In the tech world, a product is never done. Apple’s iPhone has reached version 17 running operating system 26.0.1. Microsoft Word has released so many iterations since its 1983 launch that the version number isn’t public anymore.
In the Vermont restaurant world, updates also abound. So the Seven Days food team spends a lot of time chasing not only the 1.0 versions of new destinations but also 2.0 (and beyond) changes in chefs, owners, locations and menus.
Read on for fresh spins on five recently refreshed eateries in Burlington, South Burlington and Richmond.
Passing the Crown
Majestic, 616 S. Willard St., Burlington
Contrary to what Majestic co-owner Sam Tolstoi told Seven Days in April, tweezers are now being utilized in the kitchen of his South End neighborhood eatery and bar.
In the spring, less than six months after the small Burlington restaurant opened, Tolstoi, 39, shared the news that original chef and co-owner Maura O’Sullivan was leaving to care for family members. O’Sullivan — who had pretty much single-handedly put out a low-key “snack” menu of approachable dishes, such as wedges of potato-and-Gruyère tart and meatballs in tomato-fennel sauce — was replaced by Micah Tavelli.
The 34-year-old is an alum of Hen of the Wood in Burlington and a 2024 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast from his stint at the now-closed Paradiso Hi-Fi in Burlington, where the ambitious offerings included venison tartare with butternut squash miso and koji-cured beet powder.
“It became clear we were more of a restaurant than we set out to be.”
Sam Tolstoi
Lest anyone fear that Majestic was going all fancy, Tolstoi quipped that he had cautioned his new chef, “If you have to plate anything with tweezers, this is not the place for that.”
Over the summer, Tavelli gradually made the Majestic menu his own, working with a small team in the tiny open kitchen. While the revamped menu has become neither Paradiso nor Hen, Tavelli and Tolstoi said bottom-line realities and customer feedback have brought more formally plated entrées, regular menu changes and even some tweezer-assisted flourishes.
“It became clear we were more of a restaurant than we set out to be,” Tolstoi said.
A recent meal started with a delectable tangle of ribboned raw yellowfin tuna ($18) in a chile-infused orange pool, polka-dotted with bright green dill oil and crowned with crisp tuiles. Shareable mains included tender slices of crisply fat-edged pork loin ($35) in a luxurious brandy-green peppercorn sauce and a thick wedge of slow-roasted cabbage ($22) blanketed in a caramelized mushroom- onion gravy.
Tavelli later swapped out the pork for locally raised dairy-cow rib eye, “the most sustainable way to do beef,” he believes. The chef described his menu as “dynamic,” although some dishes will be staples. Those include his personal go-to trio: an excellent lobster spaghetti ($39), bright with lemon and sparks of Calabrian chile; grilled chicken wings ($18) that are first brined and confited in duck fat; and a bowl of meltingly soft roasted patatas bravas ($13) kicked up with a chile-herb sauce tempered with lashings of creamy aioli.
What will not change at Majestic: The restaurant remains open Monday through Friday nights, though it can host private weekend events; and it can be found online only on Instagram.
And yes, people still occasionally drive off the rotary the wrong way into the parking lot exit — though much less frequently, Tolstoi said.
Parlor Games
Mr. Creemee, 377 Pine St. and 71 S. Union St., Burlington
Henry Mizrahi knows late October is a weird time to open an ice cream business. He was shooting for July.
But Mr. Creemee’s sherbet-colored ice cream parlor on Pine Street is bright enough to feel like summer, even if it’s colder than a creemee outside. Open as of October 26 in the longtime Myer’s Bagels spot — most recently Queen City Café — it’s a much-needed expansion for the downtown Little Gordo Creemee Stand, which is now under the Mr. Creemee umbrella, too.
Mr. Creemee has all the Little Gordo hits: scoops, swirls, shakes and Wizards. Espresso drinks and housemade pastries, including doughnuts, are new. Most importantly for Mizrahi, 30, and his crew, the new HQ has a lot more room for making ice cream.
Since Little Gordo opened on South Union Street in June 2020, its staff shared the kitchen at its Old North End parent restaurant, Taco Gordo, “making ice cream just like any restaurant might make ice cream,” Mizrahi said. This summer, the ice cream production reached such a scale that the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets took notice. The agency informed Little Gordo that it needed a Vermont Milk Handler License — required for processors who pasteurize ice cream mix — and specialized equipment.
“We really like our ice cream, and we really like making it.”
Henry Mizrahi
That ultimatum aside, a second location and dedicated production space had been on Mizrahi’s mind since year two. (Taco Gordo owner Charlie Sizemore remains a partner in Mr. Creemee, but they’re now fully separate businesses, Mizrahi said.)
While Mizrahi and his team built out the Pine Street parlor this summer, they switched to premade ice cream base from Kingdom Creamery of Vermont. Now, specialized equipment and license in hand, they’re back to making everything from scratch using dairy from Monument Farms.
“It’s the whole point, really,” Mizrahi said. “We really like our ice cream, and we really like making it.”
Its first full week open, the parlor offered scoops of chai, vanilla, mint-Oreo fudge, coconut chip sorbet and raspberry-peach sorbet ($3.50 for two scoops). Creemees were maple, coffee, pumpkin pie and Sweet Creem ($5 for a small). Customers sat at the sprinkle-flecked counter enjoying cones and espresso drinks made with Vivid Coffee — a perfect bitter complement to sweet ice cream, especially in an affogato or espresso milkshake.
Chef and back-of-house manager Lucy Richmond is baking Pop-Tarts-style pastries, coffee cakes and, yes, doughnuts. As with the ice cream, flavors rotate: Ahead of Halloween, doughnut varieties included spooky chocolate frosted ($3.75), candy-topped Trick or Treat! ($4), and pumpkin cream-filled ($4.50).
Everything can be ordered à la mode, but the ultimate combo is Mr. Creemee’s doughnut sandwich ($7.50): a fluffy yet structurally thoughtful cinnamon-sugar doughnut sliced in half and stuffed with a creemee swirl.
The autumnal chill will keep it from dripping down your arm, but a treat like that doesn’t last long enough to melt in any season.
Spruced Up
Big Spruce, 39 Bridge St., Richmond
Much has shifted at Big Spruce since new chef-owner Christian Kruse reopened the shuttered Richmond restaurant in June. He’s done so in stages, starting with its popular creemee window. One major change is that the formerly seasonal window will now stay open year-round.
A more personal transformation involves Kruse’s tastes. “I have become a creemee fan,” the chef admitted. “I started to understand the craving.”
Kruse, 41, bought Big Spruce in May after working for its founding owner, Gabriel Firman, for a year. When that restaurant closed in October 2024, Kruse moved across the street to Firman’s original Richmond spot, Hatchet, until that ended its run, too, in March.
Upon the second closure, Kruse told Seven Days that he hoped to buy Big Spruce. “Doing my own thing again has been a dream since forever,” said the chef, who owned and operated Vergennes Laundry by CK from late 2017 until early 2020.
“I want people to understand that I can do comfort food.”
Christian Kruse
Soon after opening the creemee window, Kruse launched a simple takeout menu including a caramelized onion grilled cheese ($10), a Cubano ($15) and a smash burger ($16). In September, he reopened the 45-seat bar dining room, where he has supplemented the sandwich menu with bar classics, such as wings ($14), pulled pork or fried chicken sandwiches ($15 and $16), and mac and cheese ($16).
The small, dark green room anchored by an L-shaped tiled bar has not changed. Currently, Kruse’s team offers beer, wine and canned cocktails, but he expects to launch a full bar in January. He has also started booking private events in the 20-seat Parlour Room at the rear of the building.
A convivial meal at the bar early on a Saturday evening involved running into friends who live nearby and chatting with a stranger, who was happily tucking into a large Caesar salad ($13) and wings. The menu will expand slowly, Kruse said. He just added creamy pesto bow-tie pasta ($16) and the Asian-inspired crispy chicken katsu ($18) he served at Hatchet. Seasonal specials might include a dish of roasted delicata squash, oyster mushrooms, creamed barley, pomegranate and crispy kale (price to be determined).
Kruse delivers a fine smash burger with a sturdy, glossy bun; crisp, fresh veggies; and herb-scattered fries. It is similar to the one he served at Hatchet but a little “spruced up,” he said, chuckling when he realized he had invoked his restaurant’s name. A sizzling cast-iron casserole of mac and cheese with a generous $5 topping of pulled pork provided two meals’ worth of ooey-gooey goodness.
A sweet-tart pickled melon salad ($13) featured thinly shaved cantaloupe, housemade bread-and-butter pickles, fresh mint, and a zing of chile heat. It contrasted in flavor and style with the rest of the down-home menu and hinted at Kruse’s culinary range.
The chef earned a 2022 James Beard Foundation semifinalist nod for Best Chef: Northeast while at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling in Essex, but he’s not foregrounding that accolade at Big Spruce.
“I want people to understand that I can do comfort food,” Kruse said.
Home Sweet Home
Thingz From Yaad Kitchen, 2026 Williston Rd., South Burlington, 495-2559
Shaneall Ferron’s food has always felt like home cooking. It was when she started catering out of her house in 2022. As Thingz From Yaad expanded to takeout from a former dining hall in Colchester, the sentiment was mostly part of her business’ name. As she often says, “In Jamaica, yaad means ‘home.’”
Now in a restaurant of her own in South Burlington, Ferron, 32, has slowly built a following that keeps her busy on Oxtail Tuesdays and beyond.
“You’re in Vermont, but you’re immersed in Jamaican culture.”
Shaneall Ferron
Ferron opened Thingz From Yaad Kitchen for takeout in the original Donwoori Korean spot near the airport in January. In mid-September, she opened her dining room, decorated in the lush greens and golds of her native country’s flag. Last week, head chef Robert Holmes joined the small team. A full bar is coming soon.
She’s done it all without outside financial assistance, which proved hard to secure as an immigrant new to Vermont, she said. Instead, “I put all my savings into it, took a gamble on myself.”
“I was really scared about it, but I’m taking my time to build something I’m proud of that can nurture my community,” she continued.
Some customers stop on their way to the airport, she said, or just after landing. Even if you’re not traveling, the plant- and art-filled dining room conjures an island getaway, with music turned up just enough to make it feel like a party.
“You’re in Vermont, but you’re immersed in Jamaican culture,” Ferron said. “We’re always just vibing.”
Thingz From Yaad’s menu still changes daily for takeout and delivery. In the full-service dining room — expertly run by front-of-house manager T’Yana Cheney — every dish is available each day for lunch and dinner, including the rich, tender oxtails ($25). Jerk chicken comes spicy or mild with rice and peas ($20), in wing form ($15), on a sandwich ($18), or in the fresh and fabulous Yaadie Signature jerk chicken salad ($18), which comes with Ferron’s homemade jerk dressing. Crunchy, golden Jamaican-style fried chicken ($20) is also hugely popular, Ferron said.
“Sometimes I’m looking at the fryer, and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, fryer. But we’re coming again,’” she said with a laugh.
Vegetarian, dairy- and gluten-free items are clearly marked — the coconut-crusted jerk corn ($10) and coconut curry chickpeas ($18) satisfy all three. Tropical mocktails will hit the menu soon, and when the restaurant’s liquor license is approved, Red Stripe lager, local beers and cocktails will follow.
As Ferron’s full Jamaica-in-Vermont vision takes flight, we can all be thankful she chose the Green Mountains as her new yaad.
Pressing On
Press House Pub, 180 Flynn Ave., Burlington, 497-1987
The Citizen Cider crew likes to say you can smell the apples as soon as you step into the company’s recently relocated restaurant — and you can. In the spacious new 100-seat Press House Pub on Flynn Avenue in Burlington, the morning air is filled with the sweet-tart aroma of freshly crushed apples. It wafts over from the massive cider press in the same building, which churns through hopper-loads of nearly 13,000 pounds of Vermont- and New York-grown fruit.
But the eau de pomme scent has competition once the kitchen team led by Skyler Adams starts grilling patties for the Classic Smash burger ($14) and frying Dirty Brussels topped with bacon ($12). Those good smells emanate from a former food truck parked permanently inside, in the back of the well-designed new dining room and retail store, which opened in early October.
“People like an experience.”
Terra Heilenbach
Citizen Cider launched its original pub in 2014 at 316 Pine Street in Burlington three years after the business was founded in Essex. The cidery had always planned to consolidate operations in the Flynn Avenue warehouse where Citizen has pressed apples for its ciders, hard and sweet, since 2017. From the flagship Unified Press to Wild Rosé with hibiscus, they are distributed as far south as the Carolinas but sell mostly in the Northeast.
“We got into the restaurant industry because we were trying to serve [cider] by the glass, and you have to have some food,” said Terra Heilenbach, 42, general manager of hospitality for Citizen and wife of company cofounder Justin Heilenbach. Creating a cider-forward food destination proved more valuable than expected: “People like an experience,” she said.
The new pub amps up that experience. Behind-the-scenes tours will be offered, but for now, Nicole Pierce, 31, Citizen’s head cidermaker and general manager of business operations, is happy to guide guests through the ciders. She especially enjoys sharing samples of the bottle-conditioned line ($20 for 750 milliliters), which range from the clean, crisp, naturally carbonated Pet Nat to one of Pierce’s favorites, Big Juicy, fermented on cider syrup.
“We have something for everyone,” Heilenbach said.
On a recent visit, the Pet Nat hit the spot with a solid kale Caesar ($8) and meaty Buffalo wings lightly sweet from cider in the sauce ($9 for six; $17 for 12). A smash burger twist with Southern pimento cheese ($15) sounded promising but suffered from a dry, crumbly biscuit.
Charcuterie boards ($18), which include house-pickled eggs (the passion project of bartender Kevin Benoit), are a new addition and served until close. Each includes a recommended cider ($8) or cider-based cocktail pairing ($12 to $14).
The company’s bungled 2023 foray into light beer with its Hey Bub brand is nowhere to be seen, though the small beer menu does list Citizen Suds Light Beer ($4). It looks like even Hey Bub has a 2.0.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Tasting Menu 2.0 | Across Chittenden County, five established eateries boast new chefs or locations”
