How to spend a weekend in Burlington, VT: Food & Breweries
Burlington, VT is a great long weekend destination. Lots of food and breweries in walking distance. Check out my blog post on the best food and drink spots in Burlington, VT.
My first trip to Burlington, VT was a few years ago. I couldn't believe I hadn't made a trip to this great city. There are lots of breweries, food, and outdoor activities. You could walk pretty much everywhere. In the summer, there are farmers markets and food trucks. I really enjoyed my stay but it was short. My girlfriend, Nichole, had never been and I thought it was a great weekend trip idea. Also, I have been wanting to stay at Hotel Vermont and they have a sweet black friday deal. And, it is a perfect location to walk around and Lake Champlain is across the street. Hotel Vermont was only a mile or two from everywhere we went, it was a great central location to stay. If you read the blog, you know we really get after it when we travel to new cities. And, Burlington was no different. We went to as many breweries as possible and ate our faces off. I did all the work for you! Here is a list of the best places to eat and drink in Burlington. If I missed any, please comment. I will be back.
The Food
Farmhouse Tap & Grill was the first meal we had in Burlington. This was the typical fancier local restaurant. It is always super busy. We had to wait over an hour for a table, given it was a Friday night. They have a great beer menu. The food is actually pretty good, especially the burgers. However, it is a bit pricey to me. There is a big farm to table presence in Burlington and that drives the price up.
The Swingin' Pinwheel Café Bakery was the surprise of the weekend. Do not pass up this breakfast when you walk by. The hostess was hilarious and friendly. The menu has so many good options. It is a smaller spot so be mindful. The decor definitely had that western and cowboy feel. They are known for their Wafflini, which is a waffle made with pastry dough and pressed like a panini, and they have multiple types. We had to get one and it was phenomenal. We started with a popover and ate it so fast, I didn't even get a picture!
Red Onion was recommended to me by someone from the area. They told me, the sandwiches sound weird but go with it. It was quite an interesting little spot on Church Street (main area for shops/restaurants). I ordered the Red Onion sandwich, which consisted of turkey, vt cheddar, red onion, granny smith apple slices, and sun-dried tomato mayo on honey oat bread. The bread was like an inch thick! Nichole got the spinach melt. This consisted of a TON of fresh baby spinach, mushrooms, red onions, sharp cheddar, and garlic mayo on honey oat. They were both delicious. If you need a quick bite, I definitely would suggest the Red Onion.
There is surprisingly a fair amount of Mexican dishes and restaurants in Burlington. For that reason we were craving Mexican and chose El Cortijo Taqueria Y Cantina as it was the closest with the best ratings. And, they were a sister company of the Farmhouse Tap & Grill. This is a very small location. Luckily, we got seated right away but the dinner crowd hit and the front of the restaurant was overly crowded and flowed near the tables. It was a bit uncomfortable eating with people on top of you waiting to be called. And, the food was just ok. Nichole enjoyed her margarita but the rest was less memorable.
And you know we hit up Ben & Jerry's for dessert.
Monarch and the Milkweed was another great breakfast find. This was a quaint, trendy shop in the town center that fits maybe 15-20 people. One of the reasons I chose there was because they make donuts, mini but I don't discriminate. The donuts were ehh but the breakfast was awesome. I had the fried chicken sandwich with gruyère cheese, red onions, and some aoli that reminded me of Big Mac sauce. Nichole had the pancake stack and they were really good and cooked perfectly.
Fortunately, on the way home, we made a surprising delicious stop, only 20 minutes outside of Burlington. We mentioned to some people we met along the way, we were going to Fiddlehead Brewing. Every person said you have to go to the pizza place next door, and that was Folino's Wood Fire Pizza. No one has to twist my arm to have some pizza. This place gets really packed from the Fiddlehead crowd. You will be seated by someone but you have to do everything else, get your own plates, order at the cashier, etc. Aside from that tidbit, the pizza was awesome. Maybe the best buffalo chicken pizza I have ever had. Everything just worked. Make this part of your to-do list.
The Breweries
On the way up from CT, our first beer stop was at Burlington Beer Company. This was only 20 minutes or so outside of Burlington. This was in a cool industrial location. The inside was cool and trendy. They had old school video game systems. They offer a lengthy list of beers, including IPAs, Porters, and Stouts. The beer was good. A little hoppier for my taste but I see why they are popular. They fit into the craft beer scene perfectly.
Switchback Brewery was first on the list of our brewery crawl and the furthest, 2 mile walk but it actually wasn't bad. I have been before and really like their beers. Their Connector IPA is my favorite. The inside is pretty nice and feels inviting. And, the world's largest filing cabinet is on the way! Seriously, it exists.
Queen City Brewery was our favorite brewery. I don't recall seeing it last time I was here. It was tucked away behind a local printing business. It is close to Zero Gravity. They had a big wall of beers and there was an old truck on the the very top of the bar once inside. They had 13 beers to choose from and I liked most of them. My favorite was a tripel Belgian named Monk of Underhill. This isn't a place if you want hoppy beers. They had mostly porters, stouts, and lagers. I am not even a porter guy and I enjoyed their version of that. The bartender was really nice and it was just a good atmosphere.
This isn't a brewery but a cidery counts. Citizen Cider is one of my favorite ciders. Last time I came here, I had a blast. They had quite a bit of options as usual to try out. I really like what they do with their ciders. They aren' t just sweet and one taste. Definitely a staple to visit when in Burlington.
Ah, the new popular guy. Foam Brewery wasn't opened last time I was here. Since then, I have heard a lot about this brewery from friends. We made our way there as the last stop and the location is great. It is right off the water. In warmer weather, it must be even more busy than it was. However, they do not have flights of beers as an option and the beer was pricier than other breweries. And, the beer was super hoppy...almost too much. Again, that is not for me. I preferred other breweries.
The weekend of breweries was not quite over yet. The last stop on the ride home was Fiddlehead Brewery. I had their beers before and really enjoyed them. I had to stop in and check it out. At this location in Shelburne, VT, you can only buy beer that is canned, sample what they have available that day and get growlers. It is very small and can get crowded quick. We went as it opened and the lot quickly filled up and cars were coming and going. I liked what they had on tap and I ended up getting a growler and buying cans. We did make a few other stops for beverages.
Vermont Pub & Brewery was pretty average. It is really big and they have basic food options to please the generic eater. Seems like the place all tourists go when other places are busy. And, the beer wasn't great. They are a bit behind the other breweries in the beer department. The other bar we did go to was Archives. This was a bar filled with arcade games and a pretty good beer, cocktails, and wine menu. If you are into old video games like pacman, street fighter, pin ball, and other oldies, this is the spot for you.
Bonus: A Winery?
Not only did Fiddlehead Brewery have an awesome pizza spot next door but there was also a Winery across the street! By far, the happiest Nichole was all weekend as she likes wine way more than beer. Of course, we kept the ball rollin' at Shelburne Winery and did a tasting. This consisted of 10 wines and they were not shy with the pours. I also liked they gave a list of the wine with a marker so you could keep track of what you liked and they had a funny comment & description about each wine. I do not like wine that much but I did like a few of the white wines and a red that had chocolate in it. Nichole ended up buying two bottles. This was a great way to the end the trip. Beer, wine, & pizza. We accomplished a lot and I think we did a good job finding some good go to spots. I hope you enjoyed reading and will try out some of my suggestions. Cheers to beers & delicious food!
HIKING FOR DONUTS
A blog for the outdoors foodie enthusiast
Hi, I’m Mark. I live in Connecticut. I take new trips every chance I get. A good trip has a great hike, great food, and something fun to do. My goal is to search out new trips and share them to inspire others to try something new and exciting.
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How you Doughin'?
First blog post of 2018. And, this one is about my donut adventures in NYC. There are so many options. Which donut shop did I choose?!?
(say title in heavy new york accent) Starting the blog in 2018 where I left off in 2017, #donutsforlife. After Christmas, Nichole and I decided to take a trip into New York City for the day. We had a lot of plans for the day. One of those was trying out a new donut shop. I did my usual research to find the best donuts in the city. The one shop that stood out to me that would be relatively close to where we would be was Dough. There are multiple locations and seems like Brooklyn is their home base. We spent most of our time in the Flatiron District and there was a location on West 19th street. The shop was trendy and what I expected to see in NYC. The shop was small and cozy with seating by the window and one long table for seating that could fit potentially 10 people. The donut making area in the back seemed pretty large. Good donut eating vibe.
As for the donuts, they were pretty damn good. Nichole is not as big of a donut fan as I am and she said, “whoa, these are like the best donuts we tried.” And, I agree with that. If you didn’t read my final post of 2017, why?? You should! Click here, it’s donutiliciously good. I felt this was one of the better donuts I have tried. They are yeast based and offered a brioche type dough. They were large donuts, above average than what you see most places. The consistency was good and they were kind of chewy to me. The donut itself tasted great. They had the basic stuff like cinnamon sugar, plain glazed, chocolate sprinkles etc. There were quite the flavor offerings and combinations as you would expect from this artisanal style donut shop. They had flavors such as hibiscus to blood orange to dulce de leche to horchata. I didn’t get that crazy. I only limited myself to trying four.....
The Donut Lineup:
1)Café Au Lait - roasted coffee glaze and crunchy pecan topping
2)Toasted Coconut - Coconut glaze topped with toasted coconut flakes
3)Mocha Almond Crunch - Rich glaze made with bittersweet Vintage Plantation chocolate and roasted coffee, topped with a crunchy almond streusel
4)Cinnamon Sugar – self-explanatory, had to try a simple flavor.
My favorite was the Mocha Almond Crunch and Cinnamon sugar. The toasted coconut was lacking flavor but the donut itself is so good I didn’t care. I ate all four, leftover donuts for breakfast. Not ashamed at all. I would definitely go back and try more flavors. They had a Nutella filled one I have donut regrets about. They were sort of pricey, but one donut is very filling. I don’t mind paying for it. All in all, this one of the better donut shops I have been to. Check it out if you are in NYC and looking for a sweet treat.
Bonus Coverage:
Now, you know I sneaked in a second donut tasting. We were in Bryant Park and noticed there was a Doughnuttery truck serving mini donuts. I wasn’t passing that up. They had a lot intriguing flavors. They fried the mini donuts then tossed them in a sugary goodness. However, both flavors we got tasted nothing like the flavors we ordered. They were still pretty tasty but I didn’t Rosemary, Cornmeal & Fig or Vanilla, Lavender & Pistacho.
HIKING FOR DONUTS
A blog for the outdoors foodie enthusiast
Hi, I’m Mark. I live in Connecticut. I take new trips every chance I get. A good trip has a great hike, great food, and something fun to do. My goal is to search out new trips and share them to inspire others to try something new and exciting.
If you are looking for posts in a particular place, search by city or state here.
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Cronuts gone country!
More donut travels! This time I hunted down the most popular donut in Nashville. Check out the blog for my review.
As I do in most my travels, I seek for THEE donut spot in the area. When researching on Nashville, there will was only one spot that continually popped up. That would be Five Daughters Bakery. I was definitely intrigued as their specialty was a croissant donut, or cronuts. And, some of the donuts had filling throughout the inside. They called this type of donut the “100 Layer Donut”. This particular donut is 100 layers rolled in sugar, filled with cream, and topped with a glaze. When we were inside the shop, we overheard the workers explaining to a customer that it takes up to three days to make this creation. In addition to this, they also have paleo style donuts free of sugars/gluten/grains and vegan donuts that avoid animal products. They don’t stop at donuts. They have other pastry options and cupcakes. However, this is about them donuts.
Based on my research, this seemed like a very popular donut shop. Luckily, they have 3 locations in Nashville in the 12 South, Franklin, and East Nashville areas. I figured they would be busy and have line since it was Labor Day weekend. I didn’t think they would run of out donuts! This happened. Two times. I can’t blame them. What I did find out is they have a main location that bakes all the donuts and ships them to the other two locations that morning. Thus, they aren’t 100% fresh and what they get is what they get. They stay open until they run out of donuts. There was no way I was leaving without trying these. We were for 0 for 2 in the 12 South location. Unfortunately for Nichole, I re-arranged our last day so we try one more time at the East Nashville location before our flight. Third time was the charm. The shop was cool and trendy as expected. Located in a small plaza. All the décor fit the personality of the shop. The employees were nice as I stood dumbfounded in my decision.
They were pretty big donuts and I wanted to get a feel for what they had to offer. I had to be selective and four was the max I think I could eat minus Nichole’s occasional nibble. I wanted to try a glaze, one with a fun topping, and a filled version.
The first one I chomped onto was the Maple Glaze. The glaze wasn’t overly sweet. It was just good. The donut was moist and flaky due to the croissant batter. Next up was the cookie dough. Oh boy, this was gluttonous. The cookie dough filling was awesome. This was my favorite for sure. The last donut was the coconut crème. The coconut was toasted, and to me, it had a funny taste. It was interesting to see how the crème was inside through the layers of the donut. This wasn’t too sweet either. This was first true cronut experience and I am not sure what I think. I am a basic yeast dough kinda guy. Against my better judgement, there were paleo donuts that looked editable but probably not worth trying. However, one sounded good enough to try so we did. It was the blueberry cake. This wasn’t for us. We can only blame ourselves…for trying something healthier.
As mentioned, we did try the 12 South Location but they ran out both days. This was in a very popular area and was a cool location. I could see why they ran out. The 12 South area in general is awesome. I thought the shop there was super cool. Here are some pics.
HIKING FOR DONUTS
A blog for the outdoors foodie enthusiast
Hi, I’m Mark. I live in Connecticut. I take new trips every chance I get. A good trip has a great hike, great food, and something fun to do. My goal is to search out new trips and share them to inspire others to try something new and exciting.
If you are looking for posts in a particular place, search by city or state here.
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Best places to eat in Philadelphia, PA
Philly has some unbelievable food options.Here's my guide to eating awesome food in Philly....
Philadelphia is loaded with food options. From brunch to bagels to cheesesteaks galore to ice cream to donuts to burgers to pretzels, the choices are endless. I would need a good month to get it all in. Unfortunately, I had only had the weekend to get in as much as possible. After a significant amount of research, I succeeded. Here are some options to guide you on how to eat a weekend in Philly.
Breakfast & Brunch
Bagels were a priority on this trip. My girlfriend is from New York and, therefore, she is a bagel snob. Philly has about over 20 bagel shops to choose from. Most of them have unique types of bagel flavors, unconventional cream cheese spreads, and delicious sandwich options. We chose Chestnut Street Bagels on the way to Rittenhouse Square. The options for type of bagel and spreads were extensive. In addition, there are a good amount of intriguing options for sandwiches. The only downside would be that you have to order and leave. The shop is small and they have an inside bench that can seat at most 4 people. Luckily, we got there before it got too busy and were able to snag a spot. I selected the french toast bagel with a honey pecan cream cheese and my girlfriend went with the everything bagel and cheddar horseradish spread. The bagels were fresh and hit the spot!
I need to breathe a second before I write about the Brunch we had….. I’m ready. I came here the last time I was in Philly and I felt the same way. If there is one place in Philly you have to go, it is Green Eggs Cafe. Everything on the menu sounds dynamite. And, the specials each time sound even better. Both my meals here, I have to put in my top 5 all time breakfasts. We started with some boozy drinks, my girlfriend had a peach bellini and mine was an orange 'creamsicle' mimosa. The specials included breakfast egg rolls stuffed with bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and cheddar cheese served with a chili thai sauce. No brainer selection. I had the “Mexican Benedict” that consisted of 2 poached eggs & chipotle braised chicken with tortilla chips served on a cheese quesadilla with chipotle hollandaise sauce. My girlfriend went on the sweeter side, there was a special for a stack of blueberry pie pancakes. Note, there is always a line but it goes fast. Later you go in the morning, the longer the wait. And, they are cash only.
Lunch & Dinner
Decisions...decisions...decisions. Two of the most popular cheesesteak shops sit directly across from each other. A 15 minute uber ride from downtown will take you to the location of Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s Steaks. Both shops have lines in the streets at all times. They are both open 24 hours. We went with Pat’s. Boy, do they have this down to a science. There is no waiting once you are at the ordering windows. Customers quickly put in their order, pay, and cheesesteaks in hand. I went with provolone on mine and my girlfriend got the cheese whiz. Cheese whiz won. They both were good cheesesteaks. Also, they had pizza fries which were french fries with a red sauce and cheese on them. As simple as it may sound, they were amazing.
As in most of my travels, I try to venture to local food spots as seen on Diners,Drive-Ins, & Dives. Guy Fieri knows exactly where Flavortown is! On this trip, there were many on this list and we went with the Good Dog Bar. This cool little spot was very welcoming. To my surprise, there were pictures of dogs all along the walls of the bar. We were very hungry and started with the cheesesteak empanada and fried pickles. THe fried pickles were average but the goat cheese ranch sauce was phenomenal. I could use jars of that weekly. I even saved what we had left for fries later on. The cheesesteak empanadas were really good. However, the sauce that came with that was a watery, gravy taste. We used the ranch dip instead. For the main course, I ordered the brisket grilled cheese on sourdough bread with cheddar cheese. My girlfriend had the shrimp po’ boy tossed in buffalo sauce with blue cheese sauce on a baguette. Both were good and the cool thing I liked here is that they mix their fries between regular and sweet potato. They had good beer & drink options. The service was also fantastic here.
Reading Terminal Market
If you want to spend a whole day eating somewhere, the Reading Terminal Market is the place to be. There is a plethora of food options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Many different ethnic cuisines are represented at this market. Be sure to check the hours as most days it is closed by 5-6pm. And, if you have your heart set on something by Dutch related vendors, they tend to close earlier and they take Sundays off. I made that mistake on Sunday. No donuts or pretzels for us. However, we still got our fair share in.
The first stop was at Franks A Lot. The go to here was their classic Polish pierogies.
Beck’s Cajun Cafe was next. There were a lot of tasty items on the menu. We ordered the fried mac and cheese balls. They weren’t too greasy and not overly cheesy, which was a good thing. I could of ate 20.
The last meal we could fit in was at Sang Kee Peking Duck. I ordered the Duck Lo Mein. The duck was a little fatty as expected, but flavorful and tender. The noodles tasted very fresh.
At this point, it was time for some desserts. I had my eyes on some cookies. The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company had plenty of options. I couldn’t pass up a black and white cookie. The last stop was Bassetts Ice Cream. A good trip always ends with some ice cream.
IMG_4562
The Reviews:
Green Eggs Cafe: 5 out of 5
Chestnut Street Bagels: 3.5 out of 5
Good Dog Bar: 3.5 out of 5
Pat's King of Steaks: 3.5 out of 5
HIKING FOR DONUTS
A blog for the foodie outdoor enthusiast
Hi, I’m Mark. I live In Connecticut. I take new trips every chance I get. A good trip has a great hike, great food, and something fun to do. My goal is to search out new trips and share them to inspire others to try something new and exciting.
If you are looking for posts in a particular place, search by city or state here.
EXPLORE OTHER POSTS IN THE ARCHIVE
RECOMMENDED POSTS
RECENT POSTS
See where I’ve been recently on Instagram. Follow @HIKINGFORDONUTS.