Shae and I recently spent a week in Waterbury, a city in central Vermont which is a short drive to the west of Montpelier, the state capital.
We did far too much eating and drinking while there, but on the positive side it means we now get to recommend all kinds of great places for you to visit if you ever head to Vermont 🙂
From wineries to cheese shops to distilleries to chocolatiers and more, here are 12 great places to eat and drink in central Vermont.
1) Boyden Valley Winery
We considered writing a separate post about our wine tasting at Boyden Valley Winery as we enjoyed it so much. We have loads of other posts to catch up on from our time in Vermont though, so decided to just give it a special mention in this post.
One of the things we liked about it is that it’s pet-friendly. Not just on their outdoor patio either – we were able to bring Truffles inside with us while we did a wine tasting. She’s only 10lbs though, so it might be worth calling the winery ahead of time if you’re wanting to bring a larger dog inside.
The tasting itself was excellent too. Many wineries we’ve been to have either offered a few different red and white wines or specialize in fruit wines.
Boyden Valley Winery does both of those and more – here are their wine and cider tasting menus.
You get to try nine different drinks when opting for a wine tasting. Two of those are chosen for you РGl̦gg (a warm, mulled red wine) and Vermont Ice Maple Cr̬me Рwith the other seven being chosen by you.
I enjoyed all nine of the wines I tried, but the Vermont Ice Maple Crème was especially great.
If you visit while the weather’s nice, you can also enjoy a glass of wine out on their patio looking out over their vineyard. The staff at Boyden Valley Winery were also extremely friendly (hi Jo!), so we’d highly recommend visiting.
Address
Boyden Valley Winery, 64 VT-104, Cambridge, VT 05444
Cost
Two tastings of nine wines plus one glass of wine cost us $37.40 including tax. We also received two free wine glasses from the wine tasting.
2) The Alchemist
The Alchemist is a craft brewery located in Stowe, a city just to the north of Waterbury and is pet-friendly both inside and out.
Unlike many craft breweries, The Alchemist offers free tastings of some of their beers. Brent who served us was extremely friendly and gave us some great recommendations of other places to visit, many of which are on this list.
I enjoyed the beers I tried and ended up buying a 4-pack of Beelzebub, their American Imperial Stout. I guess the label should’ve given it away, but the beer was much more hoppy than I’d been expecting.
Address
The Alchemist, 100 Cottage Club Rd, Stowe, VT 05672
Cost
Tastings are free, although they have a small tip/donation jar that’s donated to local charities. The 4-pack of Beelzebub cost $13.45 including tax.
3) Ben & Jerry’s
You can’t visit Vermont and not go to Ben & Jerry’s. Well, you can, but I’m pretty sure you get struck down by lightning.
We actually went on a Ben & Jerry’s factory tour when we visited Montpelier last year, so we didn’t do that again this year. However, it was just down the road from our Airbnb (which we’d recommend staying at), so we stopped there for ice cream one evening.
Seeing as we weren’t doing the tour this time, Truffles was able to join us.
Address
Ben & Jerry’s, 1281 Waterbury Stowe Rd Route 100, Waterbury, VT 05676
Cost
Two ice cream cones and a kid’s ice cream for Truffles came to $13.26 including tax.
4) von Trapp Brewery & Bierhall
Yep, the von Trapp Brewery & Bierhall belongs to the von Trapp family made famous in The Sound of Music. They made Vermont their home in 1942 having fled Austria several years earlier. After setting up a farm and ski lodge, they opened their brewery in 2010.
The Bierhall looked nice inside, but we had Truffles with us and so had to sit outside as they serve food there. I ordered a beer flight; all four beers were good, but the dunkel was my favorite.
Shae ordered a glass of the Austrian red wine. To be honest, she wasn’t a big fan of it – I guess there’s a reason we don’t often see Austrian wine for sale over here 😉
Still, it’s a beautiful setting and is worth stopping at for something to drink and/or eat.
Address
von Trapp Brewery & Bierhall, 1333 Luce Hill Rd, Stowe, VT 05672
Cost
Shae’s glass of wine and my beer flight came to $16.09 including tax.
5) Smugglers’ Notch Distillery
The actual Smugglers’ Notch Distillery is located in Jeffersonville, but they have three tasting rooms in Vermont. One is in Jeffersonville, another is in Burlington and then there’s the one we visited in Waterbury. I’m not sure about the other two locations, but the Waterbury tasting room is pet-friendly.
Smugglers’ Notch Distillery makes a variety of spirits including maple whiskey, rum, gin, vodka and more.
They even make bourbon barrel aged maple syrup which is absolutely delicious and is something you get to try when doing a tasting.
You pick four of the spirits when doing a tasting. Seeing as they had so many to choose from, Shae and I paid for two tastings and tried each other’s.
I’d also noticed that Smugglers’ Notch Distillery had a Groupon available. For $29, you can get a ‘Distillery Package for One Person’ (they also have packages for more people). This included a tasting, a take-home 5-pack of minis and a 100ml bottle of bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. For $5 more, you can upgrade to a different 5-pack that contains some whiskeys. You can also pay more to upgrade to a larger bottle of the maple syrup.
We subsequently bought one of those Groupons and returned for another tasting and to get the minis and maple syrup. We saved even more as Groupon had a 20% off coupon code that day, plus I paid for it with a Groupon gift card that I’d bought at a 10% discount. That meant our net cost was $20.88 which was good value for what we received.
Address
Smugglers’ Notch Distillery, 2657 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury, VT 05676
Cost
It cost $10.95 including tax for two tastings. The Groupon package cost $29 before the other methods I used to save and $20.88 after.
6) Cabot Farmers’ Store
Next door to Smugglers’ Notch Distillery is Cabot Farmers’ Store. This is mainly a cheese store, although they also offer beer, cider, wine, meat and more. The highlight is the fact that they have about 30 different cheeses that you can sample for free.
This wasn’t my best place, but that’s simply because I don’t like cheese. Shae was in her element though and particularly enjoyed some of their spicy cheeses – if I remember correctly, the buffalo sauce-flavored cheese was her favorite.
Due to it serving food, dogs aren’t allowed in the Cabot Farmers’ Store.
Address
Cabot Farmers’ Store, 2657 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury, VT 05676
Cost
Cheese samples are free, but the store has lots of products for sale.
7) Cold Hollow Cider Mill
Just up the road from our Airbnb was Cold Hollow Cider Mill. They have a couple of buildings on site – one with food and one with booze.
On the booze side, they have their own ciders that they make. Shae and I both got a tasting flight of all four that they had on offer.
I really enjoyed three of them, but the fourth wasn’t very good. I’d been looking forward to it as it was their seasonal one left over from winter called Grateful Sled and which I figured would taste like apple and cinnamon. However, it had a really strong clove taste which is one of my least favorite flavors.
Cold Hollow Cider Mill sells their own cider to take home, along with drinks from other local breweries and wineries. Something fun that they offered was random grab bags. These only cost $6.35 including tax and contain a random selection of beers, but you don’t know what you’ll get.
I was feeling lucky and so I bought one. I picked well as it contained three beers I hadn’t tried, along with the dunkel from von Trapp Brewery that I’d liked the most from our visit there.
In the other building, be sure to try their apple cider donuts. If possible, get them while they’re warm as that’s when they’re at their best.
They sell all kinds of other goods and have a few of their jams, jellies, mustards, etc. available to taste for free.
Cold Hollow Cider Mill doesn’t allow dogs inside due to it serving food.
Address
Cold Hollow Cider Mill, 3600 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury Center, VT 05677
Cost
Our two flights came to a total of $19.69 with tax, while the random grab bag was $6.35. Apple cider donuts are $0.75 each and the stores sells all kinds of other goods.
8) Stowe Cider
We left Truffles behind when visiting Stowe Cider as it wasn’t pet-friendly indoors, although dogs are allowed at their outdoor seating area.
Despite not being able to bring Truffles along, Stowe Cider was fun for a couple of reasons. First, if you want to get a tasting flight, you write down which ones you want on a mini chalkboard.
They had lots of interesting flavors too, including one that was co-fermented and aged on blue raspberry gummy bears.
Stowe Cider has lots of board games for customers to play, so Shae and I enjoyed a game of Battleship while we had our flights (I won 😉 ).
Address
Stowe Cider, 17 Town Farm Ln, Stowe, VT 05672
Cost
Although the ciders were good, it’s pretty expensive doing a tasting. It cost $15.54 for our two tastings of four different ciders. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a terrible price, but as you can see in the photos above, you get less than half a small tasting glass of each to try. Value-wise, you’re therefore probably better off getting a glass of something if you aren’t too worried about trying different flavors.
9) Jimmz Pizza
After hiking up Mt Pisgah, Shae and I decided to reward ourselves with pizza. Jimmz Pizza was near our Airbnb and had good reviews online, so we called in our order on the drive back so that we could pick it up when we arrived back in Waterbury.
Shae got a small cheese and tomato, while I ordered a large Meat Head (light on the cheese) so that I’d have some left over for the following day. The pizza was delicious with a tasty base and generous toppings.
Address
Jimmz Pizza, 7026, 70 McNeil Rd, Waterbury Center, VT 05677
Cost
Our small cheese and tomato pizza, large specialty pizza and an ice cream sandwich came to $43.88 including tax.
10) Barr Hill
We visited Waterbury Farmers Market during our stay there which is held on Thursday afternoons from the end of May until the beginning of September.
One of the vendors there was Barr Hill, a distillery that focuses on making gin, although they also make vodka. They offered free tastings, so we decided to give it a try. I’m not a huge fan of gin, but theirs was probably the best gin that I’ve tried. Their Tom Cat gin was also interesting as it’s aged in oak barrels and has honey in it. This mellowed the juniper flavor which made me like it even more.
We also stopped by their tasting room in Hardwick on our way to Dog Mountain and Silver Lake. I had another quick tasting with a friendly staff member while Shae waited outside with Truffles as dogs weren’t allowed inside. That was their location in Hardwick before they moved, so I’m not sure if their new Montpelier location will be pet-friendly.
Address
Barr Hill was in the process of moving to a new location when we visited. As of June 29, 2019, they can be found at 116 Gin Lane, Montpelier, VT 05602.
Cost
Tasting their four gins and vodkas was free.
11) Prohibition Pig
We had a couple of people – including Brent from The Alchemist – recommend eating and drinking at Prohibition Pig (more commonly known as Pro Pig), so we decided to do just that.
Unsurprisingly given its name, much of the menu has pork products. I ordered the Pro Pig Cubano which contained carnitas, smoked pork loin, pickles and mustard in a house made roll. It also usually comes with Swiss cheese, but I got it without that.
Pork isn’t Shae’s favorite meat, so she went for one of the few non-pork options – jerk chicken tacos. She loves cilantro, so they hooked her up with that.
Pro Pig has quite a bit of outdoor seating which is pet-friendly, so we were able to bring Truffles with us.
Address
Prohibition Pig, 23 S Main St, Waterbury, VT 05676
Cost
The two tacos, Pro Pig Cubano sandwich, porter and glass of wine came to a total of $35.02 with tax but before tip.
12) Lake Champlain Chocolates
Last but not least, there’s Lake Champlain Chocolates. This is located in the same complex as Smugglers’ Notch Distillery and Cabot Farmers’ Store, so you can visit all three in quick succession.
The chocolates aren’t the cheapest, but they were some of the tastiest ones I’ve tried from chocolateries.
Address
Lake Champlain Chocolates, 2653 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury, VT 05676
Cost
We bought four chocolates which came to a total of $14.27 (!)
Your Suggestions
Our budget – and time – didn’t allow us to try any of the other great wineries, distilleries, breweries and restaurants in the area, so what did we miss out on? Let us know your favorite places to eat and drink in central Vermont in the comments below.
I had no idea so many good things in Vermont.
Now I want to go drink my way thru now.
You definitely should – it was a lot of fun!