It’s been a long time since I’ve had a late-night slice of pizza. These days, I prefer a late afternoon slice — and instead of a pitcher of PBR, I pair it with an espresso tonic or a cheeky Negroni.
Burlington’s Rogue Rabbit, a new Roman-style café at 9 Center Street, has all that and a mortadella sandwich. Married co-owners Abby Temeles and Jacob Shane have opened in phases — starting with takeout in early April, then adding seating and, in early May, a short-and-bitter bar menu.
The café’s big, fluffy pies are modeled after Rome’s pizza al taglio; they’re designed to be sold by the slice (the Italian phrase’s translation). Trays of the rectangular, focaccia-like slices greet customers in a glass case on the front counter. After ordering, the slices take a quick trip to the oven and come out hot and crispy. One is a hearty snack; two is a commitment.
I’m particularly enamored with the sausage slice ($5), which features Rogue Rabbit’s excellent tomato sauce, onion, basil and ricotta, as well as sausage from Waitsfield’s 5th Quarter butcher shop. That’s one of three staples, Shane said, along with a classic tomato-mozzarella ($4) and a pesto slice ($5). A fourth option rotates; last week’s featured ramp sausage, zucchini, arugula chimichurri and vino bianco sauce ($5).
All the proteins on the pies — and on Rogue Rabbit’s succinct sandwich menu, which includes mortadella, capicola, housemade porchetta and a vegetarian eggplant caponata ($12 each) — are from Vermont. So are the mozzarella and ricotta.
Temeles and Shane are looking forward to a month without major changes, they said, as Rogue Rabbit hits its stride with the full food, coffee and bar lineup. So far, they’re doing it without employees. It’s their first time officially teaming up, but Temeles helped behind the scenes on Shane’s previous businesses, including Deli 126, which he sold in 2022.
During a trip to Italy last year, the couple gathered inspiration at cafés, where regulars would pop in for a morning coffee and chat, then come back later for food or aperitivo.
“It’s not just a coffee shop, not just a bar, not just a restaurant,” Shane said. “They’re little neighborhood places where people meet, which is our goal.”
“You can really hang out here,” Temeles added.
Rogue Rabbit is open from 11:30 a.m. until 7 p.m., and the late-afternoon crowd is largely industry folks, she said. Retail workers stop by after work for a cocktail, and restaurant employees grab a coffee and a slice before a shift.
The café’s comfy armchairs and new bar with its exposed brick backdrop are ideal for an afternoon hangout. With its current décor, the space reminds me less of its most recent incarnation, Revolution Kitchen, than of when it was Sapa’s Coffee & Tea, where I sipped bubble tea and did homework in 2009. My husband had a different recollection: He pointed out where the ammo was when these walls housed the Burlington Army & Navy Store during his childhood.
The drink menus — both espresso and cocktail — are a list of what I might include if I rewrote the Sound of Music classic: “Espresso with tonic and bitter Negronis / House wine, Vivid Coffee and lots of Peronis / NA Spaghett-i, all kinds of spritz / These are a few of my favorite things.”
“I would drink only Negronis for the rest of my life and be happy,” Shane said of the cocktail of Campari, gin and sweet vermouth. Temeles prefers an herbaceous elderflower Hugo spritz, their current bestseller. Simple offerings of just “house red” and “house white” wine nod to the Italian American red-sauce joints the couple grew up dining at.
“We’re bringing a bit of nostalgia back,” Temeles said.
“There are so many good cocktail bars around here and so many good coffee shops,” Shane added. “We don’t need to do more than this.”
And, from the espresso lemonade to the spritzes, it all pairs perfectly with pizza.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Home Slice | Rogue Rabbit’s pizza al taglio squares up in Burlington”
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2024.
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