Vermont
Reinvented Deep City Brings Penny Cluse Café's Beloved Brunch Back to Burlington
The most beloved home fries in Burlington are back. The heaping mound of perfectly griddled potatoes topped with melted cheese, salsa, sour cream and green onions have a new name — and a new home. But they’re still a Bucket-o-Spuds.
The iconic Penny Cluse Café dish’s new name, House of Spudology, is a nod to that new home: Deep City, the restaurant attached to Foam Brewers. A year and a half after closing the landmark breakfast and lunch spot he co-owned with his wife, Holly Cluse, Charles Reeves is now the brewery’s food director, working closely with the team behind Foam and House of Fermentology. And while he initially told Seven Days that he wouldn’t be “opening up Penny Cluse” at the restaurant near the waterfront, he sort of did.
Deep City’s brunch — served Friday through Monday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. — lacks some of the sandwiches and simpler breakfast options Penny Cluse served during its nearly quarter-century run, from 1998 to 2022. “But it’s all the hits,” Reeves said. “The aesthetic is the same, and some of the recipes are exactly the same.”
So was my order on Deep City’s opening weekend in mid-April: the aforementioned spuds ($9), which I accidentally ordered by their previous name; one large buttermilk pancake ($5) and a chile relleno with salsa ranchero ($5) to share; and huevos verdes ($16). My only new addition, appropriately beer-filled for the setting, was a michelada ($10), now made with Foam’s Tranquil Pils lager.
I usually skip a restaurant’s opening weekend to give the team time to settle in and work out the kinks. But I had confidence in the pairing of Reeves and Foam — especially with longtime Penny Cluse floor manager Anastasia Evans helming the front of house and Maura O’Sullivan, Penny’s kitchen manager, helping Reeves while she works to open her new Burlington restaurant, Majestic, this summer. When friends asked if we’d like to join them for an early Sunday meal, it was a no-brainer.
Like Penny Cluse, Deep City is walk-in only. We arrived with the high-chair crowd around 8:45 and were quickly seated. The dining room is smaller than Penny Cluse was — 50 seats versus 68 — but the lake-view patio will add space for 35 in May, once weather and staffing allow.
Foam’s sister restaurant first opened in March 2020, then closed in November 2023 due to lingering pandemic-era challenges and short-staffing in the kitchen. Deep City was a dinner spot, serving dressed-up pub food such as burgers, vegan poutine, and a ranch-and-romaine salad that sustained me through the early part of the pandemic.
Somehow, though, the space seems like it was always designed for brunch. Sunlight streams in through huge windows and bounces off the high ceilings, exposed brick and wooden beams. The kitchen — visible past a big bar — gets so much light that Reeves said it can be hard to judge the height of the flames on the stove.
“I’ll have to wear sunglasses,” he joked.
The energy of the space was bright during my early morning visit, too. Evans enthusiastically greeted longtime Penny Cluse customers, one after another. I waited in my fair share of lines on Cherry Street over the years but was far from a regular — especially compared to the fans who eulogized the restaurant in poetry, prose and art in these pages ahead of its closure in late 2022.
Looking at the familiar menu, I thought back to eating tofu scram with my late grandmother and hungover biscuits and gravy with my five college roommates. And then there was the time I learned the genius of ordering a pancake for the table from service-industry friends. (It’s more for snacking than budgetary purposes, but we were broke, so it ticked both boxes.) This time, I shared a table pancake with my 10-month-old son, who is just starting to learn how glorious such things can be. He was a big fan.
Based on the response in the restaurant that day and on social media, there seems to be an overwhelming sense of relief that Reeves did open up Penny Cluse. Tasting all that history again — and how it holds up, even in a new setting — I got a little choked up over my chile relleno.
The consistency, Reeves said, is largely due to how he thinks about food.
“I’m a documenter,” the chef explained. “If I change a recipe, I update my recipe card. I like to be methodical.”
He also predicted that the new Deep City would draw a crowd, which, so far, it has. “We had to open with a menu that was going to work,” he said. “This is not the time for me to be super experimental. This is the time for me to land the ship.”
As things get rolling and summer produce season approaches, Reeves thinks the menu will expand. Now that dishes such as the biscuits and gravy ($7 for the starter-size BAG and $16 for the version with eggs and home fries, still called the Penny Cluse) are back — along with gluten-free gingerbread pancakes, which Penny Cluse stopped making four or five years ago — “there’s no rational way I can remove them,” he said.
That means Reeves will continue to spend a good chunk of his time making the much-loved herb cream gravy — gallons per day.
I’d skipped the biscuits on my first visit and decided that was reason enough to go back. When I texted a friend asking if she’d be up for Friday breakfast at Deep City for “the return of Penny Cluse,” I didn’t immediately realize my mistake. She showed up 15 minutes late, having first gone to Cherry Street. A farm-to-table dinner restaurant called Frankie’s launched in mid-April in the former Penny Cluse space, but thankfully it wasn’t open for brunch.
When she arrived, I ordered the BAG and another batch of the spuds. The latter dish, Reeves said, is the latest in a long line of potato piles that mark his career. In San Francisco, he worked at Boogaloos, where the dish was called Temple of Spuds, inspired by Spuds-o-Rama at another city brunch spot, Spaghetti Western. He’s changed the seasoning mix over the years, but in its recent evolution from a “bucket” to a “house,” Reeves said, it’s stayed the same.
“Home fries have gone to a dark place culturally,” he continued, lambasting the now-common over-fried square version. When he started at Deep City, Reeves eighty-sixed the fryers. The spuds are cooked on the griddle, browned with onions and finished with herb butter, “as they should be,” he said.
Some of the name changes come from the fact that, while he’s in charge, this isn’t Reeves’ restaurant. He was 56 when he and Cluse decided to close their restaurant to spend more time with family, after working in the kitchen 50 hours per week and running the business another 15 hours on top of that. Here, even though his role as food director encompasses more than Deep City’s brunch, there’s somebody else to print menus and do payroll.
“They’re set up, they’re smart and they’re savvy,” Reeves said of his new employers. “Foam has a great thing going on.”
The brewery celebrated its eighth anniversary over the weekend with a big bash. Early last Friday morning, Foam cofounder and creative director Jon Farmer called me before heading into Deep City for a light breakfast of biscuits and gravy — his first sit-down meal at the restaurant since it reopened.
“We all missed Penny Cluse massively,” Farmer said, naming the huevos rancheros and verdes as among his favorite dishes. “To have these options back is pretty incredible.”
Deep City had offered brunch occasionally over the years, he said, “but we were spread too thin with dinner, and I always thought it would be a dinner restaurant first.”
When Reeves and Foam cofounder Dani Casey pitched the rest of the team on the current brunch concept, Farmer continued, “it clicked for everybody that this could be the best use of the space.”
Only serving brunch leaves the restaurant open for nighttime events and overflow for live music and comedy shows at the brewery — a win-win.
Spirits are high at 112 Lake Street, Farmer said. Reeves is also revamping the menu on the taproom side, and the team is considering opening the Foam taproom before noon on weekends to let customers enjoy coffee or beer if there’s a wait for brunch.
Working with Reeves and his tight-knit team has been “a dream,” Farmer said. “I mean, he’s hilarious and professional at the same time.”
The return of Penny Cluse has been a dream for Reeves, too.
“The end of Penny Cluse was emotional. People were coming in, giving hugs and being like, ‘Oh, my God. I can’t believe it,’” Reeves recalled. “This is the whole thing in reverse: People are coming in, giving hugs and being like, ‘Oh, my God. I can’t believe it.’”
This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
The Vermont Senate passed a bill on Thursday that will delay the implementation of Act 181, a contentious 2024 law that overhauled the state’s land use permitting system.
But that vote followed several rounds of heated debate over rolling back or further postponing land conservation measures, fueled by a Tuesday protest attended by hundreds of rural landowners who called on lawmakers to repeal the law altogether.
The sparring over Act 181 has surfaced a rural-urban divide at the Statehouse. Rural conservatives argue that the law’s benefits flow only to Vermont’s larger cities and towns, and that its conservation rules place an undue burden on private property owners. Democrats have defended the law’s goals to both boost housing in downtowns and villages and increase environmental protections elsewhere, though they’ve heeded calls to pump the brakes.
Details: Vermont is overhauling Act 250. Here’s what the development maps look like so far
On the Senate floor, Republicans contended that new development regulations set forth in Act 181, which bolster protections over sensitive ecosystems, effectively undermine personal property rights. Sen. Steve Heffernan, R-Addison, framed the issue around affordability — wealthy second home-owners can afford more land-use permits, he said, but regular Vermonters can’t.
“We must ask ourselves … are we protecting Vermont’s lands, or pricing Vermonters out of it?” Heffernan said.
Brian Stevenson
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Vermont Public
Democrats, who control the chamber, countered that the new rules are critical for preserving Vermont’s landscape for the good of the broader community.
“Future generations may not have the same ecosystems that we have access to because of development,” said Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor.
The bill in question, S.325, is a set of tweaks to Act 181, which the Legislature passed over Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s objections two years ago.
Act 181 aimed to encourage more homebuilding in already-developed areas of Vermont by removing state level review under Act 250, Vermont’s signature land use law. At the same time, the law beefed up protections for to-be-determined critical natural resources.
The 2024 law mandated a first-of-its-kind mapping effort that will essentially dictate where future development will be subject to Act 250 scrutiny, and where it won’t be, through a tiered land-use classification system.
That mapping process is still underway, and the board overseeing it has asked for more time to complete its work — in part because of feedback from municipal officials and rural residents who objected to early drafts.
S.325 would postpone the implementation of many pieces of Act 181. It would extend temporary housing exemptions, delay the start of a new “road rule” that would require a permit for private road construction over a certain length in much of the state until 2030 and pushes out the beginning of new “Tier 3” rules. These rules would heighten scrutiny over building near headwater streams, habitat connectors and rare natural communities.
Brian Stevenson
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Vermont Public
The fate of Tier 3 garnered the most attention on the Senate floor. Republicans backed an amendment on Wednesday to scrap the tier entirely.
Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Essex, a cosponsor of the amendment and an organizer of Tuesday’s rally, argued that the entirety of his Northeast Kingdom district would fall into the tier and suggested that a majority of Vermonters currently live in Tier 3 areas.
“We should be able to live like the rest of Vermont does, and not be restricted,” Ingalls said.
Yet the bounds of Tier 3 have not yet been set, and the Land Use Review Board, which is creating its boundaries, has said the tier will only make up a small portion of land in Vermont. The board is also looking to limit what kinds of construction would trigger the need for an Act 250 permit in these zones.
“It may be that a single house, for instance, depending on where it is, doesn’t even matter. It won’t be counted,” said Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, one of the architects of Act 181 when he served in the House.
The amendment to roll back Tier 3 ultimately failed in a party-line vote on Wednesday. A separate amendment to further delay its implementation failed on Thursday. Another Republican-backed amendment that was adopted eases state regulations for housing in rural areas that lack local zoning.
“We absolutely hear the concerns from different corners of the state of Vermont and we take those seriously.”
House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington
Scott, Act 181’s longest-standing detractor, vetoed the legislation in 2024, arguing that it was a “conservation bill” that did little to boost housing growth in rural areas. The governor said at a Thursday press conference that he thinks the bill to delay its implementation is “moving in the right direction, but we need more.”
Scott was pleased to see protesters this week heeding his message.
“I’ve said this before: this hurts rural Vermont. And now they’re just waking up to the fact that, yes, indeed, it will,” Scott said.
The bill now heads to the House. House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said she sees the need to delay Act 181 — and that she hears the upswell of pushback against the law from beyond the Statehouse.
“We absolutely hear the concerns from different corners of the state of Vermont and we take those seriously,” Krowinski said.
Brian Stevenson
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Vermont Public
S.325 will land in the House environment committee, helmed by Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, one of Act 181’s initial drafters. Sheldon understands the rationale to postpone pieces of its implementation, she said in a Wednesday interview. But she is not open to rolling back elements of the 2024 law.
Sheldon believes that some of the arguments raised by opponents of the law are overstated and misguided. She still stands by the core aims of the law, she said, gesturing toward Vermont’s state motto.
“We’re balancing freedom and unity, right? That’s what we do,” Sheldon said.
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Large scale anti-Trump protests are coming to Vermont for a third time, with at least 46 No Kings protests planned across the state for March 28.
This round of No Kings protests might be the biggest so far: organizers anticipate it’ll be “one of the largest single-day nonviolent nationwide protests in U.S. history,” with more than 3,000 events already planned across the country on March 28.
“As President Trump escalates his attempts to control us, it is on us, the people, to show that we will fight to protect one another and our country,” the “No Kings” website says. “If he believes we will roll over and allow him to take our freedoms, he is mistaken. We are coming together again on March 28 because we know we can overcome this repression when we unite.”
In Vermont, protests are being held in all corners of the state, from Bennington to Newport. There are about six protests listed in Burlington, including a march to City Hall, a New North End Honk and Wave and a rally at the intersection of Shelburne Rd and Hannaford Drive.
Here’s what to know ahead of the protests.
What are ‘No Kings’ protests and what does it mean?
In June 2025, large crowds of Vermont residents took part in the first round of “No Kings Day” protests, planned the same day as the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary celebration and the president’s birthday.
Another wave of nationwide “No Kings” protests came several months later in October, in which over seven million Americans joined events in all 50 states, according to the organization. In Burlington, thousands of protesters brought homemade signs protesting Trump, dressed in colorful inflatable costumes, played music and chanted.
Organizers behind the No Kings protests say that it is a “peaceful movement” to push back on President Donald Trump’s policies, including on immigration, foreign policy and the economy.
“With every ICE raid, every escalation abroad, and every abuse of power at home, Americans are rising up in opposition to Trump’s attempt to rule through fear and force. Each day Trump crosses a new red line, and more people are deciding they’ve had enough,” said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the many organizations backing the mass protests.
Others include American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, MoveOn and 50501.
No Kings protests near me: See events, rallies in Vermont
As of 2 p.m. on March 26, there were 46 No Kings events planned in Rhode Island for March 28. Some towns and cities are holding multiple events.
Here’s a list of events in Burlington:
- Burlington New North End Honk and Wave: 11a.m. – 12:30 p.m., 1127 North Ave, Burlington
- “Invite your friends and neighbors and meet up at 11 a.m. at 1127 North Avenue along the sidewalks at the entrances of the Ethan Allen Shopping Plaza (home to Hannaford Supermarket and many other shops). Bring your signs, banners, noise makers, and American flags,” the listing reads. “This joyous, non-violent honk and wave action will wrap up at 12:30 p.m. Following the Honk and Wave, participants are welcome to proceed to City Hall Park to join the conclusion of the North End and South End marches.”
- Patchen Road Overpass: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., Patchen Road & Landfill Road, South Burlington
- “We’ll be unfurling our huge NO KINGS banners on the overpass as 4,000 – 5,000 vehicles per hours pass below on Interstate 89. Bring a sign, bring an American flag, and bring a friend,” reads the listing. It says to register and to follow the guidance of safety marshals, and encourages attendees to carpool as “parking is tight.”
- Burlington South End March: 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Calahan Park, 45 Locust St, Burlington
- “We’ll be marching from Calahan Park to City Hall Park,” says the event description. “If you don’t want to march or are unable please join us at City Hall park at 12:30 p.m. for singing, chanting and more.”
- South Burlington: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Intersection of Shelburne Rd and Hannaford Dr in South Burlington, 1001 Shelburne Rd, South Burlington, VT
- “Join Champlain Valley Indivisible at the intersection of Shelburne Rd and Hannaford Drive in South Burlington to stand up and speak out against this administration’s unjust and cruel acts of violence,” the event listing says, adding that those interested should register.
- Burlington March to City Hall: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., 1 S Prospect St., Burlington
- Burlington Old North End March: 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Roosevelt Park, 57 Oak St., Burlington
- “We’ll be marching from Roosevelt park to City Hall Park,” the listing says. “If you don’t want to march or are unable please join us at City Hall park at 12:30 p.m. for singing, chanting and more.”
Here’s a list of all the towns in Vermont holding protests so far, plus when, where and other helpful information listed on the event pages or provided in press releases:
- Bellow Falls
- Bennington
- Bradford
- Brandon
- Brattleboro
- Burlington
- Charlotte
- Chester
- Essex Junction
- Fair Haven
- Fairfax
- Hardwick
- Hartford
- Huntington
- Jericho
- Manchester
- Middlebury
- Milton
- Milton
- Montpelier
- Morrisville
- Newbury
- Newport
- Northfield
- Randolph
- Randolph
- Richmond
- Rutland
- Saint Johnsbury
- Shelburne
- South Burlington
- South Burlington
- St. Albans
- Wallingford
- Waterbury
- Westfield
- Williston
- Wilmington
- Windsor
- Winooski
- Wolcott
- Woodstock
More events may be planned. You can check the map on the No Kings website to see if your town is holding a protest.
What time are No Kings events?
“No Kings” protests in Vermont start at various times on March 28, with some events planned at 10 a.m. and others planned throughout the afternoon, according to the online map of events.
Contributing: Paris Barraza
An international ambassador for tennis from South Burlington and a three-sport captain at Burlington High School and the University of Vermont more than 100 years ago are the final members for the 2026 Vermont Sports Hall of Fame banquet, the organization announced in a news release on Thursday, March 26.
Jake Agna, the former legendary tennis coach at South Burlington High School, is the 2026 David Hakins inductee, which honors an individual or a group or organization for exceptional promotion of sports, athletics and recreation in the state. Fenwick Watkins, a pioneer and exceptional athlete and coach who helped break color barriers in sports in the early 1900s, has been named the hall’s historic inductee.
Agna and Watkins join 10 other members previously announced this year who will officially be enshrined during a celebration banquet at the Delta Marriott Burlington Hotel on 1117 Williston Road in South Burlington on Saturday, April 25.
The dinner begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by the induction ceremony. To purchase tickets to the 2026 event, visit the VSHOF website at vermontsportshall.com. The cost is $95 per plate with part of the proceeds going to Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, the longtime designated charity for VSHOF.
Over 38 years coaching girls tennis at South Burlington, Agana compiled a 489-95 record with eight perfect seasons, 16 Division I titles and 13 runner-up trophies before stepping down prior to the 2023 season.
Agna is also founded Kids on the Ball in 2000, which is designed to teach children life lessons such as relationships and respect by learning the game of tennis. He has led 31 trips to Cuba to help expand the sport. His tennis programs reach out to over 200 kids each day in school and after school programs.
Agna’s work to help resurface 10 courts and renovation of the National Tennis Center in Cuba in 2017 was recognized by the Tennis Channel.
Watkins was a three-sport star in football, basketball, baseball at Burlington before graduating in 1905. At UVM, he is believed to be the first Black captain of a non-historical Black college or university sport and was captain for all three sports at both BHS and UVM, according to VSHOF.
After UVM, Watkins went on to become a high school and college head coach in North Dakota at Concordia College (football) and what is now known as North Dakota State (baseball and football). He died in 1943.
The previous winners for the Hakins award are: Barry Stone (2024); Thomas Dunkley (2023); Ted Ryan (2022); Cochran’s Ski Area, Mickey & Ginny Cochran (2020); Mal Boright (2019); Helmut Lenes (2017); Ernie Farrar (2015); Tom Curley (2014) and Ray Pecor (2013).
The previous historic winners include: Leo Papineau, St. Michael’s College, athlete, coach and official (2025); Clarence Demar, South Hero, distance running, (2017); Fred Harris, Brattleboro, outdoors/ski jumping, (2015); James Taylor, Windsor, outdoors, (2014); and Charles Adams, Newport, National Hockey League, (2013).
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.
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