ST. ALBANS CITY — It was just about 5 p.m. and the late summer sun was casting rays of gold across plates of torn bread and smears of butter.
Through a window in the dining room, guests watched Chef Adam Monette at work, as he poured curried broth over a plate of fresh mussels.
“Why would we hide this?” chef Henry Long said, gesturing to the kitchen. “We’re using the best ingredients. We have the best people.”
Café Monette, located at 97 N. Main Street, opened Aug. 13 to bring French-inspired cuisine to downtown St. Albans. The new restaurant serves dinner 4-9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday.
Guests can see into the kitchen from the dining room. “Why would we hide this?” chef Henry Long said, gesturing to the kitchen. “We’re using the best ingredients. We have the best people.”
BRIDGET HIGDON
Public excitement for the project has been growing for over a year — since the business received a start-up grant from the City of St. Albans and residents learned hometown heroes were at the helm.
For more than a decade, Monette was the culinary instructor at Northwest Career and Technical Center in St. Albans, where he helped generations of Franklin County students discover a passion for cooking.
Two of those students — Henry Long and Tyler Comeau — are now his fellow chefs at Café Monette.
“I was already jazzed about cooking,” Long said. “But he gave us the spark.”
Food as expression
Early Wednesday morning, Monette was in the midst of making homemade tortelloni. At the kitchen counter, he cut large sheets of dough into squares, before piping a dollop of zucchini-basil ricotta into the center. Rhythmically, he folded and twisted each square into the knotted shape.
“I pinch and push under my finger here,” he said, demonstrating the process. “It’s very cathartic. I always told my students that in this profession, you have to be disciplined, incrementally trying to improve — even your routine — to get a better outcome.”
As the winner of Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship in 2021, Monette might be most well-known as a pastry chef, but his culinary interests extend far and wide.
During summer breaks from teaching, he’d work at local restaurants to stay current on the latest culinary trends. He’s spent time in bakeries, fine-dining establishments and butcheries, so when the opportunity came to open his own place, narrowing the focus proved challenging.
Still, Café Monette offers a little bit of everything.
“If I were just doing one thing, it wouldn’t be a true expression of who I am,” Monette said.
Chef Adam Monette makes more than 100 tortelloni by hand every day. To highlight summer produce, the pasta is filled with a zucchini-basil ricotta.
BRIDGET HIGDON
That depth and variety of skill was evident Wednesday as whole chickens sat halved and prepped on the counter, some puff pastry cooled on a sheet tray and fresh pasta rolled through a press.
The menu draws inspiration from Quebec and France with dishes like pork croquette, steak frite au poivre and mille-feuille. Others pay homage to northern Italy, like the pasta puttanesca and sausage with peppers and white beans.
The puff pastry for mille-feuille — a French dessert — was fresh from the oven, ready to be layered with cream and Champlain Island peaches.
“First and foremost, we support our neighbors,” Long said of the restaurant’s patronage of local farms. “We look for quality and how close it is, so that when you come in here, you get a taste of Franklin County through a French lens.”
Right now, summer produce like heirloom tomatoes and zucchini is sourced from Pomykala Farm in Grand Isle and Hudak Farm in Swanton. The menu’s beef, pork and chicken comes from Boneyard Farm in Cambridge, Muller Farms in Franklin and Breezy Acres in Montgomery.
This month, the country plate appetizer features cheeses from Green Mountain Blue Cheese in Highgate and Stony Pond Farm in Enosburgh.
Café Monette’s puttanesca and sausage and peppers await their final touches in the kitchen. The menu is inspired by the culinary traditions of Quebec, France and northern Italy.
BRIDGET HIGDON
All three owners said they grew up in households where sitting down to dinner was an important part of the day, no matter their families’ busy schedules.
As a kid in St. Johnsbury, Monette remembers French-Canadian food being at the center of holiday gatherings, and those early bites inspired him to attend the now-closed New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier.
Since then, Monette’s command of French cooking has been acknowledged internationally. Most recently, he was inducted into the Academie Culinaire de France, one of the oldest organizations of professional chefs.
Café Monette’s menu will change with the seasons, so as fall draws nearer, look forward to dishes that showcase the local harvest.
“The very popular question is, ‘what is your favorite thing to cook?’” Monette said. “I always tell people, ‘Something I’ve never cooked before.’”
Magic connection
Years of playing St. Albans hockey and excelling in the NCTC culinary program together set Long and Comeau up for success as business partners today. On the ice and in the kitchen, it was clear the friends could be powerful teammates.
“It got to the point where we had to stop being partners in class,” Long said, laughing. “This magic we had, Adam [Monette] encouraged us to share it with other students who didn’t have the same confidence. That’s an important life skill to learn as a 15-year-old.”
While each went on their own culinary journeys after high school graduation — Long to Culinary Institute of America and Comeau to NECI — they came back together in catering gigs and restaurant work.
Now, getting to work alongside their mentor, in the place where they were born and raised, is a “dream come true.”
Left to right: Adam Monette, Tyler Comeau and Henry Long. Comeau and Long are Monette’s former students from NCTC’s culinary arts program.
BRIDGET HIGDON
Chef Henry Long said every choice in building the restaurant was intentional — from the accessible wine list to the European-inspired interior design. Floral arrangements and local artwork make the space feel personal.
BRIDGET HIGDON
Listening to Long, his passion and deep knowledge is immediately apparent — “I have a gift of the gab,” he said. “I can go forever.” His vision for Café Monette is steeped with hometown pride and ideas for growth.
Primarily responsible for managing the dining room, Long said every choice was intentional — from the accessible wine list to the European-inspired interior design. Garage-style doors bring the outside in on warm weather days, and floral arrangements and local artwork make the space feel personal.
The trio plans to open for weekend morning coffee and pastries and to eventually offer extended hours on Fridays. First, Café Monette has to staff up and work out the growing pains of any new business.
“We’re excited for what everything else could look like,” Monette said.
“But for now, it’s sustainable,” Long said. “And if people keep coming, we’re going to be here.”
Dining and Cooking