For more than half a century, Bessery’s Butcher Shoppe has served customers at its store on North Avenue in Burlington. Now owner Bryan Bessery is set to launch a second business, the Burger Bar, at 831 College Parkway in Colchester.
The restaurant and bar is expected to open the first week of March, said Bessery, whose grandfather, Peter, founded the original shop in 1963. The Burger Bar’s menu will be similar to that of the deli and grill that the Burlington Bessery’s added a year and a half ago, but the Colchester restaurant will have seating for 65 people and serve beer, wine and liquor.
The Burger Bar will offer a selection of burgers and sausage sandwiches, along with Philly cheesesteaks, grinders, wings, French fries and soups. In a nod to the Fanny Allen Campus of the University of Vermont Medical Center across the street, the restaurant will also make a variety of salads, Bessery said.
Kitchen manager Matthew Burt will bring the smoker from North Avenue to Colchester a couple of times a week to smoke meats for pulled pork and brisket. The restaurant, open daily at 11 a.m., will be run by Bryan’s wife, Kelly.
Bessery said the promise of seating — which Bessery’s Butcher Shoppe offers only at picnic tables out front — factored into the decision to open the new restaurant. “One of the reasons we thought about doing this is, I’ve been told [more] people would come here if they had a place to sit,” he said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Bessery’s Grows”
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This article appears in Feb 21-28, 2018.
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Congrats on your new restaurant …we will be over to try it out we know your grandparents Pete & Nancy for many years
Russ and Jane Wescott