Here’s the thing about raw oysters: Either you like ‘em or you don’t. If you do, you probably love them. I’m in that category. Big, deep, ocean-size love. Even a little saltwater “farm” that breeds them is OK with me. Who cares?!

So I was pleased to learn that the new El Cortijo Taqueria y Cantina, which opened 10 days ago in Winooski, has oysters on its menu. Bivalve happy hour — when oysters are a buck a piece — is from 4 to 5 p.m. and again from 9 to 10.

The Winooski branch of El Cortijo, the sixth Farmhouse Group restaurant, is a casual eatery in a former hair salon. It's furnished with about a dozen tables and it's got a  bar backed by a brick wall.  Like its Burlington compatriot, this El Cortijo specializes in tacos but serves more, including burritos, rice and beans, salads, enchiladas and daily specials. But — and this is a big "but" — it also has oysters.

My friend and I met there the other day. Because there were two of us I made a bold decision to double our Dining on a Dime spending limit from $12 to $24.
We shared 12 oysters from Cape Cod, briny little suckers that went down with a jerk of the neck ($12), and guacamole with chips and salsa ($11.95). For financial  symmetry, I threw in a $12 drink: a blood orange margarita. I’ve been a fan of that strong and good-looking cocktail since I drank my first one more than seven years ago, when the original El Cortijo opened on Bank Street in Burlington. Our guacamole was a substantial and tasty serving that  came with drizzled olive oil, red onion crunch and scattered cilantro leaves. The salsa was thick, the chips warm. We needed two basketfuls to scoop up every smear of guac and slurp up all our salsa. All this, of course, was just accompaniment for the raw stuff.

The oysters came in two installments — a nice touch — so we slid down the first six while chef Phil Clayton shucked our next batch. He did this with such expertise, we didn’t need a baby fork to dislodge the flesh from any tendon-y attachment.

My friend and I developed a quick rhythm: squirt of lemon juice; drop or two of classic cocktail sauce; rocky shell to mouth; a tip of the head to score that instant oyster gratification. You barely need to chew, much less swallow. The prize was grit-free.

I recently asked a few  food people in town to describe what an oyster tastes like. I got a little hemming, a little hawing, a cliché or two. One of them referred me to the bathroom in his restaurant and told me to check out the artwork on the wall.
I did as directed and descended to the toilet. There, I found a framed print of Early Man slurping an oyster out of its shell. The caption reads: "The Very First Oyster Ever Eaten — At First Fright, Then Delight."

True dat.

In the half hour that I sat at the lunch counter at Maxi's Restaurant in Waterbury, I went from being called “sweetie” to “sweet pea.” To top it off, the waitress who brightened my day with these easy-flowing endearments was named Angie! (If there’s a better song than “Angie,” I can’t think of it right now.)

Angie did everything else right, too, with an assist from the sandwich maker who made my roast beef on rye with Swiss cheese. (If there’s a better cheese than Swiss, I can’t think of it right now. Why doesn’t anyone in Vermont make it? HMU if you do.)

But let’s back up.

Maxi’s, at the roundabout off  I-89 Exit 10 in Waterbury, was buzzing when I walked in at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. The tables were full, so I took a seat at the long concrete counter.

The hostess brought me a menu and took my drink order: seltzer and cranberry juice. Maxi’s has a full bar and local beers on tap, but the little kid eating a stack of pancakes at a nearby table kept me on the straight and narrow.

I scanned the menu, took a sip of my soda, and the server appeared.

“Hello, sweetie,” she said. “What can I get you?”

I ordered a cup of soup and half a sandwich, an $8.25 special.

As she headed to the kitchen with the ticket, my waitress told me: “My name’s Angie, if you need anything.”

Soon she was back with the goods: thick, spicy chicken gumbo with rice, sausage, and some green peppers and onion. The rare slices of roast beef on my sandwich came with the classics: lettuce, tomato, cheese and horseradish mayonnaise.  I asked for just a little mayo, and that’s what I got.

As I finished eating, a man took a seat a few stools away. He placed his order and Angie remembered it was the same thing he got the last time he ate lunch at Maxi's.

"Yup," the customer replied, smiling. “And the time before that, and the time before that.”

Curiosity got the best of me and I asked the man what he orders at Maxi’s. I learned from the diner, Ryan Foster, that it's the Jess wrap:  chicken tenders, cheddar cheese, lettuce and barbecue sauce in a flour tortilla. Foster subs out the side of fries for mac and cheese made with gouda.

"It's just delicious," he said.  But Foster told me there’s another reason he likes to eat at Maxi’s. “It’s a friendly environment," he said.  "You always see friendly faces.”

Angie saw that I was ready to go. “Be right there, sweet pea,” she said, before dropping off my check.

I felt like I’d gotten a promotion.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

The menu prices at Easy As Cake, a café and bakery in Colchester, end in the number nine. A baby quiche is $3.99; a Greek salad, $7.99; pesto and tomato popover, $8.99, grilled cheese sandwich, $6.49,  French toast bake, $5.99.

The list slowed me down mathematically but revved up my appetite.  I stared at the chalkboard menu for a prolonged spell, doing addition in my head to put together a meal that came to $12 or less. (That’s the Dining on a Dime price limit.)

As I played with food and money combos in my mind, the counter person (and daughter of the owner) waited patiently. When at last I’d nailed down my choice to a hand pie — a house specialty — she steered me to spinach-artichoke ($6.99). I paired this with a bowl of  Cuban black bean soup ($4.99) to clock in at $11.98, not including tax.

The soup was thick and rich with flavor, blended to a consistency of part purée, part chunky. It had a spicy snap — cumin, cayenne, chili powder  — but also earthiness. A hand pie at this sweet little café goes by its central European name: kolache for a sweet one filled with traditional ingredients such as poppy seed, pecan or apricot-prune; klobasnek for a savory pie stuffed with kielbasa, Philly cheesesteak or spinach-artichoke.

Either way, a hand pie is characterized by a sweet and buttery pastry. The vegetable spread in my klobasnek was more accompaniment than equal player.

The afternoon last week when I ate lunch (near closing time) at Easy as Cake, I was the only customer in the restaurant. This got me a window table and a chance to talk with chef/co-owner Jeff Goller.

Goller and his wife, Nicole, opened Easy as Cake in December in the spot that most recently housed Malletts Bay Diner & Bakery. Jeff is a landscape architect and cook; his kolache recipe comes from his grandmother,  who emigrated from Slovakia at age 16. Nicole is a baker and cake decorator who also owns a quilt and sewing shop in Colchester called Sunny Laurel Sisters.

Opening a bakery and restaurant was a kind of  natural progression for the Gollers:  Jeff knew his way around kitchens “backward and forward" as the son of a professional (his father was chef at Amherst College) and a pro himself who’s worked in restaurants off and on for years.  "It's in my blood," he said.

In addition, the Gollers had built a little business baking cakes for people in their home kitchen — a gig that developed after they made their own wedding cake for their September 2018 marriage. Jeff baked the tiered layers; Nicole decorated it with colorful bursts of flowers.

“We merged all our talents,” Jeff said.

The pastry case at Easy as Cake displays those merged talents. The left side holds hand pies made by Jeff; Nicole’s side of the case holds sweets including lemon-glazed donuts, whoopie pies, chocolate chip brownies, blueberry muffins and macaroons.

I hit my $12 limit before I had a chance at dessert. But Easy as Cake was offering free samples of chocolate-caramel brownies the day I ate there, so I happily helped myself to a few of these chewy delights.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

On road trips that start by heading south on the highway from Burlington, our custom is to stop at Red Hen Baking Co. in Middlesex for a baguette and hummus.

Many people know about the bakery’s excellent baguette: crusty outside, chewy within, wholesome through and through.  But I’m guessing fewer people who make a Red Hen pit stop forego croissants, cookies, pastries or brownies in favor of hummus. The house-made chickpea spread is a  favorite of ours: not too smooth, seasoned with garlic, lemon juice, salt and toasted sesame oil — and just right for baguette-dunking on the road.

When I ate lunch at the café a few days ago,  I turned to my  old crush: hummus and bread. The in-house chickpea sandwich is dressed up with olives, pickled red onion, feta cheese and spinach. I opted for half a sandwich on Mad River Grain bread and paired it with a cup of black bean chili topped with a spoonful of crème fraiche. Throw in a chocolate chip cookie and I had a three-course meal for $12.11.


I carried my food to a counter seat with a view of the production bakery, where half a dozen people were making bread.  One baker welcomed me to this viewing zone with a wave, and I watched him work at the mixer by the window.

After lunch, I noticed a blackboard in the café that illustrates Red Hen’s trajectory since it opened in Duxbury almost 20 years ago. In a recent 10-year stretch, Red Hen baked an estimated 9,360,000 pounds of bread, the sign says. The business has grown from one employee to 45. In 2017, Red Hen used 511,990 pounds of organic flour “that came from farms within 150 miles of the bakery."

No word on the amount of hummus produced, but a good share of it was consumed by us.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

At the northern terminus of the "restaurant district," to borrow restaurateur Benjy Adler's term, is one of his restaurants: the Chubby Muffin.

The cafe at 88 Oak Street is a couple of blocks west of the prime district on North Winooski Avenue. As its name suggests, the Chubby is known for morning muffins and coffee.  But there's more: burgers, paninis, pulled pork sandwich and hot dogs; creemees in the summer; used books for sale or trade year-round.

Wednesday is Burger Night at Chubby Muffin, when the café offers a burger and beer for $12.  The restaurant serves a special burger that night; the offer is also good for the house burger,  black bean burger, and pulled-pork sandwich with cheddar and slaw (called Southern Gentleman).

We stopped by this week on Burger Night and lucked out on the special — a local-beef burger  with bacon, pickled red onions, maple and Sriracha chèvre (the master stroke), and spinach on a housemade bun.  I chose a Heady Topper to go with my burger, from a lineup of canned beverages that included Green State Lager and Citizen Cider. 

The sweet-and-heat of the chèvre was a nice touch, specially when the spread happened to match up in my mouth with a bite of crispy bacon. The burger comes with a slice of dill pickle and a pile of chips, all enjoyed with the strong wash and rush of Heady.

At the table next to ours,  wrapping up his meal, was Jack Birmingham, a Burger Night regular who was dining with friends.  He offered a keen assessment of the weekly special: "This one was every bit as good as every other week," observed Birmingham, 26, a project manager at Vermont Information Processing in Colchester.  If Birmingham is not out of town for work on a Wednesday, he's eating at the Chubby Muffin.

"His least favorite part of traveling is missing Burger Night,"  said Birmingham's girlfriend, Rachel Markey.

The meal is fast, the place is friendly, and the combo is classic (with a creative twist). In an age of  "pairing," has anyone come up with a coupling that can top a burger and a beer?

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

The choice was between three cider donuts dusted with cinnamon sugar and a rice bowl. I eyed the former and picked the latter.

These brunch options at Vergennes Laundry by CK are $12 each, tax and gratuity included. The donuts, $4 apiece, were mighty tempting, but I thought I should start my Sunday with a little nutritional balance. As it turned out, I was rewarded with a creatively delicious meal built in a bowl.

A fried egg, garnished with microgreens, topped a bowl of rice and kidney beans. The rice was sautéed with achiote paste, coloring it a pale orange and flavoring it with a touch of nuttiness. Tomato wedges, cucumber slices and kimchi were set around the bowl's perimeter, lit up by a scoop of lusciousness: avocado pureed with onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. The spoonful of avocado, thick and smooth, served as a paste to be apportioned with each bite. The rice bowl is here to stay, said Christian Kruse, 34, chef-owner of the restaurant.

“I’ve taken it off the menu one time,” Kruse said.  “And I was told [by customers] not to ever again.” 

Kruse grew up in Westford and graduated from Rice Memorial High School. He became interested in cooking when he lived on Church Street and watched the action in the open kitchen at the New England Culinary Institute restaurant that was on the Marketplace. He then enrolled at NECI.
Kruse purchased Vergennes Laundry in the fall of 2017 from Julianne and Didier Murat, who ran the bakery and café for seven years. He spent a month renovating the space before opening his restaurant last December. He changed the name slightly — from Vergennes Laundry to Vergennes Laundry by CK — and the offerings more than that. 

Though the café still serves baked goods, coffee and espresso drinks in the morning, as well as more substantial meals, Kruse added dinner service five nights a week. Like the breakfast/brunch menu, dinner prices include tax and tip; a three-course dinner is $39, dishes are available a la carte, too.

The former executive chef at Basin Harbor Club,  Kruse is cooking at both ends of the day. He arrives at Vergennes Laundry by CK  at 5 a.m. and is typically there until 10 or 11 at night.

“The labor pool of cooks is tough in this area,” Kruse said. “There are a lot of restaurants, and we’re all fighting for the small amount of cooks that are available.”

There’s another reason Kruse spends so much time in the kitchen: “I love what I do," he said.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

If you're looking for a fast and hearty midday meal, follow a contractor to their lunch spot. The fare may not be the healthiest — odds are, it won't be. But it'll fill you up, usually with something tasty, and almost always at a reasonable price.

Knowing this, I was relieved when I filed into line at Kerry's Kwik Stop, on St. Paul Street in Burlington during the lunch rush a couple weeks back. In front of me were an array of men in dusty steel-toed boots; some of them wore the neon yellow vests often donned by road crews. Excellent, I thought, starving.

Above the ordering counter, a chalkboard menu offers hot and cold sandwiches stuffed with McKenzie Natural Artisan Deli meats, along with burgers, hotdogs, corndogs, chicken tenders and fries loaded with chili or cheese and gravy. In the summer, there's outdoor seating and a full menu of ice cream and other frozen treats.

For lunch on a cold late-fall day, I went with one of the weekly specials: a pressed roast beef sandwich on ciabatta with horseradish mayo and provolone ($8.99). This usually comes with chips, but since it was blustery and overcast outside, I added a pint of hand-cut fries ($2.49) and a 99-cent cup of coffee because hey, why not. (All coffees, regardless of size, are 99 cents at Kerry's)

It's worth noting that coffee at Kerry's is the real deal. The store offers two organic roasts from Vermont Coffee Company, along with several additional options, flavored or otherwise, from other local roasters. And it's brewed strong enough so you can really taste it, but not so strong that it gives you the shakes. Just right — and hot, hot, hot.

So about the food: It was good — the sandwich had lots of meat, the horsey mayo added nice zing, and the red onions gave a touch of sweetness. I wasn't impressed by the bread, but it did what it needed to do. And the fries were crunchy and scattered with just the right amount of salt. I  stuffed a few in my sandwich — just like my contractor husband taught me to do many years ago — sipped my coffee, and gave thanks for the sustaining pleasure of a simple, working-class lunch.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

Amid the deluge of detritus on Facebook, an image of truth and beauty lit up my feed the other day. It was a chocolate cupcake topped with a mound of vanilla frosting and decorated with sparkly numerals: 28.

“Happy Birthday to us!” the accompanying text read.

Mirabelles Café & Bakery turned 28 this week. The occasion provided a good reason — though not a necessary one — for lunch at one of Burlington’s best restaurants.

For almost three decades, chef-owners Alison Lane (the sweet stuff), Andrew Silva (the savory side) and their team have produced a beautiful, imaginative and consistently high-quality assortment of cakes, pies, pastries, muffins, cookies, éclairs, soups, sandwiches, salads, omelets, pancakes, panini and lunch specials. To get a sense of the range and delight, think crème brulée cake and ratatouille tartine.

My family has made Mirabelles' chocolate cake with raspberry filling and mocha buttercream icing a birthday tradition for 20 years. This consumption is not even a pinch in the batter of the 300,000 or so cakes that Lane estimates her bakery has made.

But it was lunch that propelled me to a seat at the window counter on the dreary last day of October.

“November is the ugliest month,” the man next to me said. I knew I was going to enjoy the meal.

We each ordered from the blackboard menu that lists soups and lunch specials.
I got the chorizo and black bean chili  served with two slices of grilled and buttered corn bread and a mixed green salad ($12).  The hearty chili, topped with sour cream, chopped scallions and shredded cheddar, was custom-made for the cusp of the month. Each bite seemed to ward off the chill and dark of November, aka "stick season."

My impromptu lunch mate, Burlington architect Brad Rabinowitz, chose the grilled steak sandwich with blue cheese dressing, lettuce and crispy onion rings on a toasted bun ($10.50).

“You made the right choice,” he said when my meal arrived. “You did, too,” I replied. “Those onions are key,” I observed, eyeing the crispy rings that tumbled from his sandwich.

Rabinowitz, I learned, has been a Mirabelles regular for more than two decades. His architecture firm is above the café and he heads downstairs for  lunch about three days a week, he said. Two Rabinowitz family wedding cakes — his and his daughter's — were made at Mirabelles.

“It’s a community,” he said. “That’s the biggest part of it. And obviously the food is good.”

Working upstairs, Rabinowitz said, means “there’s always tomorrow for me” at Mirabelles.  The day after his steak sandwich, he had  the chili.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

Cold weather hit hard and fast this week — just in time to freeze out the Dodgers and warm up with soup.

If you're looking for a bowl of soup to be a meal, the thing to eat is pho,  Vietnamese noodle soup. I headed to Pho Dang Vietnamese Café in Winooski, which moved in July from its home of 11 years to new quarters a few blocks north.

The restaurant at 348 Main Street, roughly double the size of the original, is a cheerful and buzzy space currently decorated with goblins and pumpkins. All 14 tables were full the night I dined there, with a steady flow of people arriving. I found a seat at a shiny wooden bar by the front door and within a couple of minutes was served a pot of tea.

My food followed fast: a first course of four deep-fried egg rolls ($3.95) and then a spectacular bowl of pho rau. The steaming bowl of  chicken and beef broth held a treasure trove of  crunchy vegetables, like a salad dunked in stock:  scallions, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots and celery.  The mushrooms came in chunks, the peppers in big pieces, and the celery  slices were long and cut on the bias.

Cubes of tofu floated in the rich broth and noodles settled at the bottom; I unearthed them with each bite. I dressed the pho with a squeeze of lime, cilantro leaves and  bean sprouts.  My “small” bowl was $7.25 and needed a double set of  utensils — soup spoon and chop sticks — to eat it.

At the original Pho Dang, it was fun to peer into the little kitchen and see big pots of broth simmering on the stove and cooks doing great things with it. The view is gone, but the great food remains.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

A voluntary trip to the hospital is not a bad thing. Such an outing comes with benefits if the destination is the Garden Atrium café at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

Cost and personal choice are two of the pluses. Local and fresh are two more. With a longstanding commitment to sourcing local ingredients, UVMMC purchases food from more than 70 regional farmers and producers, according to its website.

But let’s start with cost. Some hospital trips — let’s say for a mammogram or a tetanus shot — include a mystery about the price of the service. Even after the bill arrives.

At the Garden Atrium, prices are listed on a blackboard. And they’re low. I got three carrot fritters dressed with feta and a tangy cranberry vinaigrette and served with a side of greens for $4.25. My side of roast vegetables was $1.25. The only thing cheaper was the free parking because I was in and out in an hour.

Let’s move to choice. There was plenty. I was tempted by the soup of the day – mushroom, bacon and kale for $2.95. New England crab cakes ($6.25) came on arugula sautéed with maple-brined bacon, and served with a side of pickled root vegetables and remoulade. Ravioli ($7.25) had everything you’d cook it with at home — roasted red peppers, spinach, garlic, white wine, shallots and more — plus stuff you’d want at home but wouldn’t have (artichokes and mascarpone). I’m stilling thinking about the passed over red pepper and white bean hummus ($3.75) with olive tapenade, dill and toasted naan. The list goes on.

Options extend to the dining area where seating includes a big chair with attached desk-top that faces raised-bed gardens, spots around the gas fireplace in the center of the room or traditional dining at a table. Wherever you sit, meals are delivered.

Many trips to the hospital are inconclusive and this one was, too. The lingering question concerns the third vegetable in my side of roasted veggies. The menu listed carrots, cauliflower and asparagus but I’m pretty sure the orange food in my bowl was sweet potatoes. For $1.25 and lots of garlic, who cares?

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].