Fire & Spice Opens in Bridgeport With A+ Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken & More Ingredients Interview Restaurant Peruvian Indian Bridgeport Interview Fast Casual Opening Andrew Dominick January 13, 2026 A former Jamaican restaurant on Bridgeport’s Boston Avenue doesn’t only have two new tenants, it’s cooking up different culture’s cuisines, too. At Fire & Spice, the concept is Peruvian, with some Indian and Pakistani, and good ol’ American burgers, cheesesteaks, and fried chicken. Behind Fire & Spice is the team of Shiraz Choudhary and his chef, Emilio Malpartida, and if you’ve been to either of the Swift Fresh Market locations, two in Fairfield and one in Norwalk, you’re at least a little familiar with who they are. Read More
Breaking News: Valencia Luncheria in Norwalk Announces New Concept + Renovations Features Interview Restaurant Valencia Luncheria Venezuelan Latin American Norwalk Interview Homepage Andrew Dominick January 08, 2026 Valencia Luncheria as you know it is closing. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but it made you sit straight up, didn’t it? In a social media post on January 7, 2026, Valencia announced that after service on January 18, they’ll be closing for renovations. But those first four words in the caption on their Instagram reel is what you should be focused on… Read More
Craft Beer + Music: Twelvenote Brew Co. Opens in Black Rock Brewery Interview Features Brewery Twelvenote Brew Co Black Rock Bridgeport Music Craft Beer Beer Opening Interview Brewer Homepage Andrew Dominick January 08, 2026 Brian Pietrzak has had some “pinch me” moments lately. As the brewer and co-owner of Twelvenote Brew Co. in the former Aspetuck Brew Lab space in Black Rock, he’ll tell you candidly that it’s all a bit surreal. “I wake up sometimes at 3 a.m. and I can’t believe I own a fuckin’ brewery, like, I can’t believe this is my job now,” he says. Originally from Erie, PA, Pietrzak’s brewing story started as you might expect it to, with a home brewing kit he received as a gift from his brother-in-law, who’s his now partner at Twelvenote. Read More
Bangkok Republic in Wilton: Top Notch Thai Food Hidden in Plain Sight on Route 7 Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Thai Wilton Asian Interview Andrew Dominick January 07, 2026 Raise your hand if you’ve driven past a strip mall, plaza, a couple of storefronts clustered together, or whatever you call it, countless times without giving it any thought. We’re all guilty of this. In this case, we’re talking about a Thai restaurant that’s located on Route 7 that so many of us drive up and down so many times per week. And unless you’re a Wilton local who has obviously been gatekeeping this hidden-in-plain-sight gem, you may not even know it’s there, despite the fact that Bangkok Republic has been open for almost a decade. Read More
Wire Mill Saloon & Barbecue in Georgetown: On CT's Best BBQ List for 12 Years Features Interview Restaurant BBQ Wire Mill BBQ Redding Georgetown Interview Pitmaster Homepage Andrew Dominick January 04, 2026 In January 2014, when Gino Marsili opened the doors to Wire Mill Saloon & Barbecue, his recollection is, “There were maybe only a few of us doing BBQ; me, Bobby (Bobby Q’s), and Wilson’s in Fairfield.” Approaching his twelfth year running the pits in Redding’s Georgetown section, Marsili still has a smile on his face doing what he loves, serving the community his brand of BBQ that locals love—including a few of my personal friends who say it’s their favorite ‘cue in Connecticut. Read More
tacobarn Opens in Newtown From Restaurateur David Boyajian Features Interview Restaurant Tacos Newtown Sandy Hook Cocktails Tequila Interview Opening Homepage Andrew Dominick December 17, 2025 “I don’t know what got me looking, but I saw this building roughly 27 months ago for the first time, and I just fell in love with it.” Once filled with random storage, a barn on Glen Road in Sandy Hook has new life as a taqueria thanks to Newtown local and restaurateur David Boyajian. At the appropriately named tacobarn, Boyajian isn’t calling it traditional Mexican and he’s not even remotely pretending it’s that. And this particular nontraditional taco space is something he’s quite familiar with from his past as bartaco’s director of operations and part of that microchain’s expansion. Read More
It's A Woman's World: Head Bartender Rebecca Legoute of 29 Markle Ct in Bridgeport Ingredients Interview It's A Woman's World Interview 29 Markle Ct Bridgeport Bartender Cocktails Andrew Dominick December 16, 2025 Rebecca Legoute is the smiling face behind the stick at 29 Markle Ct where she’s crafting classics and then some, often pushing boundaries with infusions, syrups, and garnishes that she whips up in the restaurant’s kitchen. When I first met Rebecca, judging her drinks at various cocktail competitions throughout Connecticut, a few things stood out; her creativity was off the charts and her determination was unwavering—because even if she didn’t win, she wanted all the judge’s critiques after the competition ended, always coming back to compete again and again. Read More
La Cave in Darien: Restaurant L'Ostal's Sexy Wine Bar Features Ingredients Interview Events Wine Wine Bar Darien Restaurant L'Ostal L'Ostal Darien La Cave Darien Interview Bar Menu Bar Homepage Andrew Dominick December 09, 2025 Last April, Restaurant L’Ostal and chef-owner Jared Sippel, quietly added what he calls “a layer” to his four-plus-year-old Darien hotspot. La Cave—the French word for cellar—is Sippel’s homage to European wine bars. It’s small, cozy, intimate. No, they won’t mix you a cocktail. You certainly can’t order a cheeseburger. “Can you bring me the escargot from the L’Ostal menu?” Also…no. Read More
El Jefe's Mexican: Washington Prime Debuts Delivery-Only Ghost Kitchen in Norwalk Interview Restaurant Mexican Delivery Washington Prime Norwalk El Jefe Mexican Interview Ghost Kitchen Homepage Andrew Dominick December 05, 2025 One of South Norwalk’s anchor restaurants, Washington Prime, made waves on social media amongst its fans for announcing a ghost kitchen delivery concept, El Jefe’s Mexican. Let’s not freak out here, people. Washington Prime is not in trouble. And they are still a steakhouse. If you’re a bit puzzled as to what a ghost kitchen is, it’s pretty simple. It’s not a physical location where you can go, get service, place an order, and dine-in. Most are delivery and pickup or delivery only via a third-party delivery app or service. Read More
Belden House & Mews Receives Michelin Key, but Here's What Chef Tyler Heckman is Doing in the Kitchen Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Interview Ingredients Litchfield Homepage Belden House Tyler Heckman Andrew Dominick December 03, 2025 Belden House & Mews, Winvian, Lost Fox Inn, The Litchfield Inn, Mayflower Inn. All in Litchfield County. All boutique hotels. And they all have something in common…if you aren’t staying there (or even if you are), don’t overlook them for dinner—or for breakfast or lunch for that matter. Getting a lot of attention since it opened in the first half of 2025 is the first one listed in the bunch, Belden House. And if you pay attention to happenings in Litchfield, Belden’s charming and restored Queen Anne style Victorian and its 10 rooms, plus, its 21 additional modernist rooms, called The Mews, was recently awarded a Michelin Key, a high honor that recognizes outstanding hospitality. But this is a food publication. And I’m here to tell you what’s happening inside of the mansion’s dining room, what’s going down in their kitchen, and introduce you to executive chef Tyler Heckman. Read More
Day Trip: Head Up to Klocke Estate in Hudson for Brandy, Vermouth, Craft Cocktails, + Seasonal, Local Fare Ingredients Interview Restaurant Road Trip Road Trip Distillery Hudson Valley Hudson Vermouth Brandy Cocktails New York Andrew Dominick November 25, 2025 Early in 2025, I started doing a ton of research on vermouth for an article in The Valley Table. You can read it HERE, but if you choose not to, no worries, it was general; what vermouth is, the guidelines for classifying vermouth in Europe versus the U.S., and who’s making it in the Hudson Valley. But if you do read it, there’s a cool, funny Winston Churchill bit in there. Just saying! One of the places that helped significantly with my vermouth knowledge was Klocke Estate in the Hudson-Claverack area where they make their own wine for vermouth, from their own grapes, that’s fortified with their own apple brandy, that’s made from apples grown on the grounds. The botanicals? Also grown right at Klocke Estate, well…with the exception of cinnamon. Read More
My Favorite Dish: Kawa Ni’s Chicken Katsu Parm w/Kimchi Vodka Sauce Ingredients Interview Restaurant My Favorite Dish Chicken Parm Westport Kawa Ni Ingredients Italian Asian Fusion Homepage Andrew Dominick November 23, 2025 When Kawa Ni messes around with fusion, they don’t miss. Over three years ago, at one of the friends and family previews of Kawa Ni’s expansion into the space next door, I remember asking chef-owner Bill Taibe which newish dishes I should try in addition to my usual pork + garlic ramen, karaage don, spicy lamb dan dan, and pork Szechuan dumplings. His reply: “I gotta tell ya, one of my favorites, and a sleeper on this menu, is the kimchi carbonara.” In the present, Kawa Ni’s carbonara is no longer a sleeper. Also in the present, and another foray into Italian–Asian mashups, is their chicken katsu parmigiana. Read More
Chef Ian Vest Opens Modern Italian Restaurant, Talia, in Port Chester Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Modern Italian Ian Vest Port Chester Opening Homepage Interview Pasta Pizza Greenwich Andrew Dominick November 19, 2025 One could argue, that before Greenwich Avenue’s current restaurant boom, one of the hottest spots on the block from 2015 until it closed in 2020 was Back 40 Kitchen. Now, just a touch over the Byram neighborhood’s border in Port Chester, frequenters of Back 40 will see a familiar face in Ian Vest at his newly opened Talia. Vest, originally a St. Louis native, who got his start in the industry at 13 years old and never left it, has seen his fair share of stints working at delis, burrito places, and “everywhere you can imagine.” But hard work pays off, as it landed him an executive chef position at The Crossing, a French-Italian fine dining restaurant in Clayton, Missouri, then, to The Culinary Institute of America. Read More
Specialty Coffee Shop, Carpe Diem Cafe, Opens in Norwalk Ingredients Interview Restaurant Carpe Diem Norwalk Coffee Coffee Shop Norwalk Pastry Opening Interview Andrew Dominick November 17, 2025 Norwalk’s growing coffee shop scene just got one new addition. Carpe Diem Cafe’s goal? Specialty, higher end, baked goods made in-house, coffee shop parties, adult beverages, and a few Dominican dishes amongst the pastry and breakfasty offerings. Owner Elvis Fernandez is setting out to be different from the rest of the coffee shops in the area and is relying on his entrepreneurial spirit and some industry experience to make that happen with Carpe Diem. Read More
Smash Bay Burgers: A CT "Must Eat" Burger Features Ingredients Interview Smash Burgers Burgers Homepage Interview Food Truck Andrew Dominick November 14, 2025 Bussing tables, washing dishes, prep work, and something like flipping burgers are most people’s foot-in-the-door in the hospitality industry. Austen Bass isn’t most people. In fact, he did it backwards. After a long career in the technology field, and with no restaurant experience, you’ll now find him smashing, flipping, and assembling burgers inside of his Smash Bay food trailer, typically parked at a Connecticut brewery near you. Read More
Pat's Apizza Opens in a Gas Station in North Haven Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Pizza North Haven Pat's Apizza Homepage Interview Ingredients Andrew Dominick November 05, 2025 You’re driving on Washington Avenue in North Haven, your car is thirsty, and you pull into Forbes Premium Fuel. Wait a second. What’s that sign say at the gas station? Pat’s Apizza? That’s your sign to swing open the gas station’s convenience store’s door. Look to the left and there’s a full-on pizzeria in there. Be honest…you thought this was gas station pizza, didn’t you? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s a (desperate) time and a place for Stewart’s Shops, Love’s, Speedway, and Wawa. Let’s scrap that whole deal. Pat’s is a pizzeria that just so happens to be inside of a gas station and they’ve been getting a lot of love on social media since they opened on September 4 of this year. Read More
Bake Zone CT: Handcrafted Small Batch Brioche Donuts in Stamford Events Features Ingredients Interview Donuts Woman Owned Pop-Up Bakery Baker Stamford Interview Andrew Dominick October 29, 2025 Covering the hospitality industry for as long as I have, it’s a given you’ll come across people who left a completely different career to pursue their passion in cooking or baking. Sandeep Gupta is one of those people. She left her job doing app design and once she moved from San Francisco to Stamford, she started her own donut business. “I told my husband (Mayank), who’s also a developer and does IT, that I love designing apps and logos and everything, but that I want to follow my passion as a baker,” Gupta says. “I actually liked my job! It was creative and I wasn’t just coding. I made buttons, themes, making apps look pretty. That was me.” Read More
Dos Hermanos Guatemalan Bakery & Cafe Opens in Bridgeport Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Guatemalan Bakery Latin American Black Rock Bridgeport Opening Homepage Interview Andrew Dominick October 24, 2025 If you notice a bunch of people in Bridgeport’s Black Rock neighborhood entering a tiny storefront on Brewster Street, follow them, and the smell of fresh baked bread, inside. Welcome to Dos Hermanos Bakery & Cafe, owned by two brothers (hence the name), Giovanni and Nelson Castellon, who had a goal of opening a place of their own for a while to show the community an accurate representation of Guatemalan food. Read More
Connecticut Chefs Open Up About Wellness, Bad Habits, Mental Health, Addiction, and the 86 Challenge Features Interview Homepage Interview Health & Wellness Mental Health Addiction Chefs Beto Ortiz Damon Sawyer Carlos Perez Dante Cistulli Andrew Dominick October 16, 2025 To “86” or to “eighty-six” something is a term commonly used in the hospitality industry. It’s defined, maybe best so, in the Urban Dictionary, where it’s summarized as “getting rid of something, removing it, or refusing service.” If a dish is popular for the evening, and thus, sold out, you might hear a chef say something like, “86 pasta special.” But to “reject, discard, or cancel” or to 86, has a different meaning to Beto Ortiz in the present day. Ortiz, the founder of Humans of the Kitchen (think Humans of New York for the service industry), a chef in his own right, and someone who’s open about his own struggles with mental health, substance abuse, and an overall rebellious nature, started the 86 Challenge, a wellness program for chefs and restaurant professionals. Read More
Elm in New Canaan Relaunches Afternoon Tea Service Ingredients Interview Restaurant Elm New Canaan New Canaan Afternoon Tea Tea Time Interview Andrew Dominick October 15, 2025 Fridays and Saturdays are for sipping…TEA! Pinky extension for each taste of herbal, green, or black tea is mandatory, of course. On the heels of Elm’s overhaul of their interior and food menu, afternoon tea is back! If it feels like we’ve taken this tea journey once before, we certainly have. Back in 2021, I covered Elm’s spread of scones, bites both savory and sweet, a piping hot teapot, and for an extra charge, and if you desire, a glass (or bottle, if that’s how you get down) of bubbly. Read More
