New Restaurant In St. Albans

[Henry]

Toni Stone sent me the following note - Anybody else been there - Anybody have prices of lunch there?

Wanted you to know there is a jewel of a new restaurent in St  Albans down by the railroad.  Its run by grads of culinary institute...its amazing... excellent food...huge portions enuf to take home...french fried pickles...best for lunches..the salads are great...dinner is good but ..lunch is a better buy....nice place to take someone...



     CALLED ONE FEDERAL
  ....at lake and federal streets.
    turn down lake street
   at rail city market on main street..
      its an old foundry
   with tin walls, high ceilings, and fun staff people...
   feels a little like NYC inside. i think you might be amazed as I was to find it there. wow.

[trussell]

I've been there three times- once at the bar, once for dinner, and once for the Sunday Brunch.  The Brunch was amazing, although if I remember it was a little pricey for breakfast- something like $15/person- but the quality (and quantity, of course) of the food was definitely worth it.  I don't remember dinner prices, but they were probably a bit higher than other restaurants in that area- but again the food was excellent (including the fried pickles).

I would dare say that this is my favorite restaurant in Franklin County!

[fletchtb]

Nice write up in Seven Days about them...

http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2009/06/best-bites-one-federal.html

I've been wanting to eat there myself. One of these days we'll make it there for a meal.

[gpdvt]

We've been there 3 times also, once for supper(the night they opened), once for brunch and once more for dinner.  1st time it was a bit chaotic, food was good but wasn't "wowed". Didn't like the brunch the day we went. Odd assortment(spaghetti on a brunch line??), set up of line was odd..missing serviing untensils. 3rd time was the charm, great service,(though we did know the server),  food was very good..mussels "wowed" us. The remodel was nicely done, very classy without being pretentious. Probably go back. Hope it succeeds as St. A is in desparate need of an upscale restaurant. They certainly have a challenge though, restaurant biz is tough enought as it is not adding the current economy and the history of restaurant failures in this area.

[ASDuling]

I've also been 3 times. Once for apps, once for dinner, and once for dessert and every time was OK. Nothing spectacular, but it tasted good, the restaurant was clean and tastefully decorated. We brought our young daughter for dinner and ended up sharing our meals with her rather than ordering for her. There is no kids menu but there are plenty of Sides to chose from.

Warning about dessert: Ask for prices! There is no menu, they just tell you what is offered that day and don't mention the prices. If we'd known the prices we probably wouldn't have ordered or shared a dessert. I think my husband's apple crisp cost $9.00 and my chocolate cake was $8.00.

[MikeF9]

Eight or nine dollars for dessert? They should give you some free Tums for when the acid hits when you get the bill.

[edakrupp]

I'll be going up there this week end for dinner, and will be pleased to give it a review- sounds yummy!

[Henry]

A forum member sent me a note and told me that Cheryl Boissoneault owns the building and the restaurant is run by Marcus & Erica, but did not know their last name.

Also, this is the same building as the Old Foundry. Cheryl and her partner, Mark Ledoux, did a wonderful job redoing the inside of the restaurant. They removed the old carpet and put in nice light wood floors, painted to brighten up the walls, but still left the old railroad “charm” by keeping many of the older pictures of downtown St. Albans. They also tried to not make the inside be so “chopped up” and they took down some walls.

For myself, I am not a big fan of restaurants that have menus without prices, no matter how good the food is.  In many cases I go and get takeouts and Maryann goes on the Internet and decides what she wants and prints it out for me.

I don't usually get deserts with a meal, and certainly would not even think of paying 8 or 9 dollars for a desert along with a meal.  The forum member had sent me a menu, but it had no prices and did not come out clear enough for me to put up so people could read it.

Toni Stone mentioned that the Lunch was more affordable.  It is certainly good to get all the input, both pro and con rather than have somebody recommend it and get there and find out for yourself.

When I went there for my 50th Class Reunion back in 2001 we had a tough time finding a parking place.  Maryann was able to walk with a cane back then and the rooms were quite broken up and the bathrooms not too handicap accessible.  Those are some of the main reasons we have not been back.

If I ever get my hands on a menu with prices that will scan clear, will be glad to put it up.

[edakrupp]

I've worked in restaurants for a good portion of my life and found that most people start bawlking if dessert prices are more than $5.00 (with a 40% food loss percentage, it still leaves a comfortable range for profit)

$5.00 also a good base price for a pint of good beer!-

FYI- most alcohol sales have a 500% profit margin, and desserts are also high up in profit too.
Most perishable fresh fish and meat prices have low profit, due to food loss and cost.

[Mummy]

I enjoy excellent food and have been to five star restaurants outside of VT and I have NEVER seen $9.00 dessert, NEVER.  Perhaps $7!  Everyone enjoys a dessert when going to an up scal restaurant and I hope they reconsider their $8 and $9 pricing.  They should look into smaller portions and $6 price tag! 

[tfence]

Hi Henry,
Their last name is Hamblett. I did some work over there. I put a vinyl fence on the stage outside in the courtyard to hide their dumpsters and storage.

[Henry]

Mark Ledoux sent me a link to One Federal - You need very good eyes to read it as the print is very, very small, but you can check it out at:

http://www.onefederalrestaurant.com/of.swf

[Suzy]

It looks really good, and is making me hungry, but their web site says they have a "Victorian quart yard."  That's going to bother me for the rest of the day.  I did email them to fix it.  I hope they do it soon!

Suzy Spellchecker

[trussell]

... but their web site says they have a "Victorian quart yard."

Perhaps thats the outside area where one can enjoy a quart of their favorite beverage (we can handle more than a pint around here!)

[DrewCrash]

so my wife has been twice and truly enjoyed it. So we are going to go Saturday night. As long as its better than Jeff's, I will be happy. I love Vermont, but I hate its restaurants. Its the one thing I miss about the state that I originated in...