• Church Street Tavern

After serving burgers and wings in downtown Burlington since 1995, Church Street Tavern will open a second location in South Burlington* this coming February. The new spot, called Tavern II, will replace Junior's Rustico, which shuttered at 408 Shelburne Road earlier this fall.

According to tavern co-owner Stephen Parent, who partnered with Scott Michaud to purchase the downtown sports bar from Spencer Noble and David Taft in 2014, Tavern II will open for lunch and dinner daily. Parent plans to hire a new chef to lead the kitchen but says the menu will "basically be a duplicate" of the original.

So visitors can expect the same jalapeño-cheddar soup, loaded nachos, hefty burgers and hot sandwiches they'd find on Church Street. The new bar's 16 draft lines will flow with craft beers from Vermont and beyond, along with several quaffable mass-market offerings. Overhead, seven high-definition TVs will transmit live sports coverage.

While Parent says he hopes to provide a guest experience that mimics that of the downtown original, he's eager to learn where the new opportunity leads. "It's going to be exciting to see what [this new place] is," he says.