One night in the late aughts, after spattering myself with burning pork fat at my Montpelier restaurant, Salt Café, I slipped into Three Penny Taproom after service. I ordered the most expensive Scotch, a pair of pickled eggs and chilly water in which to submerge my scorched hand.
When the bartender dropped off my Lagavulin and a frosty metal bowl, he touched his heart — a gesture no doubt familiar to many regulars. As the whiskey and the buzz of the crowd soothed the pain from my burn, I reflected on how Three Penny felt like a home away from home, even to someone who didn't like hanging out in bars.
At the time, Three Penny was a new kid on the block. The bustling bar opened on Montpelier's Main Street in 2009 and boasted a bountiful beer list with plenty of coveted Hill Farmstead brews on tap, all the Statehouse gossip you could dream of and fun staffers to boot. It was a rural "Cheers" with upscale beers and a couple of Crock-Pots and panini presses for a kitchen. (A full-size kitchen was added in 2012.)
Fifteen years later, after two devastating floods and thousands of peanut-butter-and-hot-pepper-topped burgers, Three Penny feels just as warm and relevant as ever. The menu is packed with playful takes on familiar dishes, and the airy dining room complements the cozy bar. A recent expansion into the former antiques store next door has added seating, a stage for musical acts and a 14-by-14-foot walk-in refrigerator.
According to Kevin Kerner, who owns Three Penny with Wes Hamilton, one of the most exciting aspects of the new space was that it accommodated every last item in the bar's basement.
"We've been working on this for six or seven years," he said. In 2011, during a deluge that came three months before Tropical Storm Irene, the bar lost a reported $10,000 worth of bottled beer to catastrophic flooding on its lower floor.
When the expanded space opened, on July 3, 2023, "We closed the latches [to the basement door], and that was that," Kerner said.
But the safety he and Hamilton sought was elusive. Seven days later, more historic flooding arrived. And for the second time, Three Penny lost nearly everything, as did many of its fellow Montpelier businesses.
In October, after a cleanup and rebuild, Three Penny opened its doors once more. Chef Erik Larson, a New England Culinary Institute graduate and alum of Lost Nation Brewing and the Mad Taco, again began serving the fun and flavorful food for which the bar is known.
Kerner and Hamilton hired Larson during the pandemic — one of their biggest coups as an ownership team, Kerner said. "We've had great people run the kitchen in the past, but Erik is a dream chef."
What makes him so dreamy? "He listens, and his ego never gets in the way," Kerner noted. "He understands that we need to have a static menu for the customers who grace us every day, but we also have our specials, which is where he really shines."
On a recent visit, my partner and I opted for the regular menu items, but those were pretty shiny, too. We started with chicken "nuggs" ($8): whole pieces of tender chicken — rather than a ground-up meat composite — battered and fried, with a handful of sauce options. The basket of delicious fried chicken bits, which we dipped in a tangy, sweet and spicy chile sauce, gave me a thrill reminiscent of childhood.
"Internally, we call it elevated pub food," Kerner said, "but we also call it incredible stoner food. It's like, 'Hey, man, let's make chicken nuggets!'"
Stoned I was not, but the nuggs, combined with bites of charred vegetable salad ($12 to $16), made for pretty excellent sober person's food, too. Featuring a medley of winter crops, including Brussels sprouts, squash, green beans and potatoes, the hearty salad was topped with feta, pepitas and lemon tahini dressing. It was unlike any salad I'd had before. Why do people even serve normal salads in winter? I wondered, stabbing my fork into a delicious hunk of roasted potato.
I also enjoyed the finger-licking-good hot honey on the roasted corn fritters ($10) but wished there were more kernels studding the cornmeal batter.
As we ate, my companion sipped a Mayflower Brewing porter ($6) — one of 22 alcoholic options on tap — while I drank a refreshing Farmer's Hand Volume 2 hard cider ($6) from Brookfield's 1000 Stone Farm.
Kerner, who curates Three Penny's drink list, said he aims to create a mix that is "food friendly but also diverse ... with something for everyone." Greensboro's Hill Farmstead beers are in heavy rotation, typically occupying four to nine drafts. The list often features other marquee Vermont brewers, such as Waitsfield's Lawson's Finest Liquids and Albany's Wunderkammer Biermanufaktur, along with sips from both famous and emerging breweries around the country.
The cider I sampled is a newer offering. Long-standing vendors at the Burlington and Montpelier farmers markets, 1000 Stone owners Kyle Doda and Betsy Simpson are known for their produce and gorgeous selection of fungi. Last fall, they added a crisp, clean-tasting hard cider to their roster.
"Kyle and Betsy are really good friends of ours, and I love what they're doing," Kerner said. "They're really smart and hardworking. When [Kyle] started ... brewing, we talked about carbonation levels and pricing, and they just nailed it."
Kerner said that, while Three Penny sources ingredients from a wide range of area farms, 1000 Stone is its most frequent supplier. "We get mushrooms from them every week and greens in the summer," he noted.
Those very mushrooms, perfectly sautéed, made an appearance on a plate of bucatini carbonara ($20) alongside lots of fatty pork, bright green peas and a few strands of pea shoots. The pasta was ideally al dente, the yolk emulsion slick and delicious. My only wish was for a squirt of lemon juice — as nontraditional as that might be — and a little more salt in the pasta water.
Another winner on the dinner menu: spice-rubbed tuna with horseradish cream and a pile of arugula, buried under an avalanche of crisp, golden fried artichoke ($19).
Come summer, Kerner said, the expansion will allow the owners to set up an "alternative kitchen," like the one Three Penny had when it first opened, for the preparation of new menu options such as freshly rolled sushi. "It will alleviate some of the pressure on the main kitchen," he said, "and we will be able to seat more people."
Despite the challenges they've faced and their post-flood debt, Kerner and Hamilton are very pleased with how things are going at Three Penny — and especially with their seasoned staff.
"It takes forever to get to this point," Kerner said. "Everyone gets along. Everyone is working for the common good. Everyone is safe and happy and appreciated. There are no weak links within the system."
Even the well-oiled Three Penny machine, however, is no remedy for the vagaries of the weather. Like many Montpelier business owners, Kerner and Hamilton know they have to roll with the punches.
"You can't change a river, and there's literally nothing more powerful than water," Kerner said. "It's like the Bruce Lee thing: You've got to 'make yourself water.' There was nothing to say or do about [the flooding] but grasp what we needed to [accomplish] and try to move on."
Three Penny has admirably done just that.