Gloryridge Tavern, inside The Lodges at Gettysburg
By Karen Hendricks | Photography by Casey Martin
While Gloryridge Tavern, Gettysburg’s new restaurant destination, feels worlds away from bustling downtown, it’s less than seven miles from Lincoln Square. Nestled in nature, perched on a hillside between Gettysburg and Fairfield, its sweeping view includes a new perspective on the Gettysburg battlefield below.
“Everybody is always looking for a new place to go—and here, you can have a great meal and a great cocktail in a great location off the beaten path,” says Beth Senseney, director of events at The Lodges at Gettysburg, where Gloryridge Tavern is located.
Destination Dining
The restaurant opened about a year ago. Surrounded by the property’s 28 guest lodges, visitors have formed a steady stream of diners. Now, the tavern’s staff wants to roll out the welcome mat to the greater Adams County community.
“We started with appetizers—
pub-style food,” explains Chef Bob Fritts, “then we started to build in fresh-made burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, seafood and full entrees.”
Hand-cut fries are one of the highlights on the Shareables (appetizers) Menu. Hot tip: Order them with Old Bay seasoning to whet your appetite for seafood entrees. Or, go straight for the seafood and order the Chesapeake Bay crab dip, with just the right mix of sweet crab blended with a tangy, saucy dip, served with house-made tortilla chips. Wings, flatbreads, cheeseburger sliders and fried ravioli served with house-made marinara are additional options.
Gloryridge’s burgers and chicken sandwiches deliver tasty twists and turns to the tavern menu. All-Angus beef options include the Southwest Burger, Tuscany Burger and the Chipotle Black Bean Burger topped with salsa. Grilled chicken breast sandwiches include the Hawaiian option featuring sweet grilled pineapple and Teriyaki sauce.
Fritts has been in the restaurant industry for 43 years. You could say he’s as well-seasoned as his famous crabcakes.
That’s because Gloryridge Tavern’s Jumbo Lump Crabcake is a recipe he has fine-tuned through the years. Not that there’s much of a recipe.
It’s six ounces of crabmeat with no filler—but the seasonings are what he’s tweaked over time. It’s a blend he culled from his experience managing and opening a small chain of restaurants, Sir Walter Raleigh Inn, with locations stretching from Baltimore to northern Virginia, including the metro D.C. area.
“He’s super-experienced—he can do anything from A to Z,” Senseney says of Fritts’ talents.
Fritts began his culinary career as a dishwasher, working his way up to chef, manager, owner and caterer. He previously owned the Main Street Grill in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and managed the Carroll Valley Resort for 10 years. Today, in addition to the tavern’s kitchen, he handles on-site
wedding catering at The Lodges.
But it wouldn’t be a tavern without drinks.
“I love to make properly balanced mixed drinks with fresh ingredients,” says tavern manager Kolten Koon.
The Whiskey Sour is one of his signature drinks. “It has a silky, creamy texture, thanks to an egg white,” he explains.
But his showmanship is on full display when he whips up a Smoked Old-Fashioned.
“This drink is a boozy, spicy smoked cocktail with hints of toffee and caramel and a little candy finish. It’s smoky sweet,” says Koon, who places the mixed concoction in a tiny cocktail smoker. Like a magic trick, the drink disappears from view in a cloud of smoke. With a flourish, Koon lifts the glass dome, and the smoke drifts away to reveal the cocktail.
Koon handcrafts the tavern’s special syrups and mixers, and he relies on fresh ingredients, such as a perfectly ripe strawberry and fresh basil for a Strawberry Basil Margarita.
The drinks complement a full trio of entrees: Tortellini with Grilled Shrimp features a kicky pink vodka sauce and is served with garlic bread. Salmon Oscar is Faroe Island Salmon served atop a red pepper risotto balanced with asparagus and hollandaise sauce. Surf and turf pairs a Delmonico steak atop mashed potatoes with one of Fritts’ famous crab cakes.
A New Light
Gloryridge Tavern and The Lodges at Gettysburg have some history of their own. The site was known in the 1970s as Camp New Dawn, a church camp owned by the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg.
“Today’s ballroom was once the gym—that’s how the property got started,” explains Senseney.
The winding, climbing driveway leads to the property’s stunning view—which faces east, toward every day’s new dawn.
Senseney invites Adams County’s visitors and residents alike to try Gloryridge Tavern as a dinner destination. But she also invites people to stop by much earlier in the day.
“I think everybody needs to come up and see the sunrise from here,” says Senseney, to which Fritts adds, “It never gets old.”
Gloryridge Tavern at The Lodges at Gettysburg
685 Camp Gettysburg Rd., Gettysburg
