Restaurant family grows with new eatery at the grist mill

March 16, 2024 | By Sandy Yusen | Correspondent 

After moving the original Hen of the Wood to Main Street, Eric Warnstedt’s Heirloom Hospitality restaurant group will open Gallus Handcrafted Pasta in late spring at the historic grist mill at 92 Stowe Street. Photo by Sandy Yusen

The Waterbury-based restaurant group that launched Hen of the Wood and branched out with Prohibition Pig and Doc Ponds will add a new member to its family later this spring when it opens Gallus Handcrafted Pasta at the historic grist mill at 92 Stowe Street.  

For 17 years, the 1840s mill building was home to the original Hen of the Wood before it closed in March 2023 and relocated to 14 South Main Street. Eric Warnstedt, the restaurant’s founder and chef, and owner of the Heirloom Hospitality restaurant group, retained the lease on the mill space. He signaled his intention to launch a new restaurant there in a social media post marking Hen’s closure, promising “a new brand, lots of fresh pasta, carafes of wine, waterfalls, and those sexy little rock wall mice.”

A year later, Gallus is getting ready to open. The new Waterbury establishment takes its name from gallus gallus domesticus, a red jungle fowl that came to America from Southeast Asia and is a long-lost relative of the chicken, according to Warnstedt. “It’s our little nod to the original Hen,” he said. 

True to its name, the menu will feature small plates and shared dishes with fresh pasta. The pasta will be handmade just down the road at Hen of the Wood, which has a larger kitchen. “We just have a love affair with handmade pasta,” Warnstedt said. The menu will also include a couple of larger non-pasta items.

Warnstedt said Gallus will aim for a more everyday vibe than the fine-dining panache Hen has become known for. Its focus on fresh pasta will allow the menu’s pricing to be attractive to the community while staying true to his team’s ethos of sourcing as locally as possible, Warnstedt said. In contrast to Hen of the Wood, Gallus will be “a way to offer the community something a little more reasonable —but still a handmade artisan product made in our own backyard,” he said. “The goal would be for it to be not so much a special occasion feeling but a place people can just pop in.” 

Gallus will occupy the same space as the former Hen of the Wood with stone walls, wooden beams and a view of the brook outside. Photo courtesy of Hen of the Wood

Diners who loved the grotto-like coziness of the old Hen will not be disappointed. The rock walls are still intact – “they’re not going anywhere,” Warnstedt said. He reported that the restaurant is undergoing a remodel before opening so that it feels “different and fresh,” including new lighting, paint colors, and tables and chairs. The restaurant’s capacity will remain at 45 seats due to occupancy limits for the space.

A recent email to subscribers announcing the new restaurant promised updates on Instagram and referenced community fundraising. Warnstedt is considering ways to build excitement and an early customer base, such as a seatholder promotion, or a card that offers a discount for the life of the business. “It’s a built-in cheering squad for the restaurant,” he said.

Gallus will be the third food venture in Waterbury for Warnstedt, who lives in town and runs the Heirloom Hospitality restaurant group from an office above Prohibition Pig. Outside of town, it also runs Hen of the Wood in Burlington and Doc Ponds in Stowe, and recently announced a partnership with the Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain for a seafood restaurant opening in late spring.

As the restaurant group grows and evolves, it aims to continue on its mission to provide “a truly Vermont experience.” And opening Gallus in Waterbury is a deliberate commitment to the company’s hometown.  

“I never imagined having more than one restaurant here, much less three,” Warnstedt muses. “We are doubling down on community in a post-COVID world and reclaiming the fun things we used to do. We are truly investing as much as we can in our little community.”