The two restaurants at the Creamery Shoppes in St. Johnsbury at Route 5 and Hastings Hill Road have fresh new ownership and a fresh new look. Mike and Laura Heath are the new owners of Ramunto’s Brick Oven Pizza. The Bagel Depot is back in business after a few months’ absence with new owners Jeremy Bressette and Jocelyn Poginy at the helm. Both restaurants are great additions to the local eating scene, with energetic young owners who love what they do.

Bagel Depot’s Bressette says that customers are very pleased to have the restaurant open. “They tell me how happy they are that we’re here,” he says. “We’re going to keep that happy feeling going, with smiling staff, a fresh, clean, interior, and a new menu.” Bressette has worked as a breakfast cook for many years, so he is familiar with how a successful restaurant is run. The Bagel Depot is the first restaurant that he has owned, but he’s determined it won’t be his last. “I want to start small, get a good reputation, and grow from there,” he says.

Bressette and Poginy have made some changes in the layout of the restaurant, relocating some of the counter space and freshening the look. The menu includes a wide variety of freshly-made bagels and bagel sandwiches, as well as some new items as omelettes, Belgian waffles, and other specialty sandwiches and salads. A second cash register helps to speed traffic flow during the rush times. “We really try to listen to our customers,” says Bressette. “We want to offer what they want to eat.”

The Bagel Depot opened July 7 as a “soft opening,” but now Bressette is ready to let everyone know about his restaurant. “We’re starting to do a lot of radio advertising talking about how ‘bagelicious’ our food is,” says Bressette. Judging by the steady stream of customers coming through the door, people are already getting the word!
Mike and Laura Heath of Ramunto’s are new to the restaurant business, but they already know the secret to making a great pizza. “We use the best ingredients we can get,” says Mike.  “One hundred percent low-moisture mozzarella cheese, dough made from scratch every day – that’s how we make our pizzas even better than they were before.” The Heaths have experienced employees on staff, and benefit from the fact that Ramunto’s is a small Vermont and New Hampshire-based chain of restaurants. “We’ll take good ideas from all the other Ramunto’s locations and use the best of them here.”

Ramunto’s specializes in gourmet pizzas, plus pasta dishes and 13 flavors of wings. “We’ll be adding beer on tap soon,” says Heath, “which will really complement our menu.” The restaurant is bright and airy, with butcher block tables and a brand-new flat-screen television in one dining room for additional entertainment. “We want to be both a great pizzeria and a fun place for sit-down dining,” says Heath. Customers are responding to the changes in the restaurant – Heath reports that in the first month of business, they have already broken some sales records and the dining rooms have been full of satisfied customers!
The Bagel Depot is open Monday through Friday, 6:00 am - 3:00 pm; Saturday 6:30 am - 2 pm; and Sunday 7 am - 1 pm. Ramunto’s Brick Oven Pizza is open Monday through Thursday, 11 am - 9 pm; Friday and Saturday, 11:00 am - 10:00 pm; and Sunday, 12:00 noon - 8:00 pm. Treat yourself to a meal at each of these spots and enjoy the great taste in St. Johnsbury’s restaurant community!

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