If you don’t know about Chef Jin yet, you owe it to your taste buds to step into one of his now numerous restaurants across Connecticut. Perhaps you are familiar with Tomo 68 in Naugatuck or Natural Kitchen in Milford – and most recently, Ramen & Bao in Oxford. Those are all thanks to Chef Jin, and now you can check out Ji Bei Chuan in Orange, which has its official grand opening on May 9th.
Ji Bei Chuan is a widely popular dining establishment in China, with over 400 locations overseas. Here in the United States, there are only 40, with this Orange location the first in the state. As you step inside, your eyes are immediately drawn to its noodle bar: a beautiful dark-stained natural wood countertop where guests can dive head-first into one of the many noodle or soup dishes on the menu.
Less than a year ago, we introduced readers to Stamford branch of The Taco Project, a fast casual Mexican restaurant whose roots began in Tarrytown in 2014.
Since April of 2022, The Taco Project and its brand grew even more outside of its existing Westchester locations (Tarrytown, Yonkers, Pleasantville, Bronxville) and its High Ridge Road spot in Stamford, as they’ve set their sights on the Florida market and opened up shop in Coral Springs.
Tarrytown, Yonkers, Bronxville, Pleasantville, and now Stamford.
Since opening in 2014 in Tarrytown, The Taco Project’s popularity kept growing in Westchester, and now they’ve brought their brand of Mexican-inspired fast casualness across the state border to the busy High Ridge Shopping Center.
Co-owner Carmelo Milio—who’s one of The Taco Project’s head honchos with partners Sebastian Aliberti and Nicholas Mesce—mentioned that opening their fifth location in Stamford was a natural progression for their brand.
“Being that we’re all Westchester residents (Sebastian is in Pleasantville, I’m in Armonk, and Nick’s in Dobbs Ferry), we come to Stamford to hang out often,” he says. “We’ve always thought about opening here, but we didn’t necessarily want it to be Downtown, so we can cater to our fans in Pound Ridge and Bedford as well. We like to be in these type of neighborhoods where it’s a little more laid back, more families, but still keep a fun ambiance while getting your food to you quickly, like within 15 minutes or so.”
Haven Hot Chicken, which brings Nashville Hot Chicken and “Not Chicken” to the area as one of the first fully dedicated Nashville Hot Chicken concepts in New England, has announced its opening of a second location in Orange, Connecticut. Located at 550 Boston Post Road, the 1400 square foot location will feature the brand’s signature menu of crispy, crunchy, juicy, spicy, delicious chicken and vegetarian options ranging from Country (not spicy) to Haven (extremely spicy), along with their famous fries and seasonal limited-time offerings.(Read our review of their New Haven location here.)
Middle Eastern restaurants, long a welcome presence in Connecticut, lately seem to be multiplying. One of the most intriguing is Bab al Salam, which is located in an Orange plaza owned by the New Haven Islamic Center, which also hosts the Orange Farmers’ Market, a Muslim clothing store, a Middle Eastern market with halal butcher, and meeting spaces for events.
Bab al Salam opened in the middle of January. Owners Adnan Akil, a restaurant builder, and Suloman Chater, a restaurateur, both of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades, sought to replicate the food one might find in metropolises like Aleppo or Damascus in their homeland. They seem to have found a grateful audience in Orange.
It would be easy to drive by Yao’s Diner in Orange without a second glance. Housed at the end of a small shopping plaza, the restaurant which features authentic Chinese cuisine is unassuming on the outside and equally unpresumptuous within but from the time you step into the foyer you get a sense that this eatery is something different.
The first restaurant by Guangmin Yao and his wife Xuan Chen, Yao’s occupies the space that was Lisiano’s Italian restaurant for thirty years. Silent partners Charles Eaton and his wife are proprietors of the popular Q’s in Norwalk. The pair are world travelers with a passion for authentic East Asian cuisines.
Yale University's West Campus Urban Farm is hosting “ Maple Fest 2015: Lux et Syrupas ,” a free tasting of saps and syrups along with live demos and “tours of the campus sugar bush,” on Friday, April 10, from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
