localflavor Green Peppers offers family atmosphere, affordability

Author: Tamara Hilmes

As college students, many of us chose to travel thousands of miles from home in order to attend our quaint little college amidst the Green Mountains. While we are usually too busy juggling classwork with extracurriculars and spending time with friends to miss the families that we left behind, every once in a while we feel a pang in our stomachs, literally - and Atwater just cannot compete with a home-cooked meal. So where better to escape to than a locally-owned and -operated restaurant with great food and a "family" atmosphere? Green Peppers, "A Middlebury Family Restaurant" according to its Web site and menu, is the perfect destination for both the homesick and those who are sick of recent dining hall offerings.

Green Peppers, located on Washington Street in the white building in the Shaw's parking lot, is the perfect escape from student-filled dining halls. Because it caters mostly to the locals because of its distance from campus, you are more likely to run into middle-aged townspeople than someone from your Microeconomics class. Living up to its self-given title, Green Peppers is a very small and homey restaurant with just one tiny dining room with a couple rows of booths and some small tables with chairs. The décor is simple but sweet, with Ansel Adams prints juxtaposed with pages torn from coloring books presumably the work of the restaurant's younger patrons. Depending on the time of day, you can either seat yourself or you may have to wait to be seated, but either way you are sure to be attended to right away by one of the many friendly servers.

Green Peppers serves their full menu every day of the week from 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and 10 p.m. on weekends. Their menu, on first glance, does not appear too overwhelming until you realize that along with all of the great menu items they offer, there are also "Create Your Own" options beneath each section of the menu. Green Peppers offers you the opportunity to build your own sandwiches, pizza, pasta or salad with your choice of meats, veggies, cheeses and sauces or dressings to create a custom combination of flavors. If you are feeling lazy or are simply too indecisive, you are sure to be safe by ordering one of the many house specials listed on Green Peppers' menu, such as the "Z Special," a pizza loaded with mozzarella, onions, green peppers, pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, mushrooms and anchovies if you "say yes to fish!" Green Peppers also boasts other specialty pizzas including Taco or Buffalo Chicken, which, like all of their pizzas, can be ordered by the slice or in a small, medium or large pie.

Green Peppers serves up all the great Italian favorites like spaghetti and meatballs and meat and veggie grinders, as well as American favorites like the Turkey Club or a burger, all for a very reasonable price. A sandwich and fries, for instance, would only cost you around $5. Green Peppers certainly ranks high on the affordability scale, given that even the bigger entrees, like a bowl of pasta, will only cost you around $7- and that even includes the garlic bread.

So if you are beginning to wake up drooling after dreaming about those home-cooked meals you so recently left behind, give Green Peppers a chance and you are sure to get your fill of warm, fuzzy feelings and warm, delicious food all for a very reasonable price. And hey, maybe you can even guilt your parents into paying for it the next time you talk to them on the phone.