Offbeat Eats

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.

(Closed) After quite a bit of international travel, late April had me arriving back home in the Upper Valley just in time for Carol’s birthday, and we used it as good excuse to try out a place that’s been on our hit list since it opened: Bistro Midva in Windsor, Vermont. Located on South Main Street in a location that’s been quite a few different restaurants over the year (I remember the spot as Shepherd’s Pie, Au Jus, and Red Head Bistro, just to name a few), and in September 2021 a new set of owners, Chad and Arlanda Eržen Lumbra, decided to reopen the oft-challenged spot with Bistro Midva. The name is Slovenian (basically means “Two of Us”), but I’d call the menu more “European Bistro” in nature; offering up a nice modern menu using fresh, local ingredients like pork belly, locally-raised meat, fresh made pasta, and a nice set of wine and cocktails.