Like most years, we spent almost a week in June attending the Ohana: Luau at the Lake charity even in Lake George, NY. Getting to Lake George always involves crossing Vermont East-West, which doesn’t have any truly optimal routes. This time, we decided to take a more southerly route, taking us through Wallingford, VT around time for a late breakfast. Which was good, since Wallingford has a new-ish (since 2023) breakfast option I had been wanting to check out: Bacon & Batter.
Located right on Wallingford’s Main Street at the crossroads with Depot/School Street (VT-140, that heads over to Mount Holly and Ludlow), Bacon & Batter is in a storefront that used to be some sort of light retail, and the space has been nicely renovated to showcase the wooden floors and wainscotted walls. There’s a fun little quirk: the ventilation system is located in the basement and ideally wanted more vents than could easily be accommodated with floor vents, so there’s a nice central painted vent coming out of the floor and distributed, tree-like, over the dining area. With a service counter in back by the kitchen, and several tables up by the windows, it’s a nice, pleasant dining space.
As one can imagine from the name, Bacon & Batter is a breakfast-oriented restaurant, with a particularly large number of items featuring bacon or pancakes (several varieties), an idea I can fully get behind. But the menu is a lot more diverse than that: several Benedicts, red flannel hash, omelettes, skillets, and the like, including several daily specials. I ended up getting tempted by one of the specials, the Reuben Omelette.
While a bit unusual, the Reuben Omelette was exactly what it sounds like: three eggs, scrambled with sauerkraut, pastrami, and Thousand Island dressing. This actually worked really well. The flavor combination worked similarly to the sandwich, and combined well with the egg, making for a slightly tangy take on an omelette. The homefries were proper double-cooked homefries, although here I did find about a quarter of them were somewhat overcooked on the griddle. But overall, a great, unique take on a breakfast omelette.
Carol got one of the more interesting items on the regular menu, the Wild Turkey Hash. Fresh roasted turkey with peppers, onions, mushrooms, potatoes, cream, and spices, topped with two poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce, served with sourdough toast. This was a very flavorful combination, but I found it a little sweet, mostly from the cream. I understand the textural reasons they added cream, but I’m wondering if this dish could be even better if they found a way to keep it a bit more savory. But still, a nice, novel dish.
Often, with a place like Bacon & Batter, we’d usually get a pancake on the side to try those out, but the relatively generous portions of our omelette and hash meant that we had to save that indulgence for another time, which I’m almost certain will happen. The interesting menu and good execution make this a breakfast place worth a reasonable detour. I hope to come back soon.
