Nadia Blair has fond memories of being a passenger in her parent’s car driving from Katonah through the charming town of Ridgefield to go visit her grandparents in New Haven. She’d constantly bother her mom with “Why can’t we live there?” questions to be told that the reason is because it’s “too far away from the highway.” Spring ahead decades later and Nadia, along with her chef husband Aaron, don’t only live in Ridgefield, but they’ve opened a restaurant where southern eats meet roadside New England charm, named after Aaron’s mother, Florence.
The former Easton Village Store on Sport Hill Road has a new tenant and it’s a chef you know. Award winning chef, Prasad Chirnomula, and his business partner, Ron Berry, have transformed the space into Gourmet United, a takeout and delivery-based concept that, with Chirnomula involved, definitely features his lauded Indian cuisine alongside Mexican food under one roof.
Downtown Hartford will be teeming with live music and an eclectic variety of local cuisine by restaurateurs in the region as the city welcomes back Hartford Taste, presented by The Hartford, Friday and Saturday, June 6-7, on Pratt and Trumbull streets.
The 2025 event will feature more than 35 restaurants, 30 musical acts, live visual art and a brand-new cultural stage experience called The Kitchen Table – Good Food & Good Conversation, where chefs, mixologists and creatives will share live demonstrations, storytelling and interactive dialogue about what food and culture mean in Hartford today.
The Hartford is the presenting sponsor for the third year in a row and will continue to cover all vendor fees, allowing restaurants and food businesses to participate at no cost.
Chefs that have a bustling restaurant never take a full month off. For Luke Venner, “vacation” wasn’t pina coladas in the Caribbean, nor was it one of his fishing or hunting excursions. Instead, he was mostly in New Canaan, at Elm, remixing popular dishes, creating new ones, and reimagining and renovating the entire dining room. Don’t freak out. Your beloved Double-Double was unharmed in the process. But the dining room? Transformed. And it’s something that Venner—who’s in his 10th season as Elm’s executive chef and co-owner—has been meaning to tackle for quite a while. Talk to him about it and you can tell he’s feeling refreshed about all of it.
Since 2014, Genee Habansky’s Herbaceous Catering Co. has made the rounds all over. Catering, sure, but you’ve most likely come across her, if not at a private party, then it’s been at an event somewhere in Fairfield County (and beyond). If not there, then maybe you’ve picked up her food at the Westport Farmers Market where Herbaceous is a steady vendor. Habansky’s philosophy when it comes to her catering business is all about caring for the environment, plus, seasonality, locality, and super fresh as it pertains to ingredients she uses, something she became passionate about, first, at culinary school, then at Paul Newman’s The Dressing Room and her other stints at places like Pagano’s Seafood, Heirloom, Walrus + Carpenter, and Centro.
Chris Gonzalez is never surprised when people (including me) bring up Hapa Food Truck, specifically THAT burger. You know the one. Juicy grass-fed beef, a thick strip of tender pork belly, ultra caramelized onions, Vermont cheddar, lettuce and tomato, all between an eye catching purple ube bun. Admit it. You miss it. But those days are gone and these days are now. Gonzalez, now the chef at Kawa Ni, has, along with owner Bill Taibe, created another show stopper of a burger that’ll have you talking. That is, if you can get your hands on one.
Celebrate Shelton, a private city-wide initiative in its 11th year is thrilled to announce Food Trucks on the River, and several exciting community collaborations.
Food Trucks on the River, an exciting two-day festival will take place on Friday, May 30th, from 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM, and Saturday, May 31st, from 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM at Veterans Memorial Park in Downtown Shelton. In case of inclement weather, a rain date is set for Sunday, June 1st.
CTbites & The Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater are excited to announce a NEW DINNER SERIES taking place ON STAGE this Summer. The first event will be held on June 7th at 6PM, with James Beard Nominee CHEF BRIAN LEWIS of The Cottage & OKO alongside CRAZIES “Chef Of The Year” Finalist CHEF DAMON SAWYER of 29 Markle Court. These chefs will be creating a very special dinner for ONLY 150 guests!
The evening will include 4 courses of extraordinary food, live music, cocktails, wine & the unique experience of dining on the same stage on which your favorite band has performed.
All proceeds will benefit FILLING IN THE BLANKS, the Norwalk based organization that fights childhood hunger.
Join Anna and Raven of Star 99.9 & CT Foodshare for the Inaugural Taste of SoNo on May 22nd.
Taste of SoNo will feature a curated lineup of Fairfield County’s best restaurants and drink purveyors. Proceeds from the event benefit Connecticut Foodshare and help fight food insecurity across the state.
Taste of SoNo will include a silent auction, premium cocktails, live demonstrations, and live entertainment.
The event is hosted by Anna and Raven of Star 99.9.
Event Details:
Date: Thursday, May 22nd
Time: VIP session begins at 6PM and general admission is at 7PM
Location: The SoNo Collection (Magnificent Room), 100 North Water Street, Norwalk, CT 06854
Have a conversation with Seleste Tan for just a few minutes and the word that comes to mind is “humble.” Tan’s bakery, Lady Wong Patisserie, with two locations in New York City, speaks about it like she never expected it to be the megahit that it is. “I did it for a hobby during the pandemic and I never thought it would be big,” she says shyly. Her confections, inspired by flavors from her home country of Singapore, and travels throughout Southeast Asia, are her muse. And that hobby? It turned into national coverage in all the big food publications and then some.
Are you ready for the most exciting two minutes in sports? The 151st running of the Kentucky Derby takes place on Saturday, May 3, and TVs will be tuned in at restaurants across the state. Whether you’re looking for a spot to catch the race with friends or you want an all-out extravaganza where you can sport your favorite fascinator, there’s a Derby event in Connecticut for you! Check out the restaurants and businesses below that are hosting special events for the Derby. Keep in mind that the post time is just after 6:50 PM – don’t miss it!
Everything you’ve heard about Adrian Hurtado and his Taco Guy brand opening a new taqueria in Norwalk are true, even if some of the details weren’t originally clear or correct.
Numero tres for Hurtado, if we’re counting the taco truck first, then his Wall Street spot second, is Tacos 203, not Carnitas Michoacán, regardless of what you may have heard. Tacos 203 will be inside of Metro-North’s South Norwalk Station and the concept won’t resemble the fare that Hurtado’s fans have experienced from the truck or his restaurant.
You’re visiting your favorite Neapolitan pizzeria. Almost always, the person “manning” the wood-fired oven is, well, a man. Shattering that mold is Alexandra Castro, whose love story with pizza began when she was a kid in her home country of Colombia. Making pizza in her youth, must have sparked something, because Castro went to culinary school, worked her way through the industry, and ultimately landed her locally at The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges, and after that, as head chef at Pizzeria Magpie in Montreal, known for its Neapolitan pizza.
When the popular Venezuelan-meets-Mexican mashup, Mil Sabores, vacated their original brick-and-mortar at 2043 Fairfield Avenue and went onto opening a bigger restaurant further down the street, they left their digs to another tenant, even if it is for a limited run. Lao Cocina, a Laotian and Puerto Rican fusion spot, that’s mostly takeout, is filling out the rest of that lease. Created by the husband-and-wife team of April Khanthaphixay, her husband, Daniel Colon, and Daniel’s uncle Sergio, they’re mixing their respective cultures for a new kind of concept.
If you’ve followed the evolution of Two Roads Brewing Company, it’s quite something. Since the main brewery opened in 2012, one thing they kept doing is continuing to evolve. Not including a laundry list of beer releases, Two Roads went onto open a second facility next to their Hop Yard six years ago that you now know as Area Two Experimental Brewing. Following Area Two and all their fun, funky small batch drops, and in no particular order, Two Roads got into making canned cocktails, non-alcoholic beer, distilling (we’ll have a few teasers on that), and they even purchased the former PizzaCo across the street and turned it into Two Roads Food Hall & Bar and next door, Two Roads Tee Box, a golf simulator, making it a full-blown “campus.”
The next time you’re enjoying a pint in Spacecat Brewing Company’s taproom, that tray of burgers that just went by IS NOT courtesy of Shake Shack’s Shack Truck. Right out back by Spacecat’s appropriately named patio, “The Litterbox,” is their own brand-new food trailer where the brewery smashes burgers, grills up Connecticut’s own Hummel Bros. hot dogs, and fries to perfection a crispy chicken sandwich.
Sakarin Seedasome recalls a memory from 2017 when he was in San Diego. He walks in after work, wanting a beer, when he wondered, “Wait. What is this place?” “I love craft beer,” he says. “I think they had 20 or so taps, wine as well. I was confused at first, wondering if I had to buy a full 16 ounces of each one, but no, you pay per ounce. I was like, ‘Oh my god. I can try all of these.’ I stayed there all night.” Now one of the owners of Hop & Vine Taproom, which opened in Downtown Stamford in early January 2024, Seedasome and his partners Matthew Ventura and Connor Rasmussen, wanted to get it open much, much sooner. The problem? They couldn’t because it wasn’t legally possible.
When brothers Sam and Javier Reyes took over the reigns of Mezon Tapas Bar from their older brothers Richard and Juan, and flipped the concept over to Mariposa Taqueria in 2020, focusing on tacos and Latin American street food, they had big plans on the horizon. Sam, who’s coming off a 2023 Bartender of the Year win at the Connecticut Restaurant Association’s CRAZIES Awards, took that award and the recognition it brought to launch a series of cocktail competitions to highlight area bartenders so they can show off their full display of skills to local cocktail lovers.
In the middle of 2024 at my dear friend, Anne Grossman’s Rebel Daughter Day, I just about stopped in my tracks when I saw what was on one of the vendor’s tables. Boxes of beautiful, chocolatey brigedeiros, alfajores, and an array of different hand rolled truffles and baked goods that weren’t just from Latin American countries, but a mixture of confections we’re familiar with in the states, too. Silvia’s Kitchen, created by Silvia MacLean, is the face behind the brand, and she bakes out of Rebel Daughter Cookies’ commercial space where you can preorder for pickup or delivery, plus you can find her sweets at various stores and farmers markets in the general area.
Since April of 2024, a new restaurant by the name of Rye Bird, located in the longtime former home of Isla in Fairfield, teased a tasty, affordable, neighborhood restaurant concept. Operated by Post Road Hospitality, Rye Bird officially cracked open its doors on October 19 after hosting some patio preview parties prior to its grand opening. Rye Bird’s founder and president Frank Klein hopes it’ll catch on as the “next neighborhood joint” for a bunch of reasons.
