Dad, Carter and I had a delightful dinner this past weekend at Tourterlle in New Haven, VT. The location is right on route 7, about 10 minutes north of Middlebury town center. The restaurant has quickly developed a local following as the food is astonishingly good tasting and the ingredients are high quality and mostly local and organic and the prices are good -- about the same as eating out at Fire & Ice. We have been there 2 times now and have enjoyed it both times.
The first time I went was on a lark with Michael last spring, showing up at 6pm with no reservation. We sat at a table in the little dining room and had a joyful time while waiting for our food to come looking out the window at yard bunnies chasing each other around. The food that time was wonderful - I still remember the soft shell crab as being particularly well prepared.
This past Saturday my dad and I went there with my five year old. This is not exactly a young family restaurant (there were no other kids under 15 that I could see and no college age kids w/out parents) , but Michael was out of town and my son and I decided we wanted to get dressed up and go out then a chance call from dad and suddenly, why not, Tourterelle we all go! We skipped the app course thinking that Carter would be better behaved if we rushed to the main dish, which was probably a mistake as the dishes we ordered still had to be prepared so we had to wait a while. But, it was fine and lovely to linger and not to be rushed and we'd brought a sketch pad and markers so Carter could draw and my dad and I could talk. This is a great place to go out for a chat and dinner. I think that if we'd said we were in a rush, dinner would have come sooner, but this was a pleasant surprise -- why not savor the time together!
Anyway, Carter ordered crepes and french fries which he adored. He'd have preferred more crepes and less french fry, so we learned something there. I had the coq au vin which was delicious. It came w/ lots of rich wild mushrooms and my one of my favorite sides, Spaetzle. It was obscenely good as was a dessert of pistachio cake and chocolate mouse. I didn't get to taste my dad's meal, but he seemed happy too.
We ran in to friends and waved at some of our favorite farmer's market customers and everyone seemed pretty blissed-out and well-fed. The interior of the restaurant is traditional looking with lovely lighting - everyone looks good there. The service is lovely and there are table cloths and nice china and heavy flatware. The pleasant lighting and good service combined with lovely and well-executed dishes made with local ingredients make this the restaurant a favorite.
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