This story has been updated.
The James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for its 2025 Restaurant and Chef Awards on Wednesday, January 22. Several Vermont chefs and a bar were recognized in the first round of the prestigious awards.
Cara Chigazola Tobin and Allison Gibson of Burlington’s Honey Road and the Grey Jay made the semifinalist list for Outstanding Restaurateur, a nationwide category. White River Junction cocktail bar Wolf Tree was named in the nationwide Outstanding Bar category.
Two Vermont chefs made the list for the regional Best Chef: Northeast category: Avery Buck of May Day in Burlington and Charlie Menard, owner of Canteen Creemee in Waitsfield.
Menard was surprised when Seven Days reached out for a comment on Wednesday morning — he hadn’t heard the news. “I was like, “Nah, this is fake,” he said with a laugh. “I thought I left that world a long time ago.”
Formerly executive chef of the Inn at Round Barn Farm, Menard opened his casual snack shack in spring 2016. Canteen Creemee is known for over-the-top versions of its namesake Vermonty treat, such as the Bad Larry: a maple creemee loaded with maple crystals, drizzle, cookies and floss.
But “it’s not just a place to get a quintessential maple creemee,” the chef said. With savory entrées such as braised lamb shank on the menu alongside burgers and fried chicken, “We’re doing a lot of the same work a fine-dining restaurant is doing: sautéing and braising and roasting. At the end of the day, the actual plate it’s served on isn’t that much of a qualifier, I guess.”
The first thing Buck did when he heard the news was text his cooks at May Day. “It’s all them,” he said. “I push hard, and it’s for moments like this. It’s surreal.”
Buck took over the kitchen at the Old North End restaurant in July 2023; he’d worked at Hen of the Wood, Doc Ponds, Burlington Beer and the Grey Jay before that. May Day’s opening chef, Mojo Hancy-Davis, was recognized in the same category in 2023.
On Wednesday night, Buck cooked a special five-course May Day x Hen of the Wood pairing dinner in Hen’s Butcher Room. Afterward, he said, “We’re gonna go to T. Ruggs [Tavern] and have some Guinness.”
Wolf Tree, White River Junction’s must-visit cocktail bar, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary; the entire staff has been there more than two years, owner Max Overstrom-Coleman told Seven Days.
He’s friends with Tunbridge native Ivy Mix, whose Brooklyn bar Leyenda was also recognized in this year’s Outstanding Bar category. “Two little Vermont origin stories,” Overstrom-Coleman said — and two of just three bars in the Northeast among the 20 named across the country.
“When you open a bar in Vermont, you don’t do it for notoriety,” he continued. “You do it to be part of a community. But to feel a little love from a larger audience is pretty wonderful.”
Chef Nisachon “Rung” Morgan of Saap restaurant in Randolph won Vermont’s first James Beard Foundation Award in the Best Chef: Northeast category in 2022. In 2024, Vermont was represented by two finalists: Chigazola Tobin in the Best Chef: Northeast category and the cocktail bar at Barr Hill’s Montpelier distillery in the nationwide Outstanding Bar category.
This year’s semifinalists will be whittled into a short list of nominees on Wednesday, April 2. Award winners will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on June 16.
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This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2025.
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