All the Right Ingredients by Greg Cook

Mystic, Connecticut isn’t just home to the pizza parlour from the 80s film; it’s a small town that’s got the works.

It’s a diamond-clear day in mid-October, the leaves on the sugar maples are bronzing in the afternoon sun and there’s a tang of salt in the air, blowing coarse and fresh through the harbour from Long Island Sound. I’m standing on the sidewalk outside Mystic Pizza, central location of the 1988 hit movie of the same name that finally propelled Julia Roberts into the celebrity stratosphere. 

The sign, which hangs above my head and is echoed again behind the counter in red neon, simply says ‘a slice of heaven’, and although my freshly bought wedge of hot pepperoni is extremely good, it seems, right at this moment, to be a tagline which should encompass this whole, charming corner of coastal New England.
   
Mystic has the homespun beauty of the typical, American rural, backwater town. It’s exactly the sort of place that teenagers (just like Julia Roberts and her peers) dream of escaping in search of big city glamour – and exactly what thousands of harassed New Yorkers flee up interstate 95 every Friday afternoon to get back to.

There’s a sense of history here that’s as rich and deep as the colours of the forests. Mystic recently celebrated its 350th anniversary, and the historic pride -- born from living and working in an area with the earliest settler culture in America – is palpable.
   
The curation and conservation of this heritage is an important element of the local dynamic and something they take extremely seriously around here.
 
Take a stroll east along Malin St., over the antique Bascule drawbridge, constructed in 1922 and still the only link between the east and west sides of downtown Mystic, head up a few blocks along the river bank, and you will find one of the very best examples of this preservation ethic in the locality - Mystic Seaport. In fact, Mystic Seaport; The Museum of America And The Sea, is the very best (if not the only) example of a fully functioning, early 19th-century shipbuilding dock remaining in the USA.
   
Set in over 17 acres along the shores of the Mystic River (which, just to be confusing, isn’t the one in the film of the same name), this extraordinary, working exhibition space is eclectic enough to guarantee enthralling visitors of all ages and certainly has far more to see than can be achieved in a single visit.

In fact, ask any three people to define their experience here and the chances are you will get three completely different answers. This is because the whole museum is an amalgamation of three major components: a re-created 19th-century coastal village with historic ships, a working preservation shipyard and a core of maritime museums and galleries. It also serves as America’s prime educational and archive resource on all things maritime – assisting everyone from parties of school children to PhD students.
   
In the seafaring village, you’ll find working coopers, shipwrights and woodcarvers all plying their trades authentically and housed in genuine 19th-century New England buildings that have been rescued from the region and reconstructed here. There’s even a shanteyman regaling passers-by with odes to the fickle ocean.
   
The museum boasts four seaworthy vessels that are designated National Historic Landmarks, and the most impressive of these is the Charles W. Morgan. A massive, 105-foot, three-masted whaling ship, it’s one of the museum’s centrepieces and a firm favourite with the visitors.

However, one of the most refreshing aspects of Mystic Seaport is its directness and honesty. Many American museums can be overly precious about their heritage, while simultaneously glossing over the more inauspicious chapters, but Mystic Seaport doesn’t pull its punches. The descriptions and exhibits on the history of whaling, for instance, graphically reveal that it was almost as nightmarish an experience for the crews of these boats as it was for the hapless mammals they slaughtered.

For a less visceral, and more picturesque, vision of the sea (quite literally), the Florence Griswold museum nearby is well worth a visit. In fact, this museum and gallery, centred round an impressive Georgian-style colonial mansion, is a must for any serious lover of art, as it was here, at the turn of the 20th-century, that America’s most important colony of Impressionist painters lived and worked. The story of the remarkable Miss Florence, and the bohemian community which she encouraged on her family estate, is almost as evocative as the landscapes and portraits now displayed here by some of the best-known artists from the American Impressionist movement, such as Charles Ebert and William Chadwick.

It probably wasn’t just the quality of the light along this stretch of coast, which inspired such a hedonistic collective to settle here. For gourmands, whose chief delight is crustaceans, this little part of the States probably sits somewhere between Mecca and Nirvana. And when that bracing sea air starts to get the stomach rumbling, there’s certainly no shortage of dining options. Seafood is the obvious star here, but you’ll get a rib the size of a house brick or a decent selection of vegetarian options, if shellfish isn’t your thing.

If it is however, you can have it anyway you want: chowder by the bucket-full, oysters, lobster and steamers, which are possibly the best clams in the world, steamed and served simply with drawn butter. Dine a-la-carte or enjoy a more authentic, rough and ready experience at one of the clam shacks, synonymous with this part of America.

However you spend your time here, there’s one thing with which you’ll agree – Mystic’s not just about Pizza.

Getting There

By Car
From New Haven, New York, and points South: Follow I-95 North to exit 90 (Route 27). Follow Route 27 South for 2k. Turn right and you will be in town.

From Providence, Boston, and points North: Take I-95 South to exit 90 (Route 27). Follow Route 27 South. The Olde Mystic Village and Shopping areas are right off Route 27 at I-95 for 2k. Turn right and you will be in town.

By Train
There are several Amtrak trains each day that stop in Mystic from either Boston (about 2 hours) or New York (about 2.5 hours). These trains offer great views of the shoreline. Get seats on the south side of the train (on your left from Boston, on your right from New York) to see the water.

By Plane
The closest airport to Mystic is the Groton-New London Airport. It is about eight miles away. You can also get to Mystic from larger airports like Bradley Airport in Hartford, CT, which is about 1.5 hours away, or the T.F.Green, near Providence, RI about 45 minutes away.

What to see

Mystic Seaport Route 27 / 75 Greenmanville Avenue Mystic, CT: The Museum of America and the Sea, it’s the nation’s leading maritime museum. Explore American maritime history firsthand, as you climb aboard historic tall ships, stroll through a recreated 19th-century coastal village or watch a working preservation shipyard in action.

Mystic River Tours, 31 Water St. Mystic, CT 06355: Scenic 1.5-hour tour of the harbour on quiet electric launch.

Mystic Whaler Cruises, PO Box 189, Mystic, CT 06355-0189: A more adventurous trip out into Long Island Sound and beyond on this beautiful, double-mast schooner. Anything from a daytrip to a vacation sail of up to five nights is available, or even a lobster dinner cruise.

Lorna Anne Charters, 255 Cedar Road, Mystic CT:  For the truly pro-active, a deep-sea fishing charter giving you a chance to wrangle out some of the mouth-watering local seafood, before the restaurants get their hands on it; whether its bluefish, cod or bass, Captain Shelto promises you a fight for your buck.

Florence Griswold Museum 96 Lyme Street Old Lyme, Mystic, CT 06371: For those who prefer their seascapes hanging in frames, The Florence Griswold Museum is definitely worth a visit. Home to one of America’s most famous art colonies and best-known centre of Impressionist painting, the historic site encompasses 11 acres along the Lieutenant River, a new state-of-the-art riverfront gallery, an education centre, a restored artist studio, gardens and the 1817 Griswold House and Museum.

Where to Eat

Mystic Pizza 56 West Main St., Mystic, CT 06355: Billed as ‘The pizza that made the movie famous’. But putting the hype to the side the simple Italian food here is inexpensive and actually very good.

S&P Oyster Company 1 Holmes St., Mystic, CT 06355: Downtown Mystic’s only patio dining by the water. Overlooking the bascule bridge, enjoy the regions ubiquitous and utterly delicious array of fruit-de-mer, or just go for the Angus steak.

Sea Swirl Seafood Restaurant Route 1 and 27, Mystic CT 06355: There is nothing more quintessential to the New England coast than clam- shacks, and Connecticut Magazine reckons this ‘The best place anywhere for fried clams’. Enjoy a unique dining experience on the informal outdoor benches overlooking the floodtide.

Where to Shop

Souvenir and craft shops abound, all selling pretty similar merchandise, much of it with a clichéd nautical motif. Old Mystic Village, just of Interstate 95, is a collection of 60 such outlets, laid out as a self-contained olde-worlde settlement. A plethora of traditional New England and Native American craftworks can be purchased here.