If you ever find yourself in Burlington, Vermont and in need of a great little restaurant for interesting, locally-grown food and an interesting (and impressively long) by-the-glass wine list, Smokejacks on Church Street is for you.

We loved it so much, we we ate there last Saturday for lunch and again on Sunday for brunch.

On
our first visit, we had just landed and gotten into town, plus we knew we had a big meal coming at dinner, so we chose went with a lighter meal. We started with three Vermont-made
cheeses from their impressive list of artisanal cheeses. I wish I had written down their names…but they were all delicious.

We also
enjoyed a simple salad of super-fresh greens, goat cheese and a light
dressing. Absolutely delicious.

As for  wine, I was in the mood for a spicy Gewurzt, so I had a glass of  2002 A. Scherer Gewurztraminer (Alsace) while Nena sipped on a flight of Rieslings. Her favorite was the Wynns…mine was the Ostertag. I wouldn’t classify any of the wines as mind blowing, but they were all good and not overly chilled like you often see.

When we went back on Sunday, it was just before heading to the airport to fly home…and we were hungry this time.

To
start, Nena had a bowl of spicy sweet potato soup. Was it spicy? Not
really, but it was very tasty. A dollop of chipotle cream would have
been perfect, but neither of us had any complaints at all.

I opted for a mini-portion of their macaroni and cheese with caramelized
onions, herbs, parsely, bacon and scallions. You can prety much serve
me anything with bacon and scallions. The only bad thing about it was that I should have ordered the full-size portion…it was so good.

Next,
Nena enjoyed the spring salad we had the day before…but I wanted
something more substantial, ordering a grilled smoked turkey sandwich
with gouda, avocado, locally smoked bacon. It was a top-10 sandwich of
my life.

The next time Nena and I go to
Burlington (and we’ll definitely be back) I want to go to Smokejacks
for dinner…the menu looks great.

This was my first time in Burlington,
and no matter where we went, I was impressed with how dedicated
everyone seems to be to using locally made products. Everything has a
farm name or a city or a location associated with it. And even if
something wasn’t "local" the locale was still mentioned…because it’s
still important. You can taste the difference.