Vermont Trip Critique

If you're hitting up Winooski Bevg, you'll be within 15 mins of Fiddlehead. Not sure of their hours, but I'd look into it if I were making that trip. Make sure to hit the Blackback after the Pro Pig, and get to Treehouse by 430 if you want to cut down on your wait

 

Lunch at ? Worthy Burger

 

my attention span is low at the moment, but i just want to say that i fucking love mad taco. good burrito + double sunshine, great memory. how do you beat that shit?

edit: re: lunch on warren store day, the sandwiches there look pretty good to me. what do locals think? i was going to get one one time, but then i didn't .

 

This. Place is awesome.

 

FWIW, the warren store has good food. It's part of the experience of the MRV=Lawson's. it's more than just a gas stop brew heist.
Good luck!
Spend tonnnnnnns of money and visit again.

 

Can I come? Like it. I third the food being great at the Warren Store.

 

Suggestion: if you are driving from MA, Waitsfield is a bit out of the way. I'd say stop in Waterbury for lunch instead. Then you have the perfect spot for Thursday close to Warren with the Mad Taco.

Alternatively, if you want to hit Mad Taco on Tues, just grab a case at Waitsfield Village grocery. Not sure why you would drive all the way to Winooski since Heady is delivered to the Mad River area on Tuesdays.

 

10 AM is correct. A couple weeks ago they ran out of double sunshine by 10:15 so yes, 10.

 

Mad Taco shares a space with Blackjack in Waterbury as well so it can work well with the MA-Waterbury-Winooski sequence. Plus the early drop of Heady (1:00-ish) in Winooski is much easier to deal with then the 5:30 drop. In my experience.

 

Unfortunately the Mad Taco is no longer at Blackback. They have a new lady running a kitchen with a small menu. I've heard the food is good, but I will miss Mad Taco.

 

Really?! What a bummer, when did that happen? I swear I was there a few weeks ago. Always was a lesser version of MT but easier to get to than Waitsfield or Montpelier.

 

Probably right after you were in there. I think it had to do with owner Rick leaving to start a bar in Portland, Maine.

 

Was at Ricky's bar in Portland Friday night - he is serving many of the small local breweries' stuff and some nice imports. Good food too. However, the pricing is VT-ish with what I call the "hipster markup" instead of in-line with other Portland establishments - I think he will figure this out in due time. Glad he is supporting his newly adopted local breweries as much as he did for us in VT!

 

Maybe those who live in VT or visit frequently can comment. Both of my visits were mid-week (Tues or Wed night stay over), and both times The Waterbury bars were limited on the HF, Alchemist, and Lawson's still on tap. Know they ran out from weekend and were waiting until Th/Fri to put new stuff on. Still ok selection but way more limited list than what I see BAs posting during their weekend trips. Just something to consider.

 

I was at blackback on Saturday and it was disappointing. Does anyone know if Ricky sold it, or just new people are managing it?

We had very bad pours, a few lines tastes old/off/dirty (comparing sip of sunshine at 3 penny to it at blackback same day), had to repeatedly ask for water. The new managers/owners also did not seem to know too much about the beers on draft either. Really quite shocked.

 

See posts prior to yours - Blackback has been sold to a local, and Mad Taco is no longer the food vendor.

 

Nope. Mad Taco pulled out more than a month ago. You had a taco, but it wasn't Mad.

 

Thanks, I knew he left and opened kings head in Portland, I just thought he still owned the blackback though, and was just spending more time at kings head. Thanks for confirming it has been sold. Hopefully the new local owners get it together, because after going to blackback for years, I was really surprised at the attention to quality. I hope they are just working the kinks out.