Apr 11-17, 2012
A Vermonter With Autism Makes His Inner Voice Heard Through Film; Who’s in Mayor Miro’s Posse?; Matt Renna’s Dry-Goods Venture; Clean Slate’s Eclectic Comfort Food
Cover Story
In Burgeoning Bromance, Burlington Mayor Taps Best Bud for City Attorney
When Miro Weinberger first considered running for mayor of Burlington last summer, he turned to attorney and friend Ian Carleton for political advice. Now that he’s settling into his new digs in City Hall, Weinberger hopes to turn to Carleton for legal advice. On Monday morning, the mayor tapped his best bro and political consigliere…
Menus Posted: Shanty on the Shore and The Foundry Pub & Grille
During Restaurant Week, there are any number of ways to plan your meals out. And if your priority is a table with a view, at least two eateries are ready to oblige. Burlington seafood mecca Shanty on the Shore is perched on the edge of Lake Champlain; here, diners can jumpstart their $25 dinner with…
Menus Posted: Mexicali Grill & Cantina and Monty’s Old Brick Tavern
There’s more to Williston than big box stores. Two locally owned restaurants are participating in Vermont Restaurant Week this year, an ideal destination outside the hustle and bustle of Burlington. Mexicali’s $25 dinner menu includes a glass of Dreaming Tree Wine or a pint of Wolaver’s stout with every meal. From there, fresh, flavorful veggies…
Menus Posted: American Flatbread and Pauline’s Restaurant & Café
One is a devotedly locavore flatbread purveyor. The other, a café with elegant, French-influenced fare. This Vermont Restaurant Week, both focus on wild foods. For $35, American Flatbread — Burlington Hearth offers three courses along with a house-brewed beer pairing with each course. Wild ramps flavor a vichyssoise to start. Fiddleheads and ramps top a…
Menus Posted: Harrington House Inn and Restaurant and Shepard’s Pie Restaurant
Amongst the 20 or so new eateries taking part in Restaurant Week this year, a few are worth a road trip to the Upper Valley. At the quaint Harrington House Inn and Restaurant in Bethel — only an hour from Burlington — diners will be spoiled for choice. The $35 dinner menu offers a choice of…
Menus Posted: Cosmic Bakery & Café and One Federal Restaurant & Lounge
Starting on the same weekend as the Vermont Maple Festival, two of the town’s restaurants are making strong impressions with $25, three-course Vermont Restaurant Week dinners. One Federal starts its meal with a choice of maple-parsnip soup or green salad. Get the latter with house maple-balsamic dressing, and either way you’ll be enjoying sap from…
Vermont Senate Rejects Right-to-Die Legislation — Without Ever Voting On It
No one expected discussion of a right-to-die bill to last more than a few minutes in the Vermont Senate on Thursday. On her way into the chamber, Amy Shollenberger, a lobbyist for the advocacy group Patient Choices at End of Life Vermont, quipped, “Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.” Even so, sticker-wearing supporters and opponents…
Unlock The Food Chain With Authors Barry Estabrook & Marialisa Calta
In the midst of the weeklong culinary hoedown that is Vermont Restaurant Week, it’s easy to forget that every filet of fish, cube of chocolate and head of lettuce has a backstory, a journey from field to fork that often goes untold. Author Barry Estabrook has built a career studying those very stories. On his…
Movies You Missed 34: Miss Representation
This week in movies you missed: What’s missing from movies? Positive representations of women, according to this documentary. What You Missed Jennifer Siebel Newsom (pictured) is a Hollywood actor married to a politician (California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom). Pregnant with her first daughter, she started worrying about the media climate’s effects on girls, which eventually…
A Cause for Paws: A Vermonter Rescues a Stray Dog From Mozambique
From how far away are you willing to rescue a stray dog? From across the county? Across the state? Perhaps you’ll even adopt one through Petfinder.com, which lists hundreds of thousands of homeless animals rescued from kill shelters all over the United States. Many travel to their new homes in New England via livestock trailers that make…
We’ve Got the Shakes
Wanna go see Alabama Shakes at Higher Gound this Saturday? Of course you do. Problem is, the show is sold out and you forgot to get tickets. Bummer, dude. But you might be in luck. Through the magic of being awesome, we’ve got two tickets to the show to give away. But we’re going to…
Get Ready For The Sweet Start Smackdown!
Usually, we save dessert for last. But this year, we’ll kick off Restaurant Week off with a serious dose of sugar, chocolate and cream. On April 26 — the night before Restaurant Week begins — 10 talented pastry chefs from across Vermont will converge on Higher Ground with their most mouthwatering desserts. When we throw…
Menus Posted: Pistou & Hen of the Wood at the Grist Mill
Hoping to be surprised? Both Pistou in Burlington and Hen of the Wood in Waterbury are so focused on keeping their ingredients fresh that they’ll be changing their Restaurant Week menus each night. The two restaurants are both offering $35, three-course menus. What they also have in common is recognition from the James Beard Foundation.…
The Jazzmen (and Women) Cometh: BDJF 2012 Lineup Announced
The sun is shining, birds are chirping, leaves are confused and at a press conference earlier today the lineup for the 2012 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival was announced. It’s official, folks. Spring has sprung in Vermont. As usual, this year’s lineup features a wealth of options, jazz and jazz-ish, to suit a wide variety of…
Menus For Wine Lovers: Windjammer Restaurant and Steeple Market
I have a special place in my heart for chefs and managers who conjure wine pairings for their Restaurant Week menus. At The Windjammer Restaurant and Upper Deck Pub in South Burlington, the wine list is a labor of love that has won the esteemed Wine Spectator Award of Excellence — and so they’ve come up…
WTF: Why will parking against the flow of traffic get you a ticket in Winooski?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: We just had to ask…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again Police searching for a stolen iPad used the tablet’s GPS to track it to an apartment in San Jose, Calif. The officers didn’t have a search warrant, but when they asked permission to enter the apartment, the occupants obliged. “They probably thought if they didn’t, we’d suspect something,” Santa Clara County Assistant…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): Some people misunderstand the do-it-now fervor of the Aries tribe, thinking it must inevitably lead to carelessness. Please prove them wrong in the coming weeks. Launch into the interesting new possibilities with all your exuberance unfurled. Refuse to allow the natural energy to get hemmed in by theories and concepts. But…
![Easter at Consider Bardwell Farm [263]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/episode263.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
Easter at Consider Bardwell Farm [263]
4/8/12: Consider Bardwell Farm held its first annual Easter Egg Hunt in West Pawlet on Sunday. Over 150 baby goats greeted visitors and Eva got a tour of the caves that store their award-winning handmade cheeses. Music: The Smittens, The Coolest Thing About Love, “C’mon! (When The Grass Grows Tall And Green),” “Baby, Don’t You…
Preservation Hall
Musician, collector and yarn spinner Rick Norcross aims to get his show on the road
Crumbs
Leftover food news: The end of Sirloin Saloon; the start of a new online community for foodies
Letters to the Editor
Part of the Problem Kathryn Flagg could have saved a lot of paper [“Blow Hard,” March 14] simply by describing the repeated pattern of events surrounding ridgeline wind development. Her article could have read: “Corporations want more money and will destroy (‘develop’) nature in order to get it. People who love their homes and nature…
In Utility Merger Fight, A Battle For Votes — Or For Hearts and Minds?
If supporters of a proposed merger between the state’s two largest electric companies made one thing clear Tuesday it’s this: They’re winning the inside game in the Statehouse. At a hearing held by two House committees Tuesday morning, an all-star lineup of current and former regulators, business leaders and the execs of the merging companies…
Menus Posted: El Gato Cantina & Frida’s Taqueria and Grill
Looking for more Mexican options? Burlington and Stowe each has a locally focused, $25 menu to choose. Burlington’s El Gato Cantina serves braised Vermont Family Farms pork belly, Misty Knoll Farms chicken mole and even Sheffield Seitan burritos to keep locavores happy and full. Still, they should leave room for banana flautas or tres leches…
“Death With Dignity” Legislation Alive Again
What do tanning beds and physician-assisted death have in common? We’re about to find out. In a surprise move Tuesday, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee found a way to advance right-to-die legislation that until today appeared dead. Using a procedural move, the committee attached a right-to-die provision to a bill regulating tanning salons. The…
Pies on the Rise
Side Dishes: Positive Pie expands in Plainfield; New-Haven-style pizza comes to Woodstock
Foundry Pub & Grille, The
830 Jay Peak Road, Jay, 802-327-2500 map & directions | website Locally sourced ingredients are prepared in the ceramic tile centerpiece oven at this resort restaurant. There’s a view of Jay Peak, but the Pump House water park is even closer. More information Reader reviews on 7 Nights $25 Dinner Menu (Contemporary American) Appetizer Options…
Menus Posted: Three Tomatoes Trattoria
In Vermont, the name Three Tomatoes Trattoria is synonymous with bubbling, thin-crust pizzas. But the menu is also chock full of hearty dishes loaded with local meats, cheeses and veggies— and during Restaurant Week, the chefs are planning to have some fun with it. For $10, lunch guests at both the Williston and Burlington locations…
