Bites: Restaurant Report: Guild & Company in Burlington, Vt.

Jessica Anderson

Steak frites at Guild & Company.

As a restaurant concept, "farm-to-table steakhouse" comes off as so buzzwordy that it's like a "Portlandia" sketch begging to be written. So perhaps it's not incidental that Guild & Company, which executes the conceit with unfussy charm, sits along the outskirts of Burlington, Vt., the East Coast's best facsimile of that tongue-in-cheek television utopia.

"A big thing for us opening this restaurant was we wanted to showcase Vermont meats — specifically, beef," said Phillip Clayton, a partner in the Burlington restaurant group that opened Guild in October 2012. "We didn't start with a menu and then try to find the products. The products we wanted to feature determined what the menu would look like."

A family farm in nearby Shelburne supplies Guild's master butcher with grass-fed, grain-finished steers. Cuts are dry-aged for 30 days, then cooked over a 2,000-pound hand-cranked wood-fire grill. The bone-in rib-eye for two, sliced tableside, is the most popular item. Seared beautifully, my medium-rare portion married charred and grassy flavors with crisp and buttery textures.

Other red-meat options include filet mignon and bone-in New York strip, as well as three mixed-grill options that offer combinations like pork tenderloin and a seafood selection. By popular demand, burgers were added to the menu soon after the Guild opened.

Old-school accompaniments are enlivened by bright ingredients and thoughtful preparations. Often, steakhouse-style creamed spinach means shredded greens encased in a leaden sauce, so I flipped for Guild's more pleasing rendition: blanched spinach and kale leaves in velvety, shallot-spiked cream, garnished with freshly grated nutmeg. The house and Caesar salads were also well considered and executed.

Craft cocktails, divided into classics and originals, are sourced like the dinner items, often relying on Vermont-made spirits, honey and other ingredients.

Our low-key but attentive server told us about Guild's oyster purveyor, a guy named Ethan who lives down by Cape Cod and hand-selects seafood several times a week for his Vermont clients. He drives his haul in his pickup to White River Junction, on the Vermont-New Hampshire border, where his cousin loads the supply into her own pickup to complete the route. "Do-it-yourself" is clearly another buzz-term that applies.

Guild & Company, 1633 Williston Road, South Burlington, Vt.; 802-497-1207; guildandcompany.com. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, is about $95.

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