Archive for the 'Burlington VT' Category

Sunrise at Almost Home Market, in Bristol Vermont.

This is your chance to own an iconic Vermont landmark: Bristol’s  Almost Home Market is for Sale!

A gourmet Vermont country store for the 21st century, Almost Home has become the hub of this busy bedroom community.

Fiddlers on the porch at Almost Home: music is the food of love...

In a state known for great country stores, Almost Home stands out as a culinary polestar.

Gourmands come to Bristol, Vermont to find manna from heaven, commuters get their espresso fixes, brides land their wedding caterers, busy moms grab healthy gourmet meals to go.

Known for its:

• Extraordinary deli
• Fine catering
• Outrageous Espresso Bar
• Select Wines, Beer and Champagne
• Fabulous Gifts and Home Goods

Almost Home brings the local food movement home to an audience of eager, hungry locals.

Almost Home has also become a popular gathering place. In season, the front porch is filled with music, families, and food. In winter, commuters warm up at the espresso bar, and shop for the holidays.

Become a part of this tight-knight, vibrant community and fulfill your dream as a chef. The sale of this well-loved property includes full inventory and equipment. Contact us for more information about this extraordinary property.

Take this opportunity to Express your culinary genius to a captive local audience.	At Almost Home, it’s all about celebrations, daily specials, seasonal favorites, gourmet local.

Kiplinger’s focused on “out-of-the-box thinking” in their latest search for the best 10 cities for growth and growth potential in the next decade. The three factors deemed to spark innovation, jobs and a wonderful place to live and work are smart people, great ideas and collaboration. Here’s what they say about Burlington, VT:

Burlington’s local-food movement perhaps best tells the story of how environmentalism drives much of the city’s economic growth. Many shops and restaurants along Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace, the famous pedestrian mall, serve up local goodies. A couple blocks over, the City Market/Onion River Co-Op, a community-owned grocery store, offers more than 1,000 Vermont products. (And atop the supermarket, generating 3% of the Co-Op’s energy needs — enough electricity to power six Burlington homes — are 136 solar panels from groSolar, another Vermont-based company.) And the crown jewel for locavores: The Intervale Center is a nonprofit organization that has managed 350 acres of family-owned farmland in Burlington since 1988 and provides 10% of the town’s food. “We’re 30 years ahead of the country with the local-food movement. . .”

The Green Mountain Chew Chew Food and Music Festival is celebrating its 24th and final year this weekend, June 26, 27 and 28 at Burlington’s Waterfront park. The festival has brought together more than 400 food vendors from the area over the years and has become a ‘summer must’ for locals and tourists alike. The decision to end the fest stems from increased production costs and a devastating $20,000 loss after it rained two of three days last year says Rick Norcross of Burlington, the event’s founder and coordinator.

Come partake in the last blast for this great meeting of Vermont restaurants, musicians and eaters. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children 12 and under (first 2000 child tickets are free!) and tokens are 9 for $5. Most food items are 3 tokens, with some being 4 or 2. The event is held from 11-9 on Friday and Saturday and from 12-6 on Sunday. Check out participating vendors here and scope out the music here. You may need to make a full weekend of it!!

The last Tuesday of each month brings together environmentally-minded community members for a time where they can meet new people, share ideas and, of course, share some drinks. Green Drinks, an international movement created as a sort of social time for workers in environmental fields, is hosted by the Skinny Pancake, located on the corner of College and Lake Streets in Burlington, VT from 5:30 – 7:30 the last Tuesday of each month (that means it’s happening tomorrow, 4/28!).

So what makes this different from any other night in downtown Burlington? Well, a few things. First, there is a different sponsor each month. This month it is the Vermont Earth Institute, an organization that engages and supports Vermonters in reducing consumption and adopting environmentally sustainable practices in all areas of their lives. VEI will be talking about some of the classes they are offering, as well as local initiatives. Second, there are free drinks. Sponsors provide the first $200 of drinks, which give you all the more reason to show up at 5:30 ready to mingle.

This event has been drawing more and more people each time it happens, so plans are being made for a bigger venue and more sponsors. Keep an eye out for more info in the future. To receive mailings about Green Drinks, visit the Skinny Pancake’s site, and sign up for their email list located on the right hand side with “green news” demarcated.

Image by richardmasoner via Flickr

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for the sixth annual Way to Go! Commuter Challenge, which will take place May 4-8, 2009. This event encourages the use of cheaper, healthier, and more earth-friendly transportation alternatives to driving alone. Everyone who commits to walk, bike, telecommute, carpool, take the bus or use any alternative to driving solo will receive free giveaways and be entered in a drawing to win great prizes—iPods, Neuton® battery-powered mowers, Burton snowboards, overnight stays, restaurant gift certificates, yoga passes, golf and ski passes and more. Online registration is fast and easy at www.waytgovt.org.

Last year nearly 3,000 Way to Go! participants saved an estimated 237,000 commuting miles, 206,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, and $49,000 in transportation expenses. Organizers have set this year’s goal to save at least 500,000 pounds of CO2.

“This event is a great opportunity for folks to accept a new way to get to work, school or anywhere else they might usually drive,” said Debra Sachs of Community Climate Action, 10% Challenge, one of the event’s organizers. “Way to Go! is designed to be easy and fun and encourage everyone to explore other ways than driving alone every day. Interest in commuting alternatively is sky-high and the Commuter Challenge proves that other ways to commute are indeed the ‘Way to Go’.”
As in past years, businesses can compete in the “2009 Workplace Commuter Challenge” and go head-to-head with other businesses to see who can encourage the highest percentage of employees to walk, bike, telecommute, carpool or take the bus from May 4-8. The winning employers will receive awards at a ceremony on June 5. Similarly, schools can compete with each other through the Way to Go! School Challenge. New this year is a challenge to Vermont communities. Who will be Vermont’s “greenest commuting city or town?” The winner will be decided based on the highest participation rate of residents.
Way to Go! Commuter Challenge is made possible through the generous support of area businesses and a partnership between the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization, Vermont Agency of Transportation, Go Vermont, Chittenden County Transportation Authority, Lake Champlain Committee, Local Motion, Campus Area Transportation Management Association, and Community Climate Action, 10% Challenge. More information on the Way to Go! Commuter Challenge is available at www.waytogovt.org.

Original Source: Media Release

Image via Wikipedia

As part of the quadricentennial celebration of the exploration of Lake Champlain, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont is hosting an international educational symposium July 2-5, 2009. The theme of the symposium is “When the French Were Here” and will encompass “the broadest possible consideration of Samuel de Champlain’s achievements, his life, and of his world as a cultural, social and ideological context.”

The symposium is being coordinated by two of Champlain College’s professors, Willard Sterne Randall and Dr. Nancy Nahra. “Both have researched and lectured on the history of the region and its inhabitants over the last decade. More recently, they’ve examined maps and texts in France and Canada. Randall also teaches a Vermont history course at the College and is a Pulitzer Prize nominated biographer.” For more details about the symposium as well as other events, visit the college’s site, http://www.celebratequadricentennial.com. As the only educational symposium participating in the celebration, the presentations will be free and open to the public.

Louis Jones of Kiplinger.com names Burlington, Vermont as one of six safe real estate havens in the U.S. Perhaps that is because Vermont is one of the last sane places in America on a number of fronts. Unemployment and foreclosure rates remain well below average, and although real estate values are expected to lower somewhat this coming year, they have been edging up while prices in other parts of the country have been in serious decline. Read here why Burlington, Vermont is doing so well.  

A recent New York Times article in the Travel Section missed a great deal that this energized, hip and beautiful Vermont city has to offer!

36 Hours in Burlington, Vermont

It is no surprise that Burlington, a city whose biggest exports include the jam band Phish and Ben & Jerry’s, has a chill, socially conscious vibe. But for all its worldliness — antiglobalization rallies and fair-trade products abound — Burlington has lately turned an eye to the local. The Lake Champlain shoreline has undergone a renaissance in recent years, with gleaming new hotels, bike and sailboat rental shops and parks with sweeping views of the Adirondack Mountains. But perhaps the strongest emphasis on local can be found in the city’s developing restaurant scene, where menus are now filled with heirloom tomatoes and grass-fed beef from (where else?) Vermont. And you’re practically required to wash it all down with a local microbrew.

Source: New York Times – 36 Hours in Burlington Vermont

For example, the article did not mention The Willard Street Inn, the Lang House as great places to stay the night. It missed the Skinny Pancake – an extraordinary creperie on the lake, Trattoria Delia and Pulcinella’s

For some of the best places to stay – see our list of outstanding favorites.