Good food, friendly service, a beautiful location in the Vermont country side, and a strong sense of tradition all have combined during the last 29 years to make the Dog Team Tavern in Brooksville one of the state's most popular and widely renowned dining establishments.

Operated by Eben and Catherine Joy with their son Jon, the Dog Team Tavern has come to be regarded as an enormously successful tribute to the appeal family-style service holds for American gourmands.

Previous owners of the Dog Team Tavern Mr. and Mrs. Eben Joy

The Dog Team hosts an average of 300-400 people per night and since April of this year (1975) has served close to 40,000 meals. Standing on a set policy of no reservations except on Easter and Mother's Day, the restaurant has attracted thousands of tourists to Addison County in search of good food and companionship.

A history of the Dog Team's growth serves and an interesting parallel to that of the country as each has flourished primarily by taking full advantage of natural resources and circumstance. Equally interesting is the Joy's association with the business which began in a rater roundabout way in the decade before World War II.

The Dog Tam was build in the early 1930's by Sir Wilfred and Lady Grenfell as the U.S. outlet for handicrafts made by natives of New Foundland and Labrador whom Grenfell devoted his life to helping. The Brooksville site was chosen for the establishment because Sir Wilfred lived in nearby Charlotte and Dr. Paul Moody, then president of Middlebury College, was affiliated with his efforts.

Mrs. Joy, then Miss Catherine Vaughn of Garnett, Kansas, came to the country in 1933 as a volunteer worker with the Grenfell mission and served as Director of Sales. She recalls that many local residents, among them Middlebury's "Aunt Jessica" Swift, helped get the business underway with monetary and material support.

The advent of World War II brought many changes both to Miss Vaughn and to the mission. In 1942 she and Eben Joy were married, and in 1946 they bought the Dog Team from the Grenfell organization which had ceased importing handicrafts. Choosing to operate the establishment year-round, the Joys let out the ten upstairs rooms as dormitory space to Middlebury College students and served the boys living there three meals per day. At the same time, they hosted large parties by reservation and ran food up to the college's Snow Bowl which Mr. Joy and Joseph Jones opened in 1947.

1950 marked the last year the Dog Team was operated in the wintertime, and as the Joys ended their business association with the College, they began to let out the ten rooms to visitors from Eastertime through early November while beginning operation of the restaurant fulltime. At the same time they began expansion of the site, adding first and enclosed porch and later a large cocktail lounge.

In the early sixties the Joys stopped renting out the upstairs rooms and their son Jon now has converted much of the floor to an apartment for his use.

While the business has grown dramatically in the past three decades, its primary attractions have changed very little. The Dog Team still serves the seven original dished it started with and, in the words of Mrs. Joy, "always attracts a nice class of people."

Visitors to the establishment can spot both familiar and new faces among its employees. Most often recognized is Jon, who has taken over the Dog Team's management while his parents have semi-retired.

Hostess Mrs. Lucy Lounsbury and top waitress Arlene LaFave of Weybridge and Mrs. Ethel Alexander of Bristol are perhaps the best-remembered dining room personnel, while in the lounge most customers expect to see Bill Larrabee of Vergennes behind the bar.

Culinary school graduate John Provoncha of Middlebury and his top assistant Mike McCreary now handle Kitchen chores for the noon and evening meals. While former head chef Sandor Vida and his wife Yolan do early morning baking. Both the present and former chefs are often sent messages of praise from satisfied customers.

The Dog Team now has approximately 45 people on its payroll, and in its three decades of operation an estimated 1,000 Addison County youths have served as waitresses, bus boys, bar waiters, kitchen helpers or hobart engineers.

The Joys figure that nearly 90 percent of their dinner business comes from outside Addison County and say they have often been pleasantly surprised when traveling to find the Dog Team internationally known. They are particularly proud of a recent award from the World Famous Restaurants International Association which honors prestige dining establishments throughout the world.

Through all their fame and good fortune, the Joys have always tried to treat Addison County folks as number one. They do as much of their food buying as possible locally, and any visitor to the establishment can expect the same respect paid to the as was given Robert Frost, Charles Lawton, or First Lady Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, all past patrons of the Dog Team.

With no present plans for expansion, the Dog Team stands to remain a popular country inn "open for your pleasure" and designed to capture the best of home-style atmospheres. For the thousands who visit the restaurant each year, the Dog Team will truly remain a delightful combination of rural traditions and excellence!