PHOTOS: CALEB KENNA
food+drink
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The Tillerman serves pizza and more in Bristol Justin Wright
B Y JOR D AN BAR RY • jbarry@sevendaysvt.com
Fiorella pizza
ost mornings, the wood-fired oven at the Tillerman hovers around 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The residual heat is a reminder of the fluffy, whole-grain pizzas that blistered on its deck during the previous night’s service, when the oven was cranked up to 800. “The oven is the first thing you see when you walk in,” chef Justin Wright said, temperature gun and blowtorch in hand. “It’s this showpiece. But we don’t want this place to be a pizzeria.” While the pizza is an undeniable draw, Wright is using every bit of his “showpiece” to prepare a menu of smokeinfused, creative, locally sourced fare. The Tillerman opened at the end of October in the longtime home of Mary’s Restaurant and the Inn at Baldwin Creek on Route 116 in Bristol. Owners Kate Baron and Jason Kirmse have renovated, reinvented and refreshed the 18th-century white farmhouse. While there’s still no sign out front, their presence — like the oven’s — is evident as soon as you walk up the stone path and through the door. Baron, Kirmse and Wright all moved to Vermont from California during the pandemic. Wright returned from the San Francisco Bay Area to settle in Lincoln, while Baron and Kirmse left the same region seeking “an escape route from climate disasters, overcrowding and skyhigh real estate prices,” the couple told Seven Days in August. They bought the property in June from Linda Harmon and Doug Mack, who retired after running Mary’s for 38 years. Sitting at a long, fireside table in the Tillerman’s parlor on a snowy morning, Wright and Kirmse talked about adapting — or readapting — to Vermont’s seasonal rhythms. “And beets,” Wright joked, because sourcing locally in Vermont means relying on root vegetables in the winter. “California is just an endless supply of things
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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 1-8, 2021
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