Restaurants in Stowe run the gamut from fine dining to super casual pancake joints, from farm-to-table dining and amazing fusion spots to down-home comfort food. Because Stowe is a small town, there really aren’t many well-kept secrets. What the locals know, visitors find out pretty quickly. Here are our picks for the top five local restaurants in Stowe.
Butler’s Pantry is pretty touristy, but sometimes that’s not a bad thing. They’ve made a lot of “Top” lists, including YELP’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the USA and Eat This Not That’s Best Breakfast in Vermont. Their pancakes (with flavors like cheddar jalapeno), homemade maple sausage, and biscuits & gravy have made the lists as the things to try. Other breakfast options include French toast, eggs and omelets, breakfast sandwiches, a breakfast salad, and eggs benedict. Healthier options include their acai bowl and fruit bowls. Plus, there’s a full bar offering cocktails, wine, and beer, so you can get that Bloody Mary or mimosa with your breakfast.
Butler’s Pantry Breakfast
128 Main Street
802-253-2955
Thursday through Monday 8 am-noon, closed Tuesday & Wednesday
This unique spot is relatively new in the area, having just opened in 2015. Laidback and casual, Doc Ponds offers delicious comfort food a step above the normal brewpub fare, and a giant selection of beers, with over 20 rotating taps. Cozy up to the bar, grab a spot on one of the comfy fire-side couches, or head outside to the patio if the weather is good. Be sure to ask your server how they got their name, Doc Ponds. Fun interiors feature artist-decorated snowboards and tons and tons of records. There are two turntables, and the music provides a toe-tapping backdrop for your meal. Their menu is almost as eclectic as their décor, featuring Mushroom Escabeche Tacos, burgers, salads, (including a Charred Broccoli Salad), Smoked Bluefish Chowder, Seared Salmon, a Vermont Half Chicken, Cubano, Cauliflower Steak, and a Nashville Hot Cod Sandwich. The Smoked Bluefish Dip and Cheese Fritters seem to be customer favorites.
Doc Ponds
294 Mountain Rd, Stowe VT
802-760-6066
Tuesday through Friday 4 pm – 9 pm, Saturday 12 pm – 9 pm, closed Sunday & Monday
Here’s another for the beer lovers out there. Idletyme is a brewpub, biergarten, and family-friendly restaurant all in one. Catering to visitors and locals alike, Idletyme Brewing Company has been around for a long time, in one form or another. While many folks drop by to taste the new Idletyme brews, many come just for the food, fun atmosphere, and scenery. You can sip your seasonal IPA inside at the comfy bar, or grab a spot out in the garden, where you can sit surrounded by flowers and the snow-capped Green Mountains. For a small, artisanal brewery, Idletyme offers up an amazingly wide variety of lagers, ales, double IPA, and more. Make things easy on yourself and order a sample flight or one of their specialty brews like the Pink’n’Pale or the Chocolate Mint Stout. And their menu has a little of everything on it, with salads, sandwiches and burgers, a Half Rack of Ribs, Ale Battered Fish & Chips, Steak Frites, Grilled Salmon, Tuna Poké Bowls and more to choose from. You’ll want to make a reservation for dinner at this popular restaurant in Stowe, and the brewery tour is pretty interesting too.
Idletyme Brewing Company
1859 Mountain Road, Stowe VT
802-253-4765
Open 11:30 – 9 pm, daily
This fun spot is a bike shop and a great place for grabbing a beer, one of their famous burritos, and more. If you need a new bike, need your existing bike tuned up or even if you don’t care a bit about biking, you need to stop at Ranch Camp at least once during your trip. You can eat inside, call ahead for pick-up, or just bike right up to the to-go window and order there. Ranch Camp offers a Family Taco Box with all the fixin’s for four adults, including desert, perfect for taking back to the house or on a picnic. There’s a nice variety of menu choices too, including the burrito, burgers, and sandwiches (including an Ahi Tuna Sandwich), tacos, salads, power bowls, and dinner bowls. There’s a kids’ menu too. Try the Sticky Balls – locally sourced Brussel sprouts tossed with sweet & spicy sticky sauce and maple syrup!
Ranch Camp
311 Mountain Road, Stowe VT
(802) 253-2753
Monday-Friday 11am – 8pm, Saturday & Sunday 11am – 9pm
Piecasso’s is rustic, casual, energetic, and fun! Oh, and they serve up great New York style pizza! You can dine inside, order take-out or delivery to avoid the crowds, or grab a brew and head outside by the fire pit on the deck while you wait on your pie. This family-friendly restaurant in Stowe has a kids’ menu and play area, live music, Trivia night, and more. Besides the pizza (which has been rated in the Top 11 Slices in the Country by Travel & Leisure), other menu options include Maine Mussels, Tuna Tartar, salads, sandwiches (including their Black Bean-Sweet Potato Burger, Turkey Burger, and Meatball Parmesan Sub), several pasta options and a Roasted Roots Bowl. And of course, there are Pizzas, Calzones & Strombolis too. Current house specialties include the Pizza Margherita, Pasta Rovetto, Garlic Knots, and the Strawberry Jalapeno Margarita. There’s something here for everyone.
Piecasso
1899 Mountain Rd, Stowe VT
802-253-4411
Wednesday – Monday 11 am – 9 pm, closed Tuesday
