Seven Days Food Writer Alice Levitt travels to Verdé restaurant at Stratton, where Chef Rogan Lechthaler teaches her to take apart suckling pigs for head cheese.

Just in time for its 25th birthday, the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company is rolling out a new name and a fresh logo. As noted by Assistant Research Editor Emily McKenna on the Food & Wine magazine website, the business will soon go by Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery. She calls the new nomenclature “more pastoral, quaint and practical.”... Read more

Last weekend, there were lots of haps on the tube, from the beginning of the college football season to golf’s U.S. Open. The plethora of events was a good omen for Burlington’s new sports bar, 156 Bistro, located on St. Paul Street where Meñores used to be. “We show any sporting event that anybody requests,” boasts co-owner and chef Kevin DesChenes.... Read more

Early this year, Burlington’s only vegan restaurant, New Ethic Café, closed without an explanation. The spot was owned by Sam Lai — who also owns China Express on North Street — but was the brainchild of one of his former employees, Owen Hoppe, who acted as manager. Despite New Ethic’s speedy demise, Lai is optimistic about his new venture, which is located in the same North Street spot.... Read more

If you arrive at Brad Kessler’s southern Vermont farmhouse and don’t find him at home, he’s probably out walking the goats. In clement weather, the slender 46-year-old ambles up a hill and through an aging orchard with his herd of nine Nubians, stopping for a moment to pluck small green apples. The copper and black goats, the largest of which weigh in at around 150 pounds, thrust their elegant necks toward him in anticipation of the treat.... Read more

Route 7 is dotted with mini-marts, casual Italian and Chinese restaurants, and all manner of fast-food joints. But a new inn and restaurant called Tourterelle, on the stretch between Vergennes and Middlebury, offers something quite different. The fare, prepared by chef-owner Bill Snell, is classic French with a twist: Think fat escargots and bits of garlic sausage on warmed foccacia, or bouillabaisse with a touch of nontraditional tomato paste and a hint of Thai curry.... Read more

“I’m going to get the heads going at a low temp to get them softened up,” Chef Rogan Lechthaler, 33, informs me without explanation or apology when I arrive at his restaurant in the twee Stratton Village.... Read more

Vermont has plenty of Chinese and Thai restaurants, and these days Greater Burlington residents have been seeing Vietnamese eateries open left and right. But until last spring, the state didn’t have a single place that specialized in Cambodian fare. That changed when chef-owner Chy (pronounced Chee) Tuckerman opened Angkor Wat in the quaint little town of Woodstock. “I’m probably one of the only Cambodians in the area,” he guesses.... Read more

Hungry Shelburne Road commuters will need to find a new place to celebrate the impending weekend. Vermont’s sole T.G.I. Friday’s, located in the shopping plaza near Price Chopper, recently announced it will close its doors at the end of September. The restaurant is known for its chipper staffers and trademarked Jack Daniel’s sauces, slathered on meats of all descriptions.... Read more

Masha Stern moved to Burlington from Siberia in the 1990s to attend UVM. She’s a scientist by day and a cheese fanatic, well, around the clock. “During my everyday job I travel a lot, and I’m a foodie,” she explains. During visits to big cities, Stern seeks out cheese-tasting classes. Several years ago, she noticed that Vermont’s artisan offerings were more often cited than actually served. Why? The small-batch, artisan wheels and wedges are hard to come by outside the state.... Read more