The prime real estate left empty early this year by Rustico's won't remain dormant long. As soon as May, the space in the Essex Shoppes & Cinema outlet will be home to a new bakery and café.

According to Arnd Sievers, director of food and beverage at the Essex Culinary Resort & Spa, construction has already begun on the Essex Bake & Coffee Shop.

He and the Essex's executive chef, Shawn Calley, will oversee the new restaurant, which will be open for breakfast and lunch. Croissants, danish and quiche will be among the morning offerings. At lunch, Sievers says the shop will serve sandwiches on homemade sourdough bread, along with soups.

Espressos, lattes and cappuccinos will likely attract a grown-up café crowd, but there's something special for younger folk, too: A creemee machine that will extrude soft ice cream year round.

The bakeshop will close in the late afternoon to prepare for evening cooking classes. Sievers says he hopes the spot will host classes on subjects including artisan bread making and cupcakes, at least three times a week, but would be willing to hold them every day if the demand arises. Sievers thinks it might — daily classes at the resort regularly fill up. A small market selling high-end kitchen tools will help students replicate their handiwork at home.

Sievers and Calley are currently interviewing pastry chefs to staff the Essex Bake & Coffee Shop. It's a big job: The new location will also serve as a retail bakery, making birthday and special-occasion pastries and even wedding cakes. Things are about to get sweeter in Essex.

115 St. Paul Street, Burlington, 861-2999

This week, I continue my mini-series of Burlington artisan pizza surprises.

If you live practically anywhere in Vermont, you know and love American Flatbread for its chewy, almost pretzel-like crust and fresh, local ingredients. But what you may not know is that the St. Paul Street restaurant serves a kick-ass brunch — all on a pizza.

Before I could dig into my pie, I had to find a morning replacement for a mug of Zero Gravity. And did I ever. In fact, I have a new favorite soda.

Ales brewed with beets. Saisons that taste like apricots. Black IPA aged in casks. Last night in Montréal, the annual three-day L'Hivernale des Brasseurs (Winter Warmer Montreal) beer fête began got into swing inside the Thèâter Plaza, part of the Montreal et Lumiere arts and culinary festival that continues through this weekend. I drove up last night to check it out, stumbling into a room of three bars (on two levels) exuberantly poured beguiling, unusual beers from the province and beyond, some of which hardly ever see the public eye.

For a $95 ticket, participants were given a tiny, tulip-shaped glass and invited to drink all they wanted, as well as nosh on circling plates of ribs, gougeres and pastries topped with pea-shoot puree. Though the glasses were small, it didn't keep bartenders from filling them to the brim and toasting along with you. It was like a garden of paradise for the serious beer lover, which in this case seemed to be primarily (and usually bearded) men.

149 South Champlain St., Burlington, 540-0060

Years ago, when my boyfriend worked at Pizza Hut, the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet there was one of my greatest guilty pleasures. CiCi's Pizza Buffet commercials make me salivate, even though the food is notoriously awful. So is there such a thing as good all-you-can-eat pizza? Actually, yes: every Friday at Burlington's August First.

At 6 p.m. each week, the bakery's staff pushes the tables into three long rows; diners are seated family-style. I had heard that the experience is a raucous free-for-all, but co-owner Jodi Whalen explained that the Wild West ambiance has calmed since they replaced the buffet with table service at the beginning of this year.

The new system works well. Servers deliver breads as they're baked. When your table is done with one variety, you pass it on to the next group. Sometimes lazy diners gum up the works, but as long as you're proactive about it, you shouldn't have any trouble trying around 10 different pizzas in a sitting.

During the time of year when heating bills trump most other parts of my budget, I usually make a heavy-hearted but necessary sacrifice: seeking out and drinking bottles of wine that cost no more than $10. 

This isn't a huge hardship, or course. At least I can still afford to drink wine, and to feed myself, which is more than some people can say this time of year. But I'm the type who will often postpone necessities, such as an oil change, in order to eat and drink well. I figure the only things I'll take with me when I leave this world are memories of great love, great friendship and amazing meals.

Still, drinking the low end of the wine spectrum is an invigorating romp. I get to explore an entire category of vino I usually pass over — and once in a while, find a keeper.

1930 Williston Road, South Burlington, 862-3653

I love food so much, I assume every restaurant is good until proved otherwise. And when I get a recommendation for a stellar brunch, I don't care where it is, I hightail it over there, believing every word.

That was what brought me to the Pour House last Sunday. It wasn't just one recommendation, either. A few acquaintances had mentioned that the Williston Road pub was a hidden gem, and 7 Nights critiques seemed to back it up. And there was a moose head, still decorated for Christmas. How could I go wrong?

Clearly, the folks I'd heard from weren't the only aficionados. Around 12:30 p.m., we got in line for a 10-minute wait. The large space was packed with sports fans watching a game and scanning the museum of local teams' treasures, but more of the crowd was there enjoying a beer with eggs or pancakes. That's right, the Pour House is the kind of place where there's no shame in starting the day with a brewski.

There were almost as many brunch specials as there were dishes on the regular menu and it all sounded good. But I couldn't help but settle on the "Irish eggs Benedict," described on the bill of fare as the house special.

It was an unconventional Benedict to say the least. The smallish plate was packed with cubes of potato, green peppers and prime rib. A pair of poached eggs sat on top, bathed in Hollandaise sauce. Chewy, buttery, house-baked bread sat on the side.

Oranges and chocolates are like yin and yang. Clementines chased with mocha, one of the best late-afternoon snacks ever. Clementines dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt? Oh...

This simple confection has made the rounds on food blogs for weeks, first appearing (I believe) on the Food Network's site at the start of the California Cutie harvest around the holidays. Lucky for us, cheerful replacements arrive from north Africa and the Middle East throughout the winter. Marrying them to the tide of chocolate that comes with every Valentine's Day is a no-brainer.

195 Falls Road, Shelburne, 985-9511

There are few foods in the world more simply pretty than a buckwheat crêpe. The purplish brown pastry, dotted with air bubbles and lightly browned, is the culinary equivalent of that perfect white T-shirt. Dress it up or down, it's almost always classy. And it tastes good, too.

For five years, devotees flocked to the Shelburne Farmers Market to get these pancakes from the French Farmhouse Crêpes cart. It was no surprise, then, that the Lemon Peel Café & Crêperie, owned by the cart's creators, Rob and Hilary Scharf, had a line almost out the door last Sunday afternoon.