Swyft Revisited: Tavern Fare, Fine Dining, and What's Up with Ore Hill

Features Interview Restaurant Swyft Kent Swyft Kent Pizza burgers Homepage Fine Dining Ore Hill

Andrew Dominick April 29, 2022

So much has changed since we last covered Swyft’s modern tavern concept located on Kent’s main drag.

Like most restaurants, Swyft had to deal with pandemic restrictions. But unlike most restaurants, they had to get up off the mat three more times. Lauded chef and partner Joel Viehland parted ways with Swyft around the time COVID shutdowns hit Connecticut.

Mere weeks after Viehland’s exit, Swyft’s owner, philanthropist Anne Bass, sadly passed away on April 1, 2020, after a battle with ovarian cancer.

And if that wasn’t enough, dynamo pastry chef Anthony D’Amelio went off to pursue other goals sometime last year.

We know, that’s a lot to take in.

According to Allison Mitchell—who’s essentially Swyft’s Swiss Army Knife as she handles social media, does photography, coordinates events, waits tables, bartends, and somehow fits in marketing duties—Swyft went through a “huge overhaul.”

Cafe Transilvania Opens in Fairfield: Romanian Cuisine with a Side of Dracula History

Restaurant Openings Fairfield Romanian Hungarian Eastern European Take Out To-Go

Stephanie Webster February 21, 2021

It’s not easy to find Romanian cuisine in the Nutmeg state. Aline and Christian Caldarariu, owners of the recently opened, Cafe Transilvania, say their new takeout spot is the only Romanian restaurant in Connecticut. The couple, both with backgrounds in hospitality and the culinary world, had intended to open a sit down restaurant pre-Covid, but the world changed, and so did their plans. Their new spot, located at 246 Post Road, in Fairfield CT, has opened to an enthusiastic response from both the large Romanian community in Fairfield County (who knew?), as well as local diners, who are excited to sample a cuisine that has previously eluded food lovers the Connecticut area.