Staff report
After five years, a vacant restaurant building in Mendon has new life.
Flannels Bar and Grill opened Oct. 10 with local beer and comfort food served by seasoned staff in the former Tap House on Route 4.
Josh Bartholomew, the owner and chef, got his start in the industry working at the former Panache in Killington before he followed the head chef to open a restaurant in Maine. Bartholomew returned to Vermont three years ago and became the chef at the Hermitage Club in Dover, where he served 1,800 lunches a day in the 90,000 square foot clubhouse.
This is Bartholomew’s first time owning a restaurant and he admitted it’s been a learning experience.
“I’ve never been one for front of the house — I’m learning that on the fly,” said Bartholomew as he and his staff prepared the restaurant for customers to arrive one evening.
Bartholomew attended Le Cordon Bleu culinary school and was previously nominated best chef in Vermont.
“I’m used to high end (food) — this is more tavern,” he said.
Despite the simpler menu, Bartholomew is using all the same ingredients and food sources he’s used at previous restaurants, including wagyu beef and fish and chips from Maine. He’s also putting time into the presentation of the food.
“We’re off the beaten path,” Bartholomew said. “We have to be unique to draw people in.”
Bartholomew operates the restaurant with investors John Kalish and Matt Camereno and Manager Sandra Greene.
As the name suggests, all of the staff, including Bartholomew, wear flannel shirts. The inside of the building is decorated with flannel strips around the table centerpieces and flannel scarves around taxidermy.
“(When) you think of Vermont — you think of the woods — it’s flannel,” said Greene. “We want to keep everything simple.”
Greene, who grew up on Long Island, moved to West Rutland 13 years ago to raise a family. She’s worked at four restaurants since she’s been here, including Johnny Boy’s Pancake House, Little Harry’s Restaurant, Three Tomatoes and Southside Steakhouse.
Like Bartholomew, the job is new for Greene, who has mostly worked as a waitress and bartender.
“I’m in charge of a lot more now,” she said. “Now it’s a personal mission — this place has to do well because my name’s here.”
Greene, a self-described people person, said restaurants are what she loves.
“I feed off of chaos. I tried a 9 to 5 job and I quit three of them in two months.” she said. “I need the excitement.”
Bartholomew has a number of specials planned for the restaurant, which will soon be open seven days a week from 4-10 p.m. Bartholomew wants to start serving breakfast and brunch on the weekends and he wants to connect the restaurant to the VAST snowmobile trail, which runs behind the building.
“We’re going with the flow,” Greene said. “We have a lot in the works — it’s all setting it into play.”
