On April 5-7 the Shawnee Inn will be a crime scene

Guard bees congregate on the porch of the hives providing ventilation through their wings for the life of the queen. Six varieties of tomatoes, white eggplant, Chinese five-color peppers and multi-colored chard thrive in the middle of one of America’s oldest award-winning golf courses. Micro-beers are being bottled by a former electronics engineer of advanced defense weapons. Goat cheese is delivered fresh from a local farm.Community concerts by local groups take place on the Grand Lawn every Wednesday evening along with a farmers’ market featuring members of the Foodshed Alliance, many of whom provide the fresh ingredients for Shawnee’s restaurants. The restaurants at Shawnee epitomize the very soul of the Slow Food movement. Locally sourced products from tomatoes to lamb are used whenever possible. The resort’s own 3000+ square foot farm under the stewardship of Doug Zimmer, on the golf course island, is a model of chemical free growing methods. An apiary, under the direction of horticulturalist Erin Schroll, provides honey for sale in the gift shop, as an ingredient in some of the craft beers and many uses in the kitchens.  Maple trees on the grounds are tapped every spring, and an orchard has just recently been planted. The breakfast granola, chock full of more nuts than oats, highlights Shawnee’s aromatic honey and maple syrup.  The resort’s own ShawneeCraft® Brewing Company produces five premium beers and ales year round and 15 seasonal varieties in a brewery made from a reconverted ice skating rink using recycled equipment throughout.Chef Gaurav Navin, of Shawnee’s River Room, was never taught how to cook in his home in India yet now has extensive five star hotel experience. Chef Dan Stripp started as a dishwasher at The Gem & Keystone whose kitchen he now ably runs.  Sous Chef Travis Dente created a recipe for wood grilled baby backed ribs with a deep flavored smoked BBQ sauce that sent the wife over heaven. Welcome to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains and the Shawnee Inn’s restaurants, home to local maple syrup, nut granola, artisan honey and micro brewed beer.By modern American luxury resort standards, the Inn’s eighty guest rooms are modest in size yet offer all amenities – large screen TV, free internet access, desk, couch, pillow-topped beds, spacious windows, a Jacuzzi with the strongest water jets outside of a spa, tile bathrooms and large fluffy towels. With 12 inch thick concrete walls, once the door is closed the only sounds in the room are your own.As if the room isn’t comfortable enough, a luxury pillow menu rests on your bed, just below the four large fluffy ones already there. Would you like a contoured Memory Foam pillow, a Beautyrest allergen reduction pillow or an organic buckwheat pillow? They, and three more varieties, are yours for the asking. If your children have trouble sleeping in a strange bed, arrangements can be made, complimentary, for a sleep specialists to read bedtime stories to your little ones.In an adjacent wooded residential section of the historic village of Shawnee-on-Delaware (1740) guests who desire more space can stay in the Legacy Collection of vacation cottages or the Delaware Lodge. These custom designed, Arts and Crafts style houses provide spacious suites, full sized ultra modern kitchens, private patios with even the air-conditioning units designed as works of art.View the list »
On April 5-7 the Shawnee Inn will be a crime scene

Restaurants newsletter

The Delaware River mist swirls as softly through the tree-covered Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains as Frank Sinatra’s voice through the 100 year old lobby of the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort. The long wide verandah overlooking the Grand Lawn is lined with rocking chairs. The spacious lobby is decorated with craftsmen furniture and Asian antiques gathered by the Kirkwoods during their years of residence abroad. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase is filled with history and literature for guests to read. There is only one public TV, and it’s in the Piano Bar. Music plays softly in the background, never intruding on conversation, and cell phone use is not permitted in any of the Inn’s public spaces.

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Historic Shawnee-on-Delaware is a fitting setting for a weekend gathering of house guests in the century old Shawnee Inn to solve a mystery that’s been ‘puzzling’ management for some time – the case of the ‘Worthington 150th Birthday eve murder.’ C.C. Worthington (1854 - 1944), acclaimed engineer and inventor, known as the ‘Father of Golf,’ built the state-of-the-art Shawnee Inn and golf course in 1911. He transformed a sleepy 18th century Delaware River ferry crossing into a sought after resort town for outdoor activities, art and culture. The Shawnee Playhouse continues to this day.

The Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort
41.011043 ; -75.111496

So it’s fitting that on April 5 - 7, 2013 the inn should host a murder mystery weekend package amidst crystal, the superb food of chefs Navin and Stripp, ShawneeCraft® beers, PGA award winning golf and luxury spa treatments. As management implies, the weekend will require diligence as “...little was known about the series of tragic events... (and)... much of the weekend’s proceedings have been veiled in secrecy .... most of it ....taken to the grave by the event’s participants.” Guests will attempt to piece together the story of that fateful eve of C.C. Worthington’s 150th birthday while enjoying a relaxing weekend getaway.

Check information and reservations while there is still time to solve this mystery and enjoy the start of Spring by exploring Pennsylvania’s beautiful Delaware River and Lehigh Valley Wine Trail.

The Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, 1 River Road, Shawnee on Delaware, Pa, 18356 1-800-742-9633

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  • By modern American luxury resort standards, the Inn’s eighty guest rooms are modest in size yet offer all amenities – large screen TV, free internet access, desk, couch, pillow-topped beds, spacious windows, a Jacuzzi with the strongest water jets outside of a spa, tile bathrooms and large fluffy towels. With 12 inch thick concrete walls, once the door is closed the only sounds in the room are your own.As if the room isn’t comfortable enough, a luxury pillow menu rests on your bed, just below the four large fluffy ones already there. Would you like a contoured Memory Foam pillow, a Beautyrest allergen reduction pillow or an organic buckwheat pillow? They, and three more varieties, are yours for the asking. If your children have trouble sleeping in a strange bed, arrangements can be made, complimentary, for a sleep specialists to read bedtime stories to your little ones.In an adjacent wooded residential section of the historic village of Shawnee-on-Delaware (1740) guests who desire more space can stay in the Legacy Collection of vacation cottages or the Delaware Lodge. These custom designed, Arts and Crafts style houses provide spacious suites, full sized ultra modern kitchens, private patios with even the air-conditioning units designed as works of art.
  • Chef Gaurav Navin, of Shawnee’s River Room, was never taught how to cook in his home in India yet now has extensive five star hotel experience. Chef Dan Stripp started as a dishwasher at The Gem & Keystone whose kitchen he now ably runs.  Sous Chef Travis Dente created a recipe for wood grilled baby backed ribs with a deep flavored smoked BBQ sauce that sent the wife over heaven. Welcome to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains and the Shawnee Inn’s restaurants, home to local maple syrup, nut granola, artisan honey and micro brewed beer.
  • Guard bees congregate on the porch of the hives providing ventilation through their wings for the life of the queen. Six varieties of tomatoes, white eggplant, Chinese five-color peppers and multi-colored chard thrive in the middle of one of America’s oldest award-winning golf courses. Micro-beers are being bottled by a former electronics engineer of advanced defense weapons. Goat cheese is delivered fresh from a local farm.Community concerts by local groups take place on the Grand Lawn every Wednesday evening along with a farmers’ market featuring members of the Foodshed Alliance, many of whom provide the fresh ingredients for Shawnee’s restaurants. The restaurants at Shawnee epitomize the very soul of the Slow Food movement. Locally sourced products from tomatoes to lamb are used whenever possible. The resort’s own 3000+ square foot farm under the stewardship of Doug Zimmer, on the golf course island, is a model of chemical free growing methods. An apiary, under the direction of horticulturalist Erin Schroll, provides honey for sale in the gift shop, as an ingredient in some of the craft beers and many uses in the kitchens.  Maple trees on the grounds are tapped every spring, and an orchard has just recently been planted. The breakfast granola, chock full of more nuts than oats, highlights Shawnee’s aromatic honey and maple syrup.  The resort’s own ShawneeCraft® Brewing Company produces five premium beers and ales year round and 15 seasonal varieties in a brewery made from a reconverted ice skating rink using recycled equipment throughout.
  • Dominic Stroheim’s mother interrupts our interview to inform her son she’s going to her house up the hill overlooking acres of grapes at Big Creek Vineyard to prepare dinner - it’s 4:00 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon.Lucia Soorenti is the 3rd. generation of her family to follow southern Italian methods for wine production at Cherry Valley Vineyards.Salvatore Vito, a successful Stroudsburg, PA, lawyer, serves a mouth watering brunch of wild caught Alaskan Salmon napped with Pernod buerre blanc paired with his dry Apple Raspberry wine in his home restaurant at Pocono Limited Winery. This is extraordinary. This is just a sample of Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley Wine Trail, an easy excursion while at Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort.
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, Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

As a chef, food, wine and travel writer, Marc seeks out the culinary stories of a region and a culture whether that be in the remote Andes Mountains or the streets of Philadelphia. He is on the Board of Directors of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association, a member of the...

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