Dog Team Tavern
Vermont restaurant known for sticky buns and relish wheel.
The Dog Team Tavern, a rustic Vermont landmark off Route 7 near Middlebury, was famous for its hefty prime rib and a "relish wheel" featuring corn relish, apple butter, horseradish cottage cheese, beets, and sauerkraut. Meals always began with its renowned sticky buns. The building, originally a mission house from the 1920s, became a restaurant in 1946. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and removed in 2016. A fire in early September 2006 destroyed the structure, along with Grenfell Mission artifacts and Labrador handicrafts.
Quick Facts
- Location
- 1338 Dog Team Rd., Middlebury, Vermont
- Built
- 1936
- Architecture
- Classical Revival
- Added
- November 21, 2002
- Delisted
- March 22, 2016
Facts from the source article.
History
The Dog Team Tavern was originally constructed in the 1920s by Sir Wilfred and Lady Anne Grenfell as a mission house, started in 1931. It opened in 1936 as a tea house and outlet for handicrafts from Newfoundland and Labrador. Earlier, in 1931, the Grenfells retired to Charlotte, Vermont, building Kinloch House. In 1934, they opened a Dog Team Tea House in Ferrisburg, Vermont, and about that time opened houses in Oxford and Guilford, Connecticut.
In 1946, Eben and Catherine Joy purchased the tavern from the International Grenfell Association of New York City, opening it as a restaurant and later adding a bar when they obtained a license in dry New Haven. Eben Joy and his second wife, Eileen, sold it to Andrew Golbert of Burlington, Vermont (now of Essex Junction) in 1978. Golbert sold it to Chris Hesslink and Robert Mahoney in 1987; Mahoney left circa 1996/97, and Hesslink reorganized and continued the business until it burned on September 1, 2006.
Hesslink's body was recovered from the fire. The Dog Team catered to celebrities such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Frost, Charles Lawton, Neil Diamond, and Michael Eisner. Originally, staff lived upstairs as the restaurant was only open in summers; later it was open all year. A small building next door was used as a gift shop in later times, but previously was known as The Dog Team Playhouse, where several shows were put on.
The tavern was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and delisted in 2016. Among treasures lost in the 2006 fire were a Grenfell overcoat donated by Arlene LaFave, a Grenfell snowsuit for a child, a huge collection of old political buttons, a beautiful Victorian period dollhouse, an old handpainted sign for orange soda, the hide of a wallaby and the head of a bear, two Grenfell throw pillows with the face of a husky embroidered on each, original posters and articles detailing Sir Grenfell's work and lectures, two oil paintings by different artists of the restaurant, one painting of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, a marble statue of snow drifts with a little dogsled and dogs, and at least a dozen unique Grenfell silk mats.
Customer service
The Dog Team had an unusual system of serving. Upon arriving, the menu was presented on a board just inside the entrance way. Customers gave their names and orders at that time and went inside to wait. Waiting times of an hour or more were not uncommon during busy times.
Customers could wait in the front parlor, where old overstuffed couches were provided along with old copies of magazines such as Life and Saturday Review, or go through the serving area to the bar and wait while enjoying horseradish cottage cheese dip with ridged potato chips. There was also an outside porch and, in earlier years, a gazebo and tables set up in the back by the rushing New Haven River. Benches out front read "Vermont Democrats" and "Vermont Republicans."
Much has been made about their relish wheel and sticky buns (strictly rationed, though often purchased to take home), but they also served little loaves of homemade bread and a fresh salad featuring a choice of three of their own dressings, including an "Alsatian" French. This did not include the appetizer—typically a glass of juice or soup du jour—which customers ordered when they came in. First-time customers were usually full before the entrees even arrived.
The meal wrapped up with shared sides of mashed potatoes and the vegetable du jour, before ending on a sweet note with dessert.
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