Filtering by Category: Ingredients

Filtering by Tag: Stamford

Cwispy Chkn in Stamford: Why We Love These Chicken Sliders +

Features Ingredients Restaurant Fast Casual Fried Chicken Fried Chicken Sandwich Stamford Homepage

Andrew Dominick

Fried chicken sandwiches are hot right now. And with no signs of dwindling down anytime soon, places that serve crispy, juicy fried chicken on a bun are popping up all over. For Cwispy Chkn—which opened in November 2023 in the former Magee’s Curbside in Stamford’s Shippan neighborhood—maybe they’re guilty of riding the fried chicken sandwich wave, but the difference is, they’re doing things their way.


Marcia Selden Catering & Pop-Up Bagels Team Up For Epic Weekend Bagel Brunch

Features Ingredients Pop-Up Bagels Caterers Stamford Westport Breakfast Brunch Homepage

Stephanie Webster

We love it when two of our favorite food brands team up for a pop-up that involves delicious carb-loaded brunch fare. You may have heard me sing some praise for Adam Goldberg and his ridiculously tasty Pop-Up Bagels. Well, he has found a new regular Stamford pop-up location and dedicated cooking team with Marcia Selden Catering. Last weekend, CTbites got the chance to tag along for some bagel making fun. And, don’t worry…if you missed this past week’s pop-up event, mark your calendars for March 6th, and follow @popupbagels for notifications because these bagels sell out QUICKLY!

So, here’s how this bagel making and baking went down.


Local Spotlight: Mike Geller of Mike's Organic in Stamford

Features Ingredients Delivery Service Home Delivery Organic Specialty Market Stamford Westchester Interview Homepage

Andrew Dominick

Hello, CTbites readers! 

Most of the time we bring you pieces on chefs but we’re trying something new that puts the focus on interesting food and beverage industry folks that ARE NOT chefs but have a tale to tell; think bartenders, independent bakers, farmers, maybe some brewers, or even that waiter everyone seems to know. 

It’s only fitting to kick it off with Mike Geller, the owner of Mike’s Organic Delivery in Stamford. He’s not a chef, he has a story, and he’s really easy to have a conversation with. He’s one of the reasons why I thought of this series in the first place, so making him number one was a no-brainer. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Mike’s Organic, it opened in 2009, strictly as a grocery delivery service. Now, celebrating its decade-old birthday, Geller expanded his business and opened his doors to the public with a mini market filled with carefully selected organic goods, fresh produce, and lots of local products. To boot, they host lots of special events and cooking classes with the likes of Geoff Lazlo, Ross Bread, and Nit Noi Provisions

How it all started, though, is quite something. Cue the Q&A! 


10 Things You (Probably) Don't Know about Olive Oil

Ingredients Specialty Market Stamford

Lou Gorfain

Steve Jenkins is exultant. "I landed it for five bucks a bottle!" 

After 6 harrowing years of International hustle and heartbreak, the self proclaimed Rock Star of Olive Oil has finally brought his plunder home. Liquid sun fills the Fairway bottle he victoriously holds aloft: a robust Baena from Andalucía.  It's identical to the oil produced for six generations by Spain's celebrated Nuez de Prado family. 

"I won't buy it from them." Jenkins pauses for effect. “The importer is a robber."  

He offers a sip. The ride starts smoothly enough on the tip of my tongue.  By the time the oil reaches the back of my throat, I'm on a roller coaster through a fruit orchard. Jenkins grins, "Love that finish." 

Steve doesn't just love, he ravishes olive oil. Indeed, he's more of a curator than a retailer, offering over 100 different varieties of olive oil on his shelves, priced from 10 dollars a liter to over 40.  For the past decade, Fairway's legendary grocer/explorer/buyer has been foraging the groves of the Mediterranean basin all around, trudging its hills and climibing its 400 year old trees, consumed by his quest for the planet's finest olives and oils.


A Field Guide to Fairway Market's Smoked Salmon

Ingredients Seafood Specialty Market Stamford Breakfast

Lou Gorfain

Gossamer thin slices of novy, redolent of smoke, salt, and the sea, layered on a bagel with a schmear  -- I salivate as I write the words --  used to be a food group you couldn't easily find in Fairfield Country.  We might as well have been in Kansas.

Then, as if by wizardry, a piece of the Upper West Side was transplanted to Stamford's South Side last year.  That's when Fairway Market opened its new 80,000 square foot foodie emporium on Canal Street.  And the most outstanding feature of this wonderland greets you just past the spectacular array of cheeses:   a deli case featuring 10 varieties of smoked salmon and lox from oceans around the world.


Monster B's "Hall of Foam" in Stamford

Ingredients Restaurant Stamford Beer

James Gribbon

I have lived the vast majority of my life in Fairfield County, but one of the most important lessons in food I ever received happened in rural Georgia. A group of friends and I had taken a camping trip in the general vicinity of Vidalia, where the onions come from, and were in the midst of a long (and severely fire-ant-bitten, in my case) ride back home when we saw a rough, plywood sign appear on the side of the road, leaning against a stack of cinder blocks. The sign had three letters on its face in runny, black spray paint: “BBQ.”

What followed was, without any sort of doubt, the best BBQ I’d ever had in my life. We ate three times as much food as anyone should eat at one sitting without having previously drawn up a will. It was a great reward for taking a chance at an odd location 

Significantly closer to the reactor core of urban life that is the New York Metropolitan Area is Glenbrook Center in Stamford. Heck, there’s even a Metro North stop, and across from that stop on the New Canaan line is Monster B’s.


Fairway Wines & Spirits Opens in Stamford Dec. 15th.

Ingredients Features Cocktails Specialty Market Stamford Wine Chat

Stephanie Webster

As if the opening of the renown grocery mecca Fairway Market wasn't enough to make a foodie faint, Fairway Wines & Spirits (689 Canal Street), a 6,500 square foot store will open on Wednesday, December 15th next door to the new Fairway Market (699 Canal Street).

The shop will feature approximately 2,500 wines, more than 600 varieties of spirits from around the world and over 500 different specialty and traditional beers.  Need assistance? A highly qualified staff of specialists and sommeliers will be on the premises to help customers with their wine and spirit selections.

Let's talk wine:  Wine selections will include the large national brands, local wines, kosher wines, organic and biodynamic wines, sparkling and dessert wines and a variety of esoteric wines from smaller vineyards. Fairway also intends to carry wines from different parts of the world that will be exclusive to Fairway Wines & Spirits.


Get Cooking With Aux Delices

Ingredients Features Cooking Classes Stamford

Liz Rueven

Summer Comfort Food  was the theme of the class I  recently attended at Aux Delices’ Cooking School in their commissary kitchen in Stamford.  As we are smack in the middle of this steaming season, I was happy to be invited to  relax, observe and learn something new about how to prepare summer dishes, utilizing the season’s bounty.  Aux Delices has retail store locations, all with seating, in Darien, Riverside and Greenwich. The shops offer owner/Chef Debra Ponzek’s culinary creations of prepared foods and a unique collection of specialty food items.  Their name translates as “all the delicious food in life,” and considering their choices of scrumptious take out items, private and corporate catering offerings, and classes at their cooking school, the name is certainly apt.

Sensational Sweets @ Sweet On You Cafe & Bakery

Ingredients Restaurant Catering Stamford Lunch Dessert

Deanna Foster

I love the challenge of baking: trying to get a light flake in a pie crust or the perfect crumb to a cake or the right texture for a chosen cookie. But mostly I love baking because when successful, it can bring such delight to those doing the eating, usually my friends, whom I enjoy making happy. So, it is rare for me to purchase baked goods as I feel I lose out repeatedly: once in the making, once again in feeling the love, and too often in taste, with overly sweet, overly greasy or overly heavy confections. However, baking requires time, and when you don’t have it you need a quality go-to bakery that will not disappoint.  Happily, I discovered my go-to place last week:  Sweet On You Bakery in Stamford makes heavenly confections that are beautiful and delicious, and frankly, better than I can make at home. Even if you don't live in Stamford this bakery is worth the trip.