Vergennes may be Vermont’s smallest city, but don’t let this fact fool you. The town is located just 14 miles north on Route 7 and is home to Black Sheep Bistro, arguably one of the best restaurants in Addison County, if not all of Vermont. Black Sheep Bistro, open exclusively for dinner, offers a rustic yet chic ambiance (perfect for date nights), exceptional fare, reasonable prices, and is hands down, one of our personal favorites.
If you’re craving lobster ravioli, Black Sheep Bistro is the place to go. Seafood may seem like a bold order given the landlocked location of Vermont, but at Black Sheep this appetizer has become a staple on their menu. The dish is served with three ravioli and is accompanied with a tarragon beurre blanc sauce. If you don’t understand what this means, don’t worry, I don’t either, but trust me when I say its faaabulous. A must get.
During this meal, we also sampled the baby arugula, pine nut & blue cheese salad with pear ginger dressing. Katie Ruymann, class of 2011, co-captain of the women's soccer team, co-chair of Relay for Life and co-President of GlobeMed, comments “the pine nuts complimented the strong, earthy flavor of the arugula well, but it could have used some more blue cheese.” In short, although the salad is undeniably of high quality, we would recommend ordering one of their more unique and daring appetizers.
I often hesitate to order duck at restaurants because, if not cooked properly, duck can be an oily and tasteless disaster. However, the duck at Black Sheep was prepared to perfection and served with a black current demi glace. While at first I was skeptical that the dish would be too sweet for my liking, the black currants flavored the duck perfectly and was well worth the gamble. The duck paired beautifully with the complimentary garlic-mashed potatoes that accompany every entree.
We also ordered the salmon, which was offered as “seared salmon with dijon & caper cream & pickled vegetable slaw”. Let me tell you, nothing about pickled vegetable slaw sounds appealing, but you would be disappointed if you passed up this order. The salmon is cooked to perfection and the cream sauce is out of this world. Yum. We don't often get the opportunity to eat salmon when we’re at college, or should I say, we don’t often eat salmon when we are at college, so this dish was quite a treat and lived up to all expectations. Highly recommended.
While Black Sheep Bistro is home to a collection of phenomenal appetizers and entrees, the French fries steal the show. Along with the garlic-mashed potatoes, every entrée is accompanied by a serving of French fries and three specialty-dipping sauces. For the less adventurous, there is the standard ketchup, but for those willing to indulge their taste buds and embrace the unhealthiness in all of its glory, there are also basil mayonnaise and garlic mayonnaise dipping sauces. As our friend Kirsten Lundquist ‘11 quips, “My favorite is the garlic sauce. It adds such a decadence of flavor, unmatched by anything else in the meal.” There you have it.
Given its intimate size, the restaurant highly recommends that you make reservations a few days in advance. Black Sheep Bistro is open for dinner from 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm seven nights a week. This restaurant, while not overly expensive, is certainly a favorite place for students to “bring” their parents. All appetizers are $7 and entrees are $19, making it a splurge on a college student’s budget.
Lobster Ravioli, Tarragon Beurre Blanc
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