Northeast Kingdom, like all the new american restaurants, have a decent cocktail menu. But I think Northeast Kingdom wins with the inclusion of buttered rum. Damn that was delicious. The hot spiced rum was made 1000x better with the inclusion of dairy fat. mmm... Their other cocktails were fine, I especially liked my sazerac.
We started with 2 different toast - the bee keeper's lunch and the roasted mushroom fondue toast. The bee keeper's lunch was a crusty piece of bread topped with a soft and creamy farmer's cheese, honey combs, and shaved radish slices. The cheese tasted like a mild goat cheese, but no one at the restaurant could tell us what kind of cheese it was. Fail. The combination was delicious. How can you go wrong with honey and cheese? You can't. I tell you. You just can't.
The roasted mushroom fondue toast was tasty as well, although a bit salty for me. I imagine this is what good condensed cream of mushroom soup would taste like. I love all matters of roasted mushrooms. It brings out that funky nuttiness only mushrooms have.
We also shared a couple salads. The braised kale and warm bean salad was my favorite dish of the night. The braised kale was super flavorful and seemed to be pressed or dehydrated after braising. It almost had the texture of a nori sheet. The over easy egg added a creaminess to the dish after we mixed in the runny yolk. I'm a sucker for runny yolk.
The market salad was tasty as well. It was a simple shaved winter veggie salad - butternut squash, radishes, apples, etc. I like the fact that they took winter veggies and created a light and simple salad from them.
For my entree, i had the collard rolls, ground soybean stuffing, and sauteed veggies. It was pretty good. The stuffings were on the loose side, which i actually prefer over compacted vegetarian stuffing. I like all the different veggies on top of my rolls - fennel, celery, tomatoes, peppers. I would eat this again.
J-me ordered the hand-made beef sausage, caramel braised red cabbage, and potato. The sausage was fine. The meat was a bit too hamburger like for me. I like sausages full of flavor with lots of spices not hamburger in tube form. Also, the texture was a bit loose (hence hamburger like). The cabbage was tasty. And the piece of toasted bread on top was awesome. Who knew buttered toast with mustard could be so good. Then again, who am I to question the all amazing butter?
Hidy had the chicken pot pie. I remember liking it but don't remember too many details. The pie pastry crust was tasty, although i would have liked more of it. I remember the filling was thick and chunky. So that's good. Nothing worse than a thin and watery pot pie right?
Joe had the berkshire pork loin and seasonal sides (in this case, mashed yams and brussel spouts). The pork loin was tender and flavorful - which I think are difficult feats for a pork loin to achieve. I never order pork loins because they can dry out faster than chicken breasts. But when cooked well, they are mighty tasty. I loved the sides. Both were so autumn-y and wraps you up in their happy homey warmth. The veggies hug you.
We also shared a banana cream pie but that was also many cocktails later. So no picture was taken. And no flavors were remembered. Oops.
I really liked Northeast Kingdom. If I lived in the area, I'd probably go pretty often. But I probably wouldn't make a trip to eat there when there are many comparable restaurants in walking distance. I'm glad I went last night and recommend anyone who lives in 3 train stop radius to go go go.
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