Junior’s Downtown Pizzeria – Veggie and Pepperoni Slices

Junior's Downtown - Burlington Vermont

Junior’s expanded a while ago from their Colchester location. They have 6-9ish pies ready for reheating, for lunch / dinner / late night at their downtown Burlington Vermont location.

Junior's Downtown - Veggie and Pepperoni Slices

Caramelized onions, zucchini, summer squash?, red pepper, fresh garlic, EVOO and mozzarella round out this creation. Everything is in balance, and all of the ingredients lend a nice sweetness.

The pepperoni slice is just classic, some grease, but not overwhelming with trade mark fresh sauce and parmesan sprinkled over it.

The crust, as usual, is crisp and chewy.

Oddly Junior’s pies aren’t particulary good cold, it’s best to reheat them.

$6.64 for these two slices. You can find better prices on pizza, but not better quality (for tradional style, I think Flatbread is a different catagory)

Junior’s – “Hot Wings” (dozen)

Oh hot wings, they’re always such a roll of the dice, but I can’t resist. I guess I have a bit of a chicken wing gambling problem. I love Junior’s so I thought I would try their recent menu addition.

Junior’s – Hot Wings (dozen)

Lots of celery on the side, but they forgot my side of blue cheese, which by the way I like for the veggies, not for the wings. Immediately after taking of the lid of the take-out tin there is wonderful, buttery, spicy, garlicky?! aroma. I could also see by the texture, these wings do not pass the two rules of chicken wing cooking, and tasting confirmed that.

The wing sauce is an interesting take on tradition hot sauce, the butter was well represented here. Until recently I didn’t know that butter was a component of hot wing sauce. Fresh garlic made up for the lack of traditional vinegar zing, I like this sauce a lot. However Junior’s needs to stick to their day job of awesome pizza and Italian food.

Also in Junior’s news, they have a new downtown Burlington Vermont location, home to the former Dunkin Donuts. Per the Junior’s website, the downtown location will open April 1st.

I believe a dozen wings were $8.99 pre-tax.

Big Chile Republic – “Fish Tacos”

Big Chile Republic has taken over the old Juniors location in Colchester Vermont. The menu is something I’m going to call foodie Mexican fusion.

Big Chile Republic – Colchester Vermont

BCR did a nice job on the interior and the menu / website are nice, almost like they have a designer working for them or are trying to match their hip food.

Big Chile Republic – Fish Tacos

There are two generous tacos in this order, the fish was some of most perfectly fried fish I’ve had since I was in England. The red rice was nice and moist and had good flavor, the onions and cabbage provided a nice crunch which matched the crunch of the fish. The fresh cilantro was nice visually and taste bud wise. The surprise was the “smoked lemon mayo” it was very light and tasted like the lightest sour cream with a kick of citrus and an indefinable flavor (which must be the smoked). 

Oh yeah, I’ll be back to try some of their other menu items. The tacos were $8.67 with tax, a touch pricey but well worth it for the quality of the food and flavors.

Junior’s Italian, “Pesto Pizza with Sesame Crust”

You can’t have a food blog about lunch and not mention pizza. You also can’t mention Pizza in the Burlington area, without mentioning Junior’s. Judging by their new space behind the Burger King, off of I-89 exit 16 in Colchester, Vermont they’ve been doing well for themselves, there is a reason for that. Despite the fact that they are now in a building I affectionately refer to as the “Pizza Factory” (it’s much larger than their old spot) they still turn out amazing pizza. This is the best pizza to be had around town. Pictured above is their pizza box, once of the signs that you’ve “arrived” as a pizzeria is having your own box (yes they deliver).

The Pesto is fresh, the basil smells great with the garlic. The mozzarella tastes great and has great texture.

Sesame Crust, you must try it if you like sesame seeds. The oven toasts the seeds, elevating the crust and thus  the pizza. Speaking of crust, even without the sesame crust upgrade, Junior’s consistently has great crust: it’s both chewy and crispy.

One small complaint, the pesto this time was run through a food processor (like you would normally expect), but this was not the norm. Previously the pesto consisted of chopped basil, chopped garlic, and whole pine-nuts (also of course the other requisite ingredients). A quick call to Junior’s told me that this was an attempt to make this pie easier to assemble for the cooks, but they would gladly do it the old way if I requested it (I recommend you do).

Even with that being said this is the best pesto pizza around. I believe this pie was around $17-18, a little pricey but in a league of its own.