#8 VERMONT – Oink

It was about time for some pancakes and what better place to have pancakes and maple syrup than in Vermont. When the idea of eating breakfast in every state first hit me about five years ago, Dot’s was one of the first restaurants I researched and put on my list of possibilities. Soon after I had done so, Hurricane Irene parked itself over Vermont releasing torrents of rain which caused widespread flooding and mass destruction. One of the victims was Dot’s and it was taken off the list. Dot’s did rebuild and 2 ½ years after the flood I was able to put it back on the list. Now the time had come and I was psyched.

Dot’s Restaurant
Wilmington, Vermont

AMBIENCE:  Dot’s will probably be the most famous breakfast restaurant I’ll eat at during the Breakfast Across America tour. Gourmet magazine called it a “national treasure”. On the Monday morning I arrived, the place was surprisingly empty except for a couple of locals drinking coffee.

Dot’s has been around since the 1930s but because it was refurbished after the flood, it had a very new and clean look, almost too chic for a traditional Vermont country café. Nevertheless it felt very comfortable. Recess lighting along with expensive looking hanging light fixtures brightened the room up. It had a nice long shiny wood counter for the lonely customers. The swivel stools were quite comfortable.  You could watch a large TV behind the counter if desired.  I was happy it was ESPN and not Fox News.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOOD:  I ordered the “Famous Berry-Berry” buttermilk pancakes with blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry. I also ordered a side of bacon.

Ahhhh bacon. More pork. I will now have had some variation of pork in seven of the eight breakfast restaurants visited so far on the tour:

MD – bacon
DE – scrapple
NJ – hot dog and pork roll
RI – chourico
MA – loukaniko
NH – pork sausage and pork gravy
VT - bacon

Only in Maine, where I had corned beef hash was pork missing from my breakfast plate.

I made a silent vow that after eating this bacon, I would have no pork at my next breakfast stop in New York. 

It was time to get off the pork wagon. My nose was beginning to morph into a snout. A curly appendage was starting to grow out of my backside. I began to grunt when food was in sight. (Okay, so I was doing that even before the tour started.) I even began to go to farms and taunt pigs although these fellas were doing their best to ignore my shirt.

The bacon was great and I finished it off even before digging into the pancakes. And those cakes were fabulous. Very fluffy and chock full of fresh tasting berries. Every bite was a detonation of flavor. These were some of the best pancakes I have ever had.  Of course, I had to douse the whole magnificent stack with the infamous Vermont maple syrup. Dot’s maple syrup comes from the sugar house of the owner’s sister which sits a few miles away. It’s almost as good as the syrup produced at kettleridgefarm.com in New York. (full disclosure: I may be related to the owners of Kettle Ridge.)

 

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was excellent.

4 ½ stars out of 5

SERVICE: Being the only customer sitting at the counter, I received prompt and matter-of-fact service. I didn’t get that extra friendly service that the table of locals got but it was fine. I would guess that the waitress had worked there for a long time. She was a little intimidating. You could order one pancake, or two pancakes, or three. I was set to order the three. This is how the order went down:

Me: I’ll have the berry-berry pancakes.

Her: One might not be enough but I’ll bet you can handle two.

Me: Yes ma’am.

In retrospect, I think I could have eaten three (and then skipped lunch) but I wimped out.

4 out of 5 stars

COST: $13.55 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT WILMINGTON:  You would never know that this small village of just 2,500 people had been destroyed by Hurricane Irene five years ago. It looked to be in pristine condition. 

Wilmington sits at the crossroads of two of the most scenic highways in Vermont: Route 9 and Route 100. For a small town, it has a substantial number of inns and eating establishments reflecting a tourism industry that feeds off skiers, leaf peepers, hikers, and boaters.

This is a picture I took of the North Branch Deerfield River that runs through the middle of the town and the building is Dot’s Restaurant as viewed from the back.

Here is another shot looking at the river from the Route 9 bridge and that Dot’s on the left. The river is 20 to 25 feet below the bridge.

In my mind, the “river” is really only a stream. But this is what 13 inches of rain in 10 hours can do to that stream.That’s water going over the bridge that I was standing on while taking the above picture.

This is what Dot’s looked like at the height of the flooding. 

Glad you came back from the dead Dot’s to make pancakes for people like me.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          Hike along Harriman Reservoir

-          Hike Bennington Battlefield

August 29, 2016

NEXT UP: NEW YORK