1974-2002 Burlington Restaurant on St. Paul Street
115 St. Paul Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Dining at the current tenant (American Flatbread / Burlington Hearth) is at standard restaurant prices.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown Burlington restaurant
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · Downtown Burlington Restaurant History · Late 20th Century Vermont Casual Dining
Carbur's was the brainchild of brothers Carl and Burr Vail and opened in Burlington, Vermont in 1974 at 115 St. Paul Street. The Burlington location was one of several across the region, with sister locations in Portland, Maine (123 Middle Street), Hadley, Massachusetts, and Plattsburgh, New York. The restaurant was known for its extensive sandwich menu featuring dozens of named sandwiches.
The Burlington Carbur's closed in October 2002, ending a 28-year run. The St. Paul Street building has since housed American Flatbread's Burlington Hearth, a continuation of the address's use as a downtown restaurant. The building's basement, which housed Carbur's kitchen and tapped kegs beneath the bar, is part of a network of 19th-century downtown Burlington basements that local writers have associated with the prohibition era.
Sources
During the 1974 to 2002 Carbur's years, the building accumulated a reputation among Burlington restaurant industry workers. Staff reports collected by Seven Days Vermont and folk-history writers described the building's basement as the focal point. The basement housed the kitchen and the keg taps that fed the upstairs bar, and waitresses occasionally reported skirts moving in unexplained cold drafts, doors slamming and trapping staff in the walk-in cooler, and a strong impression that the presence preferred to interact with women rather than men.
The most-cited back-story is that a man who once worked at the building died by suicide in the basement decades ago. Local writing treats this as longstanding folklore rather than a documented event. Carbur's bartenders reported pyramids of water glasses appearing on the bar after being put away, and breaking glasses and sudden oven-temperature increases.
Vermont folklore writing also notes that the basement is connected through tunnel infrastructure to other downtown Burlington buildings, a network often associated with the prohibition era. The current American Flatbread tenancy has continued to draw occasional reports from staff and patrons.
Dine in the building that housed Carbur's Restaurant from 1974 to 2002, now home to the American Flatbread / Burlington Hearth restaurant. The downtown Burlington block also includes other historic prohibition-era buildings.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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