The Burger Barn, fast becoming the worst kept secret in Lamoille County, is continuing the long and proud tradition of quirky, Vermont roadside snack stands with its top quality, gourmet hamburgers.
Early reviewers, mostly headed east out of Burlington, seemed to get stuck on the Burger Barn’s rustic, no-frills approach. Let ‘em get stuck. Let ‘em stay stuck. They can have their twenty dollar burgers down on Church St. The Burger Barn is ours, rustic charm, dirt driveway, and all.
Their burgers are works of art, devilishly crafted to excite every taste bud into firing a message to the brain at the same moment. The message? More. The brain wants more. Thirty-five different burger creations fill the menu, and each achieves the same result in its own way. Remember them by their creative names: the Amerigo Vespucci, the Southern Cross or the Nuts About Thai.
Owners Jud Gravel and Kierstin Colaceci, who are avid, live-aboard sailors, met about 10 years ago while Gravel was running his own business in Cambridge, the Rabid Rabbit, where he specialized in making VW Golfs go way too fast. His shop sat at the foot of the Wrong Way Bridge within sight of Colaceci’s family store, where he frequently dropped in for sundries. Colaceci says she first noticed Gravel because she saw his name on his credit card when he would come in to shop, and not knowing it is pronounced in the French style, she thought it was an apt name for the mysterious mechanic across the street.
When they met, Gravel was tiring of the grind of running a repair shop and began to dream of returning to the culinary world. He began building the original Burger Barn from scratch, hoping one day to tow it somewhere and start selling the hamburger creations he had been working on for years. He began at farmer’s markets in Jericho and Williston and hasn’t looked back yet.
Colaceci says that Gravel created most of the burgers on the menu and dreamed up the thought-provoking names himself.
Hanna’s Montana belies its adult flavor with its brandy sautéed mushrooms, banana peppers and smoked Gouda. The Samuel de Champlain celebrates the explorer with Brie, Prosciutto, apples and maple mustard. The Italian Burger has Mozzarella, the Greek, feta.
The Nutty Goat, new a few summers ago, has become part of the fabric of the area. You can catch snippets of conversations about the Nutty Goat as you shop in Cambridge or fill-up at Madonna Mobil in Jeffersonville.
Less-informed eavesdroppers might make the mistake of thinking they’re hearing about some variety of livestock. It isn’t. The Nutty Goat is a hamburger, and it is scrumptious. It’s made with Chevre cheese, maple crusted walnuts, caramelized onions, bacon and mayo, and it cannot be eaten slowly. Colaceci says it’s probably the most popular item on the menu.
The California Uber Alles is even more unconventional. They make it with cucumbers, carrots, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, onion and Muenster cheese. If California-inspired burgers aren’t your thing, try the General Lee (yes, it’s named after the famous Dodge Charger the Duke Boys used to fight oppressive tyranny). The General sports chili, coleslaw, American cheese, tomato and onion, all on top of a succulent burger.
The South Pacific more likely pays homage to the nautical pursuits of the owners than to a possible nod to Broadway, and it’s made with ham, bacon, grilled pineapple and pepper jack cheese. Another favorite, the Bleu Royale, is built with bacon, caramelized onions and Roquefort sheep’s milk blue cheese, cave-aged in France for 90 days.
Do any of these sound rustic? Not likely. (Well, maybe the General Lee, but it’s a good rustic).
It’s difficult to point to one aspect of the Burger Barn’s process and proclaim it as the key to their inspired menu, but a good candidate might be their beef. They start with grass-fed beef provided by nearby Boyden Farms.
Another simple choice they’ve made is their high-quality bread: they use fresh baked rolls from Koffee Kup Bakery in Burlington, and the difference good bread brings to a hamburger is a no-brainer. One could easily argue it’s the cheese: their cheeses come from around the world (don’t worry, they also offer burger varieties with Cabot as well as American cheese).
Kierstin Colaceci says that she and fellow owner Jud Gravel are cheese fanatics, and that when they sail south each winter on their sailboat, they are constantly searching for good cheese. The larder on board gets boring, and when they finally make landfall, “the first thing we’re looking for is a grocery store with good cheese and good meat. We’re always looking for a good blade steak.” They’ve made a number of their discoveries for new menu ideas while travelling.
As far as the key to the deliciousness of Burger Barn burgers, the high-quality ingredients notwithstanding, it could be the chefs. This is no peel-off- the-wax-paper, flip-it-twice-and-plate-it joint. Gravel and Colaceci are trained chefs.
Gravel learned on the job at Sweet Tomatoes (now Three Tomatoes) in Burlington in the early Nineties, under Executive Chef Kevin O’Neil, who turned a number of budding young chefs into master craftsman, many of whom still churn out gourmet food in the area. O’Neil was notorious for screaming at servers to deliver plated dishes immediately, and when ignored, throwing an entire table’s meal into the trash, flatware and all, to get the point across that gourmet food is time-sensitive.
It’s a lesson Gravel learned well, and each burger at his operation comes to the window with all of its ingredients peaking with flavor. If you wait 20 minutes to dine at home, though still good, the burgers have lost the symphonic quality of their component foods’ harmony. Burger Barn burgers should be eaten immediately for best results.
Colaceci grew up working at her family’s business in Cambridge, the Cambridge Village Store, where she worked alongside three generations of family and learned many of the skills which have enabled her to successfully run the Burger Barn. At the time, she was also attending the Center for Technology in Essex studying to be a chef.
While she was at the Center for Technology, says Colaceci, her instructor Jonathan Hoffman inspired her to pursue a culinary career. She cut her teeth at an internship, baking at Saint Michael’s College, and she says baking is still her first love. Often, after a full day running the grill, she’ll go home and bake. Last week she whipped up some homemade potato bread, and what a potato can be made to do in the hands of an expert is remarkable, as with the Burger Barn’s fries.
Their fries are as good as you can find: pre-blanched the night before, they’re delicious with a just little salt, and don’t require ketchup or other goop to make your mouth water.
The Burger Barn, in addition to their signature burgers, offers vegetarian foods as well as a full variety of fried foods, including seafood. But, let’s just be honest: their burgers and fries are their bread and butter.
If you haven’t been, go. Go now. The Burger Barn vanishes each fall with the leaves, and only a few weeks remain until they shutter the shack again until spring, their ultimate cruelty being their practice of leaving the beloved eatery in plain sight throughout the winter to all who travel through Jeffersonville, a slight not unnoticed by Tyler Evans.
Evans, a 23 year-old who lives in Jeffersonville and teaches snowboarding at Smugg’s, said he spends his winter, “burger deprived.”
Evans said he eats at the Burger Barn about once a week in the summer months when it’s open, and learned about the establishment through friends when he moved to the area about a year ago. “My buddies all come here pretty regularly,” said Evans. Evans devoured a BurgerMeister MeisterBurger, his favorite offering, in about four minutes before jumping in his truck and heading out.
Shortly after Evans pulled out, Ed and Jordan Corse of Swanton pulled in with their truck. The father and son had been fishing up in Waterville. “They’re all good,” said the younger Corse. “I got the BurgerMeister. It’s two burgers in one.”
Asked why he likes the Burger Barn, Corse said, “It’s nice going trout-fishing and coming here after. It’s hard walking down them brooks.”
The grass-green painted shack with bright yellow trim, located on Route 15 in Jeffersonville, is tough to miss on the right when you’re headed east. Headed west, it tends to hide behind the new yoga studio, so you have to keep a sharp eye out for their sign. This summer they added to their fleet of miniature picnic tables with umbrellas. Spread across the lawn, the tiny tables are sure to catch the eye of anyone searching for the Burger Barn for the first time.
So what is the real key to The Burger Barn’s success? Jordan’s father Ed Corse offered this perspective: “Small places are always better than the big ones.”
Corse started to walk off, then turned and said, “It’s true, though.”
