Starting just after 5 a.m. daily — except on Tuesdays, when the restaurant is closed — early birds and locals shuffle in to the Parson's Corner in Barton. Some perch on the round stools at an L-shaped counter and banter with the cook. Others head to booths in the restaurant's sunny dining room, which was once the parlor of a minister in service to the Congregational Church just across the way.
Diners come for breakfast — homey updates on chrome classics such as eggs with bacon or steak or corned beef hash, melty three-egg omelets or flapjacks as big as your face and glazed with maple syrup.
I usually hit this locavore diner on my way to ski at Jay Peak — it's less than a mile off Exit 25 if you're traveling north on I-91. Chef Dave Rath and his cooks put out some of the best breakfast I've found in Vermont — excellent fuel for a day on the slopes.
I can't resist the Farmer’s Benedict — a biscuits-and-gravy/Benedict mashup in which poached eggs rest on a split English muffin, all smothered with hunky, herb-tinged ham-and-sausage gravy. A similar egg dish that swaps crisp potato croquettes for the muffin (usually found on the specials menu) is just as beguiling.
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Hannah Palmer Egan
Crab cake Benedict, splashed with Cholula
And on that note, if you’re lucky enough to catch the on-again, off-again crab-cake Benedict, it's one of the finest this side of the Chesapeake Bay.
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