By Nettie Hoagland
On a bustling Friday night, my date and I crossed our fingers to find a place to eat in Burlington. Somewhere different. We found ourselves dining on a different planet, the Daily Planet: a sidestreet restaurant in downtown Burlington.
We were sat in the solarium, the smaller and more tranquil of dining rooms, the restaurant also offers seating in the bar room and intimate dining room.
It was a cozy table surrounded by sprawling windows and candle light. We smelled garlic and rosemary wafting from the kitchen. We relaxed with the echoes of live acoustics and felt each other’s company under the hanging ferns and golden light.
On the drink menu you’ll find a variety of different styles and tastes with a Vermont bond. The cocktails sound more foreign, like the “southern manhattan” with house-infused peach bourbon and the after-dinner drinks with cream and chocolate liqueur. When the waitress asked for our drink order, my date kept it local and ordered the fiddlehead IPA sourced from the Fiddlehead Brewing Company in Shelburne, Vermont.
“I don’t know what any of this is,” my date whispered to me about the food when the waitress left.
I will admit, the menu excites more adventurous patrons like myself. Descriptions of “blistered” grapes and “maple-braised” pork belly introduce patrons to the pleasures of creative culinary. Truffle oil and herbs transform the simplicity of french fries. Molasses buttermilk or whiskey bacon jam, your choice of sauce, replaces the bottle of ketchup. The transformative chickpea burger with smashed avocado sounds like it belongs in a west coast co-op.
My date prefers simplicity. He went with the Cajun mac n’ cheese blended with a creole spice, skeptical about its exotic reconstruction ($9). I melted into the lure of gnocchi caprese, ($15). My experience with gnocchi, a type of potato pasta, rarely amounts to more than dumping the package into a pot of boiling water and lathering in tomato-paste. But gnocchi caprese, with garden tomatoes and basil-blended pesto warmed my imagination. I topped our entrees off with a side of parmesan herb fries, ($7).
The waitress returned and we ordered our entrees and side, then swayed to a guitarist strumming in the bar room. A crowd in their twenties kept the bartender busy and the night young.
Suddenly, the waitress appeared with a basket of bread, olive oil, and two warm plates. I drenched a slice in olive oil which made its light center droop like a raincloud. Raindrops of oil fell onto my plate, as I held the slice in front on my face wanting to love it.
But our entrees saved the night.
Mozzarella stuffed potato gnocchi melted into my ceramic bowl, garnished with plump tomatoes that looked like rose petals. Balsamic drizzled the potatoes. I twirled my fork through the creamy pesto sauce. I lifted my utensil, and watched the mozzarella drip like a over-roasted marshmallow. A zing of basil and tang of balsamic complemented the heavy butter, and cheddar flavor. The harmony between herbs and melty mozzarella had me humming an Italian melody for the rest of the night.
A full plate of oven-baked fries, coated with white puffs of parmesan, looked more like an entree than a side. The fries, a perfect crispness, glistened a golden brown color. Seasonings of rosemary and italian herbs jazzed up the flavor. Few french fries make great leftovers, but these came home with me.
I couldn’t resist my date’s cajun mac n’ cheese steaming in front of me. I twirled the velvety, yellow cream around my fork like a wand of cotton candy. The sharp cheddar belonged in a Vermont restaurant. Cutlets of smoked maple bacon, folded into the cheddar and noodles, added a different crunch. The bacon’s smokiness added to the bold zing of cheddar. The Creole seasoning of ceyanna, oregano, basil and thyme, tasted a like New Orlean’s day parade.
So many flavors left me pondering the chef’s creativity. The music in the bar room grew livelier but our company in the solarium assumed an air of calm. The waitress sauntered through the dining room in no hurry to end our night. We too wanted to stay on this planet.