Table Talk: Inn has Washington lore, a Sinatra table

Not too many restaurants can claim ties to both the father of our country and the Chairman of the Board.

It's one selling point of the

Old Mill Inn

, on what once was an Indian trail (now Route 263) around since the 1720s.

History has it that Washington obtained grains there during the Revolution.

The inn became a restaurant in 1918. Frank Sinatra, it's said, stopped for dinner there frequently. Helped that Sinatra was 5-foot-8 on a good day, as the curio-filled inn's beamed ceilings are mighty low.

Entrepreneurs Karen and Todd Russo cleaned up the Old Mill (18 Horsham Rd., 215-672-6593), which reopens today. Management brought in Keith David, who founded the Mansion Inn in New Hope, to consult. Chef Shane Hallman, formerly at Brasserie 73 and Mainland Inn, is doing a grill menu (entrees: $8 to $17 at lunch, $22 to $33 at dinner); it's open daily except for Mondays.

Among the Russos' touches is a table surrounded with Sinatra photos and items; it existed years ago under previous owners.

Chris Scarduzio and Georges Perrier are planning a more casual change of course this month at

Brasserie Perrier

(1619 Walnut St.), as the opening of the posh

Table 31

in the Comcast Center draws nearer (May 2).

Scarduzio does not want BP and Table 31 competing.

Among changes, besides new waiters' uniforms, will be the menu. Based on Brasserie Perrier's current lounge menu, it will be expanded to cover the entire restaurant. Entree prices will sink; top price will be $30. (Since BP's opening in January 1997, critics have carped that Brasserie Perrier is not a brasserie. The changes may address that. "You'll be able to get a burger or steak frites in the back," Scarduzio says.)

Scarduzio is returning to Atlantic City, where he and Perrier own Mia in Caesars, to open his own place: Scarduzio's, a homestyle Italian at the Showboat, will occupy the space now taken by Casa di Napoli. Scarduzio also says New Orleans chef John Besh is opening a steak house next door.

Scarduzio's, opening in the late third quarter of 2008, will have an antipasto bar, bread station, brick-oven pizza, charcuterie - "the food I grew up with" in Overbrook.

Stephen Starr says he's signed a letter of intent to re-create the restaurant and the lobby bar in the

Sofitel

at 17th and Sansom Streets, now known as Chez Colette and La Bourse. Until the deal is official, though, he would not divulge name, concept or opening date. The hotel will run the place.

John Mims, who has

Carmine's Creole Cafe

in Bryn Mawr (after two previous incarnations in Havertown and Narberth), and business partner Howard Taylor have taken over the building at 114 S. 12th St. that most recently was the private club known as TPDS and long ago was Odeon. Mims has not come up with a name, but he says the concept will be Cajun-Creole; he'll do tapas in the lounge areas. His anticipated opening is April. Carmine's will stay open under chef Chris VanNes.

A rare bottle of 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild will be auctioned to benefit the Helen Kate Furness Library in Wallingford at the library's annual fund-raiser tomorrow. Contributed by an anonymous donor from Wallingford, the wine now retails for $3,000 to $4,000 per bottle.

The donor ordered a case in 1982 from Garnet Liquors in New York, using $500 of "mad money" earned from working overtime. "After being made into wine, aged in barrels, and bottled at the chateau, it was shipped to New York in the spring of 1985," the donor says. "I immediately drove to pick it up. I bought a wine vault, a special refrigerator that keeps wine at 55 degrees, and it's always been stored under perfect conditions." Bids may be e-mailed to

» READ MORE: furnesslibrary@delco.lib.pa.us

with "wine" in the subject line. The fund-raiser will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Mill in Rose Valley (not to be confused with the Old Mill Inn in Hatboro); tickets are $40 through

» READ MORE: www.hkflibrary.org

.