If 2020 was a roller coaster for Vermont's food scene, 2021 brought the resulting whiplash. As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continued in the spring, the.
Vergennes Laundry In January, Nadia Dole relaunched Vergennes Laundry, the 10-year-old Main Street bakery and café she bought in the fall of 2020. She had deep-cleaned, repainted and installed new shelving. She had opened up the work space in front of the floor-to-ceiling wood-fired oven and added a 5-by-6-foot black walnut baking table on wheels. Dole had also been busy baking. The glass-fronted pastry case held tender-crumbed scones in flavors such as cheddar-French herb and red currant-lemon. Tea-style cakes pistachio and lime; lemon and poppy seed; banana, chocolate and coconut made without gluten were scattered with edible flowers or coconut flakes. She had perfected her own version of cardamom buns, a Vergennes Laundry favorite: elegantly twisted like a ballet mistress chignon, generously spice-flecked, buttery and crunchy with deeply browned undersides.
Photo courtesy of Caspian Oyster Depot Photo courtesy of Caspian Oyster Depot JUSTIN AND SOPHIE Wright are the duo behind Caspian Oyster Depot, a pop-up fresh fish and local provision market in Bristol.
Photo courtesy of Justin and Sophie Wright
Hopefully you’ve had the pleasure of ordering and enjoying the fresh fish that’s being delivered to Bristol’s Main Street every week. Wait, what? Fresh fish in our beloved, alas land-locked, Vermont?
Yes. But there’s a catch.
Justin and Sophie Wright the married duo who opened Caspian Oyster Depot as a pop-up fish and local provisions market at Tandem in late December are going to pause their business on April 16. Why? Well, first, the couple is expecting the arrival of their baby in early May, and second, Tandem needs the space back for their busy summer season.
Wellfleet oysters at Caspian Oyster Depot Years from now, as I scroll back through my pandemic-era food memories, one will stand out among the takeout boxes and the meals I m already sick of cooking. On New Year s Eve, I stood out in the snow under the biggest, brightest full moon, trying desperately to wield an oyster knife without stabbing myself. It was a surprisingly celebratory way to end a terrible year, and the oysters once I figured out the trick to opening their rough shells were damn good. I had Caspian Oyster Depot to thank for those fresh, briny bivalves and the fresh start they gave 2021. A few weeks later, when I called Sophie and Justin Wright, owners of the Bristol business, they said they d also rung in the year by moon gazing and slurping back shellfish in the snow. So had many of their other customers. In a time when gathering is out, we d managed to have a simultaneous experience, if not a collect