Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [35]
It is not easy to define the Dorset Inn’s cuisine. It is local in terms of ingredients, from Green Mountain maple syrup for morning waffles to small-farm beefsteak and wild-picked fiddlehead ferns at dinner. But Chef Hicks doesn’t make a fetish of Vermont cuisine. “I pick up ideas here and there,” she says. “I throw stuff together; I always find ways to put leftovers to good use. I cook the way it feels right. I never ventured off into nouvelle cuisine or anything like that. My mentors are James Beard and Julia Child. Like them, my joy comes from sharing good food. If there is a theme to what I do, it is ‘natural simplicity.’” While she can dazzle guests with such culinary tours-de-force as breast of chicken stuffed with brie and coriander with pear and cider sauce, her repertoire is replete with masterful renditions of such down-to-earth dinners as braised lamb shanks, corned beef and cabbage, and turkey croquettes. Her own favorite dish—and, amazingly, the most popular meal at the inn—is liver and onions. There is none better, anywhere.
Dot’s
3 West Main St.
802–464–7284
Wilmington, VT
BLD | $
If there are small towns in heaven, every one will have a place like Dot’s: open for three square meals a day starting before dawn, with a staff of seasoned pros who are as welcoming to strangers passing through as to every-day regulars. The building itself—on Main Street, of course—has character galore. It was built in 1832 and has been a post office and a retail store. Current proprietors John and Patty Reagan told us, “We believe it started operating as a restaurant sometime after the turn of the twentieth century.”
Dot’s is a favorite of skiers on their way to or from Mt. Snow, and there’s no place better to stop for a really hearty breakfast. We love the kitchen’s French toast made from cracked wheat bread; the berry-berry pancakes poured from a batter positively loaded with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries; and the McDot’s breakfast sandwiches, which are based on the Yellow Arches’ version but are really, really good.
Year after year Dot’s takes the People’s Choice First Prize in the New England chili cook-off, and while Southwest chiliheads wouldn’t even recognize it as their beloved bowl of red, this Yankee chili is terrific. It is listed on the menu as “Jailhouse Chili,” but it’s most respectable. Beefy, thick with beans, spicy but not ferocious, it comes as a cup or bowl under a mantle of melted cheese.
Mrs. Murphy’s Donuts
Route 30
802–375–9387
Manchester, VT
BL | $
If a donut and a cup of coffee are all you need to start the day, there’s no better place than a counter stool at Mrs. Murphy’s Donuts in Manchester. You can get deluxe donuts—Boston creams, jelly-filled, iced and jimmie-sprinkled—but we’ll take plain sinkers every time. They are the polar opposite of the frivolous fat puffs sold by Krispy Kreme in other parts of the country (but not in Vermont). These hefty boys have a wicked crunchy exterior and cake insides that love to sop a while in coffee; at Mrs. Murphy’s, you’ll see a virtual dough-si-donut line of dunkers sitting at the counter bobbing theirs in and out of mugs.
The storefront café is a locals’ favorite; it occurred to us one breakfast hour that most customers didn’t tell Cheryl, the waitress, what they wanted; she brought them the usual. One banker-looking guy in striped suit and brogues left his sedan idling outside, stepped to the take-out counter, grabbed a bag and flapped it open for Cheryl to load with six sour cream donuts. As she rang him up, he nodded thanks to her and she nodded thanks to him, then he left and drove away; not a word was spoken between them.
P & H Truck Stop
Exit 17 off I-91
802–429–2141