Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

(Published in 7 Nights 2004-05)

Egg rolls don't cut the Chinese mustard at A Single Pebble. Mock eel and dry-fried green beans are the appetizers of choice at the elegant- but- affordable Asian restaurant. "We just say the food here is served more authentically," says Chef Steve Bogart, an Anglo sinophile who learned to work a wok in China. Standard-issue General Tsao can't hold a lantern to Bogart's popular tangerine chicken or seitan Buddha beef. First-timers may be anxious about ordering, so "they come in with cheat sheets," Bogart says. "We find them on the floor every morning."

The initiated can check out vegetable concoctions, multiple mooshis and a number of "really, really spicy dishes" that Bogart has developed. Lazy Susans guarantee equitable distribution at the large, round, banquet-style tables. And the service, incidentally, is worlds better than it is in China.

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