Tulsi Tea Room
A rather unusual collaboration has been established to create the Tulsi Tea Room at 34 Elm Street in Montpelier: the address also encompasses the offices of several health and wellness practitioners, each of whom is a member of the handsome new tea room.
The building is shared by Green Mountain Medicinals, an herb apothecary owned by Adrienne Allison, who initiated the Tulsi Tea Room and is also a Shiatsu massage therapist. She has relocated her business from its former location on Main Street.

The site houses the offices of wellness practitioners who live in and around Montpelier. They include Ginna Bourrisseau, an Ayurvedic practitioner, and Jean Newberry, a freelance farmer who works with other surrounding farms and grows organic products including medicinal mushrooms.

Dorothy Wallace makes herbal products for her business, Plainly Jane’s Herbals; Solenne Thompson creates whole-food sweets at Amai Bijoux (Sweet Jewel). Charlotte Gilruth has Classical Homeopathy, Cathryn Garauder is a massage therapist and Robert Gold and Meredith Hart offer Svaroopa yoga at Cornerstone Yoga.

Once her business model was presented, said Allison, the process of getting underway began with about 15 people who differed as to how the business should evolve: some wanted a café setting as opposed to a tea room. Over the next few months, the membership was distilled to five members: Allison, Newberry, Thompson, Wallace and Bourriseau, who all supported the tea room concept.

Upon locating the space, everyone pitched in to help with the retrofitting, while Allison said she was in charge of “steering the ship.”
Tulsi Tea Room offers light breakfasts, Ayurvedic lunches and an array of teas and treats.

The 1,700-square-foot space seats 20. The tea room uses only organic food, with everything “made fresh from scratch,” Allison said.
Ayurvedic philosophy dictates that the vitality of the ingredients used is of the utmost importance and to maintain that quality, ingredients must be extremely fresh. Tulsi Tea Room members use products from their own organic gardens and work with local organic producers.
Cecile Johnson of the Micro Business Development Program has worked with Allison on and off for a number of years. “They’re a group of warm, friendly people and I’ve really enjoyed working with them,” she said. “The tea room will be good for Montpelier.”

That indeed has been the case so far: Allison said the business has been “very successful.”

Overall, she said, the experience working with the collective had made one thing perfectly clear: “Business is totally about communication in so many respects.”

The Tulsi Tea Room is located at 34 Elm Street, Montpelier, VT 05602. The telephone number is 802.223.0043. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Tourterelle Restaurant
Bill and Christine Snell, who formerly owned Loulou and Cocotte, two popular bistros in Brooklyn, NY, have moved to New Haven and opened the Tourterelle Restaurant and Inn.

The stately house complete with a cupola on Ethan Allen Highway (Route 7) was most recently known as The 1796 House Bed and Breakfast. Tourterelle is the French word for turtledove.

The Snell family’s attraction to Vermont was multi-layered. Chef Bill Snell had spent time in Vermont as a child, and he, his wife and three children were drawn to the beautiful views in New Haven that recalled Christine Snell’s home in France.

They were also drawn by Vermont’s “Eat Locally” mentality and the partnerships they have formed with farmers who supply a variety of meats, vegetables and other products, prompting menu selections to change with the seasons.

Bill Snell began his culinary training in 1990 at The Frog and Peach Restaurant in New Jersey under Stan Novak, the former sous chef at Brooklyn’s River Café.

A few years later, Snell moved to New York City, where he worked with Drew Nieporent of Myriad Restaurant Group and Don Pintebona at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Grill. He then became the sous chef at City Wine and Cigar Company, where he worked his way to head chef before going on to work as a restaurant consultant.

Christine Snell, the daughter of a chef and restaurateur, was raised in Brittany. She graduated from L’Ecole Parisienne de Tourisme in 1992 and went to Miami Beach, FL, where she managed the Century Hotel and Restaurant.

Upon moving to New York, she became the event coordinator at City Wine and Cigar Company, where she met her future husband; they married in 1998. She was also director of sales for the prestigious Bloom Ballroom in Manhattan. Together, the couple opened Loulou and Cocotte.

Christine Snell described Tourterelle’s cuisine as “French country with an American influence for a lighter effect.” The menu features such delicacies as braised lamb shank, roasted venison medallions and beef bourguignon. There also are piquant soups, vegetable dishes and classics such as steak frites, escargot and crepes.

Desserts made by former New York City chef Alexandra Cavalli include a flourless chocolate cake, vanilla bean crème brulee and orange pudding cake.

The handsome 18th-century building that houses Tourterelle had an abundance of charm, character and potential, but needed refreshing, said Christine Snell. Renovations include a new bar, freshly painted interiors and an impressive stone fireplace. The original floors have been refurbished; the bathrooms have been updated; and the inn’s three guest rooms have been renovated.

The inn offers seating for 70 in its four dining rooms. The Snells employ 20 workers. Tourterelle offers catering and hosts holiday parties, weddings and other events.

Tourterelle Restaurant and Inn is located at 3629 Ethan Allen Highway, New Haven, VT 05472. The telephone number is 802.453.6309. The Web site is www.tourterellevt.com.

Hours are 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sunday brunch is served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saigon Bistro
Despite his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Vermont and a career that began at IBM, Richard Than recently concluded he had a much different calling.

“I wanted to do something more personal,” he said.

Today, Than is a successful Burlington restaurateur. He co-owns the Saigon Bistro, which opened in late summer in the space once inhabited by Blue Plate Ceramic Café on College Street.

Than, who is of Vietnamese descent, said he remembers cooking with his family while growing up in Saigon.

“We realized that we cook really good food in our family, so we said, ‘why don’t we open a restaurant?’” he said.

His kitchen workers have some local restaurant experience, including time spent at Tiny Thai. In addition to family members who run the kitchen, Than has hired three employees to work on the floor.

The casual-dining restaurant has a seating capacity of 50. Fit-up included moving walls and adding a full kitchen, said Than.
A neutral color scheme lends itself to the colorful paintings that were brought from Saigon and grace the walls. Depictions of boats on the river with backdrops of mountains and brilliant green trees are reminiscent of Than’s homeland, a place where some family members still reside and where Than visits when he can.

The menu at Saigon Bistro is a nice fusion of Vietnamese and Thai, said Than. From spring rolls and dumplings to Banh xeo crepes and soups, the restaurant serves up a wide array of dishes at affordable prices.

Combination platters and stir-fried dishes are menu mainstays; there also are daily specials. Moreover, Saigon Bistro offers discounts to students and has take-out service.

Than orders fresh ingredients from Boston and New York. “I also buy locally from the Vietnamese market on North Street and buy local vegetables from the Intervale,” he said.

Business thus far has been good, said Than, adding the eatery is especially popular with the college crowd and employees of area businesses.

“It’s been a whole lot of work. We found out it’s like eight days a week,” he said, adding he’s learned a lot of tips from friends.
Saigon Bistro is located at 119 College Street, Burlington, VT 05401. The telephone number is 802.881.0550. A Web site is forthcoming. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

Home Ecology
Home Ecology understands the importance of green business. But, unlike some companies that have jumped on the green bandwagon because it’s fashionable or good for sales, owner Holly Rae Taylor was spurred by her belief in ecological living.

“I started this company in order to help people practice ecological living through earth-friendly purchases and old-fashioned resourcefulness,” said Taylor. “I wanted to bring green living products together all in one place and make them available to everyone.”

The approximately 950-square-foot store, whose tagline is, “Your green general store,” previously housed Jamie Two Coats in Shelburne.

Within its walls is a wide variety of eco-friendly and environmentally responsible products: everything from natural makeup to yoga mats, compostable party products to recycled file folders and notepads to handcrafted soaps.

The bulk of Home Ecology’s business however, is in the area of food and its natural cycle: growing, cooking, preserving and composting, said Taylor.

“Home Ecology morphed out of my original company called Waste Free Living, which started as a Web-only store in November 2008,” said Taylor. “After a brief stint with a Waste Free Living store in the south end of Burlington in early 2009, I changed locations to the restored Shelburne Inn at the heart of Shelburne Village.”

She changed the name of the company, and formed a venture with business partner Anne Taylor. The store opened its doors in August.
Besides food preservation tools, some of the store’s best sellers include kitchen items and eco-friendly to-go lunch containers and utensils made from bamboo. Holly Rae Taylor said her bachelor’s degree in physiological ecology and her master’s degree in phytoremediation – the treatment of environmental problems through plants – serve her in this venture.

Taylor was previously the general manager of Intervale Compost and is an avid gardener, canner and composter in her free time. Anne Taylor has held positions in both midwifery and as a chef. Holly Rae Taylor noted her partner also brings “. . . critical experience from the catering and retail industry.”

Online sales make up a portion of Home Ecology’s retail success. The company’s Web site, www.wastefreelivingstore.com, features a logo created by Gotham City Graphics, which was also responsible for the store’s marketing materials, said Taylor.

Home Ecology had interns from Champlain College and the University of Vermont who helped to get the Burlington store off the ground, she said. “Mark Dabelstein of Pallet Art built our counter and our neighbors, Flying Pig Books, were instrumental in our move to Shelburne,” said Taylor.

Home Ecology currently employs the two partners and one part-time staff member.

Home Ecology is located at 5247 Shelburne Road, Suite 101, Shelburne, VT 05482. The telephone number is 802.881.0276; the e-mail address is holly@myhomeecology.com. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Urban Moonshine
Aperitifs – also called “bitters” – are a familiar pre-dinner drink. Bitters and tonics have been enjoyed by many people over a long period of time: research indicates bitters date back to early days in Europe and possibly even to ancient Egypt.

For Jovial King, owner of Urban Moonshine in Burlington, bitters are back and better than ever. Urban Moonshine produces handcrafted, organic bitters and tonics in its 800-square-foot production space, previously the home of Flashbags.

In fact, Urban Moonshine is the only company in the world that creates organic bitters, according to King. Most of its business is focused on wholesalers and Internet sales, although customers can “walk in and purchase if they’d like,” she said.

King, who opened the business in August, said sales have been much higher than anticipated.

“We’re having to expand quickly because we’re getting a lot of national coverage,” she said. The shop’s pocket spray bitters were recently featured on the television show, “Good Morning America”.

“We’re already out of stock, so we’re having to rethink our business idea due to the positive interest that we’ve had,” said King.
The business currently has one employee, but is in the process of expanding its staff.

The bitters produced by Urban Moonshine come in three types: original, citrus and maple. King, who worked as a trained herbalist for approximately nine years, said she was taught under herbalists Brigitte Mars, Guido Mase, Rosemary Gladstar and Hart Brent.

King previously owned a small herbal business, but recognized that she could expand her business by focusing solely on herbal tonics and bitters.

“I really saw a niche market in bringing back the digestifs and aperitifs,” said King. A digestif is an alcoholic beverage that is drank just after a meal as an aid to digestion.

Urban Moonshine utilizes local herbs whenever possible, with most coming from Zack Woods Herb Farm and Healing Spirits Herb Farm. It also uses only Vermont maple syrup.

What are the benefits of using bitters and tonics, and what is the difference between the two? Bitter foods such as wild greens and herbs are excellent for digestion, said King: “Many of our best and strongest herbs are bitter in nature.”

Europeans have a long history of using bitters in the diet, but Americans don’t tend to eat or drink bitter foods or beverages. “We have so much sweet and salty” foods, said King. “There’s very little that’s bitter.”

Whether to calm an upset stomach, relieve a hangover or cleanse one’s liver, bitters are gaining a renewed popularity, King said. “People are inherently drawn to bitters.”

Tonics are something that are taken on a regular basis, according to King, who describes them as tools to build up your system.
“You wouldn’t eat vegetables just one day and think, ‘Oh, I’m healthy. I hate vegetables.’ You have to eat them every day to get the benefits. Tonics are created from herbs which need to be taken steadily for best results.”

Urban Moonshine offers tonics in three flavors: immunity, longevity and a chocolate love tonic.

Urban Moonshine is located at 1 Mill Street, Suite 310, Burlington, VT 05401. The telephone number is 802.428.4707; the e-mail address is jovial@urbanmoonshine.com. The Web site address is www.urbanmoonshine.com.