If you're looking for "I Spys," dating or LTRs, this is your scene.
View ProfilesPublished January 31, 2023 at 2:18 p.m. | Updated February 1, 2023 at 10:10 a.m.
Back before Wi-Fi, there was hi-fi — shorthand for sound systems that play music with high fidelity to the original recording. Fidelity also means devotion, an apt descriptor for what drove the creation of Paradiso Hi-Fi, the Burlington listening lounge and restaurant that opened in late November tucked inconspicuously behind its sister business, Dedalus Wine Shop, Market & Wine Bar.
Dedalus owner and Paradiso founder/co-owner Jason Zuliani is an avid record collector and audiophile. He dreamed of opening a vinyl bar for a decade, he said, during which time he was also busy launching outposts of Dedalus in Middlebury, Stowe and Boulder, Colo.
When Zuliani, 48, shared plans for his latest venture with Seven Days in fall 2021, he explained, "We're taking inspiration from what is sort of a tradition in Japan of small listening rooms with neat cocktail lists." He promised "a beautiful, modern environment with an extraordinary listening system" to showcase a record collection of music all mastered from its original analog source.
Zuliani's long-held dream came to life when Paradiso finally opened at 388 Pine Street in the transformed space formerly occupied by Green State Gardener. The venue delivers on his promise — in spades — with an ambitious menu of music and food, plus a cocktail list of restrained riffs on classics. It all adds up to a rich mix. After two visits, Paradiso struck me as the opposite of a sensory deprivation tank: My senses were saturated — mostly happily so.
The crown jewel of the operation is an epic high-fidelity sound system featuring refurbished vintage Garrard and Technics turntables and a pair of massive 1950s rewired speakers from the legendary Klipschorn line. Paradiso music director Scott Mou described the resulting sound as "clear, deep and vast." When records play through the system, the sonic atmosphere is so multilayered, "You feel like you're in it," he said.
During a recent conversation in the elegant, blond wood- and cream-toned, windowless cocoon of Paradiso, Zuliani said he did not originally envision the vinyl bar offering full dinner service. But Paradiso executive chef Micah Tavelli, who is also a partner in the business and previously ran the kitchen at Burlington's Dedalus, sold him on a regional, seasonal menu of shareable plates using techniques including fermentation and dehydration.
Tavelli and sous chef Jackson Taymans are both alums of Hen of the Wood in Burlington, and their skills are evident in dishes such as silky marinated oysters swimming in emerald green watercress broth ($16) and a sturdy tart filled with rich morsels of goose confit and parsnips two ways, topped with jewel-bright cranberries ($22).
The kitchen also pushes the envelope with unexpected combinations or presentations. A tangle of koji-cured rutabaga ribbons ($14) balanced the root vegetable's inherent sweetness with the koji's light funk, but I found the deluge of sesame seeds overpowering. More successfully, a scarf of collard greens wrapped around a single duck yolk- and ricotta-filled raviolo ($18), hidden under a crisp cap of Vermont cheese, cut the richness with its mildly bitter, earthy flavor.
"Micah is a guy who wants to explore food through a different lens," Zuliani said.
My personal challenge was how to divide my attention between the food, which was too interesting to just eat, and the music flowing from the turntables, which was too interesting to just be the evening's audio backdrop.
"Paradiso has a needle to thread," Zuliani acknowledged. "Is it a restaurant? Is it a music venue? That's the interesting part of the curatorial act."
Trying to have meaningful conversations with my dining companions posed an additional challenge; I'd interrupt to ponder what was dusted over our platter of gorgeous cranberry-dressed, coal-grilled radicchio leaves ($15; it was seaweed powder) or ask Seven Days music editor Chris Farnsworth, who joined me on my second visit, if he recognized the song playing. (Sometimes he did. But often even he didn't, so what hope was there for mere mortals like me — and did it even matter if we knew what it was?)
It is the music aspect of Paradiso that is most novel for Burlington. Jeff Baumann, a longtime vinyl collector who has worked in the music business and is now general manager of nearby Zero Gravity Beer Hall, just spent his second evening spinning at the Paradiso turntables. He said he was "blown away" when he first heard the sound system and appreciated the opportunity to share music about which he is truly passionate.
"Scott encouraged me to go deep into the corners of my collection," Baumann said, which in his case might mean down-tempo electronic music dating back to the early '90s.
Mou invites mostly local music aficionados with deep and specific collections to play their own vinyl as "guest selectors," not DJs. "It's more personal," he said. "They bring their own distinctive point of view."
Among those sharing their musical passions is Greg Davis, owner of Autumn Records in Winooski, who does a bimonthly Monday night jazz session. Local hip-hop radio DJ Melo Grant has taken a turn at the turntables. Ryan Miller of Guster is on the schedule for two February dates.
As music director, Mou brings his own point of view, too, along with serious industry cred. He moved from Brooklyn to Vermont last year and has continued his career as a freelance music supervisor. His résumé includes building a vinyl library for Hyundai in Seoul and working at New York City's beloved and influential Other Music independent record store, now shuttered.
Mou has so far sourced about 1,500 albums for Paradiso and expects the final tally to be about double that. Selections range from One From the Vault by the Grateful Dead and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac to the decidedly less familiar Hip Harp by jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, Cuerpo y Alma by Uruguayan singer-songwriter Eduardo Mateo and Varech by French double bassist Henri Texier.
"Any record that had a lot of care put into it shows well on this system," Mou said. Very often, he added, "You hear things you've never heard before. You're hearing the record you know, but it's somehow more beautiful."
Zuliani experienced one of those revelatory moments listening to the Jimi Hendrix song "Hey Joe," in which he detected a choir singing in the background that he'd never noticed.
For those who want to fully focus on the songs, Zuliani believes "the sound is the sweetest" at the two small, round tables just off the center of the room that are closest to — but not right by — the speakers.
For an inaugural visit that allows for getting lost in the music, I would opt for simpler menu items that will fully satisfy but not demand too much attention. Try one of bar manager Rachel Snider's unfussy cocktails, such as Gold Dust Woman ($14), made with bourbon, a good splash of lemon juice, and a hit of honey and cayenne — or go with Farnsworth's preference and grab a $5 Miller High Life. Then stick with dishes from the little orange card of bar snacks or from the top of the regular menu.
The menu changes every five weeks, but the chips and dip ($9) were on both menus I sampled, with slight tweaks; they won my heart twice. One time the freshly fried potato chips were dusted with fermented leek powder and served with a savory, creamy play on French onion dip. On my second visit, they were anointed with scallop powder, and the dip was a pickley version of tartar sauce.
From the current snack menu, Farnsworth and I also inhaled the pavé ($13), paper-thin slices of potato tightly stacked and fried in neat blocks, served with dollops of cultured cream and bright orange, spherical trout roe — kind of like elevated hash browns.
Another delicious and relatively familiar dish is venison tartare ($17), amped up with butternut squash miso and dusted with koji-cured beet powder. I suggest saving some potato chips to ferry and complement the rich, raw meat, as it comes bereft of the edible scoopers often served with tartare. (I will not make a joke about listening to Meat Loaf while eating this dish. Oops.)
Meat Loaf and tartare aside, the serious goal is that Paradiso's music and gustatory experiences can play off one another, Zuliani said. He hopes that Paradiso, as "the ultimate manifestation of the best living room," can deliver a new way for people in Burlington to expand both their music and dining horizons, fluidly moving between the two.
"When a mesmerizing note or lick floats into your consciousness, you can pause," Zuliani said. "When food hits the table, you take yourself away from the music for a moment."
Music lovers especially, such as guest selector Baumann, are watching expectantly to see if Paradiso can successfully thread that needle.
"I hope people appreciate it: the emphasis on vinyl, emphasis on sound, emphasis on selectors getting to freestyle," Baumann said. "It's a bit of a big-city idea. I think it remains to be seen if Burlington grabs onto it."
Disclosure: Ryan Miller is an occasional freelance writer for Seven Days.
The original print version of this article was headlined "Music on the Menu | Burlington's Paradiso Hi-Fi spins tunes and plates"
Tags: First Bite, Restaurant Review, listening lounge, vinyl bar, vinyl records, Jason Zuliani, Paradiso HiFi Lounge, Paradiso Hi-Fi
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