food
The Restaurant Week Diaries This week’s about dining out, and we’re eating it up.
SEVEN DAYS
05.19.10-05.26.10
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
STEFAN HARD
B Y SEVEN D AYS STAFF
L
ast Friday, the inaugural Vermont Restaurant Week got under way with a party at Red Square and a movie-and-wine pairing at Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas. Like Restaurant Week’s more than 900 Facebook fans, Seven Days staffers have been traversing the state in search of dining delights. We’ve attended events in Essex and Burlington and grazed in Bristol, Vergennes and Shelburne, to name a few participating towns. Here’s a sampling of what’s going down.
A Square Meal
During Vermont Restaurant Week, plenty of eateries are offering menu items that usually run only as specials. But one restaurant’s menu is a complete departure from its usual fare. Matt Birong, chef-owner of 3 Squares in Vergennes, generally plies a hearty trade in contemporary breakfast fare, panini and house-baked pastries. This
ALICE LEVITT
Rye Richardson and Maggie Dodson, at a beer pairing event Sunday at Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier.
Tostada at 3 Squares
week, his $25 prix-fixe menu was made up of Mexican dishes. ¿Porque no? Our fiesta started with a pair of stews. The grilled-chicken posole was clean and incredibly fresh, given character by just the right amount of spice. In addition to chicken, the reddish-brown broth was filled with hominy, big leaves of cilantro and crunchy radishes. I liked the chile verde even more. The tomatillo-andgreen-chile stew was thickened with
masa and topped with a glop of sour cream. The earthy wild-mushroom tamales featured pillowy-soft masa and liberal zigzags of spicy roasted-chile sauce. Grilled grouper with pepita pesto was a perfectly cooked square of fish with a wonderful citrusy zest. Meaty plates were the best of all. A giant pile of braised short ribs studded with onions, black beans and avocados sat between two fried corn tortillas for a museum-worthy tostada. Ancho-rubbed pork tenderloin, languidly resting in a rich chile demi-glace, was worthy of the finest restaurant. With its elegant, starchy-sweet plantain cake accompaniment and jicama-pepper slaw, the dish seemed somewhat out of place in the cozy bakery-café setting. Somehow that made the meal feel even more special. We would not have ordered dessert had it not been included in the prix fixe. Despite the Herculean efforts it took to fit another ounce of food into my body, I’m glad I did. The domed Mexicanchocolate torte was densely chocolaty and flavored with a strong smattering of cinnamon and just a hint of spice. Kahlua crème anglaise sweetened the proceedings, along with a gorgeous pair of blackberries. It is rare that a meal for which I already had high hopes wildly exceeds my expectations. This one did. — AL IC E L EV I T T
We’re Jammin’
An 8 p.m. dinner for four people with an 8-month-old baby in tow is always a crapshoot, but when it came to finding a suitable venue for the opening night of Restaurant Week, the Windjammer in South Burlington was a no-brainer. It has ample seating, large, sound-muffling booths and just enough background noise in case the little girl cranked it up.
Thankfully, Manya was on her best behavior, which only contributed to a great evening of fine dining. A $25 fixed-price menu at the Windjammer is a real bargain, as many of their entrées normally run at least $25. Two of my dining companions added the $15 threeglass wine match, and they said food and drink were paired very well. I opted for the Windjammer’s big and hearty Bloody Mary, with lots of horseradish and accoutrements. Not that you ever lack for veggies at the Windjammer, which probably has the best salad bar in Chittenden County. That, too, was included in the prix fixe and made for a good start along with the fried calamari with banana peppers, scallions and a balsamic drizzle. My wife had tasty shrimp bruschetta. Our entrées were perfectly cooked Thai glazed salmon and porcini purses — a simply delicious dish. They were out of vanilla-bean crème brûlée by the time we ordered our third course, but there was a silver lining: Our waiter gave us the run of the dessert menu. As I was already stuffed, I got my pecan pie to go. My dining companions seemed thoroughly fat and happy by the end of the night, as evidenced by the numerous snores in the car on the drive home. — K EN P I C A R D
The View at La Villa
Shawn and I had big plans for a “date night” at Café Shelburne this Saturday. Our first trip to the venerable French restaurant was to be a reward for a marathon week of event planning. Turned out some friends from Boston and New York were in town for the night, and we wanted to take them all out. We postponed our original reservations and frantically scanned the Restaurant
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