Filtering by Tag: Dining With Purpose,April Bloomfield

New Menu Drop at Fire by Forge in Hartford: Mission Forward Dining

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Amy S. White

Fire by Forge is a Pan-American inspired restaurant that opened in spring of 2023 and has been receiving accolades ever since. Flavors, ingredients, cooking techniques, and even the wines and spirits are drawn from across the Americas, with a strong lean toward what is local, sustainable, and fresh.

Forge City Works serves the community but also provides hands-on job training in customer service, hospitality, and culinary arts for people who have barriers to employment.


Chef April Bloomfield is Cooking at the Mayflower Inn

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Andrew Dominick

A posh five-star inn located in “the country” of Connecticut may be the last place you’d expect to stumble upon a former two-time Michelin star chef doing her thing in the kitchen.

Expect it. And expect to run into April Bloomfield.

Yeah, THAT April Bloomfield. The April Bloomfield who won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: New York City in 2014. The April Bloomfield who owns the British gastropub The Breslin. And the same April Bloomfield of the now shuttered, but acclaimed West Village haunt, The Spotted Pig.

And since mid-September she’s been spending her time away from the concrete jungle as the chef-in-residence at the Mayflower Inn & Spa where she’s firing up the refined pub fare that she is so lauded for and marrying that style with the bounty from local farms.

If you visit—and you absolutely should—there are a few dining experiences to be aware of.

There’s a seasonal, constantly changing four-course dinner tasting in the brightly lit, plant enshrined Garden Room. The $150 tasting’s polar opposite has been the occasionally offered bonfire experience where Bloomfield comes out to chat over cocktails, savory snacks, and gooey s’mores.

Then there’s the meal I elected to have, a lunch in The Tap Room. If the weather obeys, it’s a great idea to dine out on the back deck that overlooks the Shakespeare Garden, equal parts beautiful and haunting on an overcast autumn day.