You know a restaurant is quality when it’s lasted for more than 250 years.

Twelve years older than the United States itself, the oldest restaurant in Connecticut first opened for business in 1754 in Woodbury Connecticut. . First built by Rev. Anthony Stoddard as a family house in 1734, in 1754 it was converted to a business and inn, the oldest in the state.

This colonial site has remained operational as an inn and tavern for the 250+ years its original opening, despite one brief pause before WWII. Originally called the Curtis House, the site has undergone many name changes, landing on The 1754 House in 2020.

Want to have a dining experience with over 200 years of history? Here’s all the details about eating at The 1754 House today.

About dining at 1754 House

Today, the colonial inn has two dining areas – the 1754 Dining Room, the main dining spot, and The Flat Five, a Blues tavern with pub fare and live music.

While the formal dining room and relaxed tavern differ in atmosphere, the menus are largely the same. 1754 House serves up American comfort food classics with New England roots.

An extensive wine list joins a creative lineup of craft cocktails, including New England-inspired mouthfuls like the Maple-Bacon Old Fashioned.

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How to eat at 1754 House

Flat Five Blues Tavern is open Wednesday-Saturday from 5-10 p.m., and the 1754 Dining Room is open Tuesday-Thursday from 4-9 p.m., Friday-Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The 1754 House is located at 506 Main St. South in Woodbury.

A judge granted a motion on Friday allowing the Connecticut woman accused of holding her stepson captive for over two decades to access his alias, address and medical records, her attorney said.

Kimberly Sullivan appeared in Waterbury court on Friday to request the information, which her attorneys argued she has a constitutional right to access.

Sullivan was arrested and arraigned in March on charges of kidnapping, assault, unlawful restraint and other crimes in connection with her stepson’s alleged captivity. She is out on bond, which was set at $300,000, and has pleaded not guilty.

On Friday, a judge granted the defense’s motion to give Sullivan access to her stepson’s alias and address. The judge also granted their motion to preclude the stepson’s attorney from addressing the court about anything other than the plea and sentencing, according to Sullivan’s attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis.

Kaloidis told NBC News that the ruling granting his client access to information about the alleged victim “was the only logical conclusion to reach.”

“We argued to the court that this wasn’t about his feelings, but about the rules of procedure and the rules of practice,” Kaloidis said. “In the Constitution, it is standard in every criminal case to disclose the name and address of witnesses, especially the accuser.”

The stepson told authorities that he intentionally set a fire in his room on Feb. 17 to secure his freedom from the home he shared with Sullivan, according to court records. The man, then 31, alleged that his stepmother starved him and held him captive in a small, locked room in the house for more than two decades.

Authorities found the man severely emaciated, about 68 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame, and said he had been subjected to “prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect and inhumane treatment.” The defense has cast doubt on the now 32-year-old’s weight at the time he was found.

The stepson has never been publicly identified. Earlier this year, he spoke out for the first time and addressed himself as “S,” a decision he said marks “the first of many choices” he will make now that he’s free.

Donald Therkildsen, the supervisory assistant state’s attorney, told the court Friday that the “victim is terrified of this defendant,” NBC Connecticut reported.

“The allegations are that he was almost dead when he made his escape after being locked for 20 years,” Therkildsen said. “This is no different than a domestic violence victim being at a safe haven home. We certainly wouldn’t disclose the address of a safe haven home to a domestic violence abuser.”

Attorneys for Sullivan had filed a request to obtain the stepson’s medical records, which the state said it would allow under certain conditions, including that the victim’s alias and address be withheld from the defendant, according to a filing in Connecticut’s Superior Court, Judicial District of Waterbury.

Sullivan’s attorneys filed an objection days later, arguing that their client has a constitutional right to access her stepson’s alias and address, that she has not harassed the man, and that the nature of the legal proceedings do not warrant withholding this information.

The state defended its position in a memorandum filed last week, saying that withholding the information “does not lower the burden of proof or obstruct the defendant’s right to confrontation.”

“Disclosure of the victim’s current alias to the defendant would only increase the potential for harassment and harm with respect to the victim’s mental health,” the state said in the memorandum.

Attorneys for Sullivan hit back in a filing earlier this week, once again defending their client’s compliance with the conditions of her release, and arguing that the state’s motion “represents an unprecedented attempt to insulate an accuser from the normal processes of adversarial justice.”

The judge on Friday did grant a request from the state ensuring the stepson’s medical records only be viewed in the office of the defense for the purposes of the case, NBC Connecticut reported.

Also on Friday, the judge denied a motion from Sullivan’s attorneys filed in August asking the court to remove her GPS tracker. The judge said the issue can be revisited later on.

The next hearing is set for Dec. 19, according to Kaloidis.

When most people flush the toilet, they don’t linger to think about where it all goes.

Behind the scenes, the people running wastewater treatment plants work tirelessly on one of the most important yet underappreciated public services. Treatment systems only make headlines when things go wrong, such as in recent months when unlucky Connecticut residents have been subjected to the sights and smells of sewage floating down the Connecticut River. Incidents like these are becoming more common as aging wastewater treatment plant infrastructure struggles to keep up with increased demand.

Across Connecticut and the entire eastern United States, vital steps to replace and update our old wastewater treatment plants are underway; however, updating the pipes and buildings alone will not be enough. We must rethink the whole management structure and soon — before the problem gets much worse.

Many overflows come from an old model of combined sewage-stormwater systems. For these systems, a heavy storm can overwhelm infrastructure, leading to the release of sewage. In recent years, Connecticut has taken steps forward, moving from over a dozen combined systems down to only four; Hartford’s MDC facility is one of the remaining combined systems.

In response to recent overflow events, some Connecticut state representatives have argued that these overflows are mostly rainwater, and much of the resulting public health advice is to avoid swimming or fishing for a few days before returning to normal. This advice suggests that the effects of a sewage outflow are fleeting — which may protect us from E. coli and algal blooms — but neglects the slower, growing threat of chemical contamination.

My research focuses on chemical contamination of water in the environment. Untreated sewage often contains industrially produced chemical contaminants like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), suspected to increase risk of cancer and pregnancy complications based on studies by the National Institute of Health. After being deposited from the overflow, these chemicals degrade very slowly and can remain in the water column for decades. Each outflow event adds another drop in the bucket of chemical contamination that affects our waters, fish, and eventually, us.

The situation will only become more dire as intensified storms, rising sea levels, and increasingly common extreme weather, pushes our wastewater systems beyond their limits.

There has been finger-pointing and blame over contamination of the Connecticut river across the Connecticut and Massachusetts state line. Rather than squabbling, now is the time to focus on cross-border cooperation.