The Schoolhouse's Farm To Fork Dinner Dates Announced

The Schoolhouse has just announced that reservations for their Summer Farm to Fork Dinner dinner series are now open.  This year The Schoolhouse will feature interactive workshops during the cocktail hour as well as a tour of Wilton's most beautiful functional farm. This season's dates will be: June 19th, July 17th, August 21st & September 18th.

These four course dinners are made with local foods, and are served family-style, under the stars. Cocktail hour begins promptly @ 6:00PM with a farm fresh family style meal beginning at 7:00PM. The cost is $126.35 which includes tax & gratuity and featured drinks. BYOB is welcome. With the fantastic weather this season, the variety of fresh vegetables will be outstanding. They will also be featuring a specially selected wine and creative cocktails at these events. 

Reservations:  Email them your info at f2f@schoolhouseatcannondale.com. Tickets are $126.35 (includes tax & gratuity) and are transferrable but not refundable.

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Bar Ordinary Opens in New Haven

Rarely is 400 years of history and presidential name-dropping relevant to a CTbites review, but allow me to digress.

Bar Ordinary, New Haven's newest incarnation of its oldest bar, sits on a storied site on the corner of Chapel and College Street. Nearly 400 years of New Haven history converge on this location, beginning with its role as the town’s first ordinary, or tavern, in 1659 where it hosted a few early visitors you may recognize, including the infamous Benedict Arnold as well as General George Washington as he made his way to command the Continental Army in 1775 (other presidential visitors may have included Lincoln in 1860 and Taft in 1914). In subsequent centuries it was known as The Beers Tavern (18th), the New Haven Hotel (mid-19th) and the Taft Hotel (beginning in 1910), serving as the locus for the city's social stratum for the greater part of the twentieth century.* By the 1980’s, The Taft Hotel's bar room became Richter’s, a popular spot owned by Yale grad and crew instructor Richter Elser who embraced its layers of historic patina, keeping much of the wood paneling and its original plaster ceiling until it closed in 2011.

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Invites: Happy Hour on The Patio @ Artisan Southport

Kick off the season with CTbites and Artisan Southport as they re-open their fabulous patio bar and outdoor restaurant on Wednesday 5/15 5:30-7:30 with a Happy Hour featuring creative hors d'oeuvres by innovative Chef Frederic Kieffer and specialty cocktails from American Harvest "Organic artisanal spirits" for $39, tax and tip all included! 

Menu of passed hors d'oeuvres to include;
Chilled gazpacho shooter, crab meat, avocado, pepitas
Veal tongue crostini, pickled mustard seeds
Foie gras-chicken meat balls, concord grapes glaze
Roasted local oysters
Cod fish fritters, escabeche sauce
Artisan pigs in a blanket, whole grain mustard dressing
Saffron pickled mussels bruschetta, aioli, scallion

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Mama's Boy Southern Table & Refuge Opens in SONO

With little fanfare, Mama’s Boy Southern Table and Refuge, the newest addition to the SONO food scene is slowly opening its doors. Based on traditional Southern hospitality and cuisine, the restaurant will deliver the comfort food of the south combined with a relaxed atmosphere.  As the website states, “Mama’s Boy is putting the “South” in South Norwalk.”

The interior has been completely redesigned. Using woods and material from an old water tower from Florence, South Carolina, owners Greer Fredericks and Ami Dorel created a warm environment from top to bottom. The lighting is soft and inviting, the music gives a perfect background through various genres and the service is straight from Charleston, friendly and incredibly helpful. Upon entering you can choose a seat at the long bar or one of the tables along the wall with a long comfortable banquette. In the rear is a second dining area that is guarded by two windows that were reclaimed from Al Capone’s summer residence. This dining area features a traditional “mirror wall,” you have to see it to completely understand and appreciate.

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The Beer Garden @ Harbor Point Stamford Opens Tonight

Break out the sun dresses, deck shoes and whatever you consider to be your drinking pants, because we're about to do this al fresco, baby. The Beer Garden @ Harbor Point officially opens tonight in Stamford.

The brand new space sits beside a bubbling fountain in Stamford's rapidly gentrifying Harbor Point, and overlooks the canal. The open spaces of the surrounding boardwalk, aluminum facia, and large angular windows help to set it apart from the gleaming glass cubes of the surrounding commercial areas. The Beer Garden is designed to be as open as possible, with sectioned glass doors that fold away to let breezes blow through the large, indoor bar on the ground floor, and those large tilted windows - slightly reminiscent of a ship's bridge - let the beams of sunsets to come flood into the smaller, upstairs bar. But most people won't be coming here to hang out inside. 

Sleek light poles dot the area just outside the main bar and illuminate several picnic tables on a broad boardwalk which extends well over a hundred yards south toward the end of the point, providing views of the harbor entrance and The Crab Shell across the canal. I heard talk of a water taxi shuttling revelers between the two locations as the weather warms. The easiest way for most people to head to this spot on the point is to drive down Pacific, but those who prefer to motor their way up from the Sound can dock at one of an eventual 14 boat slips allocated for The Beer Garden's patrons. 

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Get a "Taste of the Marketplace" in Ridgefield this Weekend

The Marketplace at Copps Hill Common is hosting the first ever "Taste of the Marketplace" this Saturday, May 11 from 11am to 2pm. Ridgefield's culinary gem of a neighborhood will showcase the restaurateurs, vendors and small shops that make this a destination for the area foodies. The Marketplace is located at Copps Hill Common on Danbury Road in Ridgefield, CT.

Featured restaurants include: 109 Cheese and Wine (also hosting classes in their NEW space this weekend), Ridgefield Organics, Ross' Bread, Ridgefield, Prime, Swoon Gluten Free Bakery, Southwest Café, The Cutting Board Café, Bartolo ...

Read the full story over at Hamlet Hub. 

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UPDATE: American Craft Beer Week in CT

You may have already seen our original post on American Craft Beer Week in Connecticut, and we'll keep you updated as we learn about more events. 

Our first update comes from the folks at The Ginger Man in South Norwalk, who have recently announced a week's worth of food and beer specials. Highlights include The Great Wall of Hops (Mon.), wherein IPAs will take over the brass wall of taps, followed by a home brew demo night on Tuesday. Thursday will feature barrel-aged and vintage beers, Friday's special is a bucket of five American craft beer cans for $20, half price large-format bottles of the same for Sunday, and a cask ale and BBQ event on the patio for Saturday. See complete details on food and drink specials below the jump. Cheers.

Second, the folks at CT Beer Week have a massive list of updates on their events page here. Scroll down for a list of 35+ events and specials around the state. Mouse over each individual event, and a bubble will pop up with links and details.

Community Plates Launches in New Haven: Sign Up to Rescue Food

You’ve heard us talk about Community Plates before. In fact, CTbites readers make up almost 80% of Community Plates’ volunteer driven work force delivering rescued food to those in need in Fairfield County. Well now we need to reach out to our New Haven readership to do the same. Community Plates has recently announced their New Haven launch and they need your help. 

Community Plates is a non-profit organization that connects food to people in need of it, by rescuing good food that would otherwise be thrown away and delivering it to hunger relief agencies. Community Plates has lined up food donors in New Haven and is adding more every day, but they need your help to complete the direct transfer of the food to those who need it. They are hoping to sign up 100 food runners by the end of May 2013. Be a part of the solution and sign up here. 

To be involved with the Community Plates initiative, volunteers are asked to commit to just one food run or bin collection a month (15 – 20 minute effort). It’s simple. Just pick up a few bins at your local restaurant or grocery store and drive them to a receiving agency, such as a food pantry or soup kitchen. 

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Coffee Classes at Espresso NEAT in Darien

Everyone has their favorites, and Espresso NEAT is definitely one of our favorite coffee places here at CTbites. Now with two locations (Darien, and a small shop in Greenwich), their devotion to the craft of caffeine delivery is bar none.

In addition to fueling their customers, they are also offering a series of educational classes for the month of May. 

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Tips for Great Grilled Cheese from Chef Jason Sobocinski of Caseus

King of the Grilled Cheese, Jason Sobocinski is the owner and founder of New Haven's innovative cheese-centric gastropub and cheese shop  Caseus Fromagerie Bistro. Here are his tips for the perfect Grilled Cheese sandwich. 

The crispy and the melty are no more typified than in America's greatest culinary accomplishment, the Grilled Cheese! Who thought up such a wonderful combination, to put bread to butter then heat with cheese till melted? Pure culinary Genius. 

The first signs of what we know as the Grilled Cheese sandwich surfaced around the 1940's. Sliced white bread was used often with cheese melted open faced called cheese toasties in England and was a popular dish to make in U.S. Naval galleys. These toasted melted precursors of what we now know where easy to make and super satisfying...did they come from the English Welsh Rarebit or the French Croque Madame? I'm not sure, but I do know that now more than ever this nostalgic sandwich has become increasingly popular and more and more refined. Is it because it's simplicity and comfort evoking qualities? Again, not sure but I know how to make a seriously great GC and here are some of my tips and stellar condiment suggestion to bolster your next crispy melty endeavor! 

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