My husband and I stayed at the Griswold for a long Columbus day weekend. We live in NYC, and needed to get away for some relaxation. Essex is a lovely town, albeit a little too small/quiet for our taste (I don't think we could stay for longer than a day or two -there's not much to do). The Griswold was a little run down, e.g. water stains on the wall, peeling wallpaper, chipping paint. We stayed in a cheaper room, it was tiny and had a little bit of a funky smell. Though I don't think it should matter how much we paid, the hotel didn't live up to its reviews.
The newly renovated wine bar is very nice, it had a good selection of wines and yummy food. The main restaurant was very expensive, we ate at the Black Seal down the street (it had okay food but was the only other restaurant in town). We came back to the Griswold to listen to the live music. That was a very weird experience, the band was pretty bad, and played a really weird mix of music ( Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" and Western yee-haw music). When we asked about the lounge for the hotels guests to watch TV or read, the man at the front desk told us that it had been "taken over" by other people.
All in all the experience was a little strange, we felt like we were the youngest people in the town (besides the teenagers). My husband is 28 and I'm 25, we we were constantly surrounded by older couples.
I don't think I would stay at the hotel again, I would try to find a town with more things to do and a wider selection of hotels and restaurants.

We were helping my sister in law move from NYC to Boston and needed somewhere to stay overnight in between with a 14 foot bright yellow truck.

We hadn't booked and luckily we could all be accommodated in a two-storey free-standing suite across the road from the main inn. The room was beautiful and a bargain at $150 for the night with breakfast. We ate at the Inn, although the food wasn't very exciting (especially after dinner at Nobu the night before!).

Essex is a beautiful town to wander around. The Inn is undergoing exterior rennovations at the moment (quite a lot of exterior scafolding) and workmen started before 8am on Monday - this may impact your enjoyment staying in the main building.

P.S. I can't stand before reviewing properties when they haven't stayed there recently. I find the idea of a pet-friendly hotel repulsive anyway.

My husband and I stayed at the Griswold Inn in the beautiful village of Essex, CT back in 1993. It was a lovely place, albeit somewhat noisy. The great part was that you could have your cat or dog stay with you. It was "pet-friendly" long before that issue was recognized as an important part of country-inn/bed and breakfeast amenities.

I was so disappointed when I called the Griswold this evening and asked about reservations for a week long stay there, with our wonderful cat, Rocky. The young man who answered declared: "We do NOT accept pets of ANY kind." I told him that I remembered a time not so long ago when they did, and he said, "That was before, this is now." And then he hung up the phone.

If this is what the Griswold is all about now, my husband and I, and Rocky the Cat, will certainly not be visiting the Griswold for so much as a cocktail.

I feel that the soul of the place has been lost. The food was never very good, but we stayed there because of the village itself. I'm sure there's another inn where we can take our business---and Rocky, who is now 17 years old, and a perfect gentleman.

Our one-night stay at the Griswold Inn turned into a check-out at 11:15 pm. Upon our arrival at the inn, we were greeted by a cordial gentleman who gave us our room key and pointed across the street to an upstairs, "over a toy store" suite. We are used to Select Registry properties where a warm welcome is extended with a personal touch. This did not happen. We considered the accommodations to be way below expected standards and over-priced - no tv, stained lampshade. Upon returning to our room after an evening wedding, we discovered that we had no air-conditioning/lights on this hot, humid night. We reported the problem and were sad to hear that the fuse box was in the toy store and no keys that the inn had would allow entry to the store to try to solve the issue. We asked for a refund, were told that it would be taken care of, and no receipt was offered. Upon our request, a refund receipt was given, before our long drive home in the middle of the night. The Griswold Inn is known as an Essex "institution" and we had looked forward to our stay there. Very disappointing. One last point - upon booking our room directly on the phone, the reservationist inquired how we had heard of The Griswold Inn. We had seen on the internet that it was a Select Registry inn. The reservationist informed us that it was no longer a member of the Registry, however, the most current Select Registry book has The Griswold Inn listed.