So I may or may not have landed a marketing analyst internship this past week (I’m not being coy, I actually won’t find out until early next week), but either way, the boyfriend and I decided to celebrate the end of my interviewing process with a dinner out downtown. I got to pick the place, and based on Yelp’s reviews, I decided that we should eat at The Farmhouse Tap & Grill. This was my second farm-to-table restaurant experience ever, the first ever being at Crop Bistro in Cleveland, a simply superb restaurant that was refashioned out of an old bank vault. Anyway, The Farmhouse Tap & Grill was a wonderful dining experience, probably my favorite yet in Burlington. For drinks, I just had a glass of white wine, while my boyfriend enjoyed a De Dolle Dulle Teve, a slightly hard-to-find and highly rated beer that he’s only ever had once, and never before on tap (until that night). I had a sip myself, and the taste and aroma overall were unreal – sweet but in a soft, not nauseating way, and powerful, but still rather light and smooth.

For my dinner entree, I had the Hoppin’ Joe, a vegetarian dish that could easily be made vegan, if you ask for no cheese, that was composed of braised kale, black eyed peas, toasted faro, house made farmer’s cheese, and pickled peppered relish. I’m not lying when I say that this was melt-in-your-mouth, clean-your-plate, DELICIOUS. The thing that I truly love about so many of the dishes in Burlington is that they are very easily made vegan with the removal of cheese. Now, I am not vegan, so I keep the cheese to get that special taste of Vermont, but I do enjoy my vegetables and am proud of cities that support vegan living! On another not vegan note, my boyfriend enjoyed the LaPlatte River Angus Farm Beef burger, served with house ground dry aged beef, house bacon, Landaff Creamery “Landaff” cheese, and substituted caramelized onions instead of pickled red onions. I’m personally not a fan of bacon on burgers, but he stated that this was the best burger he’s ever had outside of Ohio (which is saying a lot, because the best burgers in Ohio are created with meat raised by the Amish, a quality you simply can’t beat). As for the overall “feel” of the restaurant, our service was excellent, and the ambiance of the place was casual but classy enough for a celebratory dinner. My only complaint was that they were out of Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, which only means that I’ll have to revisit again soon! Can’t wait to try that pie!

Update:

I have gone back to Farmhouse Tap & Grill twice now and definitely count it among my favorite restaurants in Burlington. Whether for a nice dinner out or Sunday brunch, you really can’t go wrong with Farmhouse!