The award-winning Charlie B’s Pub & Restaurant at Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa located in Stowe, Vermont offers a delicious taste of Vermont as a member of the Vermont Fresh Network where the focus is on using as many locally grown and New England produced products as possible. Executive Chef Mitch Jones is the creative talent in the kitchen where in addition to the regular menu he creates an inspired daily menu as well.
We stayed at Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa in February 2015 and had delicious dinners at the award-winning restaurant over 2-nights of our stay. The restaurant’s ambience is warm and welcoming, and is a casual and comfortable favorite on the Stowe culinary scene.
We began our first evening with 2 of the restaurant’s specialty cocktails, the Bulleit Bourbon Cherry Bomb made with Bulleit Bourbon, Boyden Valley Cassis, club soda, and housemade bourbon soaked cherries served in a tall glass, and Tymeless made with whiskey, Angostura Bitters, muddled oranges and Grand Marnier, infused cherries, and club soda served on the rocks to accompany the fabulous appetizer, Spicy Duck Ninja Roll. The cocktails were well paired with their hint of sweetness to complement the tempura coated roll that was served with pickled ginger, seaweed salad, and miso aioli and siracha, which was visually attractive, and delivered the goods with incredible melding of flavors and textures.
Spicy Duck Ninja Roll
Chef Mitch Jones creates a special menu each night that includes a soup, appetizer, sauté, and grill, in addition to the regular items on the menu. (Debra) had the Cheddar Ale soup, which was the soup of the day, made with Vermont’s own Cabot cheddar cheese and Switchback Ale, an American Pale Ale, made locally in Burlington, Vermont. Cheddar cheese soup is a New England tradition and is a favorite of ours, and Chef Mitch’s recipe was creamy, delicious, and perfect on a cold winter’s night.
Cheddar Ale Soup
(Edward) continued with the Warm Greek Spinach Salad, the special salad of the day, that was a colorful and tasty mélange of spinach, tomatoes, olives, artichokes, and feta cheese, with lemon herb vinaigrette.
Warm Greek Spinach Salad
For the main course, (Edward) had the sauté special, Pork Medallions topped with roasted spiced apples and accompanied with wild rice, baby carrots and green beans. This was another well-executed course that was artistically presented.
Pork Medallions
(Debra) had the Vermont Honey Basil Seared Salmon served with wild rice and maple carrots that was elegantly presented with the salmon placed on the bed of rice, with a star effect of the maple syrup glazed carrots that celebrated the bounty of New England.
Vermont Honey Basil Seared Salmon
For dessert we selected the Chocolate Cake with Cabot Whipped Cream and fresh red raspberries, and the Apple Galette served warm with 3 scoops of I.C. Scoop’s vanilla ice, drizzled with caramel sauce, Cabot whipped cream, and fresh red raspberries. The cake was a wedge of sinfully rich chocolate cake with chocolate icing, studded with miniature chocolate chips, drizzled with chocolate sauce, and served with piped whipped cream and fresh raspberries. The apple galette was warm, baked apples on a flaky, crisp crust that was especially nice with the ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream and fresh berries.
Chocolate Cake with Cabot Whipped Cream
Apple Galette
We returned the next night and began our evening with an appetizer of Switchback Steamed P.E.I. Mussels with garlic, shallots, and grape tomatoes in a Switchback ale broth. The mussels were gorgeous especially at the end when we had to dip the crusty warm bread in the rich broth.
Switchback Steamed P.E.I. Mussels
We also had the Fried Oysters, which were coated with cornmeal, deep fried, served with European Cocktail Sauce, that were plump, flavorful, and delicious.
Fried Oysters
For one of our main courses, we had the special from the grill, a 14-ounce hand-cut Ribeye Oscar served with lump crab meat, Cabot mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and was finished with a maple bacon relish. This was a generous cut of meat and crab meat for the ultimate surf and turf with a Vermont twist with the addition of maple bacon relish.
Ribeye Oscar with Lump Crab Meat
The restaurant has a large selection of wines by the bottle and by the glass, perfect for pairing wines with each course, or for couples who diverge when it comes to "red" or "white" wine. Edward paired the Ribeye Oscar with a 2010 San/Gio Sangiovese, from Tuscany, Italy.
We also had the New England Crab Cake Dinner served with Mashed Potatoes, Haricots Verts, and Lemon Butter Caper Sauce, which we paired with a local wine, Boyden Valley Winery Farmhouse White, from Vermont. The 2 crab cakes were large enough to ice skate on, and were held together with the bare minimum of other ingredients as not to distract from the succulent flavor of the crab meat. Creamy mashed potatoes, haricots verts, and lemon sauce were the perfect accompaniments for this very tasty dish.
New England Crab Cake Dinner
For dessert, we opted for the ultimate decadence of Chocolate Fondue, which was well-deserved after we spent an energetic day of downhill skiing at Stowe. The fondue was hot melted, chocolate accompanied by fresh, sweet strawberries, bananas, pound cake, and marshmallows, which we toasted over the flame and then dipped in the chocolate; amazingly delicious.
Chocolate Fondue
On Saturday nights, the restaurant has live entertainment, and after dinner we enjoyed listening to the local musician sitting by the roaring wood fire and relaxing; another perfect evening at Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa.
Read the interview with Chef Mitch Jones of Charlie B’s Pub & Restaurant who shares the delectable recipe for the Spicy Duck Ninja Roll in the Chefs’ Recipes section.
Chef Mitch Jones
Read more about our stay at Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa in the Hotels and Resorts section, about our experience at The Spa at Stoweflake in the Spas section, and about our skiing and dog-sledding adventures in the Adventures section.
Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa is easily accessible by car, air (Burlington International Airport), and Amtrak train. The resort is located 129 miles from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 178 miles from Albany, New York, 200 miles from Boston, Massachusetts, 220 miles from Hartford, Connecticut, and 335 miles from New York City, New York.
For additional information, please visit their website, www.Stoweflake.com.
Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa
PO Box 369
1746 Mountain Road, (Route 108)
Stowe, Vermont 05672
United States
Toll-Free: +1-800-253-2232 (US and Canada)
Toll-Free: 0500.892.522 (UK)
Telephone: +1-802-253-7355
Fax: +1-802-253-6858
Spa: +1-802-760-1083
Email: info@stoweflake.com
Email: reservations@stoweflake.com
Spa Email: spa@stoweflake.com
Website: www.Stoweflake.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Stoweflake
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