Start the new year with some new restaurants, like these that started fresh in late 2023
Are you looking to make some changes in the new year? How about discovering some new restaurants in 2024? Those tried-and-true dining spots carry rich rewards, but uncovering a flavorful new hotspot or two can be downright exciting.
Vermont's food and farming culture is known around the world, attracting talented chefs and helping to make the state a pretty good place to sample some fresh culinary experiences. Here is a rundown of a few of the new places the Burlington Free Press profiled that opened near the end of 2023, setting themselves up to meet your food-and-drink needs in 2024.
North Hero House
The North Hero House looked to be done shortly after the pandemic. The previous owner was unsuccessful trying to sell the business during the pandemic and planned to demolish the three lakeside buildings, construct “high end” condominiums and convert the inn itself into a single-family home.
“Heidi and I thought this was not a good project for the Village of North Hero and decided to try and save the Inn and Pier Bar,” according to Doug Nedde, who with his wife, Heidi Tappan, bought the long-standing business. The list of entrees at the inn restaurant on a recent Friday night included ribeye steak, pork tenderloin, red snapper and a vegan roasted vegetable and grain bowl.
Tappan isn’t fazed by the small population base in the Champlain islands; the entirety of Grand Isle County is only around 7,500 year-round residents. “It remains to be seen how well we do” this winter, Tappan said. “I will say we are committed. We are earnest.”
Read more about the North Hero House here
Magic Chopsticks Noodle Bar
Located in a St. Paul Street complex that also houses Champlain College students and next door to Shy Guy Gelato, Magic Chopsticks Noodle Bar caters to those students and anyone else enticed by the idea of warm noodle soups and refreshing bubble milk tea. The cuisine is primarily Chinese, and one of the specialties is soup featuring handmade Lanzhou noodles. The handmade quality, according to manager Ken Cheung, makes the noodles more elastic and less mushy than some soup noodles become.
The noodles are key, but not even the top ingredient. “The most important thing is the broth,” Cheung said, as the soup base simmers overnight in a blend of spices and Chinese herbs.
Read more about Magic Chopsticks Noodle Bar here
Lake Champlain Chocolates café
The origins of Lake Champlain Chocolates go back to 1983, when Jim Lampman started the confections company. The business began in the alley behind what’s now Speeder & Earl’s coffee shop on Pine Street, moved across the street into the Maltex building and, 25 years ago, settled in its current home nearer to the southern end of Pine Street.
That location has had a café before, but as of Sept. 15, Lake Champlain Chocolates has a café at its flagship store worthy of being called a café. “It’s just over two times bigger” than its predecessor, according to Lampman’s son, company president Eric Lampman. “This is more of a café setting.”
Read more about the Lake Champlain Chocolates cafe here
Ariana Natural Market
Named for an ancient region that included Afghanistan, the Ariana Natural Market debuted Nov. 7 near Five Corners in Essex Junction. The store run by Wazir Hashimi carries grass-fed halal meat, including fresh beef, goat and chicken slaughtered and prepared in accordance with Muslim law. Hashimi said he has found frozen halal meat in Vermont, but before opening his market had to go to Canada or Albany, New York, to get fresh halal meat.
“Mostly people are looking for the hot food to-go,” he said. “It’s coming fresh and at a very reasonable price and good quality.” Those dishes – including chicken, lamb or kofta (meatballs) over rice, as well as Bolani, a stuffed Afghani flatbread – are provided to the market by Hashimi’s brother, Awran Hashimi, who last year opened the area’s first Afghan restaurant, Bamyan Kebab House in Winooski.
Read more about Ariana Natural Market here
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont restaurants that opened or reopened at the end of 2023
