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If you took a map of Vermont and dropped a pin right in the middle, you'd likely land somewhere near Pittsfield. And if you drove through that town on Vermont's longest numbered highway, Route 100, you wouldn't miss the Original General Store.
I've been there probably a dozen times to pick up a sandwich for a road trip or to fuel one of many beautiful nearby hikes. Sometimes I manage to wait a few hours before I bite into the deli's mozzarella and tomato panini ($8.95), layered with roasted red peppers, kale pesto and olive tapenade; or the Cubano ($9.95), a perennial favorite, made with house-roasted pork loin on pressed ciabatta with pickles and yellow mustard. Sometimes I make it only a few minutes.
Before I spoke to owner Katie Stiles, who has run the place with her husband, Kevin Lasko, for nine years, I had no idea there was a full-service restaurant on the other side of the building.
"We're back there in the winter," Stiles told me about the Backroom, a communal dining-style restaurant with an open kitchen and seasonal menu. In the summer, she explained, they focus on their other business, Vermont Farms Catering.
click to enlarge - Melissa Pasanen ©️ Seven Days
- Original General Store in Pittsfield
The couple clearly know good food: Lasko was the executive chef of New York City's Park Avenue Autumn/Winter/Spring/Summer for a decade, while Stiles worked as a publicist for high-profile chefs such as Alain Ducasse. Their skill explains why the store's sandwiches — simple enough at first glance but each executed with finesse — earned a spot in our monthlong series on great sandwiches to power summer adventures in Vermont.
"It's a little bit of everything," Stiles said of the sandwich menu. "We're trying to hit all the sweet spots."
And they do, with options such as a hearty whole wheat wrap ($7.95) stuffed with hummus, goat cheese, avocado and a handful of fresh veggies or the Vermonter BLT ($10.25) stacked with McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli turkey, North Country Smokehouse bacon and homemade maple mustard (with syrup from Pittsfield) on Red Hen Baking multigrain bread.
That last one is unsurprisingly popular, I learned, as is the Waldorf chicken salad sandwich ($8.95). "It's Misty Knoll [Farms] chicken, [and] we do walnuts, apples, mayo, some fresh dill in there," Stiles said.
Whatever you choose, it won't break the bank. Even with many local ingredients, most sandwiches come in below the $10 mark.
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- Roast beef sandwich
The roast beef ($9.95) has housemade balsamic onions and horseradish mayo; "everyone likes a roast beef sandwich, but we try to add a little more to it," Stiles said. The always-excellent Reuben ($9.50) is best eaten straightaway to get the ideal combination of crispy, grilled rye, warm corned beef, crunchy kraut and housemade Russian dressing. And, if you need a morning jump start, the excellent breakfast sandwiches made with local eggs and cheddar on sweet brioche start at $5.50.
Customers can eat in the large, cozy dining room or at a table on the covered front porch. Or you can do what I did: take a sandwich a few miles down Route 100 to Sherburne Trails and navigate the mile and a half to Kent Pond, dodging mountain bikers and hopefully avoiding the kind of deluge that drenched me.
Whether you're summer road-tripping, racing to get a friend to the Rutland Amtrak station or taking a leisurely stroll at the nearby Thundering Falls on the Appalachian Trail, there's an Original General Store sandwich for you.