D'Ellie's is a breakfast and lunch cafe at the base of Sugarbush, right up the stairs from the…read moreskier drop off point / parking lot, halfway between the Super Quad lift and the base lodge.
Awesome:
- They have well priced children's meals, which made our 10-year-old really happy. She enjoyed the grilled cheese option, made on her choice of bread (white). She said it lacked the frico of her favorite preps, but on the upside, it was not overly cheesy by her tastes. The meal comes with a small bag of chips, a brownie (evidently house made and awesome per the kiddo), a Capri Sun, and a bubble wand. The bubble wand was enjoyed for days and days after.
- D'Ellie's Cobb salad was the best version of this salad (and probably best salad overall) that we tried in the Sugarloaf area, and the most fairly priced to boot. (Cf. the wimpy, low brow, overpriced version we had at the Bag.) It was generously sized and made with fresh, excellent ingredients.
Good:
- Focaccia based sandwiches were made with fresh focaccia, possibly baked in-house. They weren't as well filled as what our contingent is accustomed to at home, but I actually don't think the ratio of bread to filling would be too far from the norm in Italy. Overall, our contingent enjoyed -- in huge part b/c of the high quality bread.
- The cafe packages food in waxed paper and waxed cardboard (not recyclable, but potentially compostable, I think). And they provide reusable mugs for drinking coffee in house. I really like that they're trying to be lower waste.
So-so:
- The "Italian" subs were not to the tastes of those who ordered them. I think regional differences might've been a contributing factor. (See, e.g. https://www.sandwichtribunal.com/2017/01/the-maine-style-italian-sandwich/#:~:text=Boiled%20ham%2C%20white%20American%20cheese,well%2Dknown%20sub%20chain%20recently, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Italian_sandwich) My sub-eating contingent is used to the meat-heavy NJ / NYC deli style of sub, without the moisture of salad oil, made with a more substantial (less airy, less tender, and more glutinous), toasted Italian bread. D'Ellie's version used a very soft, non-toasted hot dog bun-like bread, not homemade as far as we could tell; pickles; sweet peppers; olives; salad oil; and your protein of choice, in our case roast beef and salami. Primary consumers said they found the meat proportions skimpy.
- It can take a while to get your order even when the cafe doesn't seem too busy. I could see people working their tails off in the kitchen, so this is less of a complaint than a know-before-you-go.
- There are a few tables and seats in-house, mostly pub-height tables with stools. It's pleasantly low key and casual. If space gets tight, take it to the dining spaces in the base lodge.
We are spoiled ingrates when it comes to food. As such, we were not all that excited by dining options in the area. But for on-mountain fare that's more fairly priced and of even or higher quality than other options we found in the vicinity, D'Ellie's is a good bet.
