Pond Mountain Inn
Bed and Breakfast
Wells • Vermont
1955 Saw Mill Hill Road
Wells, Vermont 05774
802.325.2829
Over 350 Five Star Reviews ▪ 100% Guest-Focused ▪ 72% Repeat Guests Last Year
Our Breakfast Menu...The Making of Culinary Significant Dishes
In the summer months our legendary gourmet farm-to-table breakfasts are served al fresco at the Main House terrace under the rough-sawn timber frame pergola surrounded by perennial gardens, early sheep pastures and lush undisturbed distant mountain views. “It’s just magical here, and one of the prettiest outside dining spots in Vermont!”
No matter what season you dine with us, we always incorporate local, organic, and sustainable foods to create innovative and exciting cuisine — and we now make our own sausage from pigs that we sustainably raise every year on our neighbor’s property. The result is a dining experience of harmonious flavors and beautiful presentation that give new meaning to “farm-to-table” dining that is tailored to suit our guests’ specific tastes and dietary needs—right down to the salt and pepper that we use.
Seasonal Fresh Fruit Accompany Each Breakfast—an assortment of five types of melon and berries. Additionally, many dishes are served with Dakin Farm Cob-Smoked Bacon or Big Link Smoked Sausage and skillet breakfast potatoes or shredded pan-fried potatoes, all garnished with our seasonal garden chives or organic pea shoots. Another guest favorite potato side dish is our Gratin de Pommes de Terre.
French-Style Omelettes
Our signature French crêpe-like omelettes are silky, a perfectly pale-yellow thin blanket of eggs that cradles a generous interior of exquisite, sautéed chestnut mushrooms, two types of cheeses, and a dallop of crème fraîche. Other mushroom varieties may be found inside depending upon what is freshly harvested by our local mushroom farmer. Another guest favorite is our sautéed spinach & tomato omelette. We can create other delicious interiors, just let us know what you like!
Trio of Pancakes
Lemon Cottage Cheese Soufflé Pancakes
These delicate pancakes are so delicious and incredibly light and fluffy, especially with Dorset Maple Reserve Syrup and homemade blueberry compote that after emailing our recipe to so many of our guests, we decided to make it easier for everyone and posted the recipe on our blog page.
Lemon Ricotta and Mascarpone Pancakes • Classic Sour Cream Pancakes
Equally as delicious, the Ricotta adds moisture, and lemon zest heightens the subtle flavor while the Blueberry-Lemon Compote completes the dish. This pancake recipe has now become the most asked for recipe—here’s the recipe! One guest recently said, “Your Sour Cream Pancakes are so light and fluffy and not nearly as heavy as the others.” We use less than half the amount of flour, which allows for a lighter finished pancake and yet still moist.
Eggs Benedict Collection
Poached eggs, straight from the nest, on toasted Vermont English muffins with your choice of interior, homemade tangy hollandaise sauce and a hint of truffle salt. Our Canadian Bacon either comes Dakin Farm or from pigs that we raise on our neighbor’s property, and we often get our eggs there too—you can taste the difference!
Traditional Eggs Benedict
Vermont English Muffin | Farm Fresh Eggs | Canadian Bacon | Hollandaise Sauce
Gluten Free Eggs Benedict
Vermont English Muffin (GF) | Farm Fresh Eggs | Canadian Bacon | Hollandaise Sauce
Eggs Benedict Florentine (Vegetarian)
Vermont English Muffin | Farm Fresh Eggs | Sautéed Spinach | Hollandaise Sauce
(We can substitute other freshly harvested mushroom varieties from our local mushroom farmer.)
Artisan Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict
Vermont English Muffin | Farm Fresh Eggs | Nova Scotia Smoked Salmon | Hollandaise Sauce
Wagyu Steak Eggs Benedict for Two (requires one day notice, $50.00/person)
Vermont English Muffin | Farm Fresh Eggs | Vermont Wagyu Steak | Hollandaise Sauce
We’ve selected three types of Vermont Wagyu steak, each with extraordinary flavor profiles that complement this classic epicurean breakfast & brunch delight—select your favorite below.
Tenderloin… extraordinarily tender, this cut come from the loin section of the hindquarter and are considered a jewel cut.
Baseball Sirloin Steak…Center cut from the top sirloin—this cut is lean and very flavorful. The name "baseball steak" refers to its rounded shape similar to a baseball.
Petite Tender Steak... This flavorful and tender steak comes from the forequarter, the chuck shoulder, and is often called mock tenderloin.
Without getting into the chemistry of beef flavor, it’s nearly impossible to describe the tenderness, slight chew and juiciness of what now has become the best steak we’ve ever tasted. Each steak has consistent well-developed marbling throughout, with a delicately trimmed outer layer of savory fat that contribute to the overall unique flavor composition.
Classic Brioche French Toast
On day of departure, our guests get to select their favorite breakfast before heading home. Overwhelmingly, Kay’s French Toast is our guests “go to” breakfast. Along with our homemade blueberry compote, we also serve our French Toast with our “Breakfast Bananas Foster” that does not include the ice cream, the dark rum or the pyrotechnics. And, for a special treat, consider a dusting of Guittard unsweetened cocoa powder on your French Toast.
Seldom do we have leftover French baguettes, but when we do, we offer a New Orleans version of French toast. Pain Perdu is a great way to use leftover French bread. Why, because the stale bread readily absorbs the custard without getting too soft, then we cook the pain perdu a little longer, which allows the sugar in the custard to caramelize that produces a crusty exterior with a delicate soft interior—and, of course, it’s delicious!
Quiche Lorraine and Beyond
Our signature quiche requires a delicate sautéing of lardon (fatty bacon) and onion, whisking the eggs, heavy cream and the blended savoriness of Gruyère cheese with a golden-brown crust. But it doesn’t end there… in the fall we make a special Hen-of-the-Woods Quiche only after a successfully foraging on the mountain across the road. And, it still doesn’t end there… we find all kinds of fresh seasonal ingredients to throw into our egg and cream batter to create new and exciting quiches.
French-Style Cheesy Scrambled Eggs
Our French-style cheesy scrambled eggs are velvety and creamy, cooked slowly and stirred often over low heat so that the eggs do not dry out—this produces a smaller softer curd structure. We’ll keep your eggs in the frying pan a little longer if you prefer a drier American-style scrambled egg.
Escargot Scrambled Eggs for Two (requires one-day notice, $25.00/person)
We bring this traditional French bistro dish to the breakfast table from sidewalk cafés on The Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Our large premium escargots are sautéed in artisanal butter with finely diced Champlain Valley mushrooms, lots of garlic, fresh seasonal herbs, parsley, then presented in a delicately shredded potato nest surrounded by our velvety French-style scrambled eggs.
Dutch Baby Pancake
Sometimes called a German pancake, a Dutch Baby is a big, puffy, soufflé-like, family-style pancake with a custardy center that’s baked in a sizzling-hot buttered skillet. It’s like a crêpe, a pancake, and a popover all rolled into one. This breakfast is sheer entertainment—as the Dutch Baby bakes, the golden puffy crust rises above the pan like a soufflé creating a custardy center. Gather around when “the baby” leaves the oven—the baby begins to collapse as it begins to cool. It’s exciting every time! We then dust with confectioners’ sugar, top with fresh berries, drizzle some Vermont Maple syrup and serve. Absolutely delicious, and a fun way to start the day!
Cheese Blintzes with Mixed Berry Sauce or Sour Cream (requires two-day notice)
Traditional French Laundry crêpe and seasonal garden chives filled with farmer cheese or ricotta, cottage cheese, and one farm-fresh egg, then folded into a rectangular shape. Pan fried in butter until the outside becomes a crisp golden-brown with a warm creamy filling. It is said, two fried blintzes set side-by-side bear a remarkable resemblance the Ten Commandments Tablets and are a delicacy to be eaten on many Jewish holidays—a match made in heaven.
Avocado Toast for Aficionados
This isn’t guacamole, nor is it spicy. It’s breakfast simplicity beginning with a fresh ripe avocado, a few cherry tomatoes, salt & pepper, and lightly drizzled small batch Italian olive oil served generously on crusty bread, whole grain toast or Vermont English Muffin. Fairly ordinary thus far…. one small addition that makes all the difference in the world—Black Truffle Sea Salt! It's the Black Truffle Sea Salt that transforms this otherwise ordinary Avocado Toast breakfast dish into a delicacy. It’s wildly delicious and healthy.
Egg-Free Paleo Breakfast Skillet
This healthy offering includes our smoked ham, diced potatoes, onions, sliced orange peppers, halved cherry tomatoes, and spinach. Nutritionally, any Paleo meal (protein, fat, vegetables, and carbs) is a great way to start the day. And, to make this dish even better, we can add more of your favorite ingredients.
Begin your day with a delicious Morning Yogurt Parfait – Larson Farm 100% grass fed organic yogurt, Kay’s homemade granola and fruit are layered in a parfait glass. We only use fresh Blueberries, Raspberries and Blackberries, organic granola and plain organic yogurt with a hint of dark maple syrup and a mint leaf from our garden just for color!
What the heck is this—we recently asked the same question?!?! Originating in Brazil, this is much more than fancy smoothy in a bowl. Açaí, a dark purple berry found in the Amazon is packed with antioxidants and other health benefits. Our Açaí Breakfast Bowl includes— Açaí purée, organic Larson Farm A2 milk / plain yogurt or non-dairy unsweetened almond milk, mixed seasonal berries, banana, peanut or almond butter and our signature organic homemade granola.
Croque Monsieur • Croque Madame (requires two-day notice)
Found on almost every café menu in Paris—it’s the ultimate French ham and cheese sandwich, made with Gruyere or Emmental, parmesan, ham and a velvety béchamel sauce, served on oven-toasted homemade sourdough bread! Both sandwiches are the same, the only difference is the Croque Madame includes one skillet fried egg.
Yes, we actually serve biscuits and sausage gravy. “It’s inexplicable how someone from Thailand makes this dish better than anyone else,” remarked one of our southern guests! Homemade biscuits covered in sausage gravy made from the drippings of cooked pork sausage, unbleached White lily Flour, A2 milk and our sausage is a breakfast you may want to enjoy once while you’re here. Try our gourmet version—we include locally harvested mushrooms and spring onions.
Stone Ground Marsh Hen Mill Heirloom White Grits
Our southern guests asked if we could make grits. Not until a gourmet chef with a twenty-five person Baptist contingent from Mississippi showed us the way. Now, we occasionally serve this southern staple, and it may be the best grits that you’ll ever have—promise. Walt, from Florida says it’s the best grits he’s ever had! Now, our grits are even better! Our South Carolina guests, Nikki and Carl, sent us their favorite—Marsh Hen Mill White Grits, straight from Edisto Island—milled the old-fashioned way from a third-generation miller. The fresh corn taste of stone-ground grits is indescribable!
To-Go Breakfast | Coffee • New Jersey Breakfast Sandwich • Mixed Berries & Fruit
We keep our breakfast sandwich simple and delicious with a Fried Egg, Taylor Pork Roll*, Melted-American Cheese on a lightly butter-toasted Kaiser roll or Vermont English Muffin. (All of our skiers take our to-go breakfast to the slopes.)
*Taylor Pork Roll is the main flavor ingredient in our New Jersey Breakfast Sandwich. John Taylor’s Original Pork Roll is what most New Jerseyans and Philadelphians ask for by name. Made since 1856, it’s a main staple of diners, kitchens, holiday tables, and boardwalks of the Garden State—and it’s absolutely delicious!
We’re always experimenting with new and exciting breakfast dishes that are largely dependent on seasonal produce and availability of interesting local ingredients. Kay has an instinctual feel for dishes that will expand and excite your palate— taking many of her cues from Vermont’s endless bounty of local ingredients wherever they may be found.
One of the defining characteristics of an excellent bed & breakfast is the emphasis on serving the finest cup of coffee available. We serve five non-flavored mostly dark roast coffee, and our signature blend combines the best flavor characteristics of our Viennese & Full-City Dark Roast. The robust flavor composition of each coffee transitions nicely into an elegant smooth finish that will please the most discerning coffee drinker. We only serve T.M. Ward Coffee, a family-owned roaster and importer since 1869.
Beverages & Juices
Palais des Thés Loose Leaf Teas and Harney & Sons Fine Teas
We provide a small sampling of the finest teas available that we carefully brew in order to appreciate their many distinguished flavor characteristics. The quality of the water, the quantity of tea, the steeping time and temperature are all key influences with how our tea is brewed.
Vermont Chaga Mushroom Chai Blend (Tea)
Locally sourced in the Adirondacks and Vermont. “Chaga is a mushroom grown on birch trees that has been used for centuries to boost immunity and improve overall health.”
Orange • Grapefruit • Our Water • Homemade Organic San Marzano Tomato Juice ($10.00)