Posted Thursday, November 15, 2018 2:42 pm

If you go ... Place: Depot Street Burgers Where: 468 Depot St., Manchester Phone: 802-362-7500 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.- 9 p.m.; Sun 12-8 p.m. On the web: www.depotstreetburgers.com

MANCHESTER — It took less than a week for residents and tourists alike to embrace the newest eatery in Manchester.

Depot Street Burgers opened its doors for business at the end of October. While this is Andrea Hammer and Matt LeRay's first venture into owning their own eatery, they are no strangers to the restaurant world.

"We've both been doing this forever, so we decided to start our own restaurant," Hammer says.

Hammer grew up working in her aunt and uncle's restaurant and her mother's restaurant in the Buffalo, New York, area before working at The Perfect Wife.

LeRay, a Bennington native, studied at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York before working in restaurants in Naples, Florida. Eventually, he returned to Vermont and became a chef at The Barrow House in Dorset.

"We both come from fine dining but we wanted something fast, casual and upscale. And, Manchester didn't have anything like this," explains Hammer as she reflects upon how she and LeRay decided what type of restaurant to open.

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Their eatery has a young, energetic vibe with its corrugated metal counter and bar space, clean-lined wooden tables and four rotating craft beers on tap that are written on a large, brown paper scroll hanging by the register.

Although they call their new establishment Depot Street Burgers, the name is perhaps a bit deceiving.

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They do serve hand ground smash burgers, which Hammer describes as cooking faster because, "you ball it, smash it and cook it on a flat top," in the traditional way with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, and a special sauce. But they also make a more original burger dish like their Loco Moco, which is a burger served on top of Basmati rice topped with house gravy and a fried egg.

However, the menu doesn't stop at their 50 percent brisket, 50 percent ground beef hamburgers.

LeRay has added a variety of nontraditional burger dishes like shrimp burgers, lamb burgers and vegan burgers. And some items on the menu aren't even burgers; like the Tuna Poke, a fried buffalo chicken sandwich and homemade daily soups.

"This is just our introductory menu," Hammer teases. "We're going to get more creative."

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Most items on the are being prepared in-house, including the homemade gravy, house fermented Kimchi, house-cured pork belly, hand-cut fries, homemade salad dressing and sauces.

Even though Hammer has been living in Manchester for 20 years, she has been kind enough to share a bit of her Buffalo culture with the area by introducing the popular Friday night fish fry.

It should be noted that Hammer and LeRay are doing it in their own style - gluten-free. The fish used for the dish is the traditional Haddock but the beer batter is made from Zero Gravity's Little Wolf, which is a gluten-free beer, and LeRay substitutes rice flour for the typical all-purpose flour. The end product is a gluten-free fish fry that can be enjoyed by all.

But it's not all about the food.

Along with draft and bottled beers, Hammer has brought a new product to the Manchester area. It's an Oregon wine called Dear Mom that comes in eye-catching 6-ounce cans. She sells their red wine blend, white wine blend and rose.