Heart n Soul by Mark BBQ to Open in December 

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• File: Oliver Parini
• Darrell Langworthy

About a year after opening Mark BBQ in Essex Junction, chef-owner Darrell Langworthy will launch a second restaurant in the same building. Heart n Soul by Mark BBQ will open in December at 34 Park Street, he said.

Heart n Soul will serve "inspired comfort food," including chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, crab cakes and a grilled portobello mushroom burger. Entrées will come with a choice of starch — creamy risotto, creamy polenta or truffle mashed potatoes — and a vegetable of the day. Specials will include vegetarian and vegan options. The 35-seat restaurant, with additional outdoor seating in warm weather, will have full table service.

Mark BBQ, which opened in October 2018, grew out of a food truck that Langworthy had launched the previous spring. "We've just had such great outpouring from the community for the barbecue," he said. "A lot of people said they miss some good old-fashioned comfort food, down-home food. We decided to give the people what they want and open a comfort-food restaurant."

Langworthy, 40, will serve as chef of both restaurants. His chef de cuisine at Heart n Soul is Shaun Trepanier, whose experience includes co-owning Berda's, a now-closed restaurant at the Essex Experience.

Heart n Soul will serve beer and wine and be open for lunch and dinner Thursday through Saturday; its hours will expand to five days a week in the spring, Langworthy said.

"I can literally walk out one door and into the other and be at both places," he noted.

Heart n Soul will occupy the space that was recently vacated by Lazy Farmer, a restaurant and caterer. Efforts to reach the Lazy Farmer on Monday were not immediately successful.