On the weekend of the South End Art Hop, food trucks crowd Pine Street and its environs. They offer great choices — after all, the lineup is curated by Food Trucks of Vermont, the side biz of South End Get Down organizers Louie and Max Orleans.
But there are brick-and-mortar hot spots, too, and the South End food scene is always changing. Preppi Market and Eatery, the new café at Hula, is open weekdays and to the public. We said goodbye to ArtsRiot, Queen City Café and Citizen Cider’s Pine Street pub this year, but two will be Hop spots in the future: The Little Gordo Creemee Stand team has been hinting at a new project in Queen City’s former Coal Collective space, and Citizen has announced plans to reopen — as the Press House Pub — at the cidery’s 180 Flynn Avenue production facility.
For now, we returned to old favorites reimagined. Here’s what you’ll find at La Reprise, which took over for Dedalus Wine Shop, Market and Wine Bar, and at the Switchback Beer Garden & Smokehouse, now a barbecue joint. Both are sure to be hopping.
Vino Al Fresco
La Reprise, 388 Pine St., 540-2891, lareprisewines.com. Note: The wine garden is open Thursday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m.
When Dedalus closed its flagship Pine Street location abruptly last fall, Burlington’s South End lost what I considered a lovely but underappreciated part of the operation: the casual, seasonal wine garden out front.
Happily, when wine and hospitality pro Ari Sadri opened La Reprise in the former Dedalus space in June, he reprised not only the shop, market and wine bar but also the garden — all with his own stamp.
Whenever we can, we should encourage people to enjoy food and wine outdoors.
Ari Sadri
In the heart of the arts district, there are few better places on a beautiful Art Hop evening — or any night — to sip a cool, effervescent Italian lambrusco ($11 per glass; $44 per bottle); nibble on grill-kissed skewers of chicken, shrimp or veggies ($12 each); and watch the world go by from your picnic table.
“Winters are long, and summers are short,” said Sadri, 58. “Whenever we can, we should encourage people to enjoy food and wine outdoors.”
Striped umbrellas offer shade, and string lights twinkle as dusk falls. An eclectic playlist bounces softly off the surrounding brick walls. Customers order and pay at the bar and grill set up near La Reprise’s front door.
The concise menu of “garden wines” and “garden eats” contains enough choices but not so many that they overwhelm. That would be too much work for the garden.
Pair a politely funky orange wine from Germany ($12/$46) with the Niçoise salad ($14), which is chunky with potatoes, snappy with crisp green beans, and briny with olives and good tuna. Try a dry Austrian rosé ($9/$36) with the herby, lemony grilled shrimp ($12) or the lobster roll ($25). Or crack a canned piquette rosé from Nova Scotia ($10) to go with a snappy hot dog ($6) in a grilled bun with rotating pickles and fermented veg.
You will have to venture inside during Art Hop to see the exhibit by photographer Nicole Bull, who also happens to be a wine rep and does marketing for La Reprise.
But from the wine garden, you’ll have a front-row seat when Mother Nature, the OG artist, paints sunset onto the sky.
Smokin’ Hot
Switchback Beer Garden & Smokehouse, 160 Flynn Ave., 540-6965, switchbackvt.com
How many smash burgers can one parking lot hold? Probably a lot, based on how popular they are. But with Citizen Cider’s pub set to join the drink-and-a-burger destination that Burlington Beer and Switchback Brewing have created on Flynn Avenue, the folks at Switchback altered their approach. Just shy of a year after opening an on-site beer garden and tap house, they went ale-in on barbecue.
Switchback knows how to smoke things. The brewery’s Flynn on Fire smoked-beer series has been around for years, and chef Chris Cantrell and managing partner Josh Weber are both from the South.
“We’ve been eating barbecue since we were old enough to eat solid food,” Weber said. “It was a natural progression to switch it up to something that’s a specialty of ours and something this side of town was lacking.”
There’s still a smash burger on the menu, but house-smoked meats are the real works of art. A juicy brisket sandwich ($20) is topped with pickled celery and horseradish cream sauce; the succulent pulled-pork version ($18) is piled high with coleslaw, pickles and barbecue sauce made with Switchback Ale.
Each comes with a choice of side, whether creamy Cabot mac and cheese, braised collard greens, broccoli salad, tangy coleslaw, golden hand-cut fries, dressed greens, or crumbly maple cornbread. If you’re really hungry, platters of pulled pork ($22) or St. Louis ribs ($24) are served with a dinner roll, pickled veggies and two sides.
Southern flair has imbued the lighter end of things, too, with an Alabama white barbecue sauce for dipping the smoked chicken wings ($16) and black-eyed peas subbing in for chickpeas in the hummus ($14).
It all pairs well with a beer. Switchback will host live music on the beer garden’s outdoor stage on Saturday, September 6, Weber said, and will have drink specials all weekend.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Food Nouveau | New snacks and sips at revamped favorites in the South End”
This article appears in Art Hop Guide 2025.
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