Whiskey Weekend!

“Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities.” –Lord Dunsany

Savor the Whiskeys of the World at a special culinary weekend
Hosted by renowned whiskey expert Brian McQueenie of Ouidram
November 18-19, 2011
The Essex Resort & Spa

Friday:
Whiskey Reception, 6 p.m.

Saturday:
‘Cooking with Whiskey’ Class, 1 p.m.
Five courses with whiskey pairings, including:
• Vermont cheddar and whiskey-stuffed Chicken Statler
• Vermont apple slaw with whiskey gastrique
• Vermont honey cake with fresh bourbon whipped cream
120* per person

Saturday:
Whiskey Dinner in Amuse, 7 p.m.
Six courses with whiskey pairings, including:
• Whiskey-flavored amuse bouche
• Petit filet mignon topped with seared foie gras, fresh baby vegetables, and whiskey demi
…or
• Vegetable paella with tofu scallops, served with tomato-whiskey broth
• Flourless chocolate cake with whiskey mousse
$85* per person

Overnight packages also available.

Visit our Front Desk or call 800-727-4295 for more information.

*Tax and gratuity not included.

Spa at The Essex is Now Open!

Our brand new Spa at The Essex is now open and fully functioning!

We opened for our first day on June 26, 2009 and the excitement of the day was resonating throughout the entire resort and our customers.  Since it is still within the first week, we will tell you more about the functions, services and the entire operation after we have experienced an entire week– it is looking and running as smoothly as we had hoped so far!

New England Culinary Institute & The Essex: A sure thing.

Dear Friends,

With recent news of the consolidation of New England Culinary Institute (NECI) and the “closing” of their Essex Campus – we realize that there has been some confusion about what this means for The Essex Resort & Spa.  We’d like to take this opportunity to provide clarity to our friends.
First and foremost, we fully support NECI in their endeavors of closing the Franklin Street campus in the village of Essex Junction.  This is a well thought out, strategic move for NECI that supports their Culinary College theme.

This consolidation does not affect the ongoing operations of our resort food and beverage services.  NECI trained Chefs and student interns will continue to provide the exceptional cuisine we’ve been proud of for the last 20 years!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have and click below to read more about NECI’s consolidation.  We appreciate your continued support!

Jim Glanville
General Manager

Party, Wedding & Function Planning in Full Swing!

The party planning season is coming around full-swing and The Essex is proud to announce their newly renovated ballroom as of this month! Whether it is a large company gathering or a pleasant wedding reception the ballroom can fit up to 130 guests. A rehearsal dinner or brunch with all of your closest family and friends would be perfect for the space!

Featured above is our NECI Wedding Coordinator, Stacy Elwell. She is one of the party planning ladies from the entire Essex Resort and Spa! She will coordinate your visit and be a part of every aspect throughout the planning process to being a part of the harmonious event you dreamed of having.  Site tours, menu tasting with the New England Culinary Institute and outdoor adventure opportunities can be a great adventure.  Your wedding should be the time of your life!

Visit the special Weddings & Catering section on our Web site!

By Maggie Kerin

Girls, Guys, Pack a bag, bring all your Friends and Get Away!

My inbox is filling up with emails requesting “Girlfriends Weekend Getaways”. Women are coming two, four, six, even eight groups of friends  at the same time from all over New England, Middle Atlantic States and Eastern Canada to take a very short vacation away from life.  They generally share our value-priced traditional two-bedded rooms, keep our room service staff hopping, dine casually in The Tavern and Butler’s (they’re loving our award-winning wine lists, BTW), take Chefs Courtney and Kerry’s Cook Academy classes in our beautiful theater kitchen (addicting!).

Request in-room massages, shop Essex Shoppes designer outlets next door, and enjoy the Burlington area’s sophisticated range of fine and performing arts. “Girlfriends Weekend Getaways” will really pick up when our spa opens mid-May and our warm season sports, golf, tennis and fly-casting, get underway. In fact, we have just joined the premier private golf course in Vermont at the Country Club of Vermont which offers the most spectacular views one can find on a golf course.

Hey, men! How about “Guys Getaway Weekends” at The Essex? Call me at 800-727-4295,  I’ll custom-design a fabulous experience for you and your friends!

By Dave Hakins, Director of Business Development

Fun in the Kitchen!

Although it was a few weekends back, Valentine’s  weekend was full of love and fun cooking! We loaded up on rich and decadent dark chocolate Fondue in our Fondue Demo that was open to the public on Saturday! We dipped hazelnut wafers, ginger molasses cookies, and soft chocolate chunk cookies! Later in the day I taught a class how to make Fettuccine Alla Carabonara in “Ticket To Rome”. On Sunday, I taught a brunch class where we prepared poached eggs, made herb hollandaise sauce, and the best ever fennel & pork breakfast sausage!


Enjoy the recipe and let me know how it comes out for you.

Fennel & Pork Breakfast Sausage

Makes 16- 2 inch patties

2 pounds fine ground pork
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 ∏ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 ∏ teaspoons fennel seed
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
∏ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

Mix all ingredients well. Form into 1 inch rounds. Refrigerate and use within one week or freeze for up to 3 months.  To cook, heat a cast iron pan or similar heavy pan to medium low. Cook about 10-15 minutes or until brown on both sides and cooked through.

We have classes almost every week, incorporating local and seasonal foods and creating our own spins on the tastiest international and traditional foods.

See you in the kitchen!

By Chef Courtney

Are you having an 800 Pound Wedding Day?

Did you know that the average American wedding produces 800 pounds of garbage?

That’s right 800 pounds! As of lately, the sales team at the Inn has decided to draw their attention to the evolving trend of green weddings. As a team we would like to offer our wedding clientele responsible choices that make a statement. Not only can you make your wedding day a beautiful and romantic ceremony, but you can also take the chance to make the wedding reflect yourself and your concerns for the environment.

New England Culinary Institute is a founding member of the Vermont Fresh Network, as well as the Inn at Essex being a member of the Green Hotel Association, and prides itself on taking care of the environment and bettering the long-term value of our property and staff.  Here at the Inn at Essex we focus on social responsibility. Not only do we recycle and compost all excess food, we make a point of using energy efficient light bulbs in all our facilities. We also offer our guests the opportunity to share our social responsibility with our towel re-use program as a water conserving method.

There are many ways to go green on your wedding day, and the Inn at Essex has already started to make your special day socially responsible. Here at the Inn our food products come from local, seasonal and sustainable farms and vendors.  Recently, we have begun to research ways to make your event even greener. For example, using soy candles, reducing plastic and paper usage, and purchasing green cleaning products that contain natural ingredients.

By Mimi Overman

Swinging out of Retirement and Loving your Career

I’ve retired twice in my life. The first time, after I had sold my conference and event-planning firm based in New Jersey. Soon after I sold my firm, I received and accepted an appointment from Governor Jim Douglas to become the Director of Sales & Promotion for Vermont Tourism. Vermont leaders later asked me to run the Vermont Convention Bureau.

Hey, what’s better than selling Vermont every day?

When I decided to conclude my public service career a few months ago, only one job could have drawn me out of retirement a second time; the opportunity to work with friends and sell The Essex every day to organizers of meetings, incentive travel programs, events, reunions, etc.

So here I am, mixing and matching the quality and amenities of the Lake Champlain Region’s leading resort, the totally trendy destination of Burlington, and the wrap-around activities of Vermont. Oh, yes, at the same time I’m helping organizers plan their group events and travel at The Essex. I work with Vermont’s happiest resort staff, dine on Vermont’s finest cuisine every day, and stay fit “test-driving” all of great  recreational assets at The Essex. I’m looking forward to our huge indoor pool and state-of-the-art fitness center when they open in May and selling The Essex to the group market, watching the joy of our group guests, and having fun here myself makes my third retirement seem like a long way off.

By Dave Hakins

Out with “The Inn” and in with “The Essex – Vermont’s Culinary Resort and Spa”

The transition from country hotel to full-service resort

“Country Inn Charm… Luxury Hotel Service” 

All thru the 1990’s and early 2000’s, this was our tag line.  We certainly were – and continue to be – “charming”, and the fact is, we’re the most luxurious property in our region (heck – we are the only AAA Four-Diamond Resort in Chittenden County / Greater Burlington).  But this tag line, though accurate, sometimes just didn’t feel like us.  During our formative early years, it probably did best describe what we were:  a very nice country hotel providing exceptional service and wonderful dining by the New England Culinary Institute (NECI).  Those traits certainly live on today, but they tell only a small piece of what has evolved at our property over the past five-plus years.

Since 2003, we have been experiencing a steady evolution towards what will come to fruition this spring, making us the only full-service, luxury resort in the Greater Burlington, Vermont area.

Here’s a snapshot of that evolution:

2003 Spring – Owners agree there is pent up demand for world-class, full service resort in the Greater Burlington, and it needed to be filled.  We realize that a spa is really needed in this area – and lack of indoor pool has been hurting our business for years!  Resort theme needs to be pursued with a culinary angle that we uniquely possess having one of the top rated culinary schools in the country here on-site.  How can we really integrate the classroom with the dining room, in an exciting and accessible way?

2003/2004 – 90 hotel guest rooms are renovated by renowned designer of Manchester VT – Susan Sargent.  Links at Lang Farm Golf Course opens all 18 holes across the street from the Inn.  

2004 – 6 Har-Tru Tennis Courts are built and partnership formed with New England Tennis Holidays, the #1 adult rated tennis program in the country.  Spa study begins, initial consultants hired.  NECI receives coveted Wine Spectator Award for our wine list!

2005 – Relationship formed with Vermont National Country Club (semi-private Jack Nicklaus golf course) and Country Club of Vermont (exclusive course with spectacular views) to offer the finest golf venues in Vermont!  Partnership with Dacor is formed, and hands-on-kitchen is built to offer classes to the general public by the New England Culinary Institute.

2006 – Permitting is submitted, plans begin for the spa.  We see a distinct shift in our guest mix to those looking to stay on property more and make the most of our on-site amenities, in addition to our Burlington area assets.

2007 – Spa permitting is approved.  Inn becomes approved as an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Lodge… the first in Vermont!  We purchase a hot air balloon as an additional resort offering.

2008 – Spa begins construction!!  Stocked fly-casting pond is added to front of property.  Northern Lights Rock and Ice builds an on-site rock and ice climbing facility with twin 400 ft zip lines for yet another interesting resort amenity.

2009 – Spa is scheduled for a spring 2009 opening!  A 22,000 sq. ft facility featuring 10 treatment rooms, full salon services, movement studio, multiple coed and same-sex relaxation areas, 25 yard indoor pool with 18 person outdoor hot tub and 900+ sq. ft. fitness center.

So today, we look at our original name (“The Inn at Essex”) and realize,we are no longer an “inn” (never really were), and this says nothing of what we offer or are coming to be.

With that, I introduce, The Essex, Vermont’s Culinary Resort & Spa

Hope to see you soon and often!

Jim Glanville, Vice President & General Manager