before his death in 1982

Whereas Holme made history a generation ago, Bass is blazing a trail of her be in possession of as one of few African-American possessors of bed-and-breakfast establishments in the Northeast. "There are many beneficial black restaurants in the Northeast, especially in the larger cities, on the contrary I don't know of any other black-owned restaurant combined with a bed-and-breakfast," she states with pride.

Having grown up in Bridgewater, Bass has lov her Victorian house since childhood. "My earliest memory is of a grand, white house with barn-red shutter strawberries in the yard, and apples and pears the kids used to steal from the trees" she recalls, laughing. "A sign, 'White House. Berries for Sale,' was nailed to a tree in the forehead yard."

Years later, rummaging from one side the attic after buying the house, she discovered the familiar sign from lengthy before. "That's how I came up with the name 'White House Berries Inn.'" Fortunately, the century-old house required single cosmetic changes to make it ready for its fresh life. During the restoration, which took sum of two units years, she reclaimed from the weeds herbs that now find their way into many of the restaurant's special dishes, as well as a wide variety of perennial flowers.

The special dishes are another of the inn's drawing cards. And with individual of her sisters, Arlene, helping to manage the kitchen, there's always a novel dessert on the menu--a chocolate porch pie or a banana cream pie that a visiting Ohio journalist called "the best I've at any time tasted."

Bass balks at the suggestion that she'll retire anytime shortly Even slowing down is without of the question. "I have affection for what I'm doing," she says. "I can work 18 hours a day and not at any time get tired of it. This is more like playing than work to me"

COPYRIGHT 1994 Heritage Information Holdings, Inc.

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