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Waitsfield and
Warren The Common Man Here is the ultimate incongruity: a soaring, century-old timbered barn with floral carpets on the walls to cut down the noise and keep out wintry drafts. Crystal chandeliers hang from beamed ceilings over bare wood tables set simply with red napkins and pewter candlesticks. A table headed by a regal Henry VIII chair occupies a prime position in front of a massive, open fieldstone fireplace. The whole mix works, and thrivingly so since its establishment in 1972 in the site we first knew as Orsini's. Destroyed by fire in 1987, it was replaced by a barn dismantled in Moretown and rebuilt here by longtime English proprietor Mike Ware. New owners Keith and Julia Paxman continue to operate the endearing place with an air of elegance but without pretension. The baked escargots “served with our famous (and secret) garlic butter sauce” leads off the New American menu. Other appetizers include balsamic-glazed confit of duck and rabbit livers in puff pastry. We can vouch for the Vietnamese shrimp with chilled oriental noodles and a peanut-sesame sauce, and a classic caesar salad. Main courses like monkfish grenobloise, Caribbean spiced chicken and sautéed Vermont veal with a leek-cream sauce represent uncommon fare – not to mention value – for common folk. At one visit, the Vermont rabbit braised with marjoram and rosemary was distinctive, and the Vermont sweetbreads normande with apples and apple brandy were some of the best we've tasted. Our latest dinner produced a stellar special of penne with smoked chicken and asparagus and a plump cornish game hen glazed with mustard and honey. The mandarin-orange sherbet bearing
slivers of rind and a kirsch parfait were refreshing endings to an
uncommonly good meal. (802) 583-2800.
ww.commonmanrestaurant.com. Entrées, $16.75 to $26.50. Dinner nightly
from 6 or 6:30 (from 5:30 or 6 in winter). Closed Monday, mid-April to
mid-December.
Reborn after a disastrous fire, this glamorous hostelry is “committed to filling not only the footprint of the old Pitcher Inn but its boots as well,” according to founding innkeeper Heather Carino. And it’s doing that quite successfully. With tall windows and parquet floors, the 40-seat restaurant is traditional with well spaced white-linened tables flanked by fine windsor chairs, white tapers in silver candlesticks, a large raised fireplace, a grand piano and accents of greenery. The Brook Room overlooking the Mad River to the side is used for overflow, and a table for two in the corner, with windows onto the flood-lit stream, is the best in the house. Chef Susan Schickler’s fare is contemporary American and the menu is printed nightly. A recent October evening opened with such exotic dishes as a roasted beet and oxtail borscht with sour cream, twice-baked cheese soufflé with parmesan cream and roasted pepper salad, escalope of veal over a smoky bacon flageolet ragoût, and seared foie gras with apples, grapes and moscato d’asti. Main courses included wild striped bass with preserved lemon gnocchi, sautéed duck breast with roasted shallot jus, pan-roasted pork tenderloin with apple-gewürztraminer sauce and roast venison loin with apple-brown butter vinaigrette. Grilled wahoo with crab and corn salsa and a lemon beurre blanc, grilled yellowtail snapper with corn and fava bean succotash, and grilled veal chop with lemon herb butter were other selections. Exotic dessert choices are warm gianduja-filled chocolate cake with toffee sauce and caramelized bananas, plum clafoutis with crème anglaise and plum sorbet, and a trio of banana, strawberry and cantaloupe sorbets with almond shortbread. The 6,500-bottle wine cellar is distinguished, specializing in American boutique wineries at affordable prices. Be advised that you can eat down in the handsome wine cellar at a table for six. The $100 per-person tab yields a five-course dinner with wines tailored to your wishes. (802) 496-6350 or (888) 867-4824. Entrées, $24
to $34. Dinner nightly except Tuesday, 6 to 9. The longest-running of the valley's long runners, Chez Henri is starting its fifth decade as a French bistro, wine bar and after-dinner disco. Almost as old as Sugarbush itself, it's tiny, intimate and very French, as you might expect from a former food executive for Air France. Henri Borel offers lunch, brunch, après-ski, early dinner, dinner and dancing – inside in winter by a warming stone fireplace and a marble bar and occasionally outside on summer weekends on a small terrace bordered by a babbling mountain brook. The dinner menu, served from 4 p.m., starts with changing soups and pâtés “as made in a French country kitchen,” a classic French onion soup or fish broth, and perhaps mussels marinière, a trio of smoked seafood with greens or steak tartare “knived to order.” Entrées, served with good French bread and seasonal vegetables, often include bouillabaisse, coq au vin, calves liver with onion-turnip puree, roasted duck with fruit or green peppercorn sauce, veal normande, filet au poivre and rack of lamb. Some come in petite portions, and a shorter bistro menu is available as well at peak periods. Crème caramel, coupe marron and chocolate mousse are among the dessert standbys. The wines are all French. (802) 583-2600. Entrées, $14.50 to $24.50. Open daily from 11:30 in ski season. Millbrook
Inn & Restaurant This small inn with an unexpected emphasis on fine Indian cooking is a sleeper among the better-known establishments in the Mad River Valley. It’s been lovingly run since 1979 by chef Thom Gorman, innkeeper with his wife Joan. They seat 30 diners at candlelit tables covered with paisley cloths in a country-charming dining room with oriental rugs on the dark wood floor. Anadama bread, Joan’s specialty, is made in house, as are pastas and acclaimed desserts. Start with mushrooms à la Millbrook, stuffed with a secret blend of ground veal and herbs. Entrées include a daily roast of Vermont lamb, pork or venison, shrimp scampi, five-peppercorn beef, vegetable pasta roulade and three-cheese fettuccine tossed with Cabot cheddar, parmesan, Vermont mascarpone and sundried tomatoes. There are also four dishes from the Bombay region, where Thom lived for two years while in the Peace Corps. The badami rogan josh, local lamb simmered in all kinds of spices and yogurt and served with homemade tomato chutney, is a longtime favorite. Another is the seafood mélange of mussels, scallops and shrimp spiced with Thai-style green curry and served over rice. Millbrook has a wine and beer license, with well-chosen selections tailored to go with assertive Indian food. As for those famous desserts, ice
creams like chocolate chip and brickle candy are made here –
“we’re the only place in Vermont that doesn’t serve Ben &
Jerry’s,” says Thom. Look also for the signature apple brown betty
and perhaps white chocolate mousse pie with a chocolate cookie crumb
crust. Upstairs are seven simple guest rooms
with private baths, decorated with stenciling and interesting handmade
quilts and comforters. A full breakfast with choice of menu is served.
Doubles are exceptionally good value at $130 to $150, MAP. (802) 496-2405 or (800) 477-2809.
www.millbrookinn.com. Entrées, $15.95 to $22.95, Dinner nightly, 6 to
9. Closed Tuesday in summer, April to mid-June and mid-October to
mid-December. Flatbread
Kitchen The American Flatbread pizzas that got their start in the outdoor wood-burning oven at Tucker Hill Lodge are now produced for the gourmet trade in the old slaughterhouse at the Inn at Lareau Farm. Here, in an 800-degree wood-fired earthen oven with a clay dome, founder George Schenk and staff create the remarkable pizzas that are frozen and sold at the rate of more than 2,000 a week to grocery stores as far south as Florida in a “responsible food” phenomenon that is making Waitsfield the pizza capital of northern New England. We were among their first on-site customers the first time we stopped by for a tour and a snack. They since have opened a wildly popular weekend restaurant, serving flatbreads, great little salads dressed with homemade ginger-tamari vinaigrette, wine and beer to upwards of 250 people a night at tables set up around the production facility's oven room and kitchens and outside on the inn's west lawn. The delicious flatbreads with asiago and mozzarella cheeses and sundried tomatoes have made many a convert of pizza skeptics. How could they not, when the night’s flatbread specials might pair roasted chicken with white beans, sage, braised kale and organic red onions, or bay scallops with lemon vinaigrette, fennel, leeks and red peppers. The bakers use organically grown flour with restored wheat germ, "good Vermont mountain water" and as many Vermont products as they can. Lately, George expanded the dining room and renovated part of the horse barn into a waiting room and “museum.” He also opened a second American Flatbread Restaurant over the mountain in Middlebury, followed by others around New England and in California.. Each night's dinner menu is dedicated to an employee, a friend, “our animal neighbors” or maybe the people of Afganistan or Iraq. George's heart-felt "dedications," posted around the facility, make for mighty interesting reading. (802) 496-8856. www.americanflatbread.com.
Flatbreads for two, $9.75 to $14.50. Dinner, Friday and Saturday 5:30 to
9:30. Material excerpted from The Ultimate New England Getaway Guide, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2005. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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