After Ray's: How Essex's Food Map Got Redrawn This Year

Ray's Seafood Market and Restaurant closed for good in Essex this September. Over the past year, a pizzeria, a ramen bar, a barbecue joint, a café-bakery, a second pizza shop and a doughnut counter opened across Essex Town and Essex Junction. Almost every one of them started as something smaller, and so did Ray's.

The Restaurant That Was Supposed to Be a Fish Counter

Ray's opened in 1951 and served its last customers at 7 Pinecrest Drive on Saturday, Sept. 12, after 75 years in one family, according to the Essex Reporter. The business began with Ray himself, who sold wholesale seafood from Maine around the area. His son Reginale took it over and later passed it to his own children. Over the years it moved from North Street in Burlington to Five Corners in Essex Junction, then to its final spot off Susie Wilson Road.

The best detail in the Reporter's farewell piece is about the room. The family meant Pinecrest to be mostly a retail fish shop with a few tables. It became a busy 50-seat restaurant with vintage blue booths, white-topped tables and a huge live-lobster tank filling much of the ordering area. Trucks brought fish up from Boston, Maine and Canada several times a week. Ray's also supplied other businesses, including Lantman's Market in Hinesburg and Pulcinella's on Shelburne Road.

Co-owner Janis Clark told the Reporter that in the final week, customers mostly wanted to know one thing. "Right now everybody's worried about where they're going to get whole bellies," she said. Seven Days reported that the family left open the possibility of the wholesale side continuing in some form.

So Ray's went from a wholesale route to a fish counter, and the fish counter grew into a dining room. The newest spots in town are following the same path.

Everyone Who Arrived Started Somewhere Smaller

Ray's needed decades to grow into its 50 seats. The newcomers took the same route faster, and they chose small rooms on purpose. Penzo's is the clearest example, since it gave up a much larger dining room to come back.

Five Corners Got Its Pizza Back

Dave Penzo and his son Tyler launched Penzo's Pizza as a food truck in 2021, parking at Five Corners and working private events around town. They then ran a brick-and-mortar shop in Montpelier for three years before bringing the Neapolitan-style restaurant back to Maple Street, where it opened in December. The Essex Reporter summed up the move as going "from 120 seats to 20." Diners in Montpelier tended to order the pesto pie. In Essex, the favorite has been the Lou Barbeque, a cheddar and mozzarella pie with roasted chicken, bacon and apples, finished with Vermont maple syrup. The Penzo's website lists 3 Maple Street, open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closing at 8 p.m. on Sundays.

A few doors' worth of Five Corners changed in other directions this year. Bishnu Pokhrel opened Instant House at 4 Pearl Street on Jan. 21. It's a self-serve instant ramen bar with toppings, plus milk and boba teas, Asian snacks and frozen treats, per Seven Days. Going the other way, El Gato Cantina closed its Five Corners restaurant on May 31. according to WCAX. The Essex Reporter reported that owner Javier Zirko planned to move the Mexican restaurant to South Burlington and keep the food truck and catering going.

Essex Towne Marketplace Turned Into a Lunch Stop

Two of this year's openings went into the same plaza at 1 Market Place. Shane Corbett opened Pizzeria Corinna in Unit 13 on Feb. 20, serving whole pies, slices, subs and salads for dine-in or takeout, Seven Days reported. About a month later, on March 23, Toney Edmonds opened Meadow Roast Café in Unit 25. It's a café-bakery with espresso, scratch-made pastries, breakfast, and a lunch menu of sandwiches, soups and salads, also per Seven Days.

Neither one needed a new building. Both went into storefronts in a plaza that already existed, much like Penzo's on Maple Street and Instant House on Pearl. With small rooms, a new owner doesn't have to wait on a big construction project, and this whole run of openings happened without one.

Center Road and Upper Main: Trailer to Storefront, Booth to Garden

Matthew Desautels held the grand opening of 520 BBQ and Grill at 90 Center Road on Thursday, March 5. The Essex Reporter's story says the name honors "the guys" from his Army unit. He learned smoking and grilling from pit masters he met while stationed in Georgia, where they cooked at competitive barbecue events. Desautels grew up in Burlington and has lived in Essex for ten years. He started with a concessions trailer, then took the storefront when it came open. The brisket smokes for 12 to 16 hours. The sauce bar sits next to taps he plans to use once he has a liquor license. The menu also covers pulled pork, ribs, wings, hot dogs and sides, according to Seven Days.

At the other end of town, Twisted Halo opened its second shop at 45 Upper Main Street on July 18, per Seven Days. Emma Slater started the business as a pop-up at the Shelburne and Winooski farmers markets. Taylan Hagen, one of the original founders of the Winooski market, noticed her long breakfast line and joined her. The two now run the business together, with Slater baking and Hagen running the espresso bar, the Essex Reporter wrote. The shop sits on the Lang's Farm hillside and has a garden with a curving walkway and picnic tables. Slater told the Reporter, "Normally cafes that I have worked at try to turn tables as fast as possible. Whereas our priorities have been how can we make a place where people can spend all day." Getting the building permitted and up to code took two years. They sold more than 600 doughnuts during the soft opening. Cinnamon churro, maple glazed and cream-filled are the best sellers. The Essex shop is open Friday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Hours here come from opening-season coverage, so check with each shop before you head out:

• Penzo's Pizza, 3 Maple Street, Essex Junction
• Instant House, 4 Pearl Street, Essex Junction
• Pizzeria Corinna, 1 Market Place, Unit 13
• Meadow Roast Café, 1 Market Place, Unit 25
• 520 BBQ and Grill, 90 Center Road
• Twisted Halo, 45 Upper Main Street, Friday through Sunday

The Gap the Newcomers Didn't Fill

The new arrivals bring pizza, ramen, brisket, pastries and doughnuts. None of them is a fish counter. Clark told the Reporter that Ray's was one of the only places in Vermont to get fresh seafood. The Ray's bait-and-tackle shop at 49 North Street in Burlington stayed open after the Essex closing, but it doesn't sell seafood to eat.

For a seafood case, the closest specialty option is Williston Meat & Fish Market at 104 Cornerstone Drive in Williston. Its site lists hours of 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The in-store list includes salmon, halibut, tuna, swordfish, haddock, cod, shrimp, scallops, oysters, countneck clams and mussels, and stock changes with the season. That covers your fish. Whole-belly clams fried the way Ray's made them are still missing from Essex.

Picking a place to live in Essex often comes down to which of these spots you'd walk to on a Saturday. If you're weighing a place near Five Corners, Upper Main or Center Road, we'll happily talk it through over a brisket plate or a maple glazed doughnut. Isaiah Donaldson and the idENTITY team know these streets well. Get in touch.