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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Restaurant News Peking Duck House to Close
Posted
By Alice Levitt
on Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 3:04 PM
While one Winooski business has been attracting national attention, another is quietly saying adieu. After 27 years in business, the Peking Duck House will serve its final meals on Saturday, August 30.
According to zoning documents, co-owner Linda Chen is selling the building to Burlington's Youkel architecture firm. The latter business chose not to comment at this time.
But Chen says she and her brother, Peter Chuong, had the building, which they've owned since 1987, up for sale for about a year. The pair finally decided to retire, adds Chuon's son, Ben Chen, who left his own Boston restaurants in 2011 to revitalize the Winooski business. "They've been here forever. It's a good time to start a new life," he said.
Ben Chen says that Chuong and Linda Chen will travel, visiting family and friends in China before settling near him and his own young family in Boston. As for the young restaurateur, who introduced Korean and Thai food to the traditional Chinese-American menu, he says he'll take a month off to decompress before deciding on his next move. He's not yet sure whether that move will be back into the restaurant business or as an entrepreneur in another field.
The family will say their final goodbyes to loyal customers with a private party on Sunday. According to Ben Chen, the event is about celebrating 27 good years in the business, not saying goodbye. "It's a good time to go. Everyone was happy," he says.
Still, locals are sure to miss their Scorpion Bowls and bibimbap.
Correction: Updated 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27 to reflect how the family members are related.
According to zoning documents, co-owner Linda Chen is selling the building to Burlington's Youkel architecture firm. The latter business chose not to comment at this time.
But Chen says she and her brother, Peter Chuong, had the building, which they've owned since 1987, up for sale for about a year. The pair finally decided to retire, adds Chuon's son, Ben Chen, who left his own Boston restaurants in 2011 to revitalize the Winooski business. "They've been here forever. It's a good time to start a new life," he said.
Ben Chen says that Chuong and Linda Chen will travel, visiting family and friends in China before settling near him and his own young family in Boston. As for the young restaurateur, who introduced Korean and Thai food to the traditional Chinese-American menu, he says he'll take a month off to decompress before deciding on his next move. He's not yet sure whether that move will be back into the restaurant business or as an entrepreneur in another field.
The family will say their final goodbyes to loyal customers with a private party on Sunday. According to Ben Chen, the event is about celebrating 27 good years in the business, not saying goodbye. "It's a good time to go. Everyone was happy," he says.
Still, locals are sure to miss their Scorpion Bowls and bibimbap.
Correction: Updated 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27 to reflect how the family members are related.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Alice Eats Alice Eats: Swiss Fondue and Crêpes by Heinz
Posted
By Alice Levitt
on Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 12:32 PM
48 South Main Street, Stowe, 999-8785
What brings tourists to Stowe when the mountains aren't white and primed for skiers? According to my boyfriend's father, "People just want to go somewhere that's not horrible." But I think there's more to it. The same way that so many tourists journey to Montréal for its New France vibe, Stowe can be a pretty good approximation of the Alps. Even Maria from The Sound of Music thought so.
Trapp Family Lodge may be ground zero for ladies to spin around on a mountaintop just as Julie Andrews did in the movie, but, last weekend, I checked out a more recent addition to Stowe's Alpine attractions. Chef Heinz Remmel opened his own restaurant on Main Street last year after several years of hopping from one pop-up location to another around Stowe, plying tourists with his crêpes and fondue.
The dinner menu of cheese, meat or chocolate fondue is available at lunch, but high prices for top-flight filet mignon or Swiss Gruyère, vacherin and Emmentaler disqualified them from an Alice Eats selection. I stuck to lunch crêpes, but couldn't resist adding one of my favorite, hard-to-find treats — available on the dinner menu.
What brings tourists to Stowe when the mountains aren't white and primed for skiers? According to my boyfriend's father, "People just want to go somewhere that's not horrible." But I think there's more to it. The same way that so many tourists journey to Montréal for its New France vibe, Stowe can be a pretty good approximation of the Alps. Even Maria from The Sound of Music thought so.
Trapp Family Lodge may be ground zero for ladies to spin around on a mountaintop just as Julie Andrews did in the movie, but, last weekend, I checked out a more recent addition to Stowe's Alpine attractions. Chef Heinz Remmel opened his own restaurant on Main Street last year after several years of hopping from one pop-up location to another around Stowe, plying tourists with his crêpes and fondue.
The dinner menu of cheese, meat or chocolate fondue is available at lunch, but high prices for top-flight filet mignon or Swiss Gruyère, vacherin and Emmentaler disqualified them from an Alice Eats selection. I stuck to lunch crêpes, but couldn't resist adding one of my favorite, hard-to-find treats — available on the dinner menu.
Farmers Market Kitchen Farmers Market Kitchen: Nutty Carrot Zucchini Water Soup
Posted
By Hannah Palmer Egan
on Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 11:48 AM
This recipe really began two days ago, with a hulking zucchini from my mom's garden. Summer gardeners, you know the one — you missed it when it was small, and now it's a club-sized monstrosity, too tough and bitter for the stir-fry? Yeah, that one.
Shred that thang, rob it of its water, and you've got yourself a beautiful soup base, used here with some lovely pink carrots from Mr. Harvest (Isle La Motte), and cashews for an elegant, nutty, late-summer soup.
Also, it's VEGAN (as was last week's recipe!) — the nuts do double duty as a stand-in for the cream you'll usually find in a pureed soup like this. But the vegan-ness is a happy coincidence: This blend doesn't skimp on flavor or richness. It's a round, full-bodied first course or light lunch, perhaps served with crusty bread and butter.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Beer 25 Years of Long Trail: More Hits and Highlights
Posted
By Hannah Palmer Egan
on Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 6:38 PM
This weekend, Long Trail Brewing Company will celebrate its 25th anniversary. For this week's feature, Seven Days caught up with longtime brewery employees Dave Hartmann (brewmaster), Billy Gault (facility manager) and Matt Quinlan (operations manager), as well as members of the marketing team and a few other industry folks.
They had a lot to remember, far too much for the 1500-word feature that ran in the paper this week.
Below, more excerpts from our hours-long interview.
They had a lot to remember, far too much for the 1500-word feature that ran in the paper this week.
Below, more excerpts from our hours-long interview.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Alice Eats Alice Eats: King's Corner Deli
Posted
By Alice Levitt
on Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 1:08 PM
41 King Street, Burlington, 540-2552
I was disappointed when Burger King abandoned its brilliant King advertising campaign, calling it "too creepy." But another king, more cheerful than stone-faced, has moved into Burlington's South End, not far from Seven Days' office. And the neighborhood is abuzz about the deli's sandwiches.
I was disappointed when Burger King abandoned its brilliant King advertising campaign, calling it "too creepy." But another king, more cheerful than stone-faced, has moved into Burlington's South End, not far from Seven Days' office. And the neighborhood is abuzz about the deli's sandwiches.
Farmers Market Kitchen Farmers Market Kitchen: Roasted Broccoli With Root Vegetables
Posted
By Hannah Palmer Egan
on Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 12:51 PM
This time of year brings an excess of everything — kale and greens are still proliferating, tomatoes are in full bloom, and summer squash, eggplant, peppers and beans are everywhere. But things that take most of the summer to hatch — like broccoli and carrots — are really starting to yield, and the early pick is always the sweetest.
My fridge is just full of it. At a dinner party this past weekend, my friend Val threw together a roasted veggie dish with some gorgeous purple carrots from Footprint Farm, and broccoli, again from Lalumiere Farm, and it was a total hit. It took her less than 10 minutes to prepare and 20 to 30 minutes in the oven ... The better for pre-dinner cocktailing.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Where Am I Eating? Where Am I Eating? No. 1
Posted
By Alice Levitt
on Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 12:35 PM
Addition: 08/18/14
Sorry, folks, reader Heather Hennessy has won this round. She was the first to get the correct answer of San Sai Japanese Restaurant. Come back for another installment of Where Am I Eating soon!
Vermont has so many distinctive food options that we decided it would be fun to test our readers. Fellow Seven Days food writer Hannah Palmer Egan and I eat out regularly for a living, but how thorough a job have you been doing consuming Vermont bounty?
Today we debut a semi-regular series. One of us will post a photo of a memorable dish served at a restaurant somewhere in the Green Mountain State. Your job is to guess where. The first person to email us with the correct answer at [email protected] wins a gift certificate from one of dozens of Vermont eateries.
Ready? Go!
Today we debut a semi-regular series. One of us will post a photo of a memorable dish served at a restaurant somewhere in the Green Mountain State. Your job is to guess where. The first person to email us with the correct answer at [email protected] wins a gift certificate from one of dozens of Vermont eateries.
Ready? Go!
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Alice Eats Alice Eats: Top Chef at Taste of the Valley
Posted
By Alice Levitt
on Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 3:36 PM
I've been attending Taste of the Valley — part of the Vermont Festival of the Arts that overtakes the Mad River Valley in August — for the better part of a decade.
It's normally a quiet event, with restaurants from the MRV area tabling with small bites in the Lincoln Peak area of Sugarbush Resort. Many of my favorite food businesses, from restaurants to farms to bakeries, are in that region, so for me it's been a deliciously concentrated dose of good stuff. But this year was different.
The new general manager at Timbers Restaurant at Sugarbush, Bruce Hyde, had a vision for a more competitive take on the placid tasting. This year, seven of the 25 businesses present agreed to compete Iron Chef style.
Attendees voted for their favorite small bites from among the group of seven. The top two were then selected to go head-to-head in an outdoor culinary battle. And as a judge, I was one of only three people to taste their competitive handiwork.
But first, like everyone else, I had to taste my way through the indoor-outdoor event.
Farmers Market Kitchen Farmers Market Kitchen: Fire-Roasted Cauliflower en Dijon
Posted
By Hannah Palmer Egan
on Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 12:53 PM
This recipe isn't really French, but it nods to the flavors of France with a hearty dose of Dijon mustard, white wine tarragon (or herbes de Provence) and, OK, mayonnaise.
Faced with two crisp, colorful heads of cauliflower from Starksboro's Footprint Farm and Ferrisburgh's Lalumiere Farm — gleaned from the Hinesburg Farmers Market last Thursday — I wanted to do something that would enhance but not overpower the vegetables' sweet, nutty flavor.
I'm still very much on my grilling kick, but marinading was out of the question (our guests were already on their way, and cauliflower is not exactly absorbent), so I called on a slick, sure-fire trick: Slather the vegetable in a delicately flavored but fatty mixture and roast it for 40 minutes.
So roasted, the dressing fades into the background but the fat helps the cauliflower brown and the salt helps coax the moisture from the vegetable. The tangy Dijon and cheese add just a hint of flavor to the smoke from the grill.
Et voilà! The resulting dish hits the Farmers Market Kitchen trifecta: easy, tasty, pretty.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Alice Eats Alice Eats: The Apple Core Luncheonette & Brew
Posted
By Alice Levitt
on Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 1:27 PM
3600 Waterbury-Stowe Road, Waterbury Center, 327-7537
This year was Seven Days' first bestowing a Daysie for best cider doughnuts. Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury scooped up the prize. I hate to admit it, but I had always consigned the place to the realm of tourist trap. But clearly, Vermonters love it, too. On Saturday, I braved the tour buses for a taste.
By 1 p.m., most of the oldsters had boarded a shuttle, leaving the restaurant — so busy at 12:30 — almost empty. That made it easy for me to score a shaded picnic table on the deck. I left my things and headed across the parking lot to the farm store and bakery, where I was greeted by the lady above.
This year was Seven Days' first bestowing a Daysie for best cider doughnuts. Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury scooped up the prize. I hate to admit it, but I had always consigned the place to the realm of tourist trap. But clearly, Vermonters love it, too. On Saturday, I braved the tour buses for a taste.
By 1 p.m., most of the oldsters had boarded a shuttle, leaving the restaurant — so busy at 12:30 — almost empty. That made it easy for me to score a shaded picnic table on the deck. I left my things and headed across the parking lot to the farm store and bakery, where I was greeted by the lady above.
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