Three New Restaurants Open in Milton

Milton is having a second. New choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner opened in fast succession this spring and summer time, bringing recent vitality to city — and plenty to eat.

Espresso-and-bagel spot Huddy’s kicked off the pattern in late April at 40 River Avenue. When co-owners Stacey Rousseau and Dan Rexford held their grand opening on June 25, the Huddy — sausage, thick-cut bacon, fried egg, cheese, hash browns and secret sauce on a bagel — already had a devoted following.

“Folks on Fb made the Huddy fashionable,” Rousseau mentioned. “The group has been superb.”

Rousseau was one licensing examination away from changing into a funeral director when she and Rexford signed the lease on the Huddy’s area in March. Now she’s on the store each morning by 5 a.m., baking up bagels which were boiled, parbaked and flash frozen in New York Metropolis. The menu options 12 to 14 bagel varieties every day, together with sandwiches and drinks made with beans from Vermont Artisan Espresso & Tea.

The Huddy Espresso Bomb — iced espresso with cream, chocolate, caramel, Vermont maple syrup and whipped cream — is caffeinating numerous commuters, Rousseau mentioned. Huddy’s is open Monday by means of Friday from 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and on weekends from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Daniel and Kim Pray had been among the many first clients at Huddy’s. On July 2, they opened a restaurant of their very own, Dan’s Northern BBQ, at 3 Southerberry Drive.

The Prays have been catering and making sauces beneath that enterprise identify for a few years, figuring out of their Milton house. That they had “a giant breakout second” in Could on the Milton Group Enjoyable Run in Colour, Kim mentioned. After an area in a brand new constructing did not work out, they landed within the former Apollo Diner.

The couple has embraced the diner-barbecue mixture, hoping to convey a little bit of diner aptitude to their full menu. For his or her mushy opening, they provide barbecue classics similar to brisket, pulled pork, hen, burnt ends and ribs Friday by means of Monday from 2 to 7 p.m. — with mac and cheese, smoked beans, and barbecue potato salad on the aspect.

“Dan calls it ‘Northern-style,’ mixing little items of Texas and Carolina kinds [of barbecue] and incorporating the Vermont method of doing issues,” Kim mentioned.

On July 11, simply across the nook from Huddy’s, Painted Girl Café opened the doorways to its huge purple home with teal trim. The eclectic café at 15 Cherry Avenue is a retirement mission for chef-owner Eric Fredette, along with members of his household and supervisor Amy Hugo, a good friend since highschool.

Fredette was a longtime taste guru and international R&D chef for Ben & Jerry’s who created such favorites as Chocolate Remedy and the Tonight Dough. He is all the time loved enjoying with meals and growing distinctive taste combos.

Now, “as an alternative of enjoying with ice cream, Eric’s enjoying with salads and quiche,” Hugo mentioned.

Open Tuesday by means of Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Painted Girl affords a rotation of baked items, soups, sandwiches, salads, quiches and foremost dishes, together with cottage pie, honeydew-cucumber gazpacho and hen tarragon salad. That final dish is a nod to Burlington’s long-closed Recent Market.

The rising Milton meals scene is “changing into a enjoyable little group,” Hugo mentioned — and a supportive one.

“Milton has had little or no range in meals for a really very long time,” Fredette mentioned. “Winooski had its second, and with Huddy’s down the road and Dan’s down the highway, possibly we are able to flip this into the identical sort of place.”