• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The Trout River Traders dining room and store.   (Photo: Courtesy of Trout River Traders)

Take a midday break to Trout River Traders, a lunch-only restaurant and general store, open since 1876. Snag a two-top near the wood-burning stove, and order the fresh-roasted-turkey sandwich on thick slices of honey-wheat or maple-walnut oat bread, brought in from Burlington's Klinger's Bakery. Afterward, peruse the store’s vintage Rossignols skis, antique oil lamps, and vast maple-syrup array.

Après ski favorite the Belfry (242 Amidon Rd.; 802-326-4400) serves pub standards and an unexpectedly good Cajun blackened steak inside a renovated old schoolhouse—old-timers who studied in the building often camp out at the bar. Leave room for a homemade slice of maple-cream pie made with owner Chantal Pothier’s own homemade syrup.

Thaw out with whipped-cream-topped spiced cider by the enormous field-stone fireplace at Jay Village Inn's Black Bear Restaurant. Order chef JR Hamel's slow-smoked barbecued ribs and tender lamb loin in sweet red-pepper sauce and wash it down with a full-bodied Mountain Ale from Stowe’s Shed Brewery.

Published on Mar 5, 2008 as a web exclusive.