• Post Your Restaurant Reviews

Digest Vermont: The eye of the turkey

… And yes, we survived.

For those of you who read last week’s column about our oven imploding Thanksgiving week, yeah, we got through. In the end, seduced by the lovely fall weather and the invading hordes, errr, relatives planning on visiting, I carved up the turkey and cooked it on the barbecue. Thanks to an inspired tip by none other than Hizzoner Chris Louras, I disconnected the oven heating element from the fused control panel and we were able at least to use the cook top for the side dishes.

See Full Story >

LaD***VT: Take it easy at Over Easy’s

Ever since I moved here, I’ve been intrigued by the bright yellow sign along Route 103 in Cuttingsville, pointing toward Over Easy’s breakfast and lunch in the Post Office plaza.

It looked like my kind of place. So when the in-laws were in town a couple of weeks ago and the womenfolk were off doing their whatever it is womenfolk do, leaving me and my father-in-law badly outnumbered by a couple of hyperactive preschoolers, it seemed like a good time to load up the trusty Mommobile and go for an outing.

It was a most excellent decision, as Over Easy’s turns out to be one of those friendly, easygoing little places that make off-the-beaten-path so worth traveling.

See Full Story >

La*****VT: All about the value

In the somewhat-less-than-immortal words of Barenaked Ladies ™, I’m all about value, particularly in these lean economic times, when the size of the meal is almost as important as the quality.

And there’s no place in the county — possibly the state/western hemisphere/Cosmos ™* — that gives you more bang for the buck than Maxie’s Deli.

See Full Story >

LadolceVT: Familiar Italian flair

This one’s an old shoe. No, make that the pair of Italian-made woven leather shoes that finally wore out last year but that I just can’t throw away.

Before I dig myself too deep, maybe I need to explain that I loved those shoes. We’re talking the comfort, style, little Italian flair and familiarity of the shoes, not their eventual demise as old, smelly and out at both heels.

See Full Story >

LadolceVT: The Birdseye view

I took a working vacation last week, which is one of the hazards of living seven blocks from the office. How folks who live above their business stay sane would be good fodder for a psych dissertation. I spent a couple of days hunkered down in the newsroom working on a special project (you could tell I was on vacation because I only shaved every second day and I was at somebody else’s desk) and just hung around the house for a couple more days, tidying up my files there and so on. The highlight was fixing the leaky porch roof, having dodged it by using the line “When it rains, it’s too wet to fix it and when it’s dry, it’s good as any man’s house” until a hole opened up immediately above the spot where you stand with a key to open the back door.

See Full Story >

LaDolceVT: It’s prime time

It’s that applethanksharvestpiefest season again. An apple a day doesn’t begin to make a dent in the bag on the counter.

It is, after all, that time of year when the fall fruits and vegetables start to dominate the local food markets. Unloaded all your spare zucchini? Great: Now give away all this squash.

See Full Story >

LadolceVT: The beef is in Granville, N.Y.

I have a new best friend.

I used to watch a TV cooking show from England called “Floyd On Spain” (or America or Italy or wherever chef Keith Floyd and his intrepid camera crew ventured). Each week he would introduce a “new best friend,” then talk about their food.

Most outrageous was the episode from “Floyd on Oz” in which he was doing shrimp on the barbie in classic Aussie fashion on the balcony of their penthouse hotel suite.

See Full Story >

La DolceVT: Mountain Top Inn – Room at the Top

The funny thing about living in resort country is that we often go away to get away, and we don’t need to. There are any number of getaways available within an hour’s drive no matter where you live in Vermont, from state parks to high-end resorts.

One of the places we’ve really enjoyed as a family is the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden, which has the benefit of having pet-friendly cabins. Not only is there a savings on the kennel bill we don’t have to shell out for boarding Molly the clingy springer spaniel, we don’t have a neurotic dog waiting for us when we get home. Usually she bolts down her food, the better to spend dinnertime sitting attentively within scavenging range of the almost-2-year-old, with that “You gonna eat that pot roast or drop it, kid?” look on her face.

See Full Story >

LadolceVT: Never trendy, always good

So there’s a guy who works at the paper who always believes every rumor he hears and comes into my office to talk about them.

A couple of weeks ago, he came in, closed the door and sat down:

“It’s not true is it, this rumor I hear that there’s a pizzeria in town that is so busy on a Friday night they just take the phone off the hook sometimes for an hour, just so they can keep up, they’re that popular, and that you hate their pizza?”

See Full Story >