Panera Bread Review

      For some reason, Seven Days, doesn't publish reviews for Panera Bread. I guess for the same reason they don't review McDonald's or Burger King. And while Panera is a chain like those others, I think the food is much better than your usual fast or casual food stop. So anyway here is my review.

      On this particular Saturday we were bored and decided to go to a wine tasting at our favorite wine store in the whole wide world, Dedalus, on the waterfront. Since we were going to be partaking of some rather yummy Austrian wines, we decided to go to Church Street for some lunch first. My first choice was the new taco place, but as we were walking through the mall we noticed Panera Bread. Having eaten at a couple of these in the past, we decided to try this instead.

      Panera is set up like most fast food joints, you order your food at a counter, picking from the menus posted overhead and then they bring your food to your table by locating you on a pager style beeper, (which wasn't working on this particular day, so the servers were having to shout while walking through the very large space). The problem with this is in the Burlington location, there is ALOT of traffic going through the same space as the line snakes through, and the lines can be HUGE. So this creates bottlenecks and confusion, in addition for people not familiar with the menu, (us for instance), you are walking past the bakery, looking up trying to read the menu, trying to find the correct line and trying not to bump into everyone coming and going . PHEW, alot of work involved in just getting your food.

     As you are looking for the correct line to lineup in, pay attention to the bakery you are walking by, it will come back to you in a bit. Fortunately, the place was packed so we had a bit of a wait in line. this gave us time to study the menu.When it was our turn to order, I went with the chipotle chicken panini and wifey went with the salmon Mediterranean salad. Now for my mistake, I was offered any item from the bakery for $.99 but since I had not paid attention to the bakery, I passed. My wife on the other hand spotted a strawberries and cream scone and got one of those . DUH, what a dunce I was, as the normal pricing for bakery items appears to be $2.99 AND on top of that the scone was DELICIOUS.

      Once you place your order, you now have the joy of finding a place to sit. It appears that Panera is a BIG hit with the downtown Burlington crowd. Of course, by offering free wi-fi you are guaranteed to have the laptop squatters taking up valuable table space for hours and hours at a time. I think after 45 minutes, Panera should be able to bring over a mini parking meter and if you don't constantly feed it quarters, out you go. ANYWAYS, we were lucky as we walked around the serving counter, boom a table magically opened up for us. As the wife sat down, I went off to look for the soda fountain, tucked wayyyy in the back, to get her soda. For some strange reason ,the lemonade is served behind the counter? Is lemonade really that much more expensive that you don't want to put it with the soda and coffee pots? So after delivering the soda, back up to the counter to get my now ready lemonade, weird way to do things.

       So how did all this taste once we finally got settled in and our food came to us? First, lets start with the scone. We ate this while we were waiting and it was delicious. Not at all dry and crumbly like a typical scone but rather soft and cake like with great flavors. In a REALLY quick manner our meals arrived;

      The food was very good,  my chicken sandwich was packed with meat and had the perfect amount of heat from the chipotle and smokiness from the bacon. As you can see wife's salad was HUGE, although I am not a big fan of cold salmon and to me it tasted a bit fishy. But the wife loved it and ate every drop. For $23.70, this place is a very good value for downtown Burlington. We left full and happy. And before I get nasty comments, I KNOW it's not local and I KNOW they truck in their food from all over the country and I KNOW they don't make everything fresh in house. But still, if you have to visit a fast/casual food place you could do ALOT worse.

On a scale of 1 to 5;

Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     3.5  Very good food. With a very good variety, providing you want sandwiches or salads.
Beer and Wine,    NO  No beer and wine so no rating.
Service,                 2.5   Counter service only and it will be assumed you have been here before.

Ambiance,             3.0   Nice space but CROWDED. Be prepared to fight for a table.
Price,                     4.0   Very reasonable for downtown Burlington.

Overall,                 3.25  I am not a very big fan of the whole fast/casual food chains, but I must say this is

one of the better ones out there. If your in a hurry or just want something quick, you could do MUCH worse than this one. 

Bluebird Tavern Review

      UPDATE; This review and visit occurred before Bluebird moved to their new downtown location. We have not had a chance to visit the new location but look forward to visiting soon.

      We have had a strange relationship with the Burlington areas very first gastropub. Our first experience was that we were seated and left for 25 minutes until we got up and walked out, (even then nobody said anything to us). After the owner heard, she was nice enough to comp us a $75.00 gift certificate and we tried again. Service was marginally better but the food was only so-so and unbelievably expensive (gift certificate didn't even cover half the bill and we left hungry). So we walked away from the Bluebird and waited for its eventual demise.

      But then we heard of a shake-up and that a new chef had taken over. Having eaten at the Daily Planet during his short stay there, I knew he could be innovative but still give you something recognizable to eat (really its nice you can cube chorizo to microscopic proportions but I actually like to TASTE my chorizo, thank you very much). So we mustered up our courage and went back, WOW, now this is what a gastropub should be like. Don't get me wrong  it was still ungodly expensive, but this time we both left full and very happy.

      So for my birthday, I was asked where I wanted to go and since the new menu at Bluebird featured bone marrow (OK, I may be obsessed with this and you just don't find it on very many menus), I said let's go back and see what's new. We had a 6pm reservation and they weren't quite ready for us so we had a seat at the bar and I had that oh-oh moment of, was this a mistake. The bartender gave us a drink menu and then forgot us for about 10 minutes. She finally came back to us and really wasn't the friendliest person in the world, though she did answer my questions about the different Hill Farmstead beers. Quick aside, I don't believe you can buy Hill Farmstead, (brewed in Greensboro), anywhere but Vermont, but if you ever see it in your local bar, BUY SOME. Just delicious.

      Once we received our drinks we were summoned by the hostess that our table was ready. And oh-oh moment number two. First the tables at Bluebird are VERY close together and the couple seated next to us did not seem to be having a good time. I found out later that they thought this was still the old Mexican place when they came in, well DUH one look at the menu should of cleared that up, Anyways he hated the burger he ordered and walked out leaving his poor wife to finish her meal by herself. There are serious jerks everywhere. Now at this point I must say that the oh-oh moments stopped and life became great. Our server was wonderful, the menu looked incredible and the beer ..oooohhh the beer. Hill Farmstead, I started with the Abner, (all their beers are named after relatives), an Imperial IPA, which was incredible and then with my meal had a George, an American brown ale, both beers were just superb and went well with my meal. The dear wife had a couple of glasses of wine, the first, on special, was a Leo Hillinger Zweigelt, what a great and unusual choice, full of full of great cherry and chocolate flavors, and the 2nd glass, Le Pinot Noir from France,,matched perfectly with her salmon.

      And on to the meals, I started with the aforementioned bone marrow, served with shrimp stuffing over the top and sitting in a deep pool of roasted garlic sauce with chunks of garlic, leek and carrot. An incredible melding of flavors and our server was sweet enough to rush over another helping of grilled bread, as this sauce could NOT be wasted.  Wifey went with the butternut squash bisque, laced with an herbed oil and cocoa nibs, YUM, and I am not even a fan of squash, hearty and delicious.

      For our entrees, I went with stuff stuffed with stuff, specifically pork belly and quail, stuffed with a stuffing made of pork, quail and mushrooms , served over french fries with an incredible gravy. GOD this was good , like the most unreal Poutine ever, (Canadian dish of french fries, cheese and gravy for you non-Quebecois). For her entree, the wife went with wild salmon over chestnut risotto and fried strips of parsnip and this also was just incredible (or so she says, as I was only allowed a very little taste). We both were extremely satisfied and also STUFFED, so an over all great meal.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4.8  Totally inspired, ridiculously good. One tiny quibble, stuffing was a bit dry
Beer and Wine,    4.5  Nice beer and wine selections, list is small but well thought out and highly unusual.
Service,                 3.5  I knocked it down by .5 for the poor service by the bartender,everyone else was superb

Ambiance,             3.5  Nice exposed brick but tables for two are packed in way to close to each other.Bar area is nice but its COLD back there.
Price,                     3.5  VERY pricey, but the excellence in taste and presentation make up for it. Definitely a special occasion place

Overall                  3.96  I have to say this is probably my favorite special occasion place in Burlington. You are guaranteed to have a superb meal with expertly prepared ingredients. There just seems to always be one little thing that stops me from giving Bluebird all 5's, and it seems to always be something in the service. This is probably the last time we get to go to Bluebird at its current location, as they will be moving to downtown very soon and a new barbecue place is going to spring up here. Downtown is much more inconvenient for us but we will certainly check out the new space and we will try the new barbecue place once it reopens. Stay tune for more updates and please if you love innovative, unusual and well prepared foods, don't hesitate to visit.

Wooden Spoon Bistro Review

      Due to my lovely wife's weird rotating shift, there is one weekend every month she has to work Friday and Saturday nights and gets Sunday and Monday nights off instead, YUCK. We like to try new places on the weekend but many restaurants are not open on Sundays, so our choices are usually limited. It was with great excitement I noticed a new Bistro/Bar that had just opened was indeed serving on this particular Sunday night. The Wooden Spoon Bistro is not easy to find, tucked away on Williston road, right in front of Higher Ground and in the same building as Quiznos.

      This is a cute little place with seating at tables for about 30 and a nice large bar holding maybe 15 more. The interior is rather sparse, but local art on the walls helps a bit. When we arrived the place was empty, (Sunday night at 5PM ), except for two other customers at the bar. We chose to sit at the bar and the bartender/server could not of been more friendly as were the customers, one of whom turned out to be the on duty server eating her supper. The wine and beer list is adequate, with some well though out and unusual selections on it, wife started with a Four Vines Zinfandel, yummy and I went with the Long Trail Double Bag, also very yummy.

      We were a bit disappointed to learn that two of the appetizers we had read about, (and were going to order), from a previous reviewer and from the menu online were now gone, the shrimp corn dog and the authentic Caesar salad with anchovies, not to mention the rum and coke chicken wings. This will be a theme that I will touch upon later. So back to the menu and we decided to try the risotto balls and the smoked salmon rangoons. WOW , is really all I can say. Both were sensational, crispy fried, with no discernible grease on either, this is a chef who really knows his fryer well. The rangoons were crisp with a smooth tasty cream cheese and salmon filling ( OK, I would of like a bit more salmon please) , accompanied by a great apricot dipping sauce.The risotto balls had a cracking outer skin, with a soft rice filled interior, PERFECT, and served with these incredible bacon strips, (quick idea chef, add the bacon INSIDE the balls, YUMMMY). Both appetizers came with some dressed greens, which were perfect for cutting through the fried foods. These were certainly two of the best appetizers we have had, they hit all the taste buds. Oh, and I can not forget to mention the fresh bread with MAPLE butter that came before the appetizers, YUM!!! You can just see the cute green colander it came in, in the first pic. Nice touch;

      After that start, the entree was bound to be a let down right? WRONG, we decided to split one of the nights specials, a blackened catfish served with asparagus and roasted potatoes. Again WOW,  perfectly seasoned catfish, juicy, a bit spicy, such an easy fish to over cook but this one was perfect. The asparagus, (which I don't eat), was undercooked, as American chefs seem to want to do. The trend for several years now has been to just barely blanche them and serve them "al dente". Unfortunately for my wife, she likes her veggies well done. There is hope, I just read an article on Italian chefs going back to their mothers and grandmothers roots and cooking vegetables long and slow to get a completely different flavor profile from them. Here's hoping US chefs adopt this, at least in some dishes. Finally the potatoes, I am not a huge fan of fingerling potatoes. I find them starchy and bland, and this chef seems to like to use them alot, ala the original chef at Monty's.  These were OK, but definitely underseasoned, a shot of the Cajun spice would of done them a world of good.  Here's a pic of our entree;

      The best compliment we can give this dish is about half way through my wife turned to me and said,"I wish I didn't have to share this with you" AMEN. Back to my one original quibble, this is a chef who likes to mix up his menu OFTEN. So what you see on the website certainly will NOT be what you find when you get there. I was initially disappointed, but I got over it quick and so should you. Don't even look at the website, just go and you will be very happy. I do have a business idea, I could start a social network site where Vermont restaurants could send me their daily specials and menu changes and I would post them for a very small fee. Any takers, contact me.This turned out to be a great find. Super friendly service and great food. We will certainly be back. Do yourself a favor and go find them tonight. Lastly, on the way home that evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset over Lake Champlain. Enjoy;

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4.5  Totally inspired and ridiculously good.
Beer and Wine,    3.5  Nice beer and wine selections, list is small but well thought out.
Service,                 5    We had a great time with our bartender/server, BUT she only works Sundays, so your mileage may vary.

Ambiance,             3.5  It's a bar with alot of hard surfaces, the local artwork on the wall is a start.
Price,                     3.5  A bit pricey but the excellence in taste and presentation make up for it.

Overall                  4.0  This is an incredible new place for Burlington. My only two hopes are, that the chef doesn't burn himself out working the long hours he's working, and it doesn't get too popular, so we can't just drop in whenever we want. Until those things happen, we will be regulars.  

Cooking 101; Grilled Pesto Salmon

        OK, this one is very easy. All it takes is some good salmon, some fresh pesto and a grill. This is literally one of those 5 minute meals you are always hearing about. I don't know about you, but every time I see one of the Food Network shows about 5 minute meals I cringe. Sure, maybe if you have a team of chefs behind you doing all the prep and clean-up but for us normal folks it's an hour at least. Not so this one, it's a snap to prepare, have ready, and on the table in no time. First the ingredients;

1) Side of good salmon ( you know how I feel about farm raised but if it's all that is available go ahead).
2) Pesto, homemade is best but if you are lucky like us to have a great farmers market nearby, go ahead and buy some there. I try to avoid the supermarket stuff as it has usually been made months ahead of time and uses alot of preservatives to keep it stable. Here is our excellent farmers market find;

Here is great recipe for homemade;

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

      
1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

      Now life could not be more simple. Heat up your grill. If you happen to have a few nice dinner rolls, slice them open add a pat of butter to them, wrap in aluminum foil and throw on the grill to warm up. Spread the side of salmon (obviously not the skin side), with a nice even layer of pesto and put on the grill, pesto side down. DON"T walk away, pesto is made of oil after all and this will catch your grill on fire. You want to leave it just long enough to get some nice grill marks. With a couple of spatulas, do a quick flip of the salmon, and continue to grill until fish starts to flake easily. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, overcook. The thickest part of the fish should still be very red, it will finish cooking off the grill. Remove fish and rolls from the grill and let sit for about 5 minutes. This would be a good time to make a quick salad. Don't forget to throw some fresh herbs in the salad, they will pair well with the basil in the pesto. I suggest a nice Pinot Noir from Oregon (shocking really I know, I suggest this wine with everything). Slice and enjoy, voila;