A restaurateur myself, it's fitting - and something we've celebrated - that in pursuit of a mid-winter retreat my wife and I stumbled upon a food-lover's paradise in rural, northern Vermont. Living in Boston, we've become spoiled by the growing abundance of great restaurants, even in the suburbs these days. But for the longest time, whenever we hit the road for a long weekend escape into northern New England, we resigned ourselves to the persistent, discouraging lack of good quality meals to be had away from our hometown.
For what seems like forever the standard menu one found in most restaurants outside the major cities has been American generica: potato skins, clam chowder, Caesar salads [with grilled chicken for a small upcharge of course!], burgers, dry char-grilled chicken breast, and green beans, broccoli, or corn on the side - oh, and perhaps updated to include "ethnic twists" like burritos, quesadillas and the odd stir-fry.
You know the drill: Way too much Sysco fresh-from-a-can or boil-in-a-bag, way too little farm-fresh or local, let alone organic - neither interesting nor particularly nutritious. And this has been true even in the more touristy areas that enjoy the economic lift from well-heeled visitors. - But a recent weekend getaway convinced me that real change can come to rural America, at least as far as the availability of good food is concerned!
In mid-January we visited mid-coast Maine, Camden, Rockland and Rockport, where we were married back in '01. Rockland's Primo is one of the truly great meals anywhere, but we were deeply disappointed to find that they now close seasonally. Forced to seek out alternatives, we were further discouraged to find that a winter shut-down was common among good restaurants in the area. Although we did find a couple of good meals in our three days in the area, unfortunately, most of those restaurants still open in January were those that played it safe - familiar, unexciting, and probably not very good for us!
No doubt the ski mountains are the crucial difference between the dormancy of mid-coast Maine and the relative vitality of the Green Montains in the dead of winter. We were much more than pleasantly surprised by what we found when we returned two weeks ago to Waitsfield, Vermont and its environs!
For starters, no one was closed. But, even more impressively, just about every restaurant, market and dry goods merchant we visited seemed very engaged in a collective push for high quality - in concept, materials, and execution - all more than happy to refer one another.
After an all-too-quick four day stay we left having concluded: They get it in Vermont. Later this week I'll tell you why.
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