La Dolce VT: Tinmouth Snack Bar

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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“There’s a snack bar up here?” my guest — a young reporter, new to the area — asked somewhat incredulously, as I dropped my trusty, rusty Toyota Tacoma 4-cylinder into third gear to climb yet another hill on Route 140 west from Wallingford.

There is indeed, and a first visit last week was good enough I wanted seconds — especially of the strawberry shortcake — so when it came time to give a rookie reporter a scenic tour of Rutland County, we detoured through beautiful downtown Tinmouth.

Like many Vermont hill towns not attached to a ski area, there’s not a lot of there there in Tinmouth, but it has enough houses scattered around the hollows and back roads to support a trim little community center with a nice playground attached and, right across Route 140, the snack bar.

On the first stop, we sat at a picnic table outside and enjoyed the midsummer sun. On the return trip, we ventured inside to a surprisingly tidy little dining room.

We had worked our way down the sandwich list pretty thoroughly on the first trip: Fish sandwich, chicken sandwich, Tinmouth burger.

The chicken got a thumb’s up from my friendly local guide and restaurant spotter. I asked the counterperson — owner Tina Casey, as it turned out — what was the best thing on the menu and was told that most folks seem to enjoy the fishwich, so I ordered one — despite having just eaten precious little besides fried seafood (breakfasts excluded, mercifully) during a week’s holiday “downy ocean,” as they say in Baltimore.

The fish was good: A nicely sized slab of breaded, fried white fish on a great, fresh crusty roll, although when I saw the Tinmouth (aka deluxe) burger ordered by my guide’s son, I was jealous. He confirmed it was as good as it looked whilst proceeding to demolish the one-third-pound patty with the works.

We also gorged on the side dishes, working our way diligently through an order of fresh-cut fries and made-in-house onion rings. My guide, perhaps trying to set a good, green-veggie example for her progeny, settled on an order of zucchini sticks.

They were lightly coated in a tempura-style batter, then perfectly fried to a crispy brown and served with a ranch dip. We each dutifully tried one, then went back to the rings and fries, which were equally well-prepared and tasted a lot less like zucchini.

Despite being pretty much satiated by the main course, we felt obliged to try the strawberry shortcake … in the interests of serious investigative reporting, you understand.

I thought my notes said it was a generous portion of homemade sweet biscuit drowning in oodles of strawberries in syrup, topped with a mound of whipped cream, all for $3.25, but there was a big drool spot right there on my notepad, so I had to go back to be sure.

The rookie — a recent Boston transplant — had the fish, which looked just as good the second go ’round, and I had the chef’s salad — an embarrassment of riches, as it turned out. There were the usual stacks of shaved Black Forest ham and roasted turkey breast and slices of (white, thank you) cheddar on a bed of fresh romaine. But instead of the usual cold, hard-boiled egg and carrot and celery sticks curling from spending too long in a pot of water, this salad was finished with candied walnuts and dried cranberries. Not wanting to freak out the new hire, I abstained from licking the bowl, but just.

And I can confirm the shortcake was as good as I recalled. The only way it could be better is if the berries were fresh and local. Tina assures me she bakes all her own pies, as well, and the rolls when she has time.

It’s a more relaxed meal under the umbrellas outdoors — really, it’s an idyllic spot — but it’s good to know about the dining room for rainy days.

It’s a scenic drive up the mountain, and the return trip along Dorr Drive gave us a wild turkey sighting, a chance to discuss the relative butterfat content of Jerseys versus Holsteins and the full smell-o-rama combination of cow manure and corn silage, a pairing that always gets me misty-eyed for the ranch back home, and which seemed to get the city girl misty-eyed, too. Go figure.

Herald Editor Randal Smathers writes weekly on dining. For an archive of reviews or to write one of your own, see www.invitevt.com.