10 Best Coffee Brands From All Over the Country

Food & Wine | February 27, 2023

In February, Brio Coffeeworks was highlighted in a Food & Wine article about the editor’s favorite coffee roasters. Read the description of their delicious single-origin Ethiopia Kochere here.

Steve Conant - Steward of the Soda Plant

Edible Vermont | Issue #6: Winter 2021/2022 | Maria Buteux Reade

Issue #6 featured an interview with Steve Conant. Writers Corey Burdick and Emily Mckenna also profiled a few of the incredible entrepreneurs who call the Soda Plant home including Tomgirl Kitchen, Alkame Co, and Brio Coffeeworks. Read the interview here. Complete digital edition with business profiles here.

How To Spend 48 Hours In Burlington, Vermont

Forbes.com | August 20, 2021 | Wendy Altschuler

“Scan stalls and small boutiques, where you’ll find over 30 makers, producers and artists in a diverse space that was once Venetian Ginger Ale soda bottling plant.” Read More

This Old Soda Plant Has Been Reborn as Burlington’s Premier Creative Hub

Thrillist | December 3, 2020 | Julia Clancy

“IN ENDLESSLY INVENTIVE BURLINGTON, VERMONT, one of the liveliest new hubs of creativity and collaboration isn’t on the picturesque waterfront or in the historic downtown: It's hiding in a warehouse behind a concrete parking lot in the once-abandoned industrial district called Pine Street.” … Read More

America’s 10 Best (and friendliest) Places to Grab a Drink

Bon Appetit | May 2020 | Marissa A. Ross

CO Cellars was recently highlighted by Bon Appetit magazine. What an honor!

You’re going where? Burlington

The Washington Post | November 13, 2019 | By Melanie D.G. Kaplan / Photos: John Tully

Conant Metal & Light and the Soda Plant were featured in the Washington Post’s travel guide for Burlington, along with many of our favorite local gems! Read More

The Evolution of Steve Conant, the Soda Plant and Burlington's South End

SEVEN DAYS VERMONT | October 30, 2019 | Ken Picard / Photos: Luke Awtry

“For 40 years, Conant has forged lasting business and mentoring relationships with young artists and entrepreneurs whose work continues to reshape the look and character of Burlington's postindustrial, ever-evolving South End. For attendees of the annual South End Art Hop, the Soda Plant — a warren of art studios, offices, a gallery, and food and beverage enterprises — has become "the gateway to the South End," in the words of one tenant.” Read More

CO Cellars: This Shacksbury-Zafa tasting room collab blurs the line between boozes

THE FOOD LENS - BOSTON | Molly McDonough

“There’s ample creativity brewing in Burlington’s South End these days—and a lot of it is fermented. At the Soda Plant, a new hub for fledgling businesses in the city’s arts district, you’ll be drawn to this dark room filled with glass tubs of colorful bubbling concoctions. Be brave and step in for a sip. You’re in CO Cellars, a collaboration between Shacksbury Cider and Zafa Wines...” Read More

How to Pull off a Cheap Fall Getaway to Burlington, Vermont From Denver

303 MAGAZINE - DENVER | October 17, 2019 | Marissa Kozma / Photo: Homer Horowitz

“The Lowdown: Home to more than 30 art galleries, tasting rooms, studios, shops and other local businesses, The Soda Plant on Pine Street in the South End Arts District is a local artisan’s paradise. Everything sold is completely made in Vermont and the old bottling plant’s transformation is one to talk at home about.” Read more

A Tasting Tour of Burlington’s Soda Plant

SEVEN DAYS | September 11, 2019 | Sally Pollak / Photos: Luke Awtry

“Then, in 2018, the Soda Plant was transformed once again, this time into an exciting collection of food and drink businesses, as well as studios for artists and craftspeople. Visitors to the property are now greeted by a set of sensory clues — the motorized whir of juicing machines, the aroma of roasting coffee, splashes of deep purple wine — that alert them to the new enterprises within.” Read more

The World’s 100 Greatest Places of 2019

TIME | August 22, 2019 | Abigail Abrams

“Originally a soda-bottling plant, this brightly painted building now houses a different kind of drink. CO Cellars opened there in January as a winery, cellar space and tasting room for local companies Zafa Wines and Shacksbury Cider. The shared space allows the two businesses to work together, and combining fruits has led to co-fermented “vinous ciders,” which can taste like everything from light, fruity ciders to high-tannin food-pairing wines.” Read more

Pitchfork Farm Extends its Season by Pickling Produce 

SEVEN DAYS | July 30, 2019 | Sally Pollak / Photos: James Buck

“At the pickle shop, vegetables are fermented and pickled to make long-lasting value-added products, including sauerkraut, kimchi, squickles (pickled butternut squash), dilly beans and sour pickles. The fermentory primarily uses produce grown at Pitchfork, a 21-acre farm owned by Rock and his business partner, Eric Seitz.” Read more

Burlington's CO Cellars expands seating, outdoor patio offers space to enjoy summer weather

Burlington Free Press | June 28, 2019 | Sadie Housberg

Read more

A Vermont Road Trip Reminded Me That Some of the Best Travel Is Here in the U.S.

O, The Oprah Magazine | May 23, 2019 | Arianna Davis

“Next it was off to Burlington, where we stayed at the Hotel Vermont, which felt uniquely...well, Vermont, but somehow, in a different way. This college town was visibly more eclectic and urban than its sister, Manchester. As soon as we arrived, we were off to tour the Soda Plant, a small business base camp in Burlington that's home to burgeoning businesses including a boutique coffee retailer, Brio Coffeeworks, and the winery and tasting room Co Cellars.” Read more

Eat This Week, March 6 to 12, 2019: Arts and Craft Beverages 

SEVEN DAYS | March 6, 2019 | Hannah Palmer Egan

Tastemakers from Burlington's South End food and arts community host a party with music from Mal Maiz. Tour the businesses in the renovated building, with stops at Alice & the Magician for aromatic tipples with Barr Hill Gin and at CO Cellars for sparkling natural wines and ciders. Peruse the baubles at Rackk & Ruin and Jennifer Kahn Jewelry, and take in the fine art at studios and galleries on the premises. If you begin to flag, find fresh-roasted joe at Brio Coffeeworks and vegetable-forward sustenance from Tomgirl Juice and Pitchfork Farm and Pickle. Read more

Follow the Locals: Vermonter Steve Conant's Tips on Visiting Burlington

SEVEN DAYS | November 10, 2018 | Carolyn Fox / Photo: Luke Awtry

“…he's one of the city's brightest lights himself in terms of creativity, community and character. Conant came to Burlington to attend the University of Vermont in the 1970s — and never left. "My interest in expressing myself creatively was embraced back in the day, and it still is," he said of his adopted hometown. These days, in addition to running his metalwork biz, he's the proprietor of one of the Queen City's most interesting buildings, at 266 Pine. Known as the Soda Plant — a reference to its century-old history as a ginger-ale manufacturing plant — the space is home to artists, entrepreneurs and artisanal beverage businesses. Read more

Burlington Drink Entrepreneurs Move, Aptly, Into the Soda Plant

SEVEN DAYS | June 19 2018 | Sally Pollak

"I believe the South End is amazing ... and I always thought I was going to fill [the building] with makers," Conant said. "There are only a few large, industrial buildings here, and I feel very strongly that those buildings should be supporting innovation and entrepreneurship — and building the creative economy in the South End."  Read more

The New Soda Plant Goes with the Flow in Burlington’s Booming South End

THE SENTINEL - PRESERVATION BURLINGTON | FALL 2018 | Alexander Lavin

Read more for the full story of this historic building that was once a bottling plant for M.& F.C. Dorn Brothers Venetian ginger ale!

ReSOURCE to Relocate, Soda Plant to Offer New Incubator Workspaces

SEVEN DAYS | January 18, 2018 | Sadie Williams

"I think the building supports fine artists very well through the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery and other small spaces," said Conant. "I think that the opportunity [for this space] is in more entrepreneurial artists and business-aspiring people." Read more

Shifting Places in Burlington's Soda Plant

SEVEN DAYS | May 7, 2017 | Sadie Williams / Photo: Pamela Polston

Any transitions in the South End seem to evoke dismay on the part of artists. But Mitchell had this to say: "I don't think [artists] are being pushed out. I think things are changing. It's evolving. This is what we were hoping for [in the South End], and there's so much more work to do." Read more