Compressed watermelon at Ondis in 2024 Credit: File: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Emma Sanford announced last week that she will not renew the lease on Ondis, her restaurant at 207 Barre Street in Montpelier, when it ends in November.

Ondis opened in December 2023; earlier this year, it received national recognition when then-chef Max Vogel was named a semifinalist in the James Beard Awards’ Best Chef: Northeast category. Vogel left the restaurant in August, and Sanford stripped down the food menu. Those dishes — and cocktails, wine, beer and nonalcoholic drinks — are served Thursday through Saturday for now.

“The love and pride I have for this place is deep, but sometimes loving something means knowing when to let it go,” Sanford’s post on social media said, “and it feels like that time has come.”

The original print version of this article was headlined “Crumbs | Ondis to Close; Haymaker Bun BTV Goes Wholesale”

Jordan Barry is a food writer at Seven Days. Her stories about tipping culture, cooperatively-owned natural wineries, bar pizza and gay chicken have earned recognition from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia's AAN Awards and the New England Newspaper & Press Association. She holds a master’s degree in food studies from New York University, where her research focused on building a lexicon for the American craft cider industry. She also has an animal science degree from the University of...