The Local Flavor

Author: Daniel L. J. Phillips

With more spare time on your hands during J-Term, take advantage of your last three-day weekend and book a table at the Café Provence in Brandon. The restaurant offers an exciting change from the monotony of local Middlebury dining-out, but despite the quaint setting, the ambitious French cuisine fails to dazzle the taste buds.

After making the trip about 16 miles south along Route 7, you will discover that the restaurant and bakery offers a dynamic culinary experience - lunch, bistro and dinner options on weekdays, brunch on weekends and a weekly cooking class for a variety of dishes. The restaurant boasts clean lines and a bright décor of primary colors, while the wicker chairs and tables with optional booth seating nurture an intimate dining atmosphere.

Owned and operated by husband-and-wife Robert and Line Barral, natives of Provence in the Languedoc region of France, the restaurant opened less than two years ago, and they have been busy ever since. Chef Barral features cuisine inspired by the South of France and the Mediterranean regions, and he consistently offers fresh seasonal fare including local organic vegetables and wild game.

Highlights from the appetizer menu include steamed mussels marinieres, fried calamari with balsamic reduction and a variety of specialty salads or the sautéed goat cheese cake. The baked French onion soup is one of the best in the area, and always a winter favorite.

The entrées, however, were the most misleading part of the menu as the richness of the starch and the blandness of the stewed toppings masked most of the flavor. The seafood courses are all extremely heavy, loaded with creamy polenta or smoked salmon mousse, while the evening's venison special and the braised lamb shank entrée were too saturated and lacking in taste.

The best bet is the sirloin steak with green peppercorn sauce, unless the chef is offering any wild fowl specials, such as pheasant or quail. For those craving a more Mediterranean style, try the hearth oven-baked vegetarian lasagna or creamy fresh spinach pasta. Café Provence also serves bistro-style hearth oven pizza, featuring barbeque pork or Portobello mushroom toppings.

Café Provence stocks an admirable wine list, mostly showing spicy selections from the Rhone valley in France and full-bodied Rhone blends or Cabernet Sauvignon-based reds from Napa Valley to compete with the rich flavors of the heavy stews and bland mains. They have a few unique bottles of white from the New World, including a fruity, floral Oregon Pinot Gris, but the rest are full-bodied Chardonnays or Marsanne Rousanne blends from the Rhone. Just be prepared to spend upwards of $25 for the bottle of your choice.

Personally, I was disappointed when our table's first choice of wine was unavailable that evening, and the chef had to substitute lentils and white beans for the goat cheese ravioli, a regular side dish accompanying the staple lamb shank entrée.

This romantic dining haven would be a perfect Valentine's Day getaway, so be sure to book far in advance to enjoy their prix fixe menu of the evening, featuring pheasant with foie gras, seafood crepes and filet of salmon Wellington.