Last month we went to the Cabot Hosiery Mills (a.k.a. “Darn Tough Socks”) annual factory sale in Northfield, VT, and afterward decided to go into Montpelier for a little bit of light shopping and eating. We eventually ended up at Skinny Pancake for some crêpes.
Skinny Pancake didn’t start here, they actually started back around 2003 as a little cart selling crêpes on Burlington, VT’s Church Street pedestrian mall (not too far down from one of my other favorite Church Street food vendors, Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, which I reviewed last year. I had enjoyed their crêpes from the cart a few times, and then in 2007 they went big time, opening up a storefront on College St down by the waterfront.
Sadly, I’ve never been to their actual restaurant, and it had been on my chronic “Will check out sometime when I’m in Burlington” list. But sometime last year the Montpelier Ben and Jerry’s closed, and was replaced by a Skinny Pancake location, so I finally got to try it.
The big change from being a food cart is that Skinny Pancake now has a real menu with a number selections, including entire Savory and Sweet crêpe menus. Since it was lunchtime, I opted for something off the savory side of the menu: a “Johnny Crêpe”: Pulled Pork and a “Root Beer BBQ” sauce, Cabot Cheddar, and caramelized onions in a crepe.
I enjoyed this dish. The crêpe itself was a cornmeal one, done with a nice fine grind on the cornmeal so that it still had the expected texture. The pulled pork was very tendy, smoky, and flavorful, and was nicely complemented by the sauce. This was a bit of a surprise, since I usually dislike sweet BBQ sauces, but here it complemented the meat without covering it. The slaw was actually several veggies, not overdressed, and nicely rounded the dish.
The only downside? Skinny Pancake is a little expensive for what was once cheap street food. My Johnny Crêpe was just shy of $10, and Carol’s “Localvore’s Dream” just shy of $13. Good quality food, but I do have to wonder if I’m getting enough value here.
