• Jeb Wallace-brodeur
• Nicole Grenier, owner of the Stowe Street Cafe

On a Saturday morning in autumn, the kind of day that makes leaf peepers swoon and hit the road, Waterbury residents filed into Stowe Street Café — business as usual. Inside, one asked, "Who guessed the weight of the pumpkin at town hall?" Others lingered over lattes and eggs. A musician strummed his acoustic guitar between sips of a dark roast from nearby Brave Coffee & Tea.

Owner Nicole Grenier launched the café in summer 2015 in what had previously been an upholstery shop and a candlepin bowling alley. It's since become the neighborhood spot to congregate over cups of joe and from-scratch currant scones, but Grenier's guiding ethos — to showcase the local bounty — extends way beyond food.

The cooler holds crates of apples and dark bottles of cider from nearby Cold Hollow Cider Mill; the walls display area artwork. Customers can browse a boutique area filled with handmade jewelry and crafts, or buy jars of thick wildflower honey from Waterbury's Crooked Acre Apiaries. The open door to adjacent Bridgeside Books encourages guests to wander through and check out a Vermont hiking guide.

But first, peruse the café menu, hand-scrawled on blackboards above the front counter. Baristas pour espressos and cold-brew coffees with housemade syrups, as well as loose-leaf teas, pressed juices, fruit smoothies, and hot chocolates generously dolloped with whipped cream and dusted with cocoa.

• Jeb Wallace-brodeur
• Local musician Karl Miller

All-day breakfast includes homemade quiches, frittatas, flaky empanadas and baked goods. Green Mountain Creamery yogurt is topped with Stowe Street granola and warm maple syrup. Daily specials feature housemade sausages and scrambled eggs with seasonal fixings.

Lunchtime brings a soup of the day as well as wraps, grilled sandwiches and produce-packed salads. With chicken pâté, kimchi, cilantro, jalapeño and Vermont pork belly on a rustic Red Hen Baking roll, the banh mi hits every savory note there is.

This article was originally published in 7 Nights: The Seven Days Guide to Vermont Restaurants & Bars in April 2018.