It was just last April that Michel Mahe opened creative burger-and-flatbread destination Park Squeeze in Vergennes. His sixth restaurant debuts this Saturday in Middlebury. Other eateries include Black Sheep Bistro, the Bearded Frog, Bobcat Café & Brewery and Next Door Bakery. The Lobby will be open seven days a week for dinner at 7 Bakery Lane, the three-floor, waterfront restaurant space most recently known as Jackson's on the River.

According to Mahe, diners who remember the red-and-yellow primary colors of Jackson's will only recognize the basic structure of the restaurant and its giant window overlooking Otter Creek. The redesign by Rebecca Duffy of RD Design includes a new, 1920s-style lounge and a dark-blue color scheme populated with vintage furniture. The walls are covered in chalkboards decorated with quotes from Julia Child and other witty chefs. A projector provides a backdrop of food-related photos from the 1940s and '50s.

The food does not adhere to the mid-century template of the décor. According to Mahe, "I think it's an accumulation of what we've learned in the last 15 years in Vermont ... For Middlebury, it’s not the usual and that’s why I did it."

As at Park Squeeze, a chunk of the Lobby's menu is devoted to burgers. All six versions are paired with a different roll baked for the restaurant at Bristol Bakery. A Moroccan-spiced lamb burger is served on a yellow curry bun with harissa yogurt and mint pesto. A filet mignon burger with Bearnaise sauce comes on a caramelized onion bun, while a cranberry-oat bun holds a bacon-and-Brie-stuffed turkey burger with herb gravy.

Remember the Mexican food explosion of of 2011 and blink-and-you'll-miss-them restaurants such as Don Pedro's Taqueria? Despite that boom time, readers still often complain to me about the sad state of spicy affairs in Vermont. And to a degree, I agree. I love El Cortijo Taqueria Y Cantina in Burlington, but the menu beyond tacos is limited.

That's why I was so excited when 3 Squares Café in Vergennes recently announced a change to its Thursday, Friday and Saturday night menu to include dinners that look like this:

Owner Matt Birong's special Mexican menu during the first Vermont Restaurant Week was one of my favorite meals I've had in the state. Now, I can eat something like it every week.

I started my Saturday night meal with a cup of creamy turkey soup to ease my throat, which was roughed up by a nasty cold. Then it was time to get serious. 

I would be happy to eat Birong's chile verde every day from now on. A vegetarian colleague who was once a personal chef told me that the spoon of leftovers that I shared with her was one of the best things she ever ate.

She didn't even mind the meaty cubes of tender pork bobbing in the stew. Or perhaps she secretly loved them (and the shreds that calved off the bigger chunks) as much as I did.

Either way, the dish is seriously addictive, with a beautifully balanced sauce green chile sauce. The tangy, savory stew came with house-fried tortilla chips perfect for scooping up the broth like a dip. Every detail made the filling dish more than the sum of its parts, from a blob of tomatillo crema that melted with a sharp creaminess in the center of the cast-iron skillet, to fresh sprigs of refreshing cilantro.

Some office lunchtime smells can be gnarly — leftover shrimp scampi, for instance — while others are contagious. Barbecued meat, fries and curries all fall into this latter category. One whiff can alter your own lunch plans. Earlier today, when the spicy aromas from a coworker's chicken tikka masala wafted through the office, my lunchtime fate was sealed.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked. Not from an Indian place, it turned out, but from City Market, which my coworker praised for serving up consistently delicious grab-and-go meals.

I'd have to agree. City Market is like the sleeper of the Burlington lunch category, the place where I turn when I'm in a rush but totally indecisive. When I get there, I know there will be sandwiches and feta boreks and empanadas and peanut noodles and sometimes even tagine to choose from. An army of talented cooks of all backgrounds works behind the scenes there — and a secondary army of talented producers delivers ready-made meals each day.

It's easy to take the place for granted. After I procured my own $7.99 tikka masala today — and tucked into cardamom-scented rice, tender pieces of meat and a creamy, coriander-flecked, slow-burn sauce — I thought about how many times City Market had saved what I thought might be a "sad lunch" day. The only thing I needed to add was my own off-the-cuff raita, with cukes and yogurt from — you guessed it.

It's no secret that food sells, especially when it comes to magazines. Yet the striking blueberry pie that appears on the cover of Vermont Law School's Loquitur — as well as the picture of dean Marc Mihaly sautéeing a veggie omelette — promise something different than recipes within. 

The entire Winter 2013 issue of Loquitur, VLS' alumni magazine, is devoted to food — "Good Food," as the cover promises — as well as the people who work to grow, make and protect it.

“We focused this issue of Loquitur on food for several reasons," writes Peter Glenshaw, VLS' director of communications, in an email. "Our faculty and alumni are actively engaged in this sector, and with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law, we are now seeing a new generation of students express a deep interest in the topic."

Besides the usual alumni news, this Loquitur highlights VLS graduates who have become farmers or food producers; a piece about how the legal needs of the farmers and producers might create a new crop of law-related jobs (written by Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved); and a profile of VLS' one-year-old Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, which is developing food-ag curriculum for students and advocacy and policy guidance for farmers and food producers.

"Food offers a good platform to convey the importance of legal education and the power that law has on something we do every day — eat!" adds Glenshaw.

1696 Williston Road, South Burlington, 652-1155

This weekend, I fell in love. Diner love, one of the most important kinds in my line of work, right up there with eros, agape and sushi.

Coming from the New York City suburbs, where diner food is a proud regional tradition, I have taken nearly 16 years in Vermont to find a diner that I considered completely acceptable. But it's finally happened. And best of all, the Parkway Diner is right in my neighborhood.

You might be thinking, It's just diner food, what's the big deal? One thing is the enviable freshness of the product, very clear in the above-average salad at right. And that's in the off season. Owner Corey Gottfried says he plans to source local ingredients come summer.