As the leaves turn….or, in some cases, drop without much fanfare….options to grab a bite in Woodstock are multiplying, just as legions of visitors descend on the village to peep the foliage.
Late last week, the navy-blue geobarn that has been taking shape on the eastern edge of town for the last few months sported a handwritten sign duct-taped on the front door— OPENING SATURDAY 8AM! Inside, Farmer and the Bell co-owner April Pauly and baker Sierra Clyde tended to trays of fresh-baked focaccia as contractors and others swirled about.
“We’re opening with a really pared-down menu,” said Pauly, who started the business in 2021 with her husband, Ben Pauly, as a pop-up selling French crullers from nearby restaurant Angkor Wat and, later, Quechee’s Parker House.
Farmer and the Bell’s new permanent home, on the site of a former gas station. All photos © Corin Hirsch.
Pauly credited property owner Eva Douzinas with making the permanent home a reality. “She had the vision,” said Pauly, to turn what had been a “beautiful old art-deco gas station” at 67 Pleasant Street into Farmer and the Bell’s permanent home, a soaring space with 82 seats inside and out (one that officially resides at 69 Pleasant St.).
“Eva has provided something that we’re really grateful for,” she added.
As the menu grows from pastries to sandwiches, soups, and breads, Farmer and the Bell will highlight myriad local farms and producers, said Pauly—including Woodstock’s Ferndean Farm and Mostly Mushrooms—for breakfast and lunch five days a week. Also on the menu are coffees from Middlebury roastery little seed and maple creemees flavored with maple from Reading’s Jenne Farm (with an extra dose of smokiness from a friend’s smoker) and Maldon sea salt.
April Pauly behind the workbench of the just-opened Farmer and the Bell.
On Instagram, Pauly called last weekend the “softest, gentlest of openings.” Not so for those who made a beeline for the place and lined up for Pauly’s beloved crullers (blueberry crumb, double chocolate, and maple among them) and flatbreads topped with pepperoni or mushroom and mozzarella cheese. Some dug into their snacks on the patio out front, where umbrellas had sprouted over the tables and traffic inched by into the heart of town.
There, a 10-minute walk west, the interior of what was until recently Dr. Coburn’s Tonic was also a hub of activity as the space was readied for its next chapter as the fourth location of Positive Pie (which also operates in Hardwick, Montpelier, and Plainfield, the latter opened back in 1999).
Positive Pie co-owner Michael Drake said that business would likely open in mid-October—which would mark a dazzlingly swift turnaround. A paper menu posted in the window in Woodstock listed Positive Pie’s signature thin-crust pies as well as specialty pizzas such as an apple- and bacon-topped Vermonter white pie drizzled with maple syrup (plus calzone, stromboli, and an Italian-style queso dip).
Corin Hirsch has covered the food and drinks world for Seven Days and Newsday, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She can also be found tending bar at the Woodstock Inn.
Farmer & the Bell, 69 Pleasant St., Woodstock.
Positive Pie will open sometime soon at 3 Elm Street, Woodstock