Side Dishes: Wayside shines amid closures in the capital region
Just a few days before the news came that Montpelier’s beloved Langdon Street Café is closing its doors, a sad announcement trickled down the road from Randolph: The Three Stallion Inn closed its restaurant abruptly last week, laying off nearly 20 employees.
Owner Sam Sammis broke the bad news to staff the day before the lights went dark. “We knew we were struggling but didn’t know it was that bad,” says an employee. The inn remains open as a bed and breakfast for overnight guests, but those who scheduled upcoming events will need to find their own caterers.
Sammis and his wife, Jinny, have put the inn up for sale, along with the Montague Golf Club and the lots of the Green Mountain Stock Farm development.
The Wayside Restaurant & Bakery in Montpelier may seem like a classic greasy spoon, awash as it is in burgers, coffee, salt pork and fried tripe. Yet many of the fruit, fish, meat and veggie items on the encyclopedic menu are sourced locally. That devotion to local ingredients, as well as to robust composting, has earned the venerated diner an accolade as the state’s fifth “green restaurant,” a program run by the Vermont Small Business Development Center.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott recognized owners Brian and Karen Zecchinelli during an evening ceremony on May 3.