Making a Buzz
Kuya’s at One Main, 2 Merchants Row, Randolph, 565-8037
- JORDAN BARRY ©️ SEVEN DAYS
When Patty Burns and her husband, Travis, moved their restaurant down the block in September 2022, one of the things she was most excited about was having a full bar. As a consultant, the pro bartender had helped the former One Main Tap & Grill expand its booze program, but she had none of her own at the couple’s sandwich shop.
Now, in their new digs at Kuya’s at One Main, the couple still serve lunch but focus on dinner service, and Burns is mixing up a creative drink menu there and making a splash in the statewide industry. In September, she won both the final round and the People’s Choice award at an inaugural Barr Hill event, the Royal Jelly — a Bee’s Knees Cocktail Competition.
“It was the perfect way for me to push myself, which you have to do in the middle of nowhere,” Burns said with a laugh. “But being here, using the local products from where my husband is from — that’s really exciting to me.”
Burns’ winning cocktail, Miss B. Hivin’, combines flavors from her native Philippines, such as calamansi juice and homemade pineapple gum syrup, with Barr Hill gin and Brookfield Bees wildflower honey. It’s now on the menu at Kuya’s. I was tempted to order one when I stopped in for lunch but opted for a hot mug of salabat ($4), one of the restaurant’s many thoughtful nonalcoholic offerings.
I was sipping on the spicy-sweet traditional Filipino ginger tea when Rapson walked in to join me. Though he’d been at Kuya’s for dinner the night before, he didn’t seem to mind doubling down with the restaurant’s best-selling Filipino bánh mì ($16).
I enjoyed that sandwich in Kuya’s original location, and an open-fire flame grill in the new space produces a leveled-up version. But I opted instead to continue my warming-up-from-the-inside theme with a comforting bowl of arroz caldo ($12). The congee-like rice porridge is flavored with ginger and fish sauce, filled with chunks of tender chicken and topped with scallions, crispy garlic, chicharrones, hard-boiled egg and lime wedges for squeezing over everything else.
The Filipino touches on Kuya’s menu make it stand out, not just in Randolph but in Vermont, where the cuisine is still underrepresented. But the restaurant also serves more typical sandwiches, burgers and salads for lunch and a variety of small plates and mains at dinnertime. A dinner-only highlight, Rapson said, is the perfectly fried vegetable and pork lumpia.
“My wife and I both grew up close to Filipino friends, and their very collaborative family kitchens are stored away in our separate teenage memories,” he said. “The first time we had the lumpia here, we both shed a tear.”
The Burnses rely on regulars such as Rapson to keep Kuya’s going. Moving to the larger space at One Main was a huge opportunity, Burns said, but it’s still a tough time for restaurants. They’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a cushion for the slower winter months and make necessary repairs, with the eventual goal of buying out One Main’s former owners, Shane Niles and Josh Niebling.
“It’s a community effort to make a place like this exist,” Burns said. “But this town has always been a community-driven place, and that’s what makes it flourish.”
- Photo: SARAH PRIESTAP
- Patty and Travis Burns in the original Kuya’s space in 2021
