FERRISBURGH — After several years with minimal dining options, North Ferrisburgh now has a restaurant where one can get a homemade breakfast sandwich, a cold draft beer and everything in between.
The Village Café and Tavern on Route 7 opened this April, boasting a full bar with 10 draft lines, drive-through Green Mountain Coffee and breakfast options, and dine-in lunches and dinners. It is owned and operated by Dianne and Marcel Marcotte and their son Travis Marcotte, all of North Ferrisburgh.
The idea to open a restaurant came to the family about two years ago, Dianne Marcotte said.
“We talked about what the village of North Ferrisburgh needed, and thought it’s always nice to have a place where local people can come for affordable food,” she said.
“None of us have experience in the restaurant business,” Marcotte added, with a laugh. “However, we knew that there was a need we needed to fill and we tapped into other people that have knowledge of the restaurant business, which has been very helpful.”
The Marcottes built their restaurant on a parcel of land adjacent to the family’s used car lot, after removing a house and a mobile home from the location. There are three dining areas: a small front patio, seating indoors, and a patio behind the building. The drive-through has also been popular for customers getting breakfast, creemees, or picking up their pre-ordered New York style pizza.
“The town has been extremely supportive, I think the people in the town also saw that there was a need for this,” Marcotte said of the building and opening process.
“We’re really trying to keep it an affordable dining area for both locals and travelers,” Marcotte said. So far, she says, that goal has been a success.
“We have pizza flying out the door,” she reported.
Furthermore, the business has become a community gathering place with a large number of returning customers, thanks, Marcotte said, to the “friendly, social, and comfortable atmosphere.”
“We’ve had people that have moved to the area in the past two to three years and have said how much they love this and wish it had been here when they first came,” she recounted. “They’ve finally found a place to meet people.”
The restaurant has actively promoted community connection in several ways, including hosting private parties, helping with a fundraiser for a local man battling cancer, and welcoming area Little League teams for post-game creemees.
The Village Café and Tavern features live music monthly, and, Marcotte said four large flat-screen TVs give the bar a “sports bar vibe.”
The road to opening has been smooth and free of major glitches, the owners were happy to report.
“The biggest obstacle was finding the right people with restaurant knowledge to help us make this successful — and we have,” Marcotte reflected. “We’ve done zero advertising.”
The business has gotten most of its customers through word of mouth, aided by the restaurant’s Facebook page.
“Ferrisburgh has been starving for something like this,” Travis Marcotte concluded. “We haven’t had something like this restaurant in the community for years.”
The Village Café and Tavern drive-through café opens at 6 a.m., Monday-Friday, at 7a.m. on Saturday, and at 8 a.m. on Sunday. Dine-in lunch service begins at noon Tuesday-Sunday. Dinner is served nightly from 4-10 p.m., and the bar is open until close. For nightly dinner and drink specials, refer to the restaurant’s Facebook page.