Red Square, Church Street Marketplace, and Church Street Tavern
If you were to Google "Things to do in Burlington, VT", pretty much every site you find is probably going to tell you to check out the Church Street Marketplace. In the past couple of decades, I have really noticed a pivot to these open air type of shopping areas. Even in climates where you might not expect them.
In Michigan for example, I know of at least two or three traditional malls that have been closed, demolished, and the land repurposed for an open air space. It harkens back to that small town mainstreet feel and gives residents a space to enjoy nature and the community all in one place.
Church Street Marketplace fits that to a "T". I mentioned it was one of the things we really loved about Burlington in this post. You might want to check back there first if you didn't read it before you continue with this post.
After spending the morning in Stowe, VT and hitting up Idletyme Brewery for lunch, we made our way back to Burlington and spent some downtime in our hotel room.
After a couple of hours, we were still kind of full from lunch, but we decided to head down to Church Street to see what it was like. We had briefly walked on part of Church Street the night before, but I really had no idea just how long it is and how many different offerings are available there.
Even now, we didn't explore but 25% of the Church Street Marketplace. I have a feeling if we had been blessed with better weather, we probably would have spent quite a bit of time down there. This area is probably a madhouse in the late Spring through early Fall.
As we were walking toward the South end of Church Street, we heard some blues music coming from inside this little hole in the wall place called Red Square. They had an outdoor seating area and it was a relatively nice day, so @mrsbozz took a seat and I went inside to get a couple of drinks.
It was actually really packed inside given that there was a band playing, I don't know if we would have been able to find a table even if we wanted to. Thankfully, there were plenty of tables available outside. Sitting outside also gave us the opportunity to people watch which is one of the things that we love to do when we are traveling. We got to watch all the different people stroll up and down Church Street.
I did take some video of the band playing, but Hive doesn't make it easy to include short videos without having to upload it somewhere else first, so I won't be able to share it with you.
As you can see, Church Street is a cobblestone avenue that they don't allow vehicles on. That doesn't mean we didn't see a couple of lost tourists try to accidentally turn down it a time or two. Thankfully, I was never one of those tourists!
The longer we sat and listened to the band, the more the outdoor seating area started to fill in. This was one of the places where we really started to notice just how early it gets dark this time of year in Burlington.
There was an older homeless man wandering around outside the establishment. No one seemed to really pay him any mind, but it was interesting to watch him. We noticed that a lot of the homeless people seem to talk to themselves. My wife being the mental health professional that she is wondered if they were homeless because they had an issue or if the issue developed because they were homeless.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the homeless man pulled out some chalk and made this drawing on the cobblestone sidewalk. It was pretty impressive. Better than anything I would ever be able to draw.
There was an art gallery right across the street in the old Ethan Allen Engine Co No 4 Firehouse, but I don't think his art is the kind that they show off in there. The folks we saw coming in and out of the gallery were dressed quite a big fancier than any of the clothes we had brought with us on this trip.
This area of Burlington really has that small town feel and despite the homeless people who you often see wandering around, it feels like a really safe space. I have heard that recently the town council set aside some money to make this area safer. Apparently business owners have had issues with shoplifting and they don't like the idea of their employees needing to walk to their cars from this area with a night deposit each night.
The money is going to improve security, lighting and several other things.
I don't really feel like one thing is related to the other, but Vermont is pretty liberal when it comes to cannabis. There are dispensary locations pretty much everywhere you look. Personally, I don't care for the smell like I used to, so it is a little off-putting for me.
If you imbibe though, there are plenty of options for you here. Just outside the Red Door I could see no less than five different dispensary locations as I looked around.
At one point, we saw a young lady walking by with a big round canvas bag. It had a strap and she was carrying it at her side with the strap across her chest. @mrsbozz and I immediately started trying to guess what it was she was carrying around. I ended the round of guessing with a joke and said that I thought she was carrying her hula hoops around in it.
@mrsbozz laughed and we continued enjoying the band until they finished their set.
Since the band was done playing for a bit and it was starting to get darker, we decided to head North down Church Street to find another place to hang out. Imagine our surprise when as we got a little further up the street, we saw that young lady again doing a street performance outside our next stop. Her props... you guessed it! Hula Hoops! You can just see her in the photo above on the right side of the street next to the trees.
We ended up in a cool little place called Church Street Tavern. It had a rustic feel and it was decently busy for a Friday night in late Fall. I have a feeling it is a hopping place during the regular tourist season.
By now we were getting a bit hungry, so we decided to get a couple appetizers to share.
We got mozzarella sticks and the chicken nachos to share. The food wasn't the greatest thing we have ever had in our lives, but it did the trick and hit the spot. It was better than some other places I have visited and I wouldn't hesitate to come back here again. In fact, we thought about visiting again a time or two during the rest of our stay in Burlington. We never did though because there were just too many other places to check out.
We had a really good time at the tavern, we share some laughs with the bartender, watches some sports, and had several rounds of drinks. I would highly recommend checking out this place if you get the chance.
Church Street Marketplace was a great place to hang out and now I totally understand why it sits on pretty much every list of must see places in Burlington, VT.
We could have spent our whole trip just exploring this area and we still probably wouldn't have covered it all.
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I was thinking for a moment there that you didn't find anything to eat, but good to see some food photos. Although just some snacks, I think it helps to go with a few drinks.
The Church Street area looks like a nice place to hangout, The pedestrianised zones are quite popular here too, just not so much if you need to find somewhere to park or live nearby and there isn't enough parking.
I also think many homeless have mental health issues, it for sure is a big issue of our time.
Thankfully, Burlington is small enough that even if you have to park a couple of blocks away, it's not too bad to walk. As long as the weather is nice. We had an instance where we had to run through the rain to get to a place we parked a couple blocks away from. The food was quite good for sure!
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These are great shots, I think next time you can make a GIF out of the video, it's also cool right?
Yeah, I could try doing that. Would it have sound though? That was the main thing was to get the band playing. I can always share it with 3Speak, but it makes it harder to compose a post around the video.
Nope, it wouldn't have sound.
Burlington looks more like Portland, ME than any of the other places you've written about. I'm going to have to look up some of the statistics to see how it compares. Great photos!
Thanks! I am going to have to move Portland up my list of places to visit then. We had a really great time here despite the weather.
I think you'll like it. It's small enough to explore in a long weekend. We may go back at some point. If we do it again we would probably want to stay right in the downtown area.
That makes sense, I will have to check it out. That was kind of my problem with Burlington. In my head I wanted this quaint isolated VRBO in the mountains, then when I started looking at where the nightlife and restaurants were, I realized I was better off just getting a hotel room in downtown Burlington.
It's definitely a trade off. We opted for the same route in Portland. We found a nice B&B tucked into a historical neighborhood but there wasn't much within walking distance and parking was outrageously expensive and not too plentiful downtown. We've learned that, generally, it's best to stay where you can explore the city by foot but Ireland will be the exception next time. I want to stay in the countryside for our next visit.
That makes a lot of sense. I think what we might do is find that isolated place here in the state where we have already done our exploring. That way we aren't missing too much. Sure, we might have to go out to eat, but other than that, we can just stay warm and cozy somewhere. @mrsbozz keeps hinting at going away during the winter sometime and just spending a weekend watching the snow fall.
Looks like a nice place. Food looks good and that bourbon sure looked really good! At least the weather cooperated that day.
Many homeless people are schizophrenic and that's why they end up homeless. The sad part is many are veterans. Our country has a horrible system when it comes to treating the mentally ill. I fell bad for those poor folks...
I definitely agree with that. We need a whole lot more money and supports in place for mental health programs. The bourbon was a nice Wild Turkey. It was quite tasty, but not the best one I tried all weekend.
Greetings! I was struck by your publication and the places you showed us through your photos.
I found the square quite interesting, I think it is a good place to sit in company to eat, talk, and even, to read a good book.
It also looked delicious the dish you chose to eat. I hope you enjoyed your trip. Best regards!
Thank you, I appreciate it. This was just one of many places that you could sit and spend time outdoors. It was really great. I just wish we could have spent more time there.
Burlington looks very beautiful
It will surely be a nice place to be
Have a great day!
Thank you!
wow such a beautiful place, thank you for sharing it with us
There are some malls in my city that will surely get demolished or repurposed within the next decade. There are also an unnecessary amount of highrises being built. A lot of condos sold as investment properties. I wish they'd envision outdoor spaces like this.
It's pretty cool when you see how it draws in the community and gives them a safe space. I think the fact that most of the businesses are top notch helps too. The tallest building in downtown Burlington is maybe 10 floors at best, so that makes it nice.
Its sounds like a nice place to visit, and I'm glad to hear that more are 'mainstreets' are popping up to replace malls. I've not been to the states since the whole cannabis liberation thing, and its not legal to sell here, so its odd to think that there would be 5 dispensaries just right there ! Its not my thing - but each to their own, and if it reduces crime - than I'm all for that.
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It's pretty much everywhere. The same in Michigan. You still aren't supposed to be able to smoke it in public, but so many people do. If you don't catch a contact high at most concerts these days, you are lucky.
Its funny here because its not sold legally, but I pass someone smoking it quite a few times each week, openly in the street. From memory I think its decriminalised here for possession of small amounts for personal use. But otherwise its not legal.
That sounds about how it is supposed to be here. You are supposed to just smoke it in your house, but out in your car or in a park is illegal. That doesn't keep people from doing it though. If you caught a cop on a bad day, they would likely write you up for it.
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