The End of an Era

Okay this posting really has nothing at all to do with the adoption, and nothing to do with the 2nd floor remodel...but it's a sad sad story...and a big event in my last week.

There was once a wonderful restaurant near my hometown in Vermont called the Dog Team Tavern. This restaurant opened 71 years ago and has been one of a very small handful (maybe 5/6/7) restaurants serving a county of probably less than 20,000 people. It was famous for it's location (on the banks of a beautiful river in Vermont), for it's atmosphere (an old house/hotel which was filled with antiques), it's relish wheel (a yarn reel on which copper buckets were hung- filled with carrots & celery, bean salad, apple butter, cottage cheese, and a few other specialties), it's family style side dishes, Arelene- a waitress for over 45 years at the Dog team, and probably most important, the sticky buns.

I still do not know of another restaurant that serves sticky buns as a course, before your main course. But this was standard procedure at the Dog Team Tavern- first your appetizer of Apple cider or Tomato juice (apple cider please...), then bread & the relish wheel (for me the favorite was DEFINITELY the apple butter), then the Sticky buns, then Dinner. I don't think we ever once made it to dessert. And there were many, many opportunities! We ate there for many special occasions over the years!

Last thursday the Dog Team Tavern burned down. Along with it went 70+ years of laughter and memories for the town of Middlebury, along with so many surrounding towns and people who came from far and wide to eat at the Dog Team. Down went the antiques, down went the memories, down went the sticky buns. I happened to be visiting Vermont this last weekend, so Mom & I drove over to look at it. It was really too unbelievable to trust the pictures on TV, we had to see for ourselves. So did dozens of other people as we were not the only ones paying our last respects to the Dog Team and all it meant for us. One of the previous owner's son's was in my Mom's elementary school class, and they used to have their class picnics there. Another man we ran into who may well have been in his 60's or possibly 70's said his Senior class dinner was Held at the Dog Team. One woman said she had attended a few retirement parties there for friends. Another woman we met there said she had been planning to take some out of town guests there to eat that night, after building up the restaurant for so long, and her Son had specifically asked that she mail some sticky buns to him across the country. Another gentleman said there had been a wedding scheduled for Saturday. My sister's wedding was catered by the Dog Team. So many people in shock and not quite knowing what to say. It was not just a building to Middlebury and Addision County, it was a part of the landscape, a part of the life. It was one of the things that Made Middlebury....Middlebury. (Even if it was in New Haven...!) I guess it's more fair to say it's one of the things that made Vermont...Vermont. There is one last thing we saw when we were there. the Last tray of Sticky buns. If you can believe it, we found this tray, and it smelled like sticky buns. A little charred, but it had the distinct cinnamon smell of Dog Team Sticky Buns. The tray was passed around to at least a few people standing nearby, and everyone agreed, it was the last smell they'd get, and they all wanted to experience it. You would not think a tray of sticky buns that survived a fire which took down a whole building would smell so fresh, but it's just one of those small daily wonders. They were upside down, perhaps they were uncooked before the fire! The secret ingredient isn't actually so secret- and neither is the recipe. You can find it HERE (at least for now) on their website. The website may not be up for long though, so if you can't locate it, let me know & I'll post it.