These last few weeks have been crazy at our food desk. We're nearing the end of production on 7Nights, our annual dining guide, which lists hundreds of restaurants around the state. To add to the madness, we're also in the thick of planning Vermont Restaurant Week, an annual culinary shindig which kicks off in late April with 80+ restaurants, not to mention a week's worth of events, each one of which needs TLC.

It's inspiring to think of all the pork belly and tachin I'll be lapping up in a few weeks. But for now, what I need in my late afternoon life is chocolate. And not just the everpresent Doves Promises in my top drawer. I need something bigger, bolder and denser with alkaloids.

While waiting on a sandwich recently, my glazed eyes fell upon boxes of Lovely Oh's, made by Waitsfield's Liz Lovely. They resembled chunky chocolate UFOs. I snapped some up, and they didn't disappoint: Once you bite through the armor of dark chocolate, your teeth meet a crunchy chocolate biscuit and the slightest hint of earthy peanut butter. Lovely Oh's are kind of like a wholesome combination of Promises, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats and Famous Chocolate Wafers. Best of all, they're dark, through and through (no matter how desperate for chocolate I become, I can't stomach milk or white).

And they're vegan! WTF? Amazing.

I've never met you, Liz Lovely, but your Peanut Butter Lovely Oh's are a thing of beauty. They have seen me through many a dark, ink-stained hour. 

18 Severance Green, Colchester, 876-7770

Since the Dragonfly Café opened in the fall of 2009, 18 Severance Green has been a revolving door for restaurants. From the Dragonfly to Sophie's American Bistro and now the Jack & Grill, a new eatery has opened in the space nearly every year. If the Jack & Grill makes some changes, though, it may have a fighting chance.

When I was first seated at one of the dining room's comfy booths, I was nonplussed to look across the room at a large poster of Jack Skellington, hero of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Then my dining companion pointed out Jack Black. Indeed, it turned out, we were sitting in a "Jack" theme restaurant.

As for the "Grill" end of things, I'd have to find it on the menu. The large bill of fare was a pleasant surprise. Though there was nothing too exotic, it offered many appealing, low-priced options. Ahi tuna steak with lemon caper sauce sounded good. So did the smoked pig wing appetizer.

However, I couldn't resist the special soup. At $2.99 for a cup, the price was certainly right, and I can't say no to a Greek lemon-chicken soup.

Called avgolemono in Greece, the stuff is usually filled with eggs, too, making it slightly creamy. This version was more of a classic chicken soup with rice — and a lot of lemon. It scratched my sour itch like few other restaurant dishes, sweetened up just slightly by meltingly tender onions and celery.

I was excited to get my grill on with a pork ribeye. Advertised on the menu with the words "Jack's favorite. You'll never have better pork," I definitely got my hopes up.

There was nothing wrong with the chop (that is, after all, what a ribeye is — a marbled rib chop, as opposed to a lean loin chop), but it wasn't the best pork I ever had. The outside had even grill marks and a nice char, and the inside showed just a hint of pink. However, the meat was barely seasoned and dressed only with a bit of melted butter on top.

The scoop of creamy smashed potatoes, if a bit mealy in texture, was flavorful, but it was only lukewarm. I love me some baby asparagus, but the sparse spears I received were woody at the ends. As I ate it, I heard a server tell another customer not to order it. Wish I'd gotten the same warning.

The chicken pot pie seemed like a great deal at $9.99, though I didn't quite believe its description as "hot and healthy." The price turned out to be high for the size of the dish — just slightly larger than my cup of soup.

In its defense, the bowl was filled to the brim, which made a bit of a mess when breaking into the buttery balloon of puff pastry on top.

The stew therein was lacking in personality but nicely salted. Big chunks of chicken made the small portion feel deceptively hearty, but it was the smattering of apparently canned peas, carrots and mushrooms was disappointing.

My dining partner enjoyed the dish, but still felt the need to hit the free, self-serve popcorn machine more than once to supplement his meal.

I was more concerned with saving room for the Lovin' Spoonful Pudding Cake. I had the right idea. The chilled dessert was part pudding, part ganache and all heaven, stacked between layers of intensely chocolaty cake. And it was drizzled with more chocolate.

A good end, then, to an uneven meal. With some pricing changes and a little more attention to detail, the Jack & Grill will no doubt succeed at Severance Green. I'll be rooting for it — and the popcorn.

 Alice Eats is a weekly blog feature devoted to reviewing restaurants where diners can get a meal for two for less than $35. Got a restaurant you'd love to see featured? Send it to alice@sevendaysvt.com.

When I first met John Koerner this winter, he was covered in dust from a day of work on Folino's, the wood-fired pizzeria he was busy building next to the adjacent Fiddlehead Brewing (Koerner is actually Fiddlehead's landlord). Outside, the words "Beer and Pizza" adorned the front of the building; inside, the future Folino's was still all rubble and tools with a foil-covered stone oven in its midst. Chairs and tables had yet to materialize.

The kinetic Koerner, who used to own the Bagel in Shelburne, fretted about turning out the perfect crust. On the one hand, he mused, “You just throw it in there; it puffs up and looks perfect." But even up until a few days ago, Koerner worried that the test pies he and his staff were turning out weren't up to snuff. Fiddlehead opened in January, but by mid-March, Koerner was still putting the finishing touches on his business.

135 E. Allen St., Winooski, 861-3338

Usually, one Chinese take-out spot is just like another. And greasy fried tidbits with gummy sauces aren't among my favorite cuisine types. But authentic Chinese flavors are one of my many culinary obsessions, so whenever I'm presented with the menu of a new Americanized Chinese eatery, I look for hints of the foods I love.

That was what brought me to Jin Chinese Restaurant in Winooski this week. The place is just a month old, and the menu is indeed more diverse than General Tso and lo mein, though the chefs do prepare both.

Some of the team worked previously at Zen Gardens in South Burlington, my go-to spot for more authentic Chinese choices in Vermont. Some trademark dishes are also available at Jin, including "Chicken Amazing" and stir-fries in Szechuan mala sauce.

I started more simply, with the pair of egg rolls that comes with any order of $10 or more.

With a thicker-than-usual wrapper, the chewy dough reminded me more of a meat pie than an egg roll. And there was more meat than I'd expect in a freebie. Finely chopped, red cha siu pork made the whole thing sweet, a nice departure from soy sauce and cabbage. I would have preferred a little less sugar, especially since it was served with a side of duck sauce. And as CKY's rappers have told us, "Only Americans eat duck sauce."

There are lotsa lovely cafés in the Burlington area, and I surf them in a circuit whenever I try to come up with decent prose outside the office. Even after 14 months here, though, my favorite place to caffeinate and attempt to look busy is still a few miles away — well, about 90 miles, on a corner with a view of often-deserted railroad tracks.

For years, the building at the confluence of North and South Main in White River Junction was either a food incubator or a cursed space, depending on perspective. For a blip in time it was A Taste of Africa, which went on to become a local catering powerhouse. Then it became Como Va, an Italian place that suffered from the sleepy WRJ after-dark trade. Eric Hartling, who owns Tip Top Café down the road, took over the space in 2008 and turned it into Tuckerbox.

I'm still no sure what a Tuckerbox is, and after years of going here, I may never know. For me, the word conjures brick walls and the rumble of a bean grinder and a massive, communal farm table covered in the scattered remnants of three daily newspapers; a quartet of comfy, cracked leather chairs, a chalkboard sometimes etched with irreverent scrawl, and floor-to-ceiling windows that let you watch every move in this berg that usually feels a bit too small. (If you live in the Upper Valley, it's hard to come here without running into someone you know.)

Tuckerbox seems to serve as a virtual office for every creative type in the area, from cartoon studies students to web designers to furrowed-brow writers. We park ourselves in its midst (if we can find a seat) to tap away on our keyboards or hold impromptu meetings. An extra perk is that the food is so damned fresh and delicious — carrot-ginger muffins, tangy soups (there's a split pea and garlic), towering BLTs, almost-neon-fresh salads — that if I'm nearby, I rush to get here before the kitchen closes at 2. Then I finish off with oversized cups of bracingly strong coffee (roasted by Vermont Coffee Company) or White Heron Tea from New Hampshire. Or just linger — no one at the mellow Tuckerbox ever seems to mind WiiFi or outlet use or abuse, which may help explain why seats become scarce.

There used to be beignets, too, but they're a distant memory. I'm not quite sure why they disappeared from the menu. You can still start your day with a peanut-butter-and-bacon sandwich, though. But who gets up that early? 

4087 Route 108, Jeffersonville, 644-6366

There's pub food. There's gastropub grub. Then there's the Brewster River Pub & Grill.

The former Brewski on Route 108 in Jeffersonville is a true pub, still aimed more at the aprés-ski beer crowd than the gourmet set. A new coat of blue paint on the walls give an inviting feel to the formerly dingy watering hole, which closed after a fire last year. Its new owners are fine-dining alumni, and both the creativity and quality of the food reflect that.

I started with a simple green salad. The greens were fresh and the tomatoes were far from the practically albino specimens I've been seeing around lately. Nothing too notable, until I added the maple-balsamic dressing.

The Vermont staple is usually good, but this was truly something special. Fruity, maple-y and somehow slightly buttery, it was among the best I've tried. Not a surprise, given that Chef Billy Mossinghoff previously worked at One Federal in St. Albans, which has my other favorite maple-balsamic dressing. At Brewster, it was so good, my boyfriend ended up ordering a second cup of it. One simply wasn't enough.

There's a time to weep, a time to laugh, and a time to mourn. There's also a time for Jameson and a time for single-malt Scotch, a time for Kentucky bourbon and a time for local rye.

More than 100 bottles of whiskey grace the bar of Rí Rá's new Whiskey Room, which officially opened at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Precisely two hours later, I sidled up to that bar and dove into the hefty, bound menu, which has detailed historical and tasting notes on everything from Cooley's to WhistlePig to Blanton's Single-Barrel Bourbon. You can almost taste the libations without actually tasting them, and spend 20 minutes reading until you're able to make a decision.

The rooms feels like an enveloping wooden womb, with intricate, dark-wood ceilings and floors, bar and mantle salvaged from a pub in County Wicklow and reassembled here behind the original pub. A gas fire flickers in one nook. Glass cases along one side of the room hold bottles such as the extremely rare Knappogue Castle Whiskey, which goes for about $350 a pour. Manager Matt Messenger says he and others labored long and hard to get some of these whiskeys inside state borders and are still waiting on a few bottles.

22 Merchants Row, Middlebury, 989-7376

In last week's paper, I checked in on the newly authentic Thai restaurant scene in the Burlington area. With the tastes of lime and chile still singing on my palate, I thought it was time to try Middlebury's latest addition, Sabai Sabai Thai Cuisine, which opened just before the New Year.

The space, previously home to Doria's Restaurant, is quirky and fun, with numerous nooks and crannies. I was seated in the window on a platform overlooking all the action below. From there, I could see the bustling bar with several local brews on tap, but I was there for the food.

What to do with 25 pounds of pork? That was the question facing chef Matt Skobak of Montpelier's Salt Café earlier this week when a suckling pig from Perry Family Farm arrived in this cozy eatery.

The animal didn't come out of nowhere — owner Suzanne Podhaizer, Skobrak and NECI intern James LaVigne were prepping for a Suckling Pig Dinner, one in a series of themed meals planned by the imaginative trio. Skobrak, a third-year student at NECI, worked for two days to transform the animal into eight courses  — a sort of culinary magical mystery tour of crispy pigs' ears and smoked ribs and braised trotter hash and cinnamon-sugar cracklings served with a WhistlePig Rye Whiskey ice cream.

Skobrak even made head cheese scrumptious, lacing it with star anise, white pepper and nutmeg and stuffing it into a steamed bun with Wolaver's stout mustard on the side. No part of the animal went to waste: when Skobrak crisped up pork belly to serve over wilted greens, he then took the rendered fat and transformed it into a pork gelee, cubes of which bobbed around a flute of sparkling cider like tiny flotillas of gluttony.