3 Best Restaurants in Middlebury, Central Vermont

Worth the drive from Middlebury to the small town of Bristol, the Bobcat is fun, funky, and hip—just like the inventive comfort-food menu. Wash your meal down with nearly a dozen excellent house-brewed beers.

Also the home of award-winning jam company V Smiley Preserves, this all-day café serves house-made pastries, coffee, cocktails, biscuit sandwiches, huge salads, creative vegetable dishes and savory yogurt with crispy lentils and poached eggs.

New owners have transformed the longtime Inn at Baldwin Creek and Mary's Restaurant, giving the 1790s farmhouse a chic update from head to toe. Pizza isn't the only thing that comes out of the new wood-fired oven, though it was named one of the 22 best pizza spots in the U.S. by the New York Times. Locally sourced roasted vegetables and smokey meatballs complement the fire-kissed pies. Live music fills the parlor on Wednesdays in winter and heads outside for a lawn party in warmer months.