When I visited Fryborg in 2023 for a follow up article on its new Trumbull location and expanded menu, owner Johnathan Gibbons tossed me a tidbit that I teased at the end of that piece about a weekend morning pop up featuring something sweet.
“Let’s get a drink”. “Come over for a drink!”. There’s nothing more convivial than sharing a drink together with a person or a whole group of favorite persons. And isn’t the ol’ saying -it’s 5 o’clock somewhere? Well, here’s a historical “reason” to raise your glasses high-Oktoberfest, the beloved, ancient event involving mouthwatering beers, so much (too much? never!) merriment and some fabulous lederhosen. Oktoberfest-ivities run pretty much the entire month of September and into October, so there are plenty of chances to raise that stein. And remember, we all put our lederhosen on one leg at a time. Prost!
Big news for doughnut ice cream sandwich lovers everywhere. On September 24th, starting at 11:30 AM (and I’d get there nice and early as these will sell out quickly), Karla Sorrentino of Karla’s Kreamery and Rob Vankeuren of Flour Water Salt Bread will come together for a few hours to create some cream sandwich magic. The uniquely delicious Flour Water Salt bomboloni (Italian style doughnut) will have a chance to get intimate with Chef Karla’s new micro batch ice cream. These are two “best in class” desserts so get excited.
This unique culinary opportunity will go down at Flour Water Salt located at 20 Grove Street in Darien. While the shop will hold normal hours that day, the ice cream sandwiches won’t get started until 11:30 AM. While both businesses generally take pre-orders, there will be no ordering in advance for this collaboration. Karla and Rob will be assembling sandwiches to order, and expect to simply wait in line for your sweet reward.
Anyone who's ever hit happy hour and subsequently remembered they hadn't eaten dinner while staring into a beer at another location sometime around midnight can probably feel the pain of the next morning right now, as you're reading this. Remember that? Well, let's not let that happen again, or allow ourselves to slap late night drive-thru - the FlexTape of Shame - over the leaky bucket of our decisions.
What we need is food with our beers, whether we're adding plates to pitchers and pints at the taproom, or exploring flavor combinations at home. Inspiration struck while I was at my first beer pairing dinner in over two years at The Little Pub in Fairfield, hosted by Greg Radawich, director of brewing operations at New England Brewing Company in Woodbridge. I'll get into what you can have from the brewery and pub, plus a few more ideas to serve as springboards for your own dives into brews and foods.
And if you missed this beer dinner, Little Pub will be hosting another beer pairing dinner with Fat Orange Cat brewery at Little Pub, Fairfield on Tuesday, March 1.
Danbury Connecticut has been on a donut driven sugar rush ever since Grounds Donut House has arrived. With completely unique flavors like Arnold Palmer Iced Tea, Orange Milano & Chips Ahoy, there is no doubt that you will leave the donut haven with smile on your face and a yearning for more. We are also excited about their new…wait for it… Ice Cream Injected Donuts available for in store purchase only.
Located off of the Lake Avenue Exit, Grounds Donut House serves donut lovers creative donuts, premium coffee, over-the-top coffee drinks, and for the 21+ crowd, alcoholic beverages featuring local brewers with donut-y friendly flavor profiles. Grounds keeps their menu pretty consistent, as they have their everyday classics, but they also rotate new donuts in to allow their customers to try new flavors each time they come into the donut house.
It’s always exciting to hear about a new concept opening from one of your favorite CT chefs, but it is even more exciting when that chef partners with a groundbreaking philanthropic organization on a mission to educate young adults and celebrate local artists while creating a free destination for fine art and music in the city of Norwalk.
Chef Bill Taibe and his team (Andrea Dinan, Caitlin McGowan and Kelly Clement) have officially opened the doors to their brand new Art Space Cafe, located inside the breathtakingly beautiful Norwalk Art Space. The Cafe will be open for breakfast and lunch, 9am-4pm, just steps away from Norwalk’s Waypointe and downtown SoNo. The Art Space Cafe is an order-at-the-counter, casual affair, and will likely become a go-to spot for breakfast meetings, grabbing a quick latte, or a lunch hang in the serene sundrenched dining space.
If the buzz around KFC’s 2020 rollout of their fried chicken and donut sandwich says anything about our appetite for this decadently delicious combo, I’d say with great certainty that the new Citizen Chicken & Donuts, opening today in West Hartford, has some serious legs. From the folks who brought you Hartford Baking Company, Citizen Chicken & Donuts has made a smart addition to the team, a chef who knows things about Southern cooking, and definitely knows his fried chicken. Texas born, Chef Van Hurd, of Sayulita’s, Taino Smokehouse, and Riverhouse Catering, will be at the helm alongside Hartford Baking Company founder, Scott Kluger, who will handle the carb-ier side of Citizen’s menu, including the donuts, brioche sandwich breads, cronuts and other goodies. Kluger says “Fried chicken is not our background or culture so it’s nice to have somebody from that world to bring real authenticity to the menu.” It’s really the perfect pairing, and you can find this comfort food mecca at Hartford Baking Company’s original location on New Park Avenue in West Hartford.
Half Full Brewery and Mill River Park Collaborative announced today the return of Winter Wonderland Market & Beer Garden to Stamford, Conn.’s Mill River Park. The Winter Wonderland is intended to celebrate and unite local residents and professionals through a diverse and expanded slate of programming, which will run from Friday, Dec. 6 through Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2020.
Pull back the hour hand on the clock of geologic time and the land in what was once New Haven begins to fill in. The sandstone rises up, glaciers come and go again in reverse, and the scenery levels off. The view across the water isn't Long Island - the glaciers pulled that land back with them - it's what will become Morocco. Now spin the clock forward again. The continents drift - ice, then not ice again - and the land erodes away until something seems to rise up again: the traprock scarp we know as East Rock. There's a lot of history here, and the newest bit to crop up is East Rock Brewing Company.
Donut Crazy is happy to announce the opening of its newest location in West Hartford today. The store, located at 993 Farmington Avenue, offers all of Donut Crazy’s food and beverage items.
For those uninitiated into Donut Crazy’s world of over-the-top sugary doughnut confections, this location feels like a giant step forward both in selection and ambiance. All of their baked goods are made in-house in a Donut Crazy Kitchen by an overnight team of bakers. In West Hartford, Donut Crazy will offer its typical selection of “Dailies” and “Crazies.”
Collaborations, pop-ups, and food markets are what I live for in terms of seeking out inventive yet timeless cuisine pairings. And one new collaboration that caught my eye with an abundance of drool-worthy Instagram posts—and likely you’ve spotted it too—is the recent marriage between Vault Coffee and Deviant Donuts. Truly, what is better than a perfect pairing of coffee and doughnuts on a lazy weekend morning?
Half Full Brewery and CTBites are beyond excited to bring you this year's most creative and collaborative food and beer-pairing event series. Not to be missed, "Beers & Bites" 2018 pairs limited release beers from Half Full Brewery with totally off-menu food items from some of Fairfield County's best chefs and food truck operators. Tickets for our August 15th event with Skinny Pines pizza truck & Chef Geoff Lazlo are going fast, so get your tickets now!
The 5th Annual Ridgefield Gone Country BBQ Festival in Ridgefield starts Saturday May 5 at 11am and runs through Sunday 5pm. The Event will be held at the Historic Lounsbury House at 316 Main Street. Tickets: $10 for adults and $5 for students. Children under 12 are FREE.
Sunday, April 29th, Half Full Brewery is hosting a pig roast with Hoodoo Brown BBQ. Doors open at 12:00 for beers, starting at 1:00 Hoodoo will be serving up BBQ Wings (tossed in Red Bee Honey Sauce), and a Pig Roast that will feature a whole hog, apple-vinegar slaw, slider buns, cornbread, and mac and cheese. Reserve tickets here.
Tickets for The Schoolhouse at Cannondale’s Farm to Fork series go on sale May 1. Each evening includes a cocktail hour, a farm tour, and four locally sourced courses under the stars by Chef Tim LaBant. It takes place at Millstone Farm in Wilton, CT.
On Monday April 30, head over to Terrain Garden Café in Westport for “Dishing Local.” CTbites and the Westport Farmers Market welcome foodies to a food-focused evening and open forum in the terrain Garden Cafe. They’ll gather with some of the local food community's leading talents to discuss the latest trends, everyday eating, and tips and secrets from farmers and restaurateurs. This event is free and open to the public. Food and beverage available for purchase.
On Tuesday May 2, Fairfield Cheese Company presents “Cheese 102: Beyond the Basics with Arethusa Farm.” The class will expand on the basics and delve into cheese making, history, science, and more. Plus, taste plenty of cheeses and complementary wines. Tickets are $50 and the class runs from 7-9pm.
CLASP Homes 14th TASTE OF WESTPORT will take place on Thursday May 3 from 6-9pm at the Westport Inn. Enjoy samplings of specialty dishes from Amis, Harvest Wine Bar, Hummock Island Oysters, Pearl at Longshore, Saltwater, Bobby Q’s Cue & Co., Tablao, and more. There will be plenty to drink as well! Tickets are $75 prepaid, $85 at the door.
Did you ever hear the one about the food truck chef and the restaurant chef at a local brewery?
Wait, that’s a real thing. There’s no punchline.
What I’m talking about here is the first ever Beers & Bites event that was held on April 5, 2018 at Half Full Brewery in Stamford. Beers & Bites is a collaboration between CTbites, Half Full Brewery, local food trucks and chefs.
The idea behind Beers & Bites is to team a food truck chef and a restaurant chef to collaborate on a menu that gets paired with Half Full’s thirst-quenching brews. Think of it as a beer dinner where you won’t leave feeling overstuffed; it’s just enough food and drink. For $50 you get four-courses, four beers (refills were common so it’s a little more than four), a commemorative Beers & Bites snifter glass, and a damn good time in a non-pretentious, not overcrowded taproom.
Donut Crazy, a local, family-owned eatery specializing in unique donut flavors (lovingly called Dailies and Crazies), today announced the opening of its newest location in Branford. Housed in the newly renovated 972 West Main Street, the take-out restaurant offers the full Donut Crazy menu.
Conveniently located in a bustling part of town, the approximately 500-square-foot store is dine-out only, but incorporates the same fun, funky atmosphere as Donut Crazy’s other popular locations. The comprehensive menu includes 45 varieties of donuts baked daily, avocado toast, breakfast sandwiches, and Dr. Smoothie products, as well as Rise Brewing Co.’s nitro coffee and chocolate milk on draft.
Donut Crazy, a local, family-owned eatery specializing in unique donut flavors (lovingly called Dailies & Crazies), announced a tasty new menu item called the “Cruffin.” The croissant-muffin crossover is the company’s way of celebrating the first sugar-filled year of its New Haven location near Yale University. The “Cruffin” will be available at all Donut Crazy locations for $4.25, starting on Friday November 3, weekends only and while supplies last.
The “Cruffin” has quickly become the food world’s newest bakery obsession, much like the “Cronut” before it. The buttery, flaky pastry is shaped like a muffin and filled with different flavors. Donut Crazy plans to offer coconut, dulce de leche, chocolate mousse, and pumpkin. More exciting flavors to come!
We are pleased to announce the winners of the DONUT CRAZY FLAVOR CONTEST. Doughnut lovers from around CT submitted over 500 contest entries, and because there were so many great flavor combos, Donut Crazy decided to select not just one winner, but FOUR winners! These four limited edition doughnuts are available at all Donut Crazy locations NOW!
The Winning Donuts are....Bananas Foster, Raspberry Lemonade, Carrot Cake & Peaches n’ Cream.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford hosts A Taste of History 2017 on Monday April 3 at 5pm. The evening begins with a premier reception at 5pm and culminates with a food tasting, a cocktail tasting, music, a tour, and art inspired activities.
Fermented beverages are prevalent, but what about fermented foods? Learn about them and their health benefits at the Barrel Room in North Canton, CT on Monday April 3. The class will cover foods like water kefir, milk kefir and kimchi.
Connecticut Hops For Hope returns for its second benefit, Beers For Brittany, on Sunday, April 23rd. The event will be held at the brand new Counter Weight Brewing in Hamden, and 100% of ticket sales, in person donations, and on site raffle ticket sales will benefit Brittany Vellucci, a young woman fighting through brain cancer. Tickets go on sale tonight at 7p.m. RIGHT HERE.
On Monday March 20, Mikro Beer Bar in Hamden invites you to a Kent Falls Brewing Beer Dinner. Chef Mike Fox will create a four course dinner to complement craft brews. The event is limited to 50 people, so get your tickets soon.
Which is better: beer or wine? The question is difficult and divisive… but Fairfield Greenwich Cheese Company will help you decide! Beer and wine will go head-to-head alongside a cheese plate to see which makes for the best pairing. Join them at the Greenwich location on March 21 from 7-9pm and the Fairfield location on March 23 from 7-9pm. It costs $50 per person.
On Wednesday March 22, Cask Republic South Norwalk and Allagash Brewing Company are teaming up for a beer dinner. Chef Carl will prepare a five course menu that will be paired with six Allagash beers. It costs $85 per person and advanced reservations are recommended.
Great news for fans of the outrageous donut bakery, Donut Crazy, and Chef Matt Storch's Match & Nom Eez. Donut Crazy will be opening March 16th in the old Steam Coffee spot at the eastbound side of Metro-North’s Westport station in Saugatuck. Donut Crazy, founded by Jason Wojnarowski will offer coffee, tea, espresso, and an assortment of grab n go dishes provided by Match and Nom Eez restaurants. Here's the concept; give the people what they want, coffee in the morning, and quick delicious takeout for hungry commuters when they emerge bleary eyed at the end of the day.
