I really like wandering around the back roads of Vermont, and while a lot of the little towns in central Vermont (especially along Route 100) seem to have a lot of neat restaurants, I unfortunately don’t often seem to be driving through those parts of the state when we’re looking for food. But a recent trip to a beer festival in Killington, VT finally gave us a chance to check out one of the places that’s been on our hit list: Creek House Diner in Bethel, VT.
Located on the west side of Bethel, well away from the Interstate, we’d wanted to come try them out since several area locals had spoken highly of them, but on our previous trip through the area in the summer of 2018, they had been closed due to a fire. But in August of 2018 they reopened, and have a steady stream of customers. Our visit was a breakfast one, and their breakfast menu is classic American diner fare, with a good selection of classic breakfast egg, hash, and pancake dishes.
I ended up with the “Hash Hound”: hash and eggs. Hash and eggs is still one of my favorite go-to dishes to try at a new place, since it really lets me know a bit about the kitchen: the dish can be a simple preparation of the canned stuff, a quickly-assembled house-made hash, or a really carefully made house hash, and in the case of Creek House, this is one of the latter: a nice, rich, and flavorful corned beef hash with identifiable, large chunks of meat, tender potatoes, some bits of carrot (always a nice touch), and some decent spicing. Accompanied by two nicely-scrambled eggs and some nice, hearty, thick toast, and this was a great breakfast.
Carol did well with her choice as well: the breakfast burrito. To be honest, “burritos” in Vermont can be a bit risky; the flavors tend to be a lot more muted relative to the spicy burritos of my Southwestern upbringing, but the version at Creek House was nicely executed: sausage, egg, and some pepper jack cheese all rolled up in a pressed tortilla, and served up with good home fries, this was nice, enjoyable breakfast burrito.
I’ll have to come back at some point and try out their lunch and dinner menu, especially since their lunch menu has one of my all-time comfort food favorites: the open-face roast beef sandwich with gravy (although I’ll also say that if I’m in the area around dinner, Cockadoodle Pizza in downtown Bethel is quite a treat as well). It’s definitely a nice, inviting spot on the way west from Bethel.
