Yesterday marked 20 years of marriage for Mike and me. It's also been about 16 years of running a business together, which mostly means 16 years of him pitching big ideas and me asking how we're going to pay for them.
Mike's the visionary. He's the one chasing the next collaboration, the next cool seminar, and the next way to make things bigger and better. I'm the one asking whether we have the budget for it. Somewhere along the way, we figured out how to stay in our lanes…he works the food and wine relationships, I run the financials and the details that keep the wheels on. Twenty years later, that division of labor is still the reason any of this actually happens.
He's also the reason I can usually pick up on the difference between a good bottle and the ten-year-old White Zinfandel someone left in my rack before I met him.
Twenty years in, we still love each other (most of the time…maybe not the week of the festival), and I still can't believe I get to do this with my best friend. These two photos span a good part of that duration…the first shows us, soaked in the rain, at one of our first festivals in Waterfront Park, and the other is from this year.
I like to think we’ve come a long way.
On the Menu…
Starters
Bites & Bottles: Pours, Po’ Boys and Politics at Pioneer Café
Tastemakers: Peter Edelmann, Co-Owner, The Essex Resort & Spa and The Essex Experience
The Long Pour: What to Look For on a Restaurant Wine List
Starters…
As everyone knows by now, Dolly Parton died Tuesday in Nashville, at 80, after a brief fight with cancer and a remarkable life that impacted the world.
Most people don’t necessarily think of Dolly first as a businesswoman. But she ran her operations (which along with music included theme parks, TV production and, yes, wine) with more savvy than she probably got enough credit for. She also gave away a staggering amount of it along the way. I’m very proud that, back in the 1990s, I read about her Imagination Library program in an airline magazine and brought it to Burlington through our local Rotary Club. To my knowledge, kids here are still getting free books in the mail through that program.
She also managed something rare…she let people underestimate her, laughed along with the joke, and never once let it change who she was. She stayed out of politics, was always kind, and remained true to herself the whole way through.
She was the definition of true class.
To honor Dolly and her incredible life, here's one of our favorites…an ad she did for her own wine company.
Bites + Bottles
Last week was one of those busy weeks where "Let's try somewhere new" turns into "Let's go somewhere close" by about Wednesday. So we did what we usually do on nights like that…we stayed home.
Well, sort of. Home, for us, is Colchester…a town we love living in even if we spend a fair amount of time gently griping about it as a dining destination. Outside of Cafe Mamajuana (see last week), a solid Mexican spot, a handful of bars, and some very good pizza places (including my cousin’s New York Pizza Oven), there just aren’t that many restaurants for a good-sized town.
But we have to hand it to Pioneer Lakeshore Café, because it's one of the best options in town and is also five minutes from our door. And, as an added bonus…they have a legitimately fun wine list…!
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Apparently, St. Albans isn’t done giving us reasons to head north. Just a week after our “Tastemakers” conversation with Adam Monette of Café Monette about the city’s evolving food scene and the local support behind it, another ambitious restaurant is getting ready to open downtown.
Chef Michael Boomhower, an Enosburgh native who's cooked in the Bay Area, at Michael's on the Hill in Stowe, and most recently at the Danforth in Portland, Maine, is opening Ralston's in early September, in the historic Ralston building at 54 North Main Street. According to Seven Days, the menu will lean New England and French Canadian, reimagined…a variety of steak cuts sourced from local beef farms, house-made pasta, roasted chicken, and game like duck and venison, alongside bar snacks like marinated Vermont cheese curds.
Last week, Monette told us that the people making decisions in St. Albans are working to make the city a place where interesting local businesses can take root. With Café Monette drawing national attention and Ralston’s now joining the mix, it certainly looks like that effort is paying off.
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Vermont's “pick-your-own season” has been turned into a game. Eat Vermont's new “Pick Your Own” app challenge asks players to check in at three farms — it could be berries, apples, pumpkins, or whatever's in season near you — before September 19. Finish and you get two things…an invite to the Harvest Event (hosted at the top-ranked farm in late September, with cider and food and the results announced live) and early access to the Top 5 PYO Farm Guide. It's free to join, takes about a minute to start through the Eat Vermont app, and covers 90+ farms across the state, from Adam's Berry Farm in Charlotte to Wood’s Market Garden in Brandon.
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Burlington's parks want your food cart! Burlington Parks, Recreation & Waterfront has seasonal food and beverage cart-vending spots for the remainder of this season (through October) at three locations: Starr Farm Park, Leddy Beach Park, and the Andy A-Dog Williams Skatepark. Vendors need city approval through an application process…it’s a terrific opportunity for someone wanting to test out a concept without a lengthy or expensive commitment. Applications are available on their website.
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A reminder that our next Champlain Dinner Club session is happening in Waterbury on Wednesday, September 23. Take the quiz, get matched with five people you've never met, and show up to a restaurant that stays a surprise until the morning of. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m., and later in the night, every table gets pulled together for a surprise after party. Sign up, take the quiz and join us to meet some fabulous new people!
Tastemakers: Peter Edelmann, The Essex Resort & Spa and The Essex Experience
Each week, we feature three quick questions with someone bringing something creative, thoughtful, or fascinating to the food and wine scene here in Vermont and beyond.
This week, we caught up with Peter Edelmann, longtime co-owner of The Essex Resort & Spa and The Essex Experience with his wife, Jessica, and one of the main driving forces behind Essex's growth as a dining, hospitality, and culinary destination.
Read the full interview, including how he vets people before backing a restaurant…why "culinary resort" still fits The Essex, even many years after NECI…and the wellness-driven concept he's working toward…
The Long Pour: What to Look For on a Restaurant Wine List
by Mike Stolese
Going out for a nice meal is always better with a great bottle of vino. With that being said, it can sometimes be easier said than done to try to figure out what to order.
In many cases, your wait staff will be well versed on the wine selections and pairing opportunities, and that can certainly make your job easier when ordering. But oftentimes, their focus is more on knowing the menu than the wine list.
So where do we go from here?
What’s On…
We're off for vacation next week, so this week's calendar covers a full slate leading into the fair, a quieter Labor Day weekend, and a run of tastings, dinners, and one-off events.
And if you're a local business with something food, wine, or hospitality-related on the calendar, we also offer featured placement in this section. Find the details here.
Click below to see how you want to spend your holiday week.
As we mentioned, the Champlain Valley Fair opens next week, which means it's officially fried food season in Vermont. Nobody actually “needs” a slab of fried dough to survive, but every year, we all feign surprise when we find ourselves right back in line for one.
So here's this week's question: what's your favorite fair food?
What's the Ultimate Fair Food?
We’re off next week for vacation, and we’ll share the results when we get back.
See you by the Bloomin’ Onion.