Maple glazed nuts, marinated olives with pickled red onion, Vermont cheeses, Märzen-style beer

I mentioned our October trip to Vermont yesterday. We stayed at the Hotel Vermont in downtown Burlington for the weekend. Maybe the most Spartan hotel room I have ever stayed in – white walls with no decor, an uncarpeted floor, very little lighting. At least the bed was comfortable and not just a stone slab. Anyway, we weren’t terribly hungry for dinner the first night because we’d stopped for lunch at a barbecue joint on the way, and barbecue sticks with you. So we wandered down to the bar, which clearly wants to be A Scene and got drinks and nibbles to take back to the room.

This turned out to be a much better choice than I expected. The maple-glazed nuts were absolutely delicious. They gave us enough olives and pickled onions that we nibbled on them all weekend, and actually ended up having to throw away some at the end of our stay. The cheese came with some crispy toasts. All in all, it was an excellent meal, when all I had expected was a little nosh.