The owners of one of Vermont’s best-known restaurants have purchased another one of Vermont’s best-known restaurants.

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Eric Warnstedt, the chef who founded the Hen of the Wood restaurant in Waterbury, signed paperwork Tuesday with business partner William McNeil to purchase another well-known Waterbury eatery, Prohibition Pig. The specialist in smoked meat that has come to be known as “Pro Pig” opened on South Main Street in 2012.

Warnstedt said he and Prohibition Pig founder Chad Rich have been friends for years. When Rich decided he wanted to make a change, Warnstedt was the natural choice to take over. Rich could not be reached for comment.

“I feel like I watched the whole thing grow and do its thing,” Warnstedt said of Prohibition Pig, which also operates a brewery. “We’re sort of doubling down on Waterbury.”

Warnstedt founded Hen of the Wood in 2005, and it quickly became a top destination in Vermont as the state’s food scene began developing its nationwide reputation. “It was definitely the goose that laid the golden egg,” Warnstedt said of that restaurant.

He added a second Hen of the Wood in Burlington in 2013. He opened Doc Ponds, a restaurant/bar in Stowe, in October 2015.

Warnstedt said he isn’t planning any immediate changes at Prohibition Pig. “We want to keep doing what they’re doing and make sure it stays at the level it’s run at. It’s not coming in guns blazing,” he said. “For us it’s really just continuing to build the foundation of the Pig.”

The building at 23 S. Main St. that houses Prohibition Pig and will soon have one of Vermont’s best-known chefs at the helm is only adding to its legendary status on the Vermont food-and-drink scene. The Alchemist, makers of one of the state’s most-famous beers, Heady Topper, ran a brewpub in that building from 2003 until the remnants of Hurricane Irene flooded the space in 2011. The Alchemist now makes its renowned brew in Stowe.

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.