(Published in 7 Nights 2004-05)

(Published in 7 Nights 2005-06)

(Published in 7 Nights 2007-08)

Stowe's only delivering pizzeria is also its most funky and accommodating. Piecasso Pizzeria & Lounge offers sizzling-hot discs, but also a comfy lounge with cosmopolitan décor and Picasso-inspired artwork, plus a few choice prints by the master himself.

Free movies, music and poetry readings — and a popular Sunday brunch — distinguish this crunchy Richmond café. It's just far enough from Burlington to make going there feel like an adventure. It’s also a good place to load up on carbs before a hike up Camel's Hump.

The Main Street Museum in White River Junction offers an interesting mix of international and quirky Americana curiosities, such as this summer’s “Tramp and Hobo Symposium.” Want something even stranger? Check out the “Flora and Fauna Collection,” which, according to the museum’s website, represents “invasive species from the infrastructure of an economically marginal Vermont downtown. Our dried cats are not true mummies; they are merely dehydrated.”

(Published in 7 Nights 2004-5)

There are two clocks on the wall behind the polished black granite bar at Chow! Bella. The one marked "St. Albans" is 17 minutes ahead of the one marked "Burlington."

"It's our boss' idea of a joke," the bartender explains. "She says that since we opened this place, Burlington is behind the times."

(Published in 7 Nights 2004-04)

Food-wise, Bristol's main "drag" is anything but. The historic downtown block hosts a bustling bakery, a breakfast spot, a pizzeria and Wokky's Chinese.

But it seems like everyone in Addison County is making tracks to an eclectic eatery that looks more Napa than Champlain Valley. Lace curtains and little white lights lure diners to The Bobcat Café. Inside, good music, a TV-free bar — and a pez dispenser collection — all confirm this is no ordinary rural restaurant.

(Published in 7 Nights 2008-09)

At Big Fatty's BBQ on Main Street in Burlington, the servers wear black T-shirts that read, "Be nice to me, I pull your pork" — even the cornbread and hush puppies contain piggy products. That's how owner Clay Vagnini — Big Fatty himself — likes it. The florid Floridian isn't here to appease the politically correct.

(Published in 7 Nights 2006-07)

The Mad River Valley attracts the outdoorsy, artistic and enlightened. All three types frequent Waitsfield’s only cinema-restaurant-cafe. German-born Claudia Becker and her husband, filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, own the moviehouse, which shows first-run films on two screens and sells popcorn. But the place is really more of a cool community center, hosting festivals, lectures, concerts — you name it. They even make and sell their own donuts. PHOTO: PURE MINT MEDIA