Epic Diamond Road Trip - Day 1, Part 2: Waterbury, VT

After our adventure at the ice cream factory, James and I drove into downtown Waterbury and sat ourselves down at the bar at the Prohibition Pig.  Now, before this summer, I had never heard of this place.  But my first trip to Vermont (for UVM's Breakthrough Leaders in Sustainable Food Systems Program) this summer introduced me to a bunch of people more familiar with all that the great state of Vermont has to offer, including the lovely town of Waterbury, its 100 pt. award winning beer Heady Topper, and the meats available at the Prohibition Pig.

Any town that advertises music festivals right next to the town sign is pretty great in my book!

Downtown Waterbury

The train station

I mean, is this picturesque, or what??

The restaurant prides itself on its "craft beer, classic cocktails, and the finest barbecue north of the Carolinas."  Now, as a former resident of one of those Carolinas, I consider that some big talk.  If there was one thing in Boone that I embraced fully and wholeheartedly, it was giving in to all the food that the area had to offer.  (Seriously, if there was one thing that I miss about NC...well, that and how friendly everyone was, but I digress...)  I ate a LOT of barbecue in North Carolina.  I ate expensive barbecue, and I ate cheap barbecue - at outdoor festivals, from fast food restaurants, at potlucks, from the cafe at the grocery store where I worked, and a few times, from really classy places.  I consider myself an aficionado of the pulled pork sandwich with a side of coleslaw.  You give it to me, I'll eat it.  And chances are, I'll like it.  See, now this is a problem - I'm making my own mouth water with all this talk of smoked meats and such.  Perhaps, I'll write a post about food in North Carolina for another day...when I'm munching on something delicious.

the Prohibition Pig

So, the Prohibition Pig.  It was a smaller restaurant than I imagined, perhaps room for 75 people or so at the tables and bar combined.  James and I sat, and I was all ready to introduce him to what became one of my favorite beers of the summer, Heady Topper.

Heady Topper is a double IPA, loaded with hoppy flavor.  It is brewed by the Alchemist Brewery, a small family run brewery located in Waterbury.  Unfortunately, James and I were in Waterbury on a Sunday, and the brewery isn't open that day, so we couldn't tour the place.  However, I was excited for James to taste this beer, that just won 100 points from Beer Advocate.  I have had the pleasure a few times this summer already, but will always say an enthusiastic "yes!" to a delicious beer.

We sat, we ordered, and NOOO!!  They were sold out of Heady Topper.  Sad, but not necessarily unexpected, as The Alchemist has kept their production very small, and you can't buy the stuff outside of specified areas in Vermont.  The company has a great explanation for this here, where they tell exactly why they're not expanding rapidly, even though the demand is certainly there.  (Three cheers for keeping your values intact!)

James and I did not allow this to deter us from enjoying a beer, and though we weren't super hungry, we took a look at the menu anyway.  We decided to split a plate of food, choosing the Sliced Beef Brisket (if you're hungry right now, you're not going to want to read the next sentence), mouthwateringly described as a "12 hour smoked brisket with Texas dry rub, bacon barbecue sauce, choice of two sides (we got the coleslaw and the blackened green beans), and a hush puppy garnish."  Um, outrageous.

Boom.  Holy Moley.

Don't be alarmed.  As soon as I was done taking this picture,
James and I licked the plate clean.  There was absolutely
nothing left on that platter when we were done with it.

Meat, slaw, and green beans down, we took a gander at the drink menu again.  James surveyed the beers on tap, and as I reached for the menu, I realized that the cocktails were on the side that was face down.  It's a good thing too, because the side that was face up caught my eye, and I took a moment to read it.  There was a passage on vermouth.

Now, the grand total that I knew about vermouth before reading this paragraph was that it was a booze that made an appearance in martinis - that is to say, I knew almost nothing.  Turns out, vermouth is a fortified wine, flavored with herbs, roots, and barks.  These days, vermouth is normally mixed with other alcohols, but the Pig stated that vermouth is coming into its own, and "it's kind of like a pre-made cocktail all in one."  They had three flights of vermouth listed, along with place of origin, and a few flavor descriptors of each drink in each flight.

The list of flights.  We were super fans of the first and
third, but decided to pass on the second.

I was so very intrigued.

Now, I'm not very adventurous when it comes to alcohol.  (Beer is different, less risky?  I don't know...)  Normally though, I don't drink boozes that I don't know.  They are expensive, and if I don't like them, I don't want to drink them.  Perhaps it was in the glow of the amazing day, the smoked meats, or just because it seemed like a delicious risk to take, but James and I agreed that the first and third flights sounded great.  So we ordered those.

What we received was a total of six glasses with 1 oz. pours of six different vermouths.  We read the name, place, and flavor profiles aloud before both tasting them, and then moved through both flights.

This looked awesome, but, truth be told, was a little intimidating at first.

James wasn't a super huge fan of most of them, but oh boy I was!  (Worked out great for me!  J tasted them all, and I got to drink them all.)

We made a joke that one of the descriptions could have been used to describe me - the Vergano Americano from Italy - "earthy/tannic/super complex."  Turns out, that was my favorite one of them all!  Not surprisingly, my least favorites were the lightest ones (they were too sweet for me, though one of them James and I agreed tasted like apple pie).  The two darker ones were quite flavorful, and I'll admit, there was a LOT going on in my mouth.  I think that if I were to drink a vermouth on its own again (which I totally would!), I'd add an ice cube or two to see if cooling the drink changed the flavor at all.

I was thrilled that my discovery at the bar resulted in such a lovely new experience, and I am so excited that now I have something fun to order if I want to sip on a drink that's just a bit different from what I usually get.  The Prohibition Pig exceeded even my very high expectations with stunning results, and the next time I'm in Waterbury, wild horses couldn't stop me from dining there again.

After "dinner" at Ben and Jerry's, and "dessert" at the Pig, James and I, stuffed full with deliciousness, and oh so happy drove just a bit out of town to a rest stop where we stopped for the night.  Our things got moved to the front two seats, and we set up the sleeping bags in the folded down back.

Bedtime.

It began to drizzle as we said goodnight, and the children of the Pacific Northwest fell asleep, bellies and hearts full, listening to the rain on the roof of the car.

Next up - adventures in Burlington, and the drive into our cousin country to the North!

-Bethy