Restaurants Everywhere

I once worked in New Haven on a corner that managed to have five gas stations.  People would come into our Exxon station, look around and say, "How do all you guys make a living?"   I found myself asking the same question about the abundance of eateries per capita when I drove through Old Saybrook and Westbrook.   We publish a Shoreline Dining Guide mailer, and even in this economy there is no shortage of potential advertisers.  It is practically impossible to cruise along Route 1 and not have a restaurant in your field of vision.   I realize this is a charming area where the population explodes in the summer, but you'd have to explore much larger cities to find a similar concentration of places to eat.   Restaurants continue to open, and some spots have been favorites to generations.   From Pat's Kitchen to the Cuckoo's Nest to Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale, you'll find just about every variation of dining.   Even the popular watering hole - The Monkey Farm - served up excellent food.    Johnny Ad's is the hot dog and hamburger stand.   A search around the marinas can prove very worthwhile, with seafood stops like the Dock n' Dine.   You'll even find Indian and Thai specialties.   New Haven may be a pizza destination, but the Elm City has nothing on the this stretch of Connecticut shoreline.   The restaurant business can be tough in the best of times, but I can only conclude that Old Saybrook and Westbrook draw diners from miles around because a lot of them know what they're doing.   That's been my experience.