Filtering by Tag: Old Lyme,Rowayton

Arden’s “After Hours” Dinner Series Returns With Guest Chefs+ In Rowayton

Events Restaurant Chef's Tasting Rowayton Norwalk Pop-Up Pop-Up Dinner

Sam Schwab

Rowayton’s Arden’s is continuing their “After Hours” dinner series for the third summer in a row, and we were lucky enough to sit down with owner Jill Lukeman to get a first look at what’s to come. 

For those who aren’t familiar, Arden’s is a neighborhood cafe located in the heart of Rowayton. Its coastal decor and delicious fare makes it the perfect spot to enjoy a delicious breakfast, lunch, or cup of joe. Since opening in 2022, the team has hosted monthly dinners to expand beyond their daytime offerings. 

“We have always been passionate about entertaining our friends and hosting dinner parties at home. When we opened Arden's, we thought why not bring this same spirit to our cafe and offer something that feels like dinner at a friend's house (without the headache of planning and the clean-up!). We are also passionate about music so we incorporated a music element to make the evenings even more unique and intimate,” Lukeman shared with us.


Arden’s Opens in Rowayton with Beautiful Seasonal Breakfast & Lunch Menu

Restaurant Homepage Rowayton Openings Breakfast Lunch Farm Fresh Local Farm Coffee Sandwich Eggs

Jessica Ryan

It’s Nantucket meets the Mediterranean. Arden’s, Rowayton’s newest eatery, is a community cafe offering up simple seasonal fare that’s as beautiful as it is delicious.

Inside the beachy décor is minimalist with hints of flea-market vintage finds. You’ll find antiquated oyster tins, vases filled with vibrant fresh flowers, beechwood furniture, a curated marketplace with specialty gourmet food items, locally fabricated linens alongside local honey, assorted spices, hot chili oil in beautiful glass jars, ceramics and other wonderful finds. Wonderful, whimsical floppy rattan shades resembling oversized straw hats hang from light fixtures overhead. Arden’s welcomes you in immediately with a warm embrace that doesn’t want to let you go.

Stay a while and linger over a simple menu of salads, sandwiches and toasts. While the concept is simple the recipes are elevated using ingredients from several local purveyors including Wilton’s Millstone Farm and Darien-based Flour Water Salt Bread, Nit Noi Provisions and Ilse coffee. Ingredients matter at this health-forward café. At the helm of the kitchen is Moises Aguilar formerly with Southend Backend. Here he is tasked with delivering the ultimate flavor profile from the simplest of ingredients which he has clearly mastered.


A Lesson In Sustainable Seafood: Rowayton Seafood & Copps Island Oysters

Features Seafood Sustainable Norwalk Events Rowayton Local Farm Local Artisan

Jessica Ryan

Last week I had the privilege of attending a truly wonderful and informative dinner at Wakeman Town Farm on the importance of sustainable seafood. We first heard from Norm Bloom of Copp’s Island Oysters, followed by Kevin Conroy, owner of The Restaurant at Rowayton Seafood and the Rowayton Seafood Fish Market. He was joined by Chef Charles Hoffman the restaurant’s executive chef who prepared a most memorable meal. 

The Blooms have been in the oyster business since the 1940s and currently operate one of the last standing traditional oyster farms in the United States. Norm Bloom and Son is a fourth generation family-owned farm that prides itself on high quality, consistent and sustainable products. They have a fleet of 15 boats and their dedicated crew harvests oysters and clams year round from the deep, cold, and nutrient-rich waters along the coast of Connecticut.


Beach Donuts in Old Lyme: A Connecticut Cult Favorite

Road Trip Restaurant Old Lyme Shoreline East Breakfast Dessert

Amy Kundrat

Like facial hair and irony, the doughnut has received the hipster embrace, ushering in the likes of Voodoo, Dynamo and Doughnut Plant from New York to Portland, making the once doughnut-non grata, cool again.   

Oblivious to the wax and wane of this food trend, “Beach Donuts” in Old Lyme, Connecticut has steadily and unironically been powering the shoreline with a traditional take on these habit-seeking baked goods for over sixty years. Each Saturday and Sunday in the summer, Ted Powaleny delivers about 125 dozen doughnuts from a kitchen in Clinton to the Shoreline Community Center in Old Lyme, just two blocks from Sound View Beach. From 7 to 10:30 am (or until they sell out), volunteers sell “Beach Donuts” hand-over-fist, with proceeds from the $1 doughnuts, benefitting the Community Center.


SAILS American Grill Opens in Rowayton

Restaurant American Norwalk Rowayton Lunch

Christy Colasurdo

When the River Cat shuttered its doors in March, after 12 years on Rowayton’s main drag, the closure of the beloved neighborhood restaurant and bar left a gaping hole in Rowayton’s dining and social scene. 

So when I returned to check out the recently launched SAILS, a new American bistro with a spiffed up nautical vibe, I wasn’t surprised that the highly polished teak bar was three-deep with old-timers and new fans, making themselves right at home in a familiar, yet completely transformed haunt. 


Dining & Music @ Old Lyme's Midsummer Festival

Restaurant Author Old Lyme Road Trip Shoreline East

Amy Kundrat

This weekend the town of Old Lyme will host the Midsummer Festival, a two-day celebration featuring concerts, exhibitions, and a heavy dose of Connecticut food, farms and food writers this Friday, July 30 and Saturday July 31 in the town’s historic district.

In addition to concerts, exhibitions and workshops for kids, the Midsummer Festival boasts a great-line up for gourmands, which is where we gladly come in, beginning with an en plein air market featuring Connecticut grown produce and products. On Friday evening, Dinners at the Farm will be serving picnic dinners out of their “Chuckwagon” for $25 a person and will be back at it on Saturday serving breakfast and lunch in an outdoor cafe on Saturday for Festival-goers.


Road Trip: Old Lyme & Chester for Great Food and Fun

Road Trip Restaurant Old Lyme Road Trip Shoreline East

Elizabeth Keyser

In these cold cabin-fever days of winter, a road trip to a country inn casts an alluring spell.  Dreaming of a cozy dinner in front of a flickering fireplace, we hit the road to check out The Bee & Thistle Inn and Spa in Old Lyme. (100 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT)

The Bee & Thistle has been an inn since 1930, but Linnea and David Rufo have breathed new life into the historic building since buying it 4 years ago. Linnea is a multi-talented, energetic and attractive woman with 20 years of experience in the hospitality business as a chef (she worked at Jean Georges Vongerichten’s Mercer Kitchen), innkeeper (The Inn at Stockbridge in Massachusetts) and award-winning events planner (too numerous to list).

She’s the Bee & Thistle’s executive chef and hostess, and has created a cozy ambience filled with good food, art and music.