Charlie Menard

Technique and timing were set early at New England Culinary Institute, where Charlie Menard learned the kitchen through repetition and close attention. The next step was Executive Chef at Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield, Vermont, a role that put the work inside a place-first setting and asked for control, consistency, and a sense of scale that matched the room.

Since 2016, Charlie Menard has been owner of Canteen Creemee, and the same chapter also places him as chef-owner of Canteen Creemee Company. The operation is built around a narrow brief: soft serve ice cream and crispy fried chicken. That pairing gives the place its shape — cold and hot, sweet and salty, quick and direct — with a menu that relies on clarity rather than range. Holiday food, in Menard’s own framing, is about practicality as much as pleasure.

The point is not only flavor but the chance to make a shared meal feel easier, more relaxed, and more available to the people around the table. Canteen Creemee follows that logic: accessible food, made to land fast, with enough care to make simplicity count.

Charlie Menard’s signature dishes — Thai tea creemees, fried chicken banh mi, and Bad Larry vertical sundae — show a kitchen built on contrast. Cold cream meets tea’s sharper notes, fried chicken sits inside the structure of a banh mi, and the sundae comes with a vertical presentation that gives the dish a clear point of view. Each one keeps the menu specific without overcomplicating it.

James Beard Award semifinalist, Best Chef: Northeast (2025).