Casa Villa: Beloved Taco Joint Opens in Bridgeport

Stamford's beloved Mexican restaurant Casa Villa opens a new location in Bridgeport TODAY. The menu will be very similar to that at their East Main Street location, including their signature al pastor tacos and tamales. Congratulations to owner Alvino Villa and his team! Hacienda Villa is located at 2810 Fairfield Ave, Bridgeport CT.  

Click here to read our review of CASA VILLA

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What's Cooking in Bridgeport May 14-20

Bridgeport’s Restaurant and Entertainment Week Returns May 14-20

Experience Bridgeport’s growing and thriving restaurant and entertainment scene from Monday, May 14 to Sunday, May 20, 2012 during What's Cooking in Bridgeport. Two of CTbites' favorites, Bereket and MELT Market & Cafe are on board this year, so check them out. 

Restaurants participating in What’s Cooking in Bridgeport restaurant and entertainment week will be offering patrons a new fixed price menu. 

‪These restaurants include: Amici Miei Cafe, Bereket, Epernay Bistro, The Field, Barnum Publick House, Taco Loco, Fortuna's Italian Deli, MELT Market & Cafe, Miss Thelma's, Park City Grill, Toni's Tuscan Table @ Dish, and Too Boots Pizza.

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CTbites Readers Create New Pies for Pizzeria Rosso

Add this to the CTBites’ mantra - Sharing seven different and unique pizzas is a great way to spend an evening. 

Several of us performed the enviable task of judging six of the great pizza combinations that readers submitted to determine which would be included on the menu of Pizzeria Rosso’s new location in Greenwich and the combination that will earn the title of “CTBites 2012 Pie Combo.” And true to the mission of CTBites of guiding our readers to delicious food, all of them were so fantastic that Owner / Chef Pat Pascarella agreed that ALL OF THEM will be included on the Greenwich menu. 

So congratulations to each of these winning combinations: 

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Pizzeria Rosso Expands to Bridgeport & Greenwich

Pizzeria Rosso is opening up not one, but two new locations in Connecticut in addition to their original Norwalk take-out outpost which has been open just under a year. [Read: Pizzeria Rosso Opens in Norwalk, June 2012] 

Pasquale (Pat) Pascarella is the chef and founder of the successful yet still young pizzeria.  His second Pizzeria Rosso is set to open at 960 Main Street in Bridgeport in just about three weeks. The new Bridgeport location will be open seven days a week and boasts forty seats with two four-pie Baker's pride ovens. The menu will be largely the same, but more of a focus on pizza and less pasta and will be BYOB with the possibility of a future liquor license. With Webster Arena just up the street and the Barnum Publick House opening across the street, Pizzeria Rosso will be open until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday night.

A third location will open in Greenwich, giving Pizzeria Rosso the run of Fairfield County.

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MELT Market & Cafe in Bridgeport: Go ahead and MELT

Do you feel the need, the need for cheese? Introducing MELT Market and Cafe, the spectacularly gooey love child of former Westport-based Mirabelle Cheese Shop owners Andrea and Damon Itin. MELT, located in the up and coming section of Bridgeport at the corner of Lafayette Circle and Fairfield Ave is sleek and spacious with high tops as well as regular tables for seating and warm inviting color tones. The 2,200 square foot space seats plenty but if tables were pushed aside, this could be a fantastic place for a private function. But enough about things spatial, on to the celestial - this is a cheese lovers' nirvana -

What's for sale ? MELT is the purveyor of European as well as local cheeses

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Texas BBQ franchise opens in Bridgeport via ctpost.com

This just in from ctpost.com.

The biggest barbecue fast food chain in the country is coming to Connecticut in the North End of Bridgeport. Dickey's Barbecue Pit will have its soft opening Sunday and its grand opening Dec. 8.

Cohen is a Dallas native, and often ate at Dickey's growing up. The first Dickey's Barbecue opened in Texas in 1941. The original location is still open for business, and Dickey's Barbecue is still owned and operated by the Dickey Family, according to the company website. The company began franchising in 1994.

Customers can expect to get their food in three minutes or less, Cohen said, but the meat is smoked for hours. The brisket, for example, is smoked for 14 hours before it hits a plate. "We have fall-off-the-bone ribs," Cohen said. "Most restaurants use a thermometer to test if the ribs are done. We test our ribs by picking them up and if they don't break in the middle, we know they're not ready to serve."

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Pizzeria Rosso in Norwalk

At Pizzeria Rosso, it’s a family affair. As chef and partner of Norwalk’s newest take-out pizzeria, Pasquale Pascarella is the driving force behind this old world meets new world approach to pizza. His cousin handles the dough, his mother arrives each morning at 7 a.m. to make the sauce, and Dad shuttles the pies from oven to destinations in Norwalk and just beyond.

  

A veteran chef of Stamford’s Old Saltwater Grille where he remains a partner, Pasquale decided that a take-out pizza business would help him shift his focus and gain control back to what he loves about cooking, both Italian-inspired dishes and traditional Neapolitan pies (he cites San Francisco’s A16 as inspiration) would be a great muse for this transition.

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"What's Cooking in Bridgeport" Dining Deals

Bridgeport is proud to announce the second annual "What's Cooking in Bridgeport" week from Monday, May 16 to Sunday, May 22, 2011. What's Cooking in Bridgeport is a week long event showcasing the unique range of dining and entertainment options across the Park City.   Throughout the week, over 40 restaurants are offering special promotions, providing a great opportunity for people across the region to enjoy food and fun in Connecticut’s largest city.  From 2-for-1 prices to free appetizer, drink and dessert specials, What’s Cooking in Bridgeport has something for everyone.

Participating restaurants include

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Bereket Turkish Restaurant "2" Opens in Bridgeport

CLICK ON ABOVE IMAGE TO LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

Last spring we told you about Bereket, an tiny authentic Turkish eatery tucked behind a gas station in Bridgeport.  This fortuitous find primarily offered takeout, but if you were lucky enough to get one of the 3 small tables, you were served food worthy of an Ottoman emperor. While we loved hiding out behind the Citgo station, we were pleased to hear that owner Selahattin Cinar had moved his very reasonably priced menu and talented cooks to a much larger space in Blackrock (the old Helados Vazquez). With an upgraded interior worthy of the excellent fare, Selahattin can now focus on the customer experience...and a more gracious host you've never seen. Warm up your car for a quick departure to Bridgeport. 

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Gordon Ramsay Screams into Bridgeport This Week

If you hear screaming from the general vicinity of Bridgeport this week, chances are it's Gordon Ramsay inside the kitchen of Blackrock's Cafe Tavolini where he will be camping out filming Fox's Kitchen Nightmares.

Thanks to the local Bridgeport blog, Only in Bridgeport for the hot tip.