MONTPELIER — The former home of Bent Nails Bistro was a riot of color, with eclectic sculptures of metal people and animals tucked into every corner. What visitors to the bar and restaurant may not have noticed was a silver line running through the counter.
That’s where floodwaters crested during the July 2023 floods in Montpelier, said co-owner and the creator of the sculptures, Aaron Ingham.
“That’s going to happen again,” he said. Two years later, little has changed to mitigate the flood risk for the building.
But Bent Nails Bistro is getting out of town. In October, the bar announced it would be moving from its location on Langdon Street to a new location across from Camp Meade in Middlesex. Ingham said they planned to change its name to Bent Nails Roadhouse.
Flooding was not the only factor in the decision. Ingham said their business was stymied by what they say is bureaucratic red tape and a surprising lack of foot traffic for Vermont’s capital.
“There are great people, but they’re not making the decisions,” he said. “It’s a precarious place to be a business.”
Ingham is not the only business owner that has left Montpelier in recent months. Two others have announced plans to leave the city — one bound for Middlesex near the new Bent Nails Roadhouse location. Yet at the same time, other businesses have doubled down on their presence, joining the city for the first time or expanding their operation.
So why do business owners have such different impressions of how Montpelier is faring? The ones VTDigger spoke with described making personalized calculations based on a variety of factors: customer base, flood risk, foot traffic, tariff impacts, real estate and the expected back-to-office mandate for state employees.
Penzo Pizza, once located at the Inn at Montpelier on Main Street, recently announced its plans to move to Maple Street in Essex Junction. Woodbelly Pizza on Barre Street has moved most of its operation to Camp Meade in Middlesex. It arrives just as Red Hen Baking, also at Camp Meade, plans for a move to a larger space just down the road from its current location.
There has also been a loss in nearby Barre: Foxy’s, a bar and cafe that catered to the LGBTQ+ community, closed for good in September. The owners’ other business, Fox Market and Bar, remains open in East Montpelier.
On the other hand, Woodbury Mountain Toys is not just sticking around Montpelier — it’s opening a second location. Karen Williams said the toy store is going to be open in two different spots this holiday season: The spot at the post-flooding location next to Capitol Grounds on State Street, and the recently reopened pre-flooding location just across the street.
There are newcomers to Montpelier, too. The Black Kitty, a clothing boutique, opened on State Street two months ago. Chico’s Tacos has also moved to State Street from its former spot in Middlesex — the same building that Bent Nails Roadhouse is now moving into.
For Andrew Lay, owner of Chico’s Tacos, the decision to come to Montpelier was obvious. Since the move to the former Filibuster’s location, sales have gone up 65% while his rent has gone down.
He said he heard concerns the place would be “just another Mexican restaurant” in Montpelier, like Julio’s or Mad Taco. But his offerings are more inspired, he said, thanks to his upbringing in California. “We’re each doing our own style,” he said.
The Black Kitty had very different reasons to choose Montpelier. Co-owner Anaya Soliman has been selling fashion finds through social media for years, drawing on her talent for finding rare, vintage and designer deals. But after moving to Vermont to be closer to family, she and her husband longed to make their online business into a space to grow an in-person community.
The duo hopes to find a balance between their online sales and their brick-and-mortar shop. Soliman noted that foot traffic could be a challenge in such a small city.
“Other cool shops have struggled in town,” she said. “There are a lot of empty spaces.”
Her shop is also in one of the buildings hit by flooding in 2023. Soliman is banking on the small size of the space to lighten the load of evacuating their products.
“We have plans for our family to drop everything and help us move the clothes to pre-set bins if need be,” she said.
Williams is well aware that the former, and now soon-to-be, home of the toy store is still a flood risk. But she owns the space outright, and she’s invested so much into it already that she’s willing to take that risk. She’s seen a lot of ups and down in her 25 years as a business.
“The last time it affected us before 2023 was 1992,” she said. “Hopefully it won’t happen as bad next time.”
Right now, her biggest concerns are tariffs and health insurance costs eating away at her margins. She said she hopes Vermonters will be more open to shopping locally this holiday season.
“I enjoy what I do and what I sell,” she said. “I try to bring people joy with my store.”
She also is planning for the potential return of state workers due to Gov. Phil Scott’s return-to-office mandate. She’s adamant that she believes state workers should not have to come to Montpelier, but when they did work in the city, she said she used to see a lot more people walking around.
“We haven’t had a problem with parking in years — and that’s great for everyone but me,” she joked.
Ingham, the co-owner of Bent Nails Roadhouse, said the problem with finding customers went well beyond state employees. The former location offered lots of live music and entertainment, but not many people are going out to see live music anymore, he said. In fact, he feels that Vermonters are not seeing each other in person enough overall.
The roadhouse is set to have an indoor and outdoor stage, but Ingham said the bar plans to offer fewer music events and focus more on good dining options and attracting skiers with “firepit Fridays.” He said he is also working on creating even more art for their larger outdoor space.
Still, he sees the potential for a comeback of people craving more human interaction and live experiences.
“I hope there’ll be some social, communal shift and people will come out and see live music again on a regular basis,” he said. “We’ll just wait until it comes back again to add it to the calendar.”
