Guild Fine Meats Opens Tomorrow in Burlington
The Farmhouse Group's Guild Commissary has been up and running for more than a month. Tomorrow, the ultimate fruit of master butcher Frank Pace and chef Tom Deckman's labors will be unveiled with the official opening of Guild Fine Meats at 111 St. Paul Street.
Today, the staff at the new butcher shop and deli is getting used to the space with a soft opening.
But sorry, meat lovers, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for a look at the good stuff. The butcher case is papered over.
Co-owner Jed Davis says that a full menu of sandwiches and salads will be available within a few days, with the majority rolling out tomorrow.
Soups include a local kale and white bean as well as soup of the day. Salads include a Caesar, Cobb (with housemade bacon and Bayley Hazen blue, natch) and roasted roots over greens with Does' Leap chèvre and sherry vinaigrette. There are side salads in the case, too. The take-out menu says that house-special hot and cold sandwiches are coming soon, but until then, a build-your-own sandwich menu includes a fantasia for meat lovers. Laplatte River Angus Farm roast beef, Vermont Heritage Grazer smoked ham and Adams Farm smoked turkey are obvious basics, but Deckman is also producing mortadella, capicola, pastrami and meatballs, as well as tuna and chicken salads. Even vegetarians have a meat option — tempeh bacon.
The sandwiches are served on house rolls (either white or whole wheat) with a choice of cheese, up to three veggies and a spread, such as grainy homemade mustard or cranberry aioli.
If you can't wait until tomorrow for meat, the store is already well stocked with old-timey candies (above), house spice rubs and Farmhouse Group pastry chef Samantha Madden's desserts, including pies, cakes and cookies — including a decadent, buttery maple shortbread edged with chewy chunks of Deckman's smoky bacon.
But if you eat one sweet today, make it the airy maple-glazed doughnut. Trust us.
