No, I said I want a Vermont country breakfast

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

 

We needed to get another early start today, as we had a full day planned. Our first major stop was going to be in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where we planned a number of activities. Time and weather, would dictate how much we could get done. But, in addition to these fun activities I wanted to have a genuine Vermont breakfast. Bacon, Eggs, French Toast with real Maple Syrup, and such. I figured as we would be driving through several little towns on the way to NH, we would be able to make this happen.

 

We got started sometime around 6:15 AM. The sun is not up yet that time of the morning in October and tried to take a picture of two of the moon over the Trappe Lodge, but there wasn’t enough light for our point and shoot digital cameras.

So we finished loading up and headed north on Vt-100. I figured there would be a small country restaurant beckoning us for breakfast almost immediately. But we didn’t see anything in Stowe. We passed Morrisville about 10 minutes later, nothing off the highway. About 15 minutes later we passed Walcott and Portersville. Again nothing. I was getting a little worried. Not that we wouldn’t find a place to eat. Please, it was only a matter of time before something came along. But, I had my little heart set on a slice of Americana. I didn’t want a just a country breakfast, I wanted a Vermont country breakfast, and we were rapidly running out of Vermont.

 

We made a quick stop to try to take a sunrise picture or two, but the timing of the sunrise did not coincide with a great picture taking spot, but Margo still got one with some pretty orange clouds. Then it was back in the car. The next two was Hardwick, VT and it was here we saw the sign for The Village Restaurant. So we pulled into the parking lot and made our way inside. It was about what I expected booths and tables. A waitress that had been there for many years and a much younger one, likely just out of school was handling the serving duties. The restaurant wasn’t packed, but it didn’t lack of customers either. It was obvious pretty quickly, that we were the only non-locals. Not unexpected and it wasn’t like we in Nigeria. People gave us one look and went back to their business.

 

I ordered French Toast w/ real Maple Syrup, bacon, hash browns, and eggs, over easy. Margo just had French Toast. I have truly fallen in love with real Maple Syrup. Unless that is all that is available and I am dead set on pancakes or French Toast, I won’t be eating the fake stuff again. One thing I did find a bit interesting about my order. Because real Maple Syrup is much more expensive than the imitation syrup, it is rationed. When our order came out, they had a small disposable cup (called a soufflé cup, if you’re interested) with my little portion of genuine Vermont Maple Syrup. It is much too valuable (I say this in truth, not with tongue in cheek) to put a whole bottle on the table.

 

By the time we were done, I was just a touch disappointed with the overall breakfast experience. Something was missing that I couldn’t put my finger on. The food was good. The service was OK. Not bad, but nothing to distinguish it either. It was probably unrealistic expectations. But, it really didn’t matter in the end. It was still plenty good stuff. Mission accomplished. We had eaten a genuine Vermont breakfast and we were no fortified for the rest of our day. Or at least until lunch time. We paid our bill, got back in the car, and pointed ourselves south on Vt-15.