Stan's Record Bar on Prince St. in Lancaster city. Stan's was THE place to buy records before CDs began to dominate. They continued to carry what little was available on vinyl and now since vinyl seems to have made a resurgence, they're carrying more of it again. This was a store that, back in the 60s, 70s & 80s, had tons of stuff you didn't see anywere else and a staff that was REALLY into music and always had some demo stuff available of new material from most genres so you could often get a preview before you bought. Nowdays of course that's common place with bar codes on CDs etc. but back then nobody else was doing it.
While you're in down town Lancaster, if you decide to check out Stan's, Carr's restaurant is a stone's throw away. Carr's offers excellent food, always a few craft beers on tap and supposedly an excellent array of wines. Tim Carr, the owner and a good friend of mine since jr. high school days, is a fine wine afficianado. Easy to find, in fact, the parking lot across Prince Street from Stan's (if you decide to go there) is right across an alley from Carr's and the Lancaster Central Market. The market is a great old farmer's market, maybe the best one left, in a great old building with lots of great stands-open Tues., Fri., & Sat. Just down the alley towards King Street is The Tap Room, a brew pub for one of Lancaster County's craft breweries which offers most or all of their beers and lite fare.
Squirrelnest's suggestion of the Record Connection is also a good one. Whereas Stan's (at least the last time I was there) was all new vinyl, the Record Connection is mostly used mixed with newer, mostly 180 gram pressings as well. It's only a couple miles from my house so is very convenient for me and I stop in often. In recent years though I buy most of my albums at Renninger's Antique Market in Adamstown, about a 10 minute drive North on 272 from Ephrata. Renninger's is only open on Sundays however so that might not work for you. If you're schedule permits and you feel like checking it out find the office inside the building and ask for David Horvath's stand number. Sorry, I go there almost every week but can't remember the number!! Anyway, I've had good luck buying from him, his quality control seems just a little better, IMO, than the Record Connection's.
Dining in the Ephrata, Reamstown, Adamstown area includes Union Barrel Works, another craft brewery in "downtown" Reamstown with an onsite brew pub and dining room with a full menu open from 11 AM to 11 PM. Just up the road is Johnny's Steak House/Kyma Seafood Restaurant. It was a popular diner for years that opened up the basement while still a diner as Johnny's and with the success of that, they turned the first floor diner into the seafood restaurant. Up the road from that is the Black Horse that has been very good to very medium over the past several years due to ownership and key personnel changes though I hear it's on the good side again. There's also The Black Angus Restaurant housed in the same complex as the Black Angus Antique Market (about 1/2 mile from Renningers and also open Sundays only for antiques). The owners of The Black Angus Rest./Antique Market also own Stoudt's Brewery, yet another local craft brewery (the oldest one in Lancaster County I believe). At the height of their beers winning awards (+or- 20 years ago) the current owner/brew master at Union Barrel Works was the brew master there. Still they offer good food and some good beers.
For very fine dining you might want to look up The Log Cabin. Once one of the two best restaurants in a very large radius, it was closed for a few years after sliding down hill a bit as the original owner's health declined and an attempt to transition to I believe a son-in-law didn't work out so well. Two or three years ago they reopened under new ownership/management by a husband-wife chef duo and the food is as good or better than it's ever been. People used to come from all over to this place both for the food, the extensive wine cellar and the fine art collection. I can attest to the food being very top notch but don't know for sure about the art and I drank single malt scotch every time I was there so I don't know about the wine cellar either.
