USA: PLATE | Stowe, VT

PLATE, a china dish that frequents your kitchen cupboard and dining room table, or, Jamie's latest offering in Stowe, VT, a restaurant marrying the flavours of local Vermont with her healthy Californian heritage. 




For those of you that have known Stowe for some time you'll be familiar with the evolution of Thompsons to Jamie's on Main to, eventually, Cafe on Main. Whilst Jamie moved on from running one of our favourite lunch time haunts, March 2014 saw her back on Main with a slightly different offering in her new venture PLATE, with throwbacks to her roots in more ways than one.

Remember these mugs?! And don't get me started on the elephant jugs, I was so enamoured with them I purchased some mice and cheese salt and pepper pots in support!

Despite the fact that PLATE launched on the night of the worst snowstorm I have ever seen in Stowe, especially when edging into Spring, Vulcan didn't manage to deter too many a friendly face and PLATE was brimming with locals excited to celebrate the return of one of Stowe's most recognised foodie's, an accolade in itself.

Upon arrival at the restaurant, even with the silent snowy streets surrounding, you could be mistaken for being sat amongst the warm hubbub of the West Village, New York. This on-trend eatery exudes edgy NYC personality without being pretentious in it's humble company.

I ordered the clams on toast with aioli (no longer on the menu) to start, which was yummy, interesting and completely different from your typical Vermont fare and chased it up with 'The Plate' veggie burger which was packed with flavour despite the healthy repercussions. They scored major brownie points with me too for the marmalade onions that accompanied the burger as I'm a massive advocate for a sweet and savoury partnership. 

I teamed the above with a whiskey sour which was unfortunately reminiscent of a glass of very tort lemon juice but I forgave and forgot because it was Jamie, it was opening night and none of them probably realised what a connoisseur they had on their hands.

All in all PLATE is a refreshing slant on New England tastes and a welcome reprieve from all the heavily delicious restaurants in the surrounding Stowe area.

*Main image taken from platestowe.com