Chef-owner Shannon Bates added a second storefront on Montpelier’s main drag when she opened State Street Seafood & Meat on January 21 at 146 State Street. Bates said she spent a year planning and renovating the former credit union at the State Street and Bailey Avenue intersection. Her new shop offers fresh seafood, such as bluefin tuna from North Carolina and wild halibut picked up twice weekly from Boston, and meat such as house-marinated steak tips, Australian lamb and Snake River Farms American Wagyu from Idaho. Bates also stocks wine and beer and will gradually expand her supply of housemade dressings and sauces, she said.
The Woodbury native and Culinary Institute of America graduate came home from cooking all over the world to open globally inspired deli Enna at 14 State Street in July 2021. She added gelato to Enna’s menu in May 2024.
Bates described herself as “a passionate fish nerd” who learned all about seafood while living and working in Vietnam, Hong Kong, New York City and San Francisco. “I saw a need for this here,” Bates said of her new retail store.
The 2,500-square-foot building boasts a shiny new fish butchering room where Bates breaks down whole fish, such as striped bass and mahi-mahi, and steams shrimp for shrimp cocktail. The rest of the space will allow her to grow all of her Montpelier businesses, she said.
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