Gruel Britannia Opens 2nd Spot in Westport With Events + Pop Ups Coming Soon Features Interview Restaurant British Cuisine British Westport Interview Gruel Britannia Karen Hubrich Opening Homepage Prime Rib Andrew Dominick April 08, 2026 Karen Hubrich isn’t shy about telling anyone she’s a late bloomer. After a long career cooking in country clubs and as a private chef for Michael Bolton, she emerged on the Connecticut food scene in 2019 when she opened her Fairfield flagship, Gruel Britannia. Now a young 69-years-old, she’s opted for a second helping of Gruel, not too far away from the original, in Westport’s Coleytown neighborhood that debuted last July. Read More
Hotaru Opens in Southport Featuring an Affordable, Intimate Omakase Experience Features Interview Ingredients Restaurant Omakase Sushi Japanese Opening Interview Southport Homepage Andrew Dominick March 24, 2026 3363 Post Road in Southport is no longer the home of the $5 footlong, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a deal to be had. In the bones of a former Subway franchise, right next to Dunkin’, is Hotaru, a predominantly Japanese restaurant where the star of their show is a very affordable omakase experience. Hotaru opened very quietly to friends, family, and random curious customer walk-ins on March 16 with an abbreviated menu that’ll soon expand. The team behind Hotaru is Yingying Yan, who owns Gingko Sichuan Cuisine in Fairfield, her chef at Ginkgo, Jerry, and Ken Piao, the owner of Yuki Kitchen in Westport. Read More
Masa Taco Bar + Chicho's Cocina in Stamford: Rooted in Family Tradition and Travels Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Tacos Stamford Masa Taco Bar Chicho's Cocina Interview Homepage Mexican Andrew Dominick March 17, 2026 Almost 10 years to the day, CTbites found itself covering La Esquina Latin Grill in Stamford, where chef-owner Robert Monegro served up classic Latin American dishes. In the present, the Stamford-raised Monegro is still pretty busy. La Esquina is well behind him, though, and you’ll see him bouncing back and forth between his two popular taqueria’s, Chico’s Cocina, and as of 2024, Masa Taco Bar. For Monegro, his culinary journey didn’t start 10 years ago at his first restaurant. It actually began in 1995 at his father’s Dominican restaurant, Flamboyant Chico Cocina. Read More
60+ CT Spots to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day 2026 Features Restaurant Events St. Patrick's Day Guide Homepage Events Carly Terzigni March 06, 2026 Could this long, cold, and snowy winter finally be coming to a close? It looks like things are heating up fast! Not only do I detect warmer days on the horizon, but St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. I, for one, am ready to swap the cold gray for some bright green! Restaurants across the state are feeling the same and are ready to celebrate. With towns hosting parades over the next couple of weeks, there are multiple opportunities to gather with friends and family and spread some Irish cheer. This guide is organized by county to help you easily find a restaurant near you celebrating. Simply scroll to your local county and see where you can enjoy some corned beef and a Guinness this March! Read More
Via Emilia: An Italian Love Letter Written in Mystic Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Italian Interview Espresso Martini Fresh Pasta Mystic Homepage Andrew Dominick March 03, 2026 Love letters aren’t always inked on parchment, sometimes they’re cooked in a kitchen and served to hungry customers. That’s the case at Mystic’s Via Emilia where co-owners Shaun Golan and Jakub Andros are dishing out Italian comfort food that’s uncomplicated and pays respect to Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region since it opened in 2020. On the brink of celebrating six years at the very end of Coastal Connecticut, how Via Emilia came to be, what they’re cooking and why they’re cooking it, and the tale behind their popular espresso martini is a story that should be told. Read More
Vyne Restaurant & Bar: Fine Dining Meets Comfort Classics in Middlebury Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Middlebury Mediterranean Italian Interview Cocktails Fine Dining Homepage Andrew Dominick February 24, 2026 Unless you live near or in Middlebury, there’s a very real chance you’ve never dined there. Ask a few guys who now work in Middlebury at Vyne Restaurant & Bar and they’ll tell you that before they got there, they hadn’t either. “I had never even heard of Middlebury and I spent a lot of my life in Hartford,” says Vyne’s general manager Justin Morales. What Morales, an industry veteran both behind the bar and as a GM (and most recently of Fire by Forge), and executive chef James Piccolo are doing in this part of Connecticut is putting their stamp on a restaurant idea that began many years ago as a small cafe inside of a furniture store, Middlebury Consignment. Read More
Coracora Peruvian Cuisine Opens Flagship Location in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square Restaurant West Hartford Blue Back Square Hartford County Peruvian Opening Lunch Homepage Leeanne Griffin February 22, 2026 Back in 2011, Hector Ludena and Luisa Jimenez took a chance and opened their first restaurant in West Hartford’s Shield Street Plaza, naming it for the Peruvian city they hailed from. Coracora took over a former McDonald’s building, its kitchen turning out pollo a la brasa and lomo saltado instead of Chicken McNuggets and Quarter Pounders. It became another local international favorite in the plaza that’s also home to Pho Boston, Shu and the A Dong Asian supermarket. The staff even ended up using the former fast-food drive-through window during the pandemic to offer minimal contact takeout. Then in 2022, things shifted in a way the Ludena family still says is surreal and hard to grasp. Coracora was named as a nominee for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurant award, and Macarena Ludena, Hector and Luisa’s daughter, was a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Northeast award category. Suddenly, the local spot was on a national stage. Read More
First Look: Norwalk's Valencia Luncheria Reopens as Valencia Cocina Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant Valencia Norwalk Valencia Luncheria Venezuelan Latin American Reopening Interview Homepage Andrew Dominick February 18, 2026 After a little over three weeks closed for menu changes and renovations, Valencia Luncheria is back in action! Only now you have to call it by its changed name, Valencia Cocina, representing it’s new chapter that we teased you about at the beginning of the year. Now reopened with a sexier, but still chill vibe, a brand-new bar, and a reimagined menu, founder Michael Young, co-owner Luis Chavez, and executive chef Marv Bryce are ready to welcome you back in. Read More
Yama Tsuki: Outstanding Sushi Right off Greenwich Avenue Restaurant sushi Sushi Bar Greenwich Omakase Japanese Homepage Bree George February 12, 2026 I subscribe to the idea that a piece of perfectly presented fish is one of life’s great pleasures. Silken bluefin belly with a sprinkle of caviar; soft salmon draped over a sliver of torched rice; a slice of supple baby yellowtail, delicate but insistently flavorful. At Yama Tsuki, on Greenwich’s West Putnam Avenue, you’ll find all three. Family-owned, the business operates this restaurant alongside a wholesale seafood business and several restaurants in Long Island and Baltimore, personally sourcing very high-grade fish on twice-yearly scouting trips to places like Japan, Indonesia, the Faroe Islands, and New Zealand. Read More
Hidden Gem: Dama Rose Middle Eastern Cuisine Opens in West Haven Restaurant West Haven New Haven Middle Eastern Opening Lunch Homepage Jessica Ryan February 07, 2026 It’s often the “off the culinary grid” spots that are true hidden gems. We have found one for you. Let me introduce you to Dama Rose, which opened just about a year and a half ago in a small strip of shops right on the Post Road in West Haven. It might not have the fanciest address but it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) matter, as most gourmands and critics will concur.Chef Malaz Hayak opened Dama Rose in September 2024. The restaurant industry runs deep in veins – His father owned and ran a successful restaurant in Damascus which remains in the family today. Nearly 20 years ago Hayak left Syria for the States where he joined his brother who then owned Rabia’s, a popular restaurant in Boston’s historic North End. Chef is a formally trained Cordon Bleu Chef and received his training in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There he was exposed to many award-winning restaurants, and landed an externship at the notable Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel where he trained directly under Executive Chef David Daniel. Read More
Cowboy Butter in New Milford: Hindsight BBQ's Sister Restaurant, a "Boujee" BBQ Joint + Steakhouse Features Ingredients Interview Restaurant BBQ New Milford Opening Interview Steak Homepage Andrew Dominick January 27, 2026 When CTbites last covered Hindsight BBQ in 2021, its founder, Jeff Schmidt was quoted as saying, “When you get obsessed with something, and when you get bit by the BBQ bug, once you go down that rabbit hole, you can only go further.” In 2025, his “further” ended up being Cowboy Butter, best described as “a New England live fire cookery and boujee BBQ bistro,” in New Milford’s quaint downtown area. Read More
The Smithy Cafe & Market in New Preston: A New Approach to Community Building Restaurant Features New Preston Litchfield County cafe Breakfast Gourmet Market Homepage Bree George January 23, 2026 On a speck of Main Street in New Preston, the Smithy Cafe feels like it’s always been there. Coffee cups clink, steam hisses from the espresso machine, and customers pick up loaves of Farmers & Cooks sourdough while waiting in line to place their order at the counter. Across the street, in a 200-year-old former blacksmith shop, the Smithy Market carries the everyday and the aspirational in equal measure: bread, eggs and coffee, alongside gourmet Bridgewater chocolates from Brookfield, micro-batch Wonderland Jam made in Newtown, and East Street Arts handmade printed tea towels from New Haven. 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
CTbites Staff Picks For Top Eats of 2025 (+Guest Eaters) Features Restaurant Top Eats Best of CT Roundup Homepage CTbites Team January 04, 2026 It’s that time of year, when the CTbites staff temporarily puts down our forks, and contemplates our most memorable annual eats. 2024 saw an explosion of restaurateurs and chefs entering the Connecticut culinary scene, and the CTBites team, alongside some special guest reviewers below, did our best to eat it all. There were some clear standouts, restaurants that you’ll find repeated in the “top eats” lists below, and some hidden gems you should add to your dining dance card.Here are CTbites’ TOP EATS for 2025. 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
Guide to Matcha Tea Shops in Connecticut Restaurant Tea And Coffee Matcha Tea Shops Homepage Aaron Gruen December 10, 2025 From Blank Street to Starbucks, matcha is taking the country by storm. But there’s a wide gulf between mass-produced and high-quality matcha. Matcha can get a bad rap, with many people only having tasted the tea from a chain. Luckily, those living in southwest CT have access to several shops brewing up thoughtfully sourced, top-notch matcha. Here are some of our favorite places to get matcha drinks, pastries, and other sweets: 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
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
