restaurant beat

No, we're not referring to the familiar song by Vermont's favorite jam band Phish, but there's a new Farmhouse in town! Downtown Burlington welcomes the highly anticipated opening of The Farmhouse Tap & Grill, a new restaurant located at 160 Bank Street. The location was ironically home to a McDonald's restaurant for 30 years before closing and remaining unoccupied for the last two. The Farmhouse Tap & Grill is owned by Jed Davis, formerly the Director of Operations at Three Tomatoes restaurants, along with Rob Downey and Paul Sayler, owners of American Flatbread Burlington Hearth. The Farmhouse is a gastropub dedicated to showcasing and supporting the many local farmers and food...

Waterbury, Vermont's Hen of the Wood restaurant is busy making room in its wine cellar for the delivery of some out-of-the-ordinary Oregon wines. Anne Amie Vineyards, the Willamette Valley winery best known for its world-class Pinot Noirs, has collaborated with the restaurant to release two private label bottlings of its Pinot Noir red and Müller-Thurgau white. (Shred heads and wine lovers alike will appreciate the new Anne Amie/Hen of the Wood release. Stowe's Lance [caption id="attachment_3278" align="alignleft" width="231" caption="Wine Label Designed by Lance Violette"][/caption] Violette, best known for his graphic work on Shaun White's most recent medal-winning snowboard, designed the...

The Hanover Inn's buttoned-down New England exterior belies the wide-open culinary possibilities found inside. The historic inn on the Dartmouth College Green offers white-tablecloth dining in The Daniel Webster Room, more casual foods plus wine and beer tastings at Zins Winebistro and al fresco fare on The Terrace. All three serve up the delicious tastes of the Upper Valley's agricultural bounty thanks to Executive Chef Jason Merrill. We caught up with Chef Merrill yesterday, eager to learn what he's planning for Sunday's comfort food supper at Zins. The $15-a-plate special has become a big draw for students, professors, families, visitors and anyone else hungry for really good food. The...

There are several fine reasons to live in Charlotte, in the heart of Vermont's Champlain Valley -- breathtaking views of Lake Champlain, the revitalized Brick Store, excellent schools, proximity to Burlington, the list goes on. For the town's pizza cognoscenti, it's the easy access to Jay Vogler's pizza that tops the list. About a dozen years ago, Jay had been growing greens for area restaurants on his 64-acre farm, but he was ready to stop driving all over the county making deliveries. He leased the land to future CSAgriculturalists Dave Quickel and Emma Burrous and assembled a wood-burning oven a few steps from the house. Pizza on Earth was born. On Fridays in the winter (and Thursdays...

"It used to take a lot of effort to connect with reliable sources for local products," Silva adds. "It's easier now that local foods are just a phone call or an email away. We love it!" At this holiday time of year, the place hums. There's a line of lunch-hungry shoppers waiting for tables. (The savvy ones receive Mirabelles' Daily Specials email so they already know what they'll be ordering.)  There's another line of people eager to pick up a Christmas Stollen or a boxful of snowflake cookies. Those in the know have already put in their orders for Lane's fruitcake (“the good kind," swear its devotees) or a picture-perfect bûche de Noël. Reflecting on two decades of life in the food...