"My grandma always used to say live long, laugh long," said John Stoate.
Stoate bought the Man of Kent bar in 1985.
"I said I want to live in Vermont, let's pick roads going in," said Stoate.
Far from where he was born, Stoate named the bar after the place near where he was from.
"Kent is a county, like a state," said Stoate.
For more than two decades he built it up, collecting eclectic pieces along the way, making friends out of customers who walked through the doors.
"I wanted a place to go to that I liked, to be comfortable with," he said.
Stoate's background is quite extensive.
"I've lived all over the world I grew up in Australia, New Zealand, I worked on ranches, in the mines," said Stoate.
He moved to America in 1981.
"I had $89 when I came to the states and I was 41 years old."
For three years he lived and worked in New York City as a bartender with no real training.
"I left school at 14," he said.
But John understood one thing.
"I knew that people are nice. All they want to do is meet other nice people," said Stoate.
It is that simple truth that he stuck to when he opened his own place. That, and hard work.
"Every morning I wake up a young man. I'm not a young man when I go to bed. That's the way you've got to be in life," he said.
This young man, deciding recently it was time to pass the place on. He picked a former customer, a friend, to take over.
"I learned more about life from him than the restaurant and bar business," said Jonathan Bombard, the current owner.
Stoate still makes an appearance at the bar several days a week.
"He still to this day is the Man of Kent he will be forever," said Bombard.
The transition is allowing Stoate to do the part of the job he likes best.
"There's always someone you'll meet who lost his dog or his parents are sick. You've got to spend a bit of time with him. You don't have to be his best friend but you want him to remember you," said Stoate.
Spend just five minutes with Stoate and remember you will.
