Offbeat Eats

Si Aku Ramen A recent trip to Montpelier to visit Barr Hill to have some cocktails with friends ended up with our taking the back way through Barre, VT to get home, and hoping to pick up some dinner while in town. When we first moved here, Barre was a bit of a food desert, but over the years it’s sprouted more than a few decent eateries like Cornerstone Pub and Kitchen. But this time, I figured it was finally a chance to check out a rarity in the region: a ramen joint, Si Aku Ramen. Si Aku Ramen Interior Located right on Barre’s Main Street next to the cinema, Si Aku Ramen opened up back in 2018 as a combined ramen and Asian grocery store, but walking in, you can see that the “grocery” side of the business has faded (I would guess this happened during the Pandemic). But they maintain a takeout counter, a modest dining area, and a good selection of Japanese, Thai, Filipino, and other assorted Asian cuisine specials. But, true to their name, you can pretty much always count on the menu having at least classic pork belly tonkatsu ramen, phở, and a few other basic Asian soup dishes, and the occasional dumplings. Pork Belly Tonkatsu Ramen Since the place nominally is a ramen shop (having ramen right in the title), we both decided to get the tonkatsu ramen. Starting with the most important ingredient (ramen is really more about the broth than the noodles), this was a good, thick, and flavorful tonkatsu broth with a lot of body too it, without being too greasy. The noodles themselves were well-above your average “ramen” noodles, with a particularly good tooth to them. Some fresh carrot and sprouts were a good touch, and the soft-boiled egg decent (but the yolk a bit firmer than I like in a ramen). The pork? I always like this really delicately simmered, and the version here was a bit firmer than that, but still decent. Overall, however, a good, solid, and enjoyable bowl of ramen. And it’s one of the more unique and enjoyable places I’ve found in Barre, with a friendly staff. It is definitely worth checking out if you’re in the greater Barre/Montpelier area.

With all of the recent travel between Saratoga Springs and our home in NH, I got to tweak the routes a few times so I wasn’t driving past the same places all the time, and one of our returns trips had us taking State Highway 11 across the state instead of our more usual US-4 route. This took us right through Chester, VT right around a “late lunch” hour, which finally gave me an opportunity to stop and check out another perennial establishment on our “should visit sometime” list: Southern Pie Café.

2024 has definitely been a year where I’ve finally had a chance to visit a lot of places that I’ve driven by a gazillion times, thinking “I should check that place out.” In this case, a trip down south had us swinging through Windsor, VT. The location has a long history, way back in 1962 it was an A&W Root Beer. It closed in the early 1980s, reopening in 1988 as Stub and Laura’s, run by the late, colorful A.W. “Stub” Aldrich until 2008. It had at least one other interim name and owner that I’ve forgotten, but in 2013 it opened in its current incarnation, Frazer’s Place, serving up breakfast, lunch, dinner, and ice cream, with both outdoor seating and a limited amount of indoor dining. And while it’s had a lot of good word of mouth, I never had a good opportunity to stop in until we few weeks ago, when we passed by right at breakfast. So we decided we just had to stop in.

There were few places in recent history that have had as much anticipation as the opening of Redcan (well, maybe the West Leb Jersey Mike’s, but that’s another matter). With the departure of Trailbreak Taps and Tacos, that moved over to the former Dana’s space in Quechee by the Gorge, there’s been a bit of a hole in the White River dining scene, with much anticipation once the building owner mentioned that he already had a replacement restaurant tenant lined up. The anticipation ratcheted up another notch when it was announced that the new spot was going to be run by Jason Merrill, one of the partners that had previously brought us Worthy Burger and Worthy Kitchen. The Worthys have, in my opinion, lost a little bit of their shine, but are still very popular, especially with the tourist crowd. And Jason has had a lot of chef experience himself, including working at The Hanover Inn prior to its conversion to Pine. Named as a tip of the hat to his mother (who liked Coca Cola), Redcan focuses on high-end American food served small plate style. While they opened in late June (you can read a nice review by fellow UV food reviewer Susan Apel on her Artful blog from her mid-July visit), between inability to get reservations and competing travel, we didn’t get there until August, but we actually managed to get a pair of celebratory visits in with friends.

Welcome to another of Offbeat Eats’ Health Check reviews, where we re-visit old favorites and check out how they are doing. Late this summer, a visit to Lincoln Peak Vineyard to pick up our quarterly wine order nicely aligned with some of our Vermont Tiki friends going out for a group dinner at A Single Pebble. I’ve long thought that A Single Pebble is the best Chinese restaurant in Vermont, and realized that while I’ve been there a good dozen times since my 2013 review, I hadn’t been there since the Pandemic, so it was a good opportunity to see how A Single Pebble is doing.

There are few traditions more sacred in Northern New England in than going out for soft serve ice cream in the summer (in local parlance, a “Creemee”, although the spelling varies a bit). Indeed, most folks hold an extra special fondness for taking it to the next level by getting a maple creemee, and there’s more than a little discussion, often heated, around local water coolers about which place has the best creemees. I certainly have my regional favorites (my overall favorite is Mac’s Maple in Plainfield, NH, although I’ve got to give a good nod to Red Hen in in Middlesex, VT for having far and away the best waffle cone in the region), but it’s one of those treats I only sporadically indulge in due to my becoming lactose intolerant about 20 years ago. With that in mind, I was drawn to a spot in Winooski, VT, for two particular reasons. The first was that this ice cream stand uses 100% plant-based products, so I can indulge without the usual gastrointestinal unrest. The second was… the name. Offbeat Creemee. With a name like that, I had to give them a visit.

One of the things I love about Northern New England in the summer is that many of the small towns have all sorts of seasonal “snack bars” along the side of the road that serve up a variety of burgers, hot dogs, fries, and ice cream. And sometimes even the occasional lobster roll as well. On my very first road trip (to Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater, VT), I stopped at one such snack bar that remains a favorite of mine, the White Cottage Snack Bar in Woodstock, VT.

As I mentioned earlier this year in our review of Haymaker Bun Company in Middlebury, Vermont, our wine club has us traveling several times a year to Lincoln Peak Vineyard for picking up our order. While sometimes this isn’t the greatest convenience, in general it is a welcome excuse to drive through one of the more scenic parts of Vermont and check out a few places along the way. On this trip, we took it as a chance to revisit one of my favorites that I hadn’t yet reviewed: 7 South Sandwich Company.

A recent trip up to visit with friends in Burlington, Vermont had us again looking to try new options for breakfast as we drove along Interstate 89. While we really liked our last visit to Wit & Grit, we had another spot in Randolph that’s been on our hit list since they opened: Wee Bird Bagel Cafe. This little cafe on the NE side of Randolph Vermont has been one of those spots that seems to perennially be experiencing changeover; just in the last 10 years, this spot has been Three Bean Café, Café Salud, Green Light Café, and the Huggable Mug, all variants on a basic cafe theme. But while none of them really had much tenure in the spot, Wee Bird, opened by Chelsie Brown of nearby Bent Hill Brewery (one of our area favorites), started a major renovation of the building and now runs the Wee Bird Bagel Cafe, featuring bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and other light bakery fare.

As I mentioned in last Fall’s review of The Dinner Table in Swanzey, NH, we’re often traveling down I-91 to southern VT, western MA, or CT for some of our hiking. While a scenic drive, much of I-91 in Vermont isn’t that rich in dining options, especially around breakfast, but we’ve been trying to branch out a bit and try a few more places. A recent trip to hike Mount Holyoke in Hadley, MA led us to stopping off in Westminster, VT (a small town just south of the better-known Bellows Falls) to check out Father’s Restaurant.