It was the worst of times, it was the best of times... Yes, we know we have that Charles Dickens quote backward, but sheesh, 2023 has been one tough year.
Despite the challenges, we've relished plenty of good things to eat and drink, heartwarming moments and lots of laughter. The perseverance and creativity of Vermonters involved in growing, crafting and serving up all manner of deliciousness continue to impress us.
From the sweetest to the most anticipated, here are a Seven Days-style dozen (i.e., 14) superlatives to recap the year.
— M.P.
We kicked off 2021 with a story about doughnuts. In 2022, we talked to Chris Johnson, Nomad Coffee head baker (now owner!) about croissants and kouign amanns. This year, we cranked our January diet-busting approach up a notch with the new "Bakery Month."
A bunch of bakeries had opened at the end of 2022, so we did the hard job of heading out postholidays to taste their pastries, cakes and flourless chocolate mousse-cake-pie-tortes all month long. In Shelburne, Leunig's Le Marché Café offered creations inspired by local mountains and sandwiches perfect for picnicking on them. Burlington's Belleville Bakery delighted with European-style treats and "ex-boyfriend" cookies from its open kitchen. Essex Junction's Boxcar Bakery had me pounding plump ham-and-cheese croissants and the aforementioned chocolate mousse-cake-pie-tortes (not their real name).
I think 2024 needs a sweet start, too.
— J.B.
People who dined at Hen of the Wood's original Waterbury location over its 18 years found the restaurant idyllically, quintessentially Vermont, with its rustic stone walls and riverside tables. From an operations standpoint, however, the space was a challenge, founder-owner Eric Warnstedt said when he finally confirmed a long-planned move in March.
Hen of the Wood reopened to the public in a brand-new, custom-designed space at 14 South Main Street on April 7, only to close temporarily after service that same night when a sprinkler system malfunctioned. It re-reopened on May 31.
The new restaurant was largely unscathed by the July flooding, which swamped Warnstedt's Prohibition Pig across the street. But Hen did close for a few days, and its basement "speakeasy" remained shuttered for about a month before re-reopening.
Now all that is water under the bridge (sorry), and the new Waterbury Hen has settled into its sleek, contemporary home. Diners can sit at the chef's counter for a close-up view of cooks seasoning salads or sizzling steaks on the wood-fired grill — similar to the scene at Hen's Burlington sibling.
Like any first love, the original retains a spot in my heart. I'm looking forward to sharing the details of a new restaurant concept better suited to the historic grist mill space that Warnstedt hopes to launch in 2024. Stay tuned.
— M.P.
I didn't go to Montréal for our Québec Issue, but earlier in the year, I got so close to the border that my phone thought I was in Canada.
We don't often venture that far north and east into the Northeast Kingdom for stories, but a sugaring-season feast beckoned at April's Maple in Canaan. On a bluebird day in early March, I drove three hours and 13 minutes for a creemee.
The maple-on-maple-on-maple cone was worth the trip, as were the maple sugar pancakes, the maple hot dog with maple mustard, the maple-barbecue pulled pork sandwich and the maple-apple coleslaw. The daylong adventure paid off in another way: It was prime snowmobiling season, and April's is right on the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers trails. A glimpse into that world led me to a story on Kendyl's Buns on the Run in nearby Norton for our Winter Preview Issue.
The drive there is even longer: Kendyl's is accessible only via snowmobile.
— J.B.
Two noteworthy Vermont farms are tied for this distinction: one designed as a new model for reinvigorating defunct dairy farmland and the other associated with a successful Vermont dairy product line.
The first is Earthkeep Farmcommon, the former Nordic Farm on Route 7 in Charlotte; the second is Butterworks Farm in Westfield. Both went on the market earlier this year. As of press time, representatives for each property said they were in discussion with potential buyers but had nothing to report.
After the unexpected December 2022 death of Earthkeep Farmcommon's visionary founder, Will Raap, his family partnered with LandVest real estate on selling the high-profile 583-acre former dairy farm.
At the time, Raap's widow, Lynette Raap, wrote, "Our family does not have the ability to carry forward Will's vision." She added that they were hopeful someone else would see the farm's potential.
In April, LandVest did not set a price but solicited proposals from prospective buyers informed by farm property assets, conservation restrictions on development and some financial information. That initial effort did not yield a deal, and the farm is now listed for sale for $2.3 million.
The family of pioneering Butterworks Farm cofounder Jack Lazor, who died in 2020, also concluded this year that it was ready to hand over the reins to new owners.
Jack and Anne Lazor's daughter, Christine Lazor, said the decision to sell was hard but a relief. "We've been kind of burnt out for a really long time," she acknowledged.
In August, the property went on the market as two separate entities: the Butterworks dairy business, which includes the milking herd and equipment used to make a regionally distributed line of organic, grass-fed dairy products; and the 167-acre farm with two homes and farm buildings. The business is listed for $830,000 and the farm for $760,000.
Devotees of Butterworks yogurt (this reporter included) will be grateful to hear that Christine; her husband, Collin Mahoney; and the rest of the Butterworks team plan to keep making it until a buyer takes over.
— M.P.
The official description of our "Small Pleasures" series is "an occasional column that features delicious and distinctive Vermont-made food or drinks that pack a punch." The unofficial description? It's the stuff we always buy at the grocery store (or farmers market or specialty shop, as the case may be).
This year, the column featured maple skyr, kimchi, English muffins, spice blends, dosa batter, hot-smoked fish, halvah, Peruvian cacao and cider jelly. Each item found its way into my pantry or fridge, even when I wasn't the one writing about it.
I bought so many Birch Hill English Muffins, in fact, that I knew immediately when owner and muffin man Eric Hill took a week off in early November. It was delivery day at City Market, Onion River Co-op, and the usual shelf wasn't stocked with original or garlic-and-herb.
I saw Hill a couple of weeks later at the first winter Burlington Farmers Market of the year, where he was shopping, not vending. I was glad he got a break from filling his dining room with electric griddles, but man, I missed those muffins.
— J.B.
For May's Dairy Issue, I headed to Baird Farm in North Chittenden to talk with the Baird family about how they've transformed their former dairy farm into a flourishing maple biz. I expected sobering facts about struggling dairies, insights into land use and a strong dose of history.
I did not expect to laugh my ass off for nearly two hours. Jacob Powsner and Bob, Bonnie and Jenna Baird are funny folks. The story ended up being super short, but the banter will bring me back — hopefully for a walk in the woods during sugaring season.
After I left, they posted a photo of us in the doorway of the old milking parlor on the farm's Instagram stories. Above it was a poll, captioned "What they chattin' 'bout?" The options:
The answer? "All of the above."
— J.B.
OK, front-row seats to a Superfund site might not be a big selling point. But the Pinery, a new seasonal beer garden in Burlington's South End, did a lot for the canal's image this summer.
I had trouble believing co-owners Tyson Ringey and Max and Louie Orleans when they hyped the view, so I went there to see for myself — and took in several stunning sunsets with a spritz in my hand. The family- and dog-friendly beer garden is exactly what Pine Street needed for casual summer hangs, as well as a great seating addition to the Orleans bros' rebranded Friday food truck gathering, the South End Get Down. I'm thrilled they'll both be back next year.
— J.B.
The mid-May cold snap that hit blooming apples, grapes and blueberries left many Vermont farmers and orchardists reeling. But that became a runner-up in this category when record-breaking, torrential rains inundated the state on July 10.
Seven Days reporters headed out to cover volunteers helping with emergency harvests in Burlington's Intervale, then followed up with guidance for flooded community and home gardeners. We told the story of hard-hit Dog River Farm in Berlin, where George Gross lost 90 percent of the crops in his fields and found fish in puddles after the storm.
Restaurants around Vermont suffered catastrophic losses, too. In Barre, Montpelier, Richmond and Woodstock, we spoke with owners who were overwhelmed by the damage but also buoyed by physical and financial support from their communities.
Rich McSheffrey, owner of Cornerstone Pub & Kitchen in Barre, described the bucket brigade of volunteers who helped bail five feet of standing water from his restaurant basement. He called it "one of the coolest things I've ever seen."
Cornerstone managed to reopen in seven weeks. After a ton of work by chef-owner Niem Duong and her small crew, Montpelier's Pho Capital began serving again, appropriately, on Labor Day weekend. Other affected restaurants, such as Three Penny Taproom and Oakes & Evelyn in Montpelier, had a much longer road to recovery; both reopened in November.
While floodwaters have receded, it remains to be seen how the loss of income and the debt involved in rebuilding will affect restaurants in the long term, especially in the face of continued high ingredient and labor costs. Restaurateurs are a tough and passionate bunch. We're rooting for them.
— M.P.
Ahmed Omar, chef-owner of Kismayo Kitchen, wasn't beloved just by customers of the little restaurant he ran at the entrance to Burlington's Intervale. He was also a highly respected member of the African diaspora and Muslim communities in northern Vermont.
Omar, who died unexpectedly in his sleep on August 13 at the age of 36, was known for his warmth, generosity and ambition. Everyone felt at home with his multicultural menu, ranging from Philly cheesesteaks to coconut chicken stew with rice from his native Somalia.
"He touched so many lives," his friend Maryan Maalin said. "If you were new to town, he would say, 'Come, stop by, and I will give you free food.'"
Omar left behind a grieving family, including his wife, Anisa Mohamed, and their two young daughters. In the immediate aftermath of his death, it was unclear whether his restaurant would go on.
But on November 15, almost three months to the day after Omar's death, Mohamed reopened Kismayo Kitchen with the help of family and friends. She did it to "keep his legacy going," she said, and for their daughters.
"They told me, 'Baba used to tell us this was going to be ours,'" Mohamed recalled her girls saying about their father. "'You just run it for us 'til we can do it.'"
— M.P.
Reporter Carolyn Shapiro spent more than six weeks working on a story investigating employee allegations of mismanagement at Burlington's Citizen Cider around the launch of its Hey Bub light beer.
We published the resulting article on September 25 — the first news report on the controversy. Shapiro detailed how the marketing approach for the new beer — which included T-shirts with suggestive phrases, such as "Keep It Trimmed" and "Get Plowed" — made Citizen employees feel uncomfortable and unsafe at work. More than a dozen eventually quit, "citing incidents related to the Hey Bub release and what they view as its offensive marketing," Shapiro wrote.
Over the following weeks, online commentary snowballed, including videos and a boycott campaign encouraged and tracked by Burlington social media personality Jonny Wanzer. He cited additional anonymous complaints alleging a toxic working environment at Citizen Cider.
Wanzer's first video on the subject was posted on October 11 on YouTube, where it has generated more than 21,000 views. Several Vermont media outlets covered the growing boycott.
On October 18, Citizen Cider made its first public statement, announcing that it would bring in a third-party organization to evaluate its policies and practices and interview employees. On November 28, the company posted on social media that the external investigation had "helped us understand where we have fallen short" and pledged a "commitment to change." Citizen said it had "taken down the shirts with innuendoes and acknowledge[d] that they made some of our employees feel unsafe," among other actions.
The jury of public opinion is still out on whether Citizen Cider can get back into the community's good graces — and back on the shelves of many locally owned retailers and restaurants that have removed it.
— M.P.
Kale used to consider itself lucky to garnish the salad bar. But over the past decade or so, the leafy green has been promoted to the role of pleasantly palatable, nutritious vegetable.
This fall, Seven Days helped kale land a joke on national late-night TV — specifically, a shout-out on "Late Night With Seth Meyers" in an October 3 "Jokes Seth Can't Tell" segment.
Sure, Meyers credited only "a newspaper in Vermont." But who else but us would publish a reader-requested recipe for "Lesbian Kale Sauce"?
Please watch Meyers work hard to keep a straight face while telling the joke on the show's YouTube channel. Maybe we should whip him up a batch when he comes to Burlington to perform at the Flynn in February.
— M.P.
When I dove into the subject of lab-grown meat for an October 17 cover story about two University of Vermont mechanical engineers who are working on growing meat from cells extracted painlessly from live animals, I wouldn't shut up about it.
The scientific, cultural, environmental and ethical questions involved in Rachael Floreani and Irfan Tahir's research challenged and fascinated me, and I was curious about how others saw the trade-offs. Might lab-grown meat feed a hungry, climate-changed world, I asked people, or would it contribute further to its demise?
Along with the UVM researchers, I talked with other scientists, chefs, farmers, philosophers, food systems experts and plain old eaters: omnivores, vegetarians and vegans.
Many believed in the potential benefits of meat grown off the hoof, so to speak, for the environment, animals and humans alike. Some were open to the idea but concerned about the Pandora's box that such new technologies might open.
Then there were the nonmeat eaters and meat eaters alike who vowed they would never eat what they saw as highly processed Frankenfood. I was surprised by how many people expressed this revulsion, though I shouldn't have been.
As I learned, the technological obstacles to scaling up to mass production of lab-grown meat are high. The number of "Ewwww" reactions made clear that the cultural obstacles may be just as formidable.
— M.P.
The Denny's on Shelburne Road in South Burlington closed in November. Writing about chains isn't our usual gig, but the loss of one of the state's only 24-hour restaurants is a hole in the market worth mentioning.
Other restaurant closures left holes, too. Some are physical, like the still-empty ArtsRiot building, where a new vegan restaurant (part of an out-of-state chain) was promised and never materialized. Others are emotional, like the recent news that Filipino-fusion spot Kuya's at One Main, a Randolph favorite, will close on December 30. That one hurts.
Some holes are more quickly filled. Vermont Fine, which took over for the long-running Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond, shuttered in July after nine months. By September, the new Kitchen Table opened in the same historic brick building. Adventure Dinner popped up at Peg & Ter's, keeping things festive while we await news of the Shelburne restaurant's future.
Other holes are uncertain. Will Deep City reopen? Or Philo Ridge Farm's restaurant? Who's gonna buy Church Street Tavern or El Gato Cantina's Burlington spot? Is there anywhere to get a sit-down meal in Burlington after 11 p.m.?
— J.B.
All that being said, we have plenty to look forward to in the coming year. Fancy, majestic and revolutionary developments are rumored around town.
Longtime Hen of the Wood colleagues Cindi Kozak and Jordan Ware have started renovating the old Penny Cluse Café building for their new, approachable farm-to-table spot, Frankie's. Meanwhile, the restaurant group owned by Kozak and Ware's former boss, Warnstedt, is developing a casual seafood restaurant, Original Skiff Fish + Oyster, for the Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain. Both projects anticipate a spring opening.
Nomad Coffee's new owner, Chris Johnson, is planning a Church Street bakery in the former Red Onion Café space (talk about holes...). Up the street, we're excited about Always Full Asian Market's second location. Elsewhere nearby, we're ready for Switchback Brewing's expanded taproom and restaurant, the full Specs experience in Winooski, and pizza and cocktails at Myer's Wood Fired.
Finally, if you'll grant us a wish: For the second year in a row, we're begging somebody to please, please open a Jewish deli.
— J.B.