Burlington, VT what's hot in 2022?

We went to Pro pig 6 years ago and had an amazing dinner. We went again last week and found it very mediocre. The barbeque is good, but the beers are borderline not great, they're pretty pricey, and the place is very cramped.

Freak Folk was great and I wish I ate a dry dinner and then went to Freak Folk afterwards.

The Bench in Stowe was one of favorite dinners over the course of our mini vacation. They had great food (the scallop appetizer was so good) and a stellar taplist.

 

Stowe is spendy, but along with the breweries and more casual pubs mentioned upstream, there's some really amazing, albeit $$$ food options -

https://thebistroattenacres.com/
https://edsonhill.com/casual-fine-dining-stowe-vt/

 

I stand corrected about Lost Nation. The new menu is not great, so I no longer can recommend visiting it for food, but the beer is great, and the prices for drafts are extremely low.

 

I love The Bench, agree on the food and tap list being consistently great.

I think the Lost Nation chef heads Three Penny now. I was wondering if LN kept their menu, but apparently it must have fully migrated with them. Three Penny is right up with Blackback for me - both have legitimately excellent food and two of the very best taplists in all of New England.

I still like Pro Pig (and the Res! They need some love in here too!) but it always bugged me that the fried chicken and Mac n cheese were weekend lunch only. Prob my two favorite things on the menu.

 

Why is that?

 

Just visits Freak Folk’s new location in Waterbury. Very nice chill Spot with excellent beers. Not a ton We sampled a couple pale ales that were excellent. the Keller and Helles were both great, as well. The smoked porter was just ok, a little thin imo. Highly recommend when in Waterbury

 

My mouth is watering perusing this thread. Took notes and have a bunch of spots to hit for my trip north. One spot if didn’t see mentioned is Parker Pie in Glover just north of HF. I know it’s been around awhile - but I just discovered it last fall. We’ve been going for lunch before hitting HF. A revelation - it’s got the total VT country store vibe with - 1. Amazing pizza , 2. Absurd tap list (quality not qty), 3. Nice beers to go (lots of Wunderkammer), and 4. It’s so close to a dairy farm across the street - that it could be an extension of it.

 

Best place in Burlington to get cold fresh heady topper cans? Also hoping to score fiddlehead mastermind and some river roost to if I can, but not sure on distro. I’ll be staying at hotel Vermont so there’s a chance they may have them there, but likely at a premium.

 

If you want fresh mastermind you probably can do no better than to just go to the source. It's like a 15 minute drive from Burlington.

Winooski Beverage will probably have River Roost. I found cans including mas Verde at Craft Beer Cellar if you pass through Waterbury on the way to HF.

 

You can get fresh heady and focal at basically any store that sells beer: city market, Beverage Warehouse, pearl st beverage, grocery stores. You might see Mastermind in stores but your best bet is stopping at Fiddlehead( Folinos has great pizza in the same building)
For River roost hit Beverage Warehouse in Winooski or craft beer cellar in Waterbury.

 

I may be headed to Burlington to a roundup of food & beverages in the city. This thread has been a huge help. Basically trying to isolate a few great places to eat and drink.

Burlington was such a vibe a decade or so ago. I even went there for my bachelor party to basically drink around the city. I'm excited to be back. I'm going to try to get up before it gets too cold.

 

Going up again in a few weeks, staying right outside Burlington. Been plenty of times, but this time also going up to celebrate a birthday. Looking for rec's on a place with good pub food and good beer? Trying to stay within a 30-40 min driving window of Burlington area.

 

Farmhouse Tap & Grill is my go-to food good food and one of the best tap lists in Burlington, though I wouldn't call it pub food. Across the river in Winooski is Mule Bar which might fit a little better. Just took a quick look at their current tap list and it's banging!

 

Agree with the farmhouse and mule bar rec. In Essex has black flannel excellent food and brews, Hatcher in Richmond. Depending on where outside of Burlington you are staying Waterbury is a 30 min drive which gives you Black Back, the Res, pro pig and freak folk all basically on the same block and close to the highway.

 

Not much to add other than we spent an afternoon in Burlington and hit the Farmhouse and really enjoyed it. The taplist was really nice, but it was funny that the pricing was more inline with what I'm used to seeing in NY.

 

my favorite food in Burlington area rn:
https://www.saromscafe.com/ - excellent bahnmi
https://www.tacogordovt.com/ - best tacos around
https://www.archiesgrill.com/ - fresh burgers
https://www.markbbqvt.com/ - best bbq around
https://www.deepcityvt.com/ - fried chicken sandwich!
https://www.thescalevt.com/ - poke bowls

for coffee - RIP Maglianero - but both Onyx and Kru are putting out a good cuppa.

 

https://www.asinglepebble.com/ - Fantastic Chinese

 

Anyone been to Rozzis? Saw they have a big burger selection, hard to figure out tap/bottle selection?

 

Haven’t been to Rozzis in years but my guess is not much has changed. Bet you can get a fiddlehead and something like green street lager on tap, probably heady cans, rest will be your bud, blue moon.. Burgers were good and close to but not on the lake. Fine for what it is but not a place I would go out of my way for. Much better burger and beer options in the area

 

It seems like everywhere has alchemist cans so I shouldn’t worry too much. But I’m realizing my trip is leaning heavy into American food and pizza. If we choose to mix it up with something else - Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean, etc. what are the best places in those categories with great beer?

I saw The Asian pebble place lists alchemist on their website. And cortijo or whatever the taco place is was listed on hill farms website. Not sure how regular the HF tap is there.

Also, has anyone stayed at hotel Vermont? What’s your experience. Seems sick having that bar right on site with amazing draft list and some cans you can take to the room even, but just looking for an insider scoop.

Also I’m assuming what HF is on tap at restaurants or my hotel will closely mirror whats at the brewery. Since I’ll be I. Burlington first for 2 days I will be really tempted to get that Edward Or double ___ on draft, but I know it will taste better straight from the source. Also the experience of being there will factor in. I’m debating if I should hold off on HF until I get there. I am planning to go to HF twice over a 2 day period. There is some other great Vermont beer that could hold me over, of course. What would you do? Hold off on HF until the brewery? Or just go all in and say F it?

also, a little outside of Burlington, but if anyone has stayed at the craftsbury farmhouse near hill farmstead and cares to share their experience please do, thanks