Offbeat Eats

(Closed) On our recent trip to Montreal, on the way back to our home in Grantham, NH, we decided we needed to stop for lunch someplace near Burlington. While the Burlington area has many establishments we rather enjoy (including Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, Sneakers, and Penny Cluse Cafe, the last of which I realize I’ve never blogged here. I’ll have to correct that), we decided to try another area establishment, finally settling on checking out Libby’s Blue Line Diner, just off of I-89 in Colchester, VT. Libby’s sits up on a hill right off of Route 2, and is your basic Worcester diner (Worcester Diner #838, to be exact), although like almost all extant Worcester diner cars, which suffer from a lack of facilities, when it was moved from MA and installed in Colchester, the owners build some additional seating area, an entryway, and an expanded kitchen onto the building. But they did an outstanding job with the interior restoration, so this particular Worcester Diner’s seating area isn’t as worn and tired as most (the exterior, however, looks like it could use some paint and mild repairs)…

Two weekends ago, Carol and I attended the Vermont Brewers Festival as we usually do. However, instead of our usual trip to Coffee Corner in Montpelier (note to self: haven’t reviewed Coffee Corner yet!), we decided to shake it up a bit and find someplace new to try. Doing several online searches, Sneakers Bistro in Winooski seemed to be consistently recommended, so we gave it a try. The place is very nondescript, with the primary signage being a pair of Converse All Stars hung outside the restaurant (shown here). It’s a fairly cozy little storefront, but they have a reasonably large amount of outdoor seating as well. Which was good, since when we arrived, there was a healthy crowd of hungry people waiting for tables. Luckily, two-seaters were turning over quickly, so Carol and I got seated almost immediately at a nice sidewalk table…

(Moved) There’s always something compelling about food sold from little street carts, and despite the many challenges that street food cooking can have, I’m always astonished by how good the food from some street vendors can be (taco trucks are a particularly good example). And, for any given pedestrian mall, you can usually find some yummy treats out there. Burlington’s Church Street is no exception. In particular, for the last several years I’ve made it a point to visit Hong’s Chinese Dumpling every time I’m shopping on Church Street.

You know something’s going on when you get several recommendations for not just a place, but a particular menu item, all in a short period. It usually means something’s going pretty well indeed. In this case, in the last week, two different people both recommended Tuckerbox in White River Junction. And, more specifically, they recommended the BLT, since it was the “Best BLT Ever!” The Tuckerbox, for those that don’t know of it, inhabits one of those restaurant spaces that I consider mildly cursed, since, in my 7 years of living here, it’s the third restaurant that has inhabited the space (the first two were Karibu Tule, an oustanding African place; and Como Va, an Italian place). It has been reinvented yet again, this time as a coffee and sandwich shop. The coffee drinks are already well respected around the area (indeed, it’s one of those places that will still serve you drinks in actual cups and glassware), and I’ve heard several good rumors about the salads and sandwiches. So, Carol and I decided that today we’d go to Tuckerbox and try the BLTs.

(Closed) Last weekend, we had a free day, and decided to us this opportunity to go see some of the fall colors (due to our trip to Miami, most of the leaves will be gone by the time we get back). After discussing many possible destinations with good colors, we settled on Bennington, VT. We were planning on eating at the Blue Benn Diner (which gets really good reviews), but, unfortunately, the Blue Benn had a kitchen fire and was closed for several days. The guy in the parking lot recommended the Northside Diner as a good alternative.

(Closed) It’s a White River Junction institution. We all drive by it. I’ve eaten there several times. I even have a t-shirt of it (from the Main Street Museum). But, somehow, I hadn’t yet reviewed it. I’m talking about the Polka Dot, which has been located on Main Street by the railroad tracks for a long time (I’m not sure when the Polka Dot name showed up, but the location has been an eatery of one sort or another since the 19th century). Sure, WRJ doesn’t have the train traffic it used to, and several other businesses have come and gone, but the Polka Dot has stayed on (even through the fire that demolished the rest of the block a few years ago)…

(Closed) Today’s review is Wasp’s Snack Bar and Diner in Woodstock, Vt, which several UVScene readers requested that I review (and one person requested that I didn’t, more on that below). It’s been several years (and multiple owners, if I’m not mistaken) since my last trip to Wasp’s Diner, since Wasp’s isn’t open for business on weekends (which is my normal reviewing time), so it’s primary clientele is Woodstock locals. That, and the decidely low-key storefront really keep this place from showing up on too many tourists’ radars as well.

(Closed) Carol and I dropped by the new Farmers Diner location to see how things were going. Back in 2003, when Farmers Diner was in their former Barre, VT location, we had a fairly pleasant meal there, but not longer after that, they closed the Barre location. We’ve been looking forward to their return to the local restaurant scene. For those that aren’t aware of Farmers Diner, in addition to just serving food, they have a particular mission, to spend 65 cents of ever dollar on food that originated within 70 miles of the Diner at local farms and small scale producers. So, a substantial fraction of the menu is made from locally produced meat, cheese, and produce (and, with the current menu, they even highlight in red the items that were produced locally). The goal is to create a larger market for local suppliers, and not have to be bringing in our meat and produce from distant locations when we have good products already here.

(Closed) This weekend, Carol and I were craving another round of pancakes, so we decided to try out Blanche and Bill’s Pancake House in Bridgewater Corners, VT, stopping off to pick up Graham for a third opinion. After a fairly long drive out to Bridgewater Corners that reminded me that Bridgewater is actually a bit of a haul from the Upper Valley proper, we arrived at Blance and Bill’s, which at 9am was still fairly quiet (but by the time we left, the place had a pretty long line starting to form).

First of all, I’ll admit, I’m a pizza snob. There are only a handful of pizza places in existence that I consider great (and most of these are in or around New Haven, CT), a few more that I consider good (American Flatbread, for one example in these parts), and the other 99.9% are just plain mediocre. Northern New England, in particular, is mostly filled with mediocre “Village Pizzas” and “Houses of Pizza” serving bland pizza with questionable cheese on soggy crusts, or places with elaborate brick ovens that, despite having good equipment, manage to turn perfectly good raw ingredients into leathery pucks. Pie-casso in Stowe, VT, however, is one of the notable exceptions to this rule….