When Don Memo posted on Instagram that they’d be serving a burger during their Hora Feliz (that’s happy hour in English), their fans were pretty stoked, present company included. Show me a good happy hour AND throw in a limited cheeseburger, something Don Memo has never offered before, and I’m there.
Shouting great news, quite literally, from Gioia’s rooftop!
Gioia Restaurant and Bar has just unveiled their new 2000 sq ft rooftop space which features two levels of tables and bar seating. The open air space gives off tree-house like vibes. The wooden structure is resplendent with lots of verdant greenery, branches dressed in string lights and fabulous views of New Haven’s historic Chapel Street below. The area was designed to be used during our stunning three seasons and can be enclosed to protect diners from inclement weather.
The magical, whimsical setting sets the tone for the rooftop inspired menu with dishes that are meant to be shared, and some that you won’t want to share. (Sorry, not sorry!) Selections include antipasti, crudo, salads, “Wooster Squares,” pasta, panini and dolce. You can expect the same level of flavor and execution you’ve experienced downstairs.
Call it a "bloody beer," and I will have you flensed. An associate from Oklahoma calls them that, and his entire recipe consists of V8 and Gas Station Lite, like some sort of godless swine. I call it a michelada when I drink them, and you should, too. This sounds prescriptive, and it's intended to, because it's best to be forewarned and forearmed when we encounter a new specie.
I have long been a fan of the bloody mary - in fact, I credit her with saving my life many a time during the Great Patriotic Keg Wars of my early 20s, but 30 was stealing up on me like Trotsky's assassin before I was swept up in the red coup of the michelada, and I've been a member of the party ever since, comrade.
Mistakes were made along the way, of course. 'This is a recovery drink,' I remember thinking. 'A sort of tremens-drip for the drinking class. It stands to reason that the more vitamins, minerals and other assorted Earth-stuffs, the better, yes? V8 is packed with many of the vegetables I hate, ergo it's bound to be good for me/this drink.' Ice, hot sauce, salt, pepper and beer went into the glass with the red fluid from the colorful bottle, and the results more successful than The Great Leap Forward only in that no one actually died. It was like drinking carrot juice from a storm drain.
The concept of Happy Hour was first used in the U.S. as early as 1913 by Naval units engaging in social parties with movies, dancing, and boxing, referred to as “happy hours.” After the era of prohibition ended, Happy Hour evolved more into what we know it today, as a sort of cocktail hour at bars.
These days, Happy Hour is a common practice among bars and restaurants, offering reduced prices on drinks and bar food, but also allowing eateries to create unique “happy hour” menus. Restaurants all over Connecticut have Happy Hour deals you can take advantage of throughout the week, giving you a chance to save on your next bar tab. Because the list of restaurants that offer Happy Hour is so extensive, we organized the list into counties so you can more easily search for businesses in your local area.
One of the most visually eye-candy-esque restaurants in CT, Terrain Cafe, has recently added a new bar to their ever-expanding dining space. For years, guests haven’t been able to get enough of this local seasonal menu under the helm of Chef Jes Bengston, and tables can often be tricky to score. But now, you don’t need a reservation to grab a seat at Terrain. Simply sidle up to their new walk-ins only bar (always my favorite seat in the house), and enjoy their brand new dedicated bar menu, created exclusively for those 13 seats. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to order the full Terrain Café menu from your bar stool, but wait till you see what else only you can enjoy.
Let’s start with the bar itself. Just like everything else at Terrain, it’s sexy rustic chic. The thick white marble slab counter is bright and elegant by day, and vibey by night as the lights dim and those happy hour feels set in.
Evolution is part of the progression of any restaurant, even one as damn good as Restaurant L’Ostal in Darien.
Should you need a crash course in L’Ostal’s Provençal cuisine and on chef-owner and 2022 CRAZies “Chef of the Year” nominee, Jared Sippel, we covered all of that HERE a little more than a few years ago.
Hey, readers! We’ve got a fun, tasty treat for you if you win this one!
We’ve teamed up with one of our favorites, Restaurant L’Ostal in Darien, as they’ve just launched their Tuesday through Friday L’apero menu that’s only available for an hour each of those weekdays.
Despite expert credibility having recently taken several cannonballs below the waterline, and 60-degree sweater weather remaining in abundance, summer - they tell us - has officially arrived. The days are near their longest, and the months start with “J”, so we must grudgingly accede they have a point. This time each year, in a migration as timeless and majestic as the great herds of the Serengeti - Nutmeggers can be seen dragging our coolers to beaches and backyards. What are we drinking? Hard seltzer! NO! I mean, yes, but also: shut up.
We are drinking:
Very cold.
Easy drinking.
Usually Mexican lager. Corona, Pacifico, Modelo, ET C.
Why do we drink these? Because 1&2, but also... it’s what we’ve always done. Why are you thinking about this?
BECAUSE I’ve been noticing Connecticut brewers have been trying out the style in increasing numbers, they are delicious, and more people should know, which has always been the entire point of this column.
Are you suffering from restaurant sticker shock? Did you, on your last outing to a decent eatery, think about having the steak, then found out it cost $74 and ordered the $46 roasted chicken instead, and washed it down with the cheapest wine on the list at $18 a glass, which is more than you usually pay for an entire bottle at the corner packy?
Happy hour is here to help. While not as grand as a multi-course dinner-dinner, happy hour is a wonderful eating-out alternative, offering yummy fun in great locations for not much loot. You just have to get used to, you know, eating (and drinking) on, um, the early side.
Alma Cocina brings soul to Norwalk’s Wall Street area.
I recently had the opportunity to visit the newly opened Alma Bistro. Just a couple of weeks old, this Latin-fusion eatery features delicious Nuevo-Latino soul food with an upscale twist and promises to be the darling of the Norwalk restaurant scene.
Alma Bistro Cocina Latina was founded by Alma Miranda, Ulises Jiminez, Don Rene and Norberto Lucero out of a deep love for food that is authentically Latino. We have some real star power here.
We here at CTbites don’t normally focus on chain restaurants, both national and micro, but if there’s one that gets a pass it’s Barcelona Wine Bar. After all, Barcelona originated in South Norwalk way back in 1996 before expanding to other cities in Connecticut, then ultimately to Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia, and a handful of other states.
My home base Barcelona is in Norwalk at the Waypointe. I know, I know, we all have our favorite location down in Fairfield County—or beyond if you’re in the New Haven or West Hartford area—mine happens to be Norwalk because it’s not only a newish one, but also because it’s a two mile drive away.
One day when I had a serious craving for chicken pimientos, I clicked on Barcelona’s menu and noticed a “Happy Hour” tab. Hey, listen, I love a good happy hour, so you’ve got my attention.
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.
One of life's principle joys is an unexpected bulldog. There you are, mind preoccupied and steps ahead of whatever you should be paying attention to in the moment you're actually living, and boom: giant smiley meatball of joy out of nowhere. How could that not improve any day? Last September, in the Before Times, I went to a Connecticut farm to find out about hop growing, and discovered a newborn brewery instead. At the time, Stewards Of The Land in Northford wasn't finished, not quite ready yet for the outside world. So now, just as the eyes of the world are cautiously blinking open again, I returned to sit on the farm brewery's patio and, yes, there was a bulldog.
I'm not just making an allegory here: Guinness (that's the name he came with, give head brewery Alex DeFrancesco more credit for creativity than that), was cooling off on the stone patio, set with chairs outside the New England tavern style brewery, above a field of sprouting row crops - the hillside and lawns swaying here and there with bluish stalks of heirloom rye. I squatted down and scruffled Guinness' huge head behind his ears. He had it right. This is a place to stretch out and relax.
The Spread you know and love from Main Street in South Norwalk has some new digs and a whole new summer look. Spread owners Andrey Cortes, Chris Hickey, Chris Rasile, Shawn Longyear and Chef Carlos Baez have taken their much heralded menu and rustic industrial vibe, and moved down the street, next door to their sister spot, El Segundo. The new spot resides in the old Harlan Public location within the IronWorks complex, and it comes with one of the most beautiful outdoor dining spaces in Fairfield County. Loyal diners and regulars….don’t worry. The menu will feature all of the usual favorites such as their Brick Chicken and Ricotta Gnocchi but Chef Baez has a few surprises up his chef’s coat.
The bar where my initials were once carefully poured into the foam crown of a Guinness every time I called, with a place setting waiting both in case I wanted a snack, and to save my favorite spot, is gone forever. It was my first local, a place close by where reliably stopping in and not causing too much trouble develops into an earned mutual welcoming. The place feels like a friend's living room - you know where to sit, they know what you like, and everyone slips easily back into the conversation you shared last time you stopped in. The whole experience, whether as a relief from the day, the glow of alcohol, whatever brought you back through the doors - it just feels warm. Like I said at the start, it's gone now. The place I mention hasn't been open for years, but what about your place? What about so many of these shared environments whose doors we'll never walk through again? What will it be like at the old regular tables and spots we used to take up now the ones who lived through America's epidemic experience may reopen? "Everything's changed," they tell us - but can anything be the same?
Kombucha is delicious and nutritious! Cross Culture Kombucha Taproom & Brewery will teach you how to make your own at home in their Kombucha Homebrewing Workshop on November 21.
On Tuesday November 19, Fairfield Cheese Company hosts an evening all about Cheese and Wine of The French Alps. Join them from 7-9pm for $50 per person.
The Taps & Trees Craft Beer Festival returns to the Danbury Sports Dome on Saturday November 23.
Beer: it's not just for beer drinkers anymore. Seriously. New or casual drinkers can steer themselves safely away from anything resembling what would have been considered an actual beer even five or six years ago, and still be paralyzed with overwhelming options. Wine drinker? There's a chance I've already converted you through the deft application of a gose made with grapes, or a raspberry lambic. Are most beers too: bland/malty/hoppy/bitter, or sour for you? No problem! Because brewers can load your pint with so much lactose they call it a milkshake, and you can drink actual donuts. That's between you and your pancreas.
Brut IPAs - the actual champagne of beers - are a very new, entirely American style. They're sweet and dry, beginning to show up all over the place, and I thought this week I'd do an explainer and review a few brewers' early efforts. Drinkers of the bubbly, drinkers of the murky, and Connecticut craft beer fans in general: you may just be about to have a new summer fling.
Like oncoming headlights appearing out of a foggy night, genetics are indicators which don't tell the whole story. Heredity may lay out a path, but time and observation tell where it leads. Phil Markowski helped launch New England Brewing Company in 1989, and decades later did the same as the master brewer at Two Roads. In the last Froth I talked about how NEBCo's dandelion head was spreading seeds all over Connecticut - from new beers under their current brewer, to Counter Weight Brewing in Hamden from his predecessor, and a tip about the inaugural tapping of beers from Tribus in Milford, the newest offspring of the ancestor brewery. This week, for the first time anywhere, we'll take a look at Tribus and its beers to see where this is all headed.
Happy hours are one of life’s greatest pleasures. Bad day? Have a reduced-price wine, beer, or cocktail to take the edge off. Even worse day? Have more than one. Hungry? Happy hours usually offer a handful of delectable bites to be had on the cheap as an accompaniment to your glass of booze. I’m obviously a fan of the whole idea of happy hours—and I’m betting you are too—so I’m always on the lookout for new ones in the area. That’s when I came across Tarry Lodge Westport’s brand new Aperetivo Hour.
Introduced in May, Aperitivo Hour goes down Monday – Friday from 4 – 6 p.m. It features wine and cocktails for $10 each, and five snackable small plates for $5 per.
