When you eat and drink for work, you chase the new and newsworthy — and that’s what typically fills the pages of Seven Days‘ food section. But we food writers also eat plenty of off-the-clock meals at regular spots and old favorites. As we look back on everything we enjoyed over the course of the year, many of those dishes stand out, too — and not just to us.
This month, dishes at two of our old favorites ended up on other outlets’ year-end lists, bringing national recognition to the Burlington scene: Bon Appétit staff said the Café HOT.‘s chicken-fried scrambled egg sandwich was “glorious,” and the New York Times fêted Honey Road‘s halibut chraimeh special. We wholeheartedly agree — and, in fact, marveled over the inventive chicken-fried egg in our “Twenty-One Yum Salute” last December.
Here are this year’s best-of lists from each of us, commemorating seven bites and sips that tickled our taste buds and reminded us that eating and drinking for work — or not! — is really freaking fun.
— J.B.
Beguiled by Breakfast and Bread Pudding
I had a sweet year, but all of my best bites were savory. Sure, there were doughnuts and creemees — there always are. But the dishes that stuck with me skewed to the other end of the spectrum: salty, carby, wild and mostly meaty.
It takes quite a salad to beat out a doughnut. Both were highlights of a springtime meal at Broken Hearts Burger in Fairlee (well, everything was). But the wedge salad has invaded my psyche. The properly huge iceberg hunk had all the right elements, plus bonus touches such as a fistful of herbs and warm chunks of smoked pork belly.
The first time I went to the Grey Jay for brunch, I underestimated how much of the Burlington brunch spot’s menu I’d want to order. The towering Turkish Breakfast was too big a move for two people with an already full table. Thankfully, I was able to go back — and back again — for the lavish stack of dips, jam, citrus, pickles, olives, deviled eggs, mana’eesh and simit.
I battled midday crowds at the Burlington Farmers Market over the summer to lunch on a grass-fed, fresh-grilled burger from Grass Cattle Company — worth it! The regenerative Charlotte farm’s beef is the best around, and a juicy burger makes a great, if messy, market snack.
I grew up in Bennington County and have long lamented how the southwest corner of Vermont lags behind in the beverage world. Cue my surprise when, at a very fun tasting event organized by Eden Ciders, I met the founders of Shaftsbury’s Watson Wheeler Cider. They forage apples in the Green Mountain National Forest for their pét-nat style Wildman, named for a character in local lore. I’d risk disappearing on Glastenbury Mountain for a glass.
“Globally inspired small plates” are 2023’s “farm to table”: great when done right, but done a little too often. I was burned out on the whole concept when Randolph’s Short Notice smacked me across the face with a spot-on meal. The pretzel bread pudding with housemade bratwurst was German inspired, and frankly just inspired.
Since mid-October, I have eaten approximately two breakfast burritos per week from the revamped Old Brick Store in Charlotte. I don’t plan to stop.
I do plan to spend more midweek mornings in Bristol, where the Downhill Bread team started whipping up breakfast sandwiches at Tandem in November. On Wednesdays only, the microbakery sells classic bacon-egg-and-cheeses on its English muffins and, more importantly, a bonkers version made with seared pig-head terrine.
— J.B.
Comfort Me With Chalupas and Chicken Hearts
Looking back over the year, I’m not surprised to see that my favorites lean toward the uncomplicated and the comforting, a gustatory tour of classics from the Green Mountains and around the globe.
At the risk of getting thrown out of Vermont, I must divulge that hazy double IPAs are not so much my thing. But the cask-pulled Heady Topper at the Alchemist‘s beer café in Stowe delivers an unexpectedly creamy, citrusy and still distinctively dank version of the state’s most beloved beer. Even I found it eminently crushable.
I headed to Waterworks Food + Drink in Winooski to analyze the cost of the restaurant’s burger for our Money & Retirement Issue, not to eat it. But when they set the order down in front of me so that we could discuss all of its components — a half-pound of griddled beef sandwiched with thinly sliced red onion, American cheese, housemade pickles and Dijonnaise on a top-notch bun … I mean, it would have been wasteful not to dig in, right?
In June, I finally caught one of the tempting dinner pop-ups at Minifactory in Bristol. Wendy Girón, who owns a catering business called La Chapina, was making Guatemalan chalupas. Sturdy, oval, handmade tortillas were laden with tender braised meat or mushrooms, deeply seasoned beans, fresh guacamole, salsa with a polite kick, and Girón’s own cheese. These were my first chalupas; I hope to have many more.
The breakfast sandwich of house-smoked brisket on a housemade English muffin at Café NOA in Montpelier was excellent, but the from-scratch cider doughnuts, sweetened with equal parts maple syrup and sugar, nudged it off this list.
All I need to be transported away from cold, dark winter can be found at Santiago’s Cuban Cuisine in Burlington, where the ripe plantains called maduros are fried into the soft, caramelized food incarnation of a warm hug.
To fully experience the eclectic menu at Paradiso Hi-Fi on Burlington’s Pine Street, I recommend picking omnivorous dining companions who like to share. Our October party of five was entranced by the chewy yet tender grilled, skewered chicken hearts, reminiscent of Brazilian churrasco but paired unexpectedly with rich brown butter and fruity, tangy habanada peppers.
Nothing says classic comfort like Indian saag paneer. The velvety, delicately spiced exemplar at Aromas of India in Williston contained plentiful cubes of perfectly tooth-resistant fresh paneer and let the spinach flavor shine.
— M.P.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Gustatory Greats | Our favorite bites and sips of 2023”
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This article appears in Dec 27, 2023 – Jan 9, 2024.
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