Offbeat Eats

he lousy winter continues here, so we again ended up heading north on Sunday, this time to the Trapp Family Lodge. Which again meant get breakfast on the way. We were a little later getting started, so instead of a repeat visit to Coffee Corner, we decided to check out a place that’s been on my hit list for a while: Limerick Irish Eatery. We figured we’d give them a try.

Limerick Irish Eatery opened up in Quechee, Vermont, in the space vacated by the closing of Maple Grove Bakery about a year ago. They’ve set the place up so that it both serves as a coffee bar for the takeout crowd, and having table service for those seeking a full meal. Menu-wise, the primary theme is “Irish Comfort Food”, with a menu focusing on Irish breakfast fare, sausages, meatloafs, and the like. And hey, they even have Guinness on tap…

Recently, my job had me heading off on a short trip to Dublin, Ireland (for those curious about my day job, I was attending the AIAA 21st Aerodynamic Decelerators Conference at Trinity College Dublin), and while almost all of my time on my work trip to Dublin was tied up with, well, work (and work-related outings), I did have a long lunch break on my second day to try and rustle up some local food. So I decided to see what I could find that was actually Irish, since actual Irish cuisine is quite challenging to find in the US, especially in predominantly Irish areas like Boston, since the Irish-American culinary traditions have diverged a fair bit from the mother country (for example, while “corned beef” is pretty much a staple food of any Irish-American place, it’s virtually unknown in Ireland), with little reference to the original. So I wanted to get out and find a place that at least was trying to do justice to the Irish culinary tradition. Well, a quick search of several sources led me to The Pig’s Ear…