ICYMI: Sweetwaters is back, and the restaurant’s signature cornflake-and-almond-crusted chicken fingers are flying out of the kitchen.
When the landmark Burlington business closed after 41 years in 2022 to make way for a relocated Pascolo Ristorante, many lamented the loss. Fans flocked to the elegant historic bank building at 120 Church Street in Sweetwaters’ last days for final tastes of favorites, such as the pulled pork nachos, the Switchback beer-battered fish and chips, and, of course, the crunchy chicken fingers and the Shirt Sleeve wrap in which they featured.
No one was using texting acronyms like ICYMI for “in case you missed it” when the Perry Restaurant Group opened Sweetwaters in 1981. David Melincoff, now 69, started working there in the mid-’80s when the Shirt Sleeve was served in a pita pocket and called the Shirt Pocket. He later owned the downtown mainstay for more than two decades. When he announced its closure, Melincoff told Seven Days he was looking forward to a rest.
Late last year, after Jed Davis of the Farmhouse Group decided to move Pascolo back to its original, smaller, subterranean spot at 83 Church Street, the long-term lease reverted to Melincoff, and his rest ended.
The appetite for opening a brand-new, 178-seat restaurant is low in today’s economy, not to mention doing so amid the well-documented challenges facing downtown Burlington businesses. But Melincoff thought there was enough pent-up nostalgic yearning and room in the market to give Sweetwaters a second chance.
News of the planned revival delighted die-hard fans. Since it reopened in late April, the restaurant seems to have hit the mark with most devotees, although nostalgia is a funny thing: Sometimes the memory of what you loved at a certain point in your life tastes sweeter than the reality of biting into it. Maybe it’s changed — or maybe you have.
But, overall, Sweetwaters’ broad roster of standbys plus some new dishes delivers like the restaurant historically did, serving up a crowd-pleasing menu in a congenial atmosphere.
The restaurant’s forte has always been its wide appeal, according to managing partner and general manager Jessie Littler: “It’s approachable for everyone. A farmer and a bank exec can both feel comfortable.”
The 39-year-old grew up in a hospitality family in the Killington area and was listing off a lengthy roster of Chittenden County restaurants where she’s worked when she paused to advise a server that it was no problem to provide 12 separate checks to a table of college-age customers.
That can-do attitude carries over to the kitchen, too.
“At the end of the day, it’s just food. I’m really here to make people happy,” said Kyle Wescott, the reopening team’s original chef de cuisine and now executive chef. “We’re not the French Laundry,” he added, referring to the Michelin-starred Napa Valley destination.
The 35-year-old Colchester native and New England Culinary Institute grad has his own memories of childhood meals at Sweetwaters, during which he guzzled the house Bison Brew root beer and relished the French onion soup and distinctively crusted chicken fingers.
At Sweetwaters 2.0, the root beer ($7) is from Rookie’s, another Burlington legend. French onion soup will return with cooler weather. Bringing back the chicken fingers ($15.95 for three) and the Shirt Sleeve wrap ($19.95) was “a given,” Wescott said. Ditto the pulled pork nachos ($21.95), spinach-and-artichoke dip ($15.95), and fish and chips ($24.95).
Wescott said he and reopening executive chef Jessee Lawyer — who has since left to helm the Great Northern kitchen at Burlington’s Zero Gravity Beer Hall — designed the menu around Sweetwaters staples while adding “a modern twist.” New dishes include the Queen City Rice Bowl ($16.95), with kimchi and a soft-yolked hard-boiled egg, and chile-glazed, pan-seared salmon ($26.95) with a ginger-soy aioli.
Over two visits, I tried a mix of Sweetwaters classics and fresh fare. Since I was not a regular preceding the closure, I enlisted the help of two friends who described it as their “go-to place” to see how the reborn version met their expectations.
Linda Dubose of Burlington and Amber Morrill of Essex Junction were such fans that they were there on Sweetwaters’ closing night and on reopening weekend. Morrill even re-created the bar’s Caribbean rum punch at home during the pandemic. The two are disappointed that drink has not returned, though they said the P.O.B. (“person overboard,” $12) with two kinds of rum, Southern Comfort and pineapple juice makes an acceptable substitute.
Of their most regular orders, the friends deemed the current version of the Shirt Sleeve not quite as good as their memories of it. The flour tortilla-swaddled crunchy chicken fingers, Swiss cheese, greens and bacon with Thousand Island dressing is a winning combo, but they found it a little dry and light on the sauce. Dubose did recall that she had always asked for extra Thousand Island on the side. After dousing each bite, it came close to ringing those Proustian Remembrance of Things Past bells and prompted a discussion of how tastes change over time.
The heaping pile of pulled pork nachos, another old favorite, looked different with much darker tortilla chips, the two said, but each bite hit all the right smoky, cheesy, crunchy notes. Wescott said the kitchen is now frying locally made All Souls Tortilleria corn tortillas daily to make the chips. And, in a super close-to-home choice, he uses Richard’s Vermont Made barbecue sauce — it’s crafted in South Burlington by his aunt and uncle Donna and Tracy Lamphere.
Of the new dishes we tried, the rice bowl with added grilled chicken (plus $7.95) was the hands-down favorite. It telegraphed Sweetwaters’ contemporary era with the perfectly oozing yolk of the jammy egg; tangy, punchy kicks from house-pickled veggies and kimchi; and a satisfyingly crunchy gilding of fried shallots and roasted peanuts.
We also sampled the bucatini Sorrentina ($22.95). The abundant pool of pesto was bright and fresh, and the orb of burrata delightfully oozy, but the pasta was sadly overcooked. That execution flaw is easily remedied.
The highlight of a follow-up visit was the recently reintroduced sesame-encrusted tuna ($25.95), a slight recast of a Sweetwaters standard that Melincoff said patrons had repeatedly asked to order again.
“People missed it,” Wescott agreed. “It was light and refreshing.”
The chef replaced the peanut noodles with more cucumber slaw and a sweet chile aioli that nicely complemented the rosy-hearted seared tuna. I had a quibble with the fingerling potato chip garnish, but that was, ahem, small potatoes — and Wescott has since replaced it with a sesame-seaweed sprinkle. Bottom line: Yes, seared tuna is an ’80s throwback, but some things endure for a reason.
Others, such as the kitschy mural on the original restaurant’s rear wall, are best left behind, in my opinion. Melincoff decidedly does not agree with me on this point.
Painted in 1981 in the light-filled, raised seating area across the dining room from the front door, the mural featured Burlington luminaries such as then-mayor Bernie Sanders, musician “Big Joe” Burrell and Lois Bodoky, the Church Street “hot dog lady,” mingling with what Seven Days described in 2008 as “rollicking nude figures straight out of an ancient bacchanal.”
When the Farmhouse Group renovated the restaurant for Pascolo, Italian-style tile was glued directly onto the mural. Along with most of that refresh, the tile remains there, much to Melincoff’s chagrin.
“If I could get the mural back, I would have pulled the tile down in a heartbeat,” Melincoff said. “I would have picked up a chisel and hammer myself.”
From this diner’s perspective, the ambience of the high-ceilinged dining room improved during Pascolo’s three-year tenure with a new marble bar top and removal of the second seating level and the mural. Melincoff and his team have added two large TV screens by the bar, changed some light fixtures and reorganized seating.
There’s nostalgia. There’s history. People remember where they sat and what they ate.
David Melincoff
Like the menu, customers have fond memories of the space. “There’s nostalgia. There’s history. People remember where they sat and what they ate,” Melincoff said. Couples recall where they had their first date and where they got engaged, general manager Littler added.
Business has grown steadily over the summer. Melincoff said the team hit a record on a mid-July Saturday of 670 customers served, but it’s still below the original’s peak tally, which frequently reached 1,000.
Downtown has obviously changed over the past 45 years. Especially since the pandemic, its businesses face many challenges, Melincoff said, that call for new tactics. Sweetwaters has collaborated with three neighboring bars — Akes’ Place, the Archives and Red Square — to deliver online food orders to their customers.
“We have to believe in Church Street getting better,” Littler said. “Us being here can create more hope.”
To borrow from another icon of the early 1980s: “Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree?” As the Eurythmics song continued, “Everybody’s looking for something” — and Sweetwaters has something for almost everyone. ➆
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