6 Best Restaurants in Middlebury, Central Vermont

This sunlit café and bakery overlooking Otter Creek houses some of the best coffee and pastries in the state thanks to chef-owner Caroline Corrente, who honed her skills at pastry school in France before zeroing in on a love for brioche dough. Corrente's specialty sweet and savory buns change daily based on what is available locally—many ingredients are found within a few miles of Haymaker's doors. The OG Bun, always on the menu, is a cinnamon-spiced ode to the classic sticky bun that draws Vermonters from all corners of the state. 

If you love pizza, you're in for a treat. Wood-fired clay domes create masterful thin crusts for innovative, delicious pizzas with a distinct Vermont attitude and an array of locally sourced ingredients.

Also the home of award-winning jam company V Smiley Preserves, this all-day café serves house-made pastries, biscuit sandwiches, huge salads, creative vegetable dishes and savory yogurt with crispy lentils and poached eggs. On weekends, oysters and cocktails start in the afternoon; dinner features rich soups and roast chicken with tomato jam. 

New owners have transformed the longtime Inn at Baldwin Creek and Mary's Restaurant, giving the 1790s farmhouse a chic update from head to toe. Pizza isn't the only thing that comes out of the new wood-fired oven; locally sourced roasted vegetables and smokey meatballs complement the fire-kissed pies. Live music fills the parlor on Wednesdays in winter and heads outside for a lawn party in warmer months.