One in 8700

Eating at Grapevine Grille is like having a meal at a good friend’s house. The large, bright room with its mismatched furniture and pictures of the Beatles and the Wizard of Oz almost make you feel like you are walking into somebody’s living room. It is a relaxed, comfortable and intimate experience. Whether it is your first time or your 100th time eating there, the restaurant’s co-owners, life partners Nancy Geoghegan and Charlene Potter, have the uncanny ability to make you feel like a regular.
“Let me guess,” says Geoghegan when certain customers walk in, “you want a Here Comes the Sun, and you want something with the hot sauce.”
Grapevine Grille is a small deli located on Route 7. It serves lunch and dinner, and also sells a wide selection of wines. The deli’s ingredients are almost all local, from its Blue Ledge farm and Cabot Cheeses to its produce grown at Beehive Hill Gardens. Grapevine’s 33 sandwich selections are all delicious, and if you try all 33, you get a free t-shirt! But apart from the tasty food, the friendly, inviting atmosphere at Grapevine is what makes the restaurant truly unique.
The story behind the deli’s founding is equally remarkable
“We refinanced the house, and I asked Charlene whether she wanted a new kitchen and bathroom or our own business,” said Geoghegan.
And now, five years later, the rest is history.
One may think that someone with such a knack for the food business has been doing it all of her life, yet after Geoghegan graduated from high school in Maryland, she went to college to become a biochemist. Geoghegan worked for a biochemistry company and then had a temporary office business and courier service, but she began to get bored.
“At night I had a friend who worked as a chef, and when the chips were down or the money was low I worked in bars and restaurants,” she said. “I found this whole other world, and I loved it.”
In 2000, Nancy left Maryland and moved to Vermont. She began working in various restaurants around Middlebury, where she eventually met Potter.
“I didn’t like Charlene when I first met her,” said Geoghegan. “But she grows on you like moss.”
When Geoghegan began getting restless working in other people’s restaurants, she and Potter decided to pursue their own business.
“I was tired of people telling me what to do,” said Geoghegan. “I wanted to do my own thing, with my own imagination, my own creativity and my own original menu.”
The two first began their business as a wine shop at the old red schoolhouse.
“I was the cool hippie lady with the wine shop, and when nobody was there I would lie on the floor and think of sandwiches I wanted to make based on songs I like,” said Geoghegan.
Her creativity translated into sandwiches like “California Dreamin’,” “Bleu Suede Moos” and “Here Comes the Sun.”
Besides great meals, Grapevine’s success can also be attributed to the owners’ connection to their customers. Geoghegan knows many by name, and listens with genuine interest to the customers’ stories as they wait for their sandwiches.
“I make people food when they’re sick, or they’ve had operations or for the college kids on their birthdays when their families can’t be there,” she said. “It’s so nice. People thank me every day for being here, and they mean it from the bottom of their hearts. That’s the best part of owning a restaurant. Oh, and getting to listen to your own music.”
Though the deli has minimal advertising, it is no secret how its customers know about the amazing food — they heard it through the grapevine.