Middle East, New York street food add to the flavor at The Wise Fool in Burlington

AI-assisted summary
• Elliot Sion, former chef de cuisine at Honey Road, opens a Middle Eastern street-food eatery called The Wise Fool.
• Located in Burlington’s Old North End, The Wise Fool offers Middle Eastern staples with a Vermont twist.
• Currently a takeout-only establishment, Sion plans to add a bar and dining room in the near future.

Elliot Sion was the chef de cuisine at Burlington’s most celebrated restaurant, Honey Road, a frequent James Beard Award nominee. In late 2023, a Honey Road recipe of his was selected by The New York Times as one of its top dishes of the year.

You might think Sion was on top of the culinary world. He was looking for something else.

“It’s an amazing place,” Sion said of Honey Road, “but I think I just got a little tired of fine dining.” He left after seven years at the Church Street restaurant to work briefly at The Tillerman in Bristol but soon left, again because he was weary of fine dining.

Sion’s restaurant journey of the past year finds him at a cozy spot at the corner of North Street and North Winooski Avenue in the Old North End of Burlington, where he operates a Middle Eastern street-food eatery called The Wise Fool.

Middle East to the Upper East Side

Sion grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with parents originally from the Middle East (his father from Egypt, his mother from Syria via Lebanon). He has extended family in Belgium and Brazil, adding to his worldly outlook.

His interest in food as a career developed after coming to Burlington in 2007 to attend the University of Vermont. Sion worked for about six months at Fresh Market, which preceded ArtsRiot on Pine Street, then spent two years at the former Three Tomatoes restaurant in Williston, adjacent to the Majestic 10 movie theater where Grazers is now.

Sion’s academically-minded parents suggested culinary school, so entered the Culinary Institute of America. That was a mistake, he said, so he left and wound up at Oleana, a Middle Eastern restaurant in the Boston area, before working in that eatery’s sister restaurant, Sarma.

He spent about four years in the Boston area until Cara Tobin, who he worked with at Oleana, contacted him in 2017. She said she wanted him to join her at a restaurant she was opening in Burlington called Honey Road.

Chicken shawarma, maple zalabia

Sion didn’t plan a brick-and-mortar restaurant after leaving Honey Road and The Tillerman, thinking he might do pop-up events. He hired a graphic designer who mentioned that the former Shinjuku Station sushi spot at North and North Winooski was available.

That was in November. Sion found that the rent was reasonable and signed a lease Jan. 15. The Wise Fool opened Feb. 20.

The Wise Fool is inspired not just by the Middle East but by Middle Eastern street food in New York and dishes Sion and his fiancée, Becca Christie, who also works at The Wise Fool, have encountered while traveling. The Wise Fool has Middle Eastern staples such as chicken shawarma wrapped in laffa bread, but Sion also makes chicken shawarma over rice inspired by New York food carts. The menu adds Vermont/Middle Eastern twists, as with the sweet, pillowy dough balls called maple zalabia.

Happy in the Old North End

Sion had long harbored the idea of running his own restaurant.

“It’s always been a dream of mine and I wanted to do this,” he said, noting that business has been “way better than he expected.”

The Wise Fool only does takeout food for now. Sion wants to make money and not just spend it as he adds a bar and rehabs the dining room with capacity for 40 customers that he’s hoping will be ready in mid-October, after he and Christie marry and go on their honeymoon.

Sion, who lives in Winooski, thought he might have a restaurant in that city or the South End of Burlington. He wasn’t interested in being on or around the Church Street Marketplace, saying he wanted something less tourist-dependent.

He loves being in the walkable Old North End, which he called “almost a second downtown” with lots of restaurants. He wants to make The Wise Fool a key part of the dining scene, noting that restaurant workers especially appreciate that his eatery is open past 9 p.m. when many food-industry employees are seeking a bite to eat after work.

Sion hopes to expand the hours at The Wise Fool to five or six days a week from the current four. He sees a business in Winooski like Mule Bar that’s open every day and strives to be that dependable for Old North End residents.

“I think that is a fantastic business model,” Sion said. “I just want to be open. I just want to be here for the neighborhood.”

Hours and information

The Wise Fool, 260 North St., Burlington. 6-11 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 6 p.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday. www.wisefoolvt.com

Contact Brent Hallenbeck atbhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.