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Mountain Road Gourmet
Après-ski goes gastro in Stowe and Jeffersonville
By Alice Levitt [10.19.11] SEVENDAYS VERMONT

One of Ferguson and Mossinghoff’s former colleagues, Michael Werneke, also left the Stowe resort for a nightclub kitchen. He became executive chef at Stowe’s Rusty Nail Bar & Grille in May. Manager Kate Wise says that when Werneke contacted her in April, “It was a miracle.”

Wise started working at the tried-and-true music venue and bar when she was in high school and has filled every job at the Rusty Nail since, including running the long-defunct creemee stand at the side of the building. At the start of the 2011 season, Massachusetts-based owner Stan Swierzewski asked her to take over from another manager who had left operations in poor condition. Just reopening the restaurant was a struggle, recalls Wise — until Werneke asked for a job.

Since his arrival, the Rusty Nail has quickly become the crown jewel of the ski area’s emerging gastropub scene.