Audubon Greenwich Hosts 2nd Annual Sustainable Food & Farm Expo w/ Local Chefs and Tastings Ingredients Going Green Local Artisan CTbites Team May 20, 2015 Community Is Invited to a Day of Learning with Local Experts Audubon Greenwich will host the second annual Sustainable Food & Farm Expo on Sunday, May 31, from 10 am until 5 pm. This year’s Expo will showcase high quality food producers, retailers, a celebrity chef, and farmers who will teach guests how to prepare and enjoy a wide variety of local and sustainably grown foods, plus grow some of their own. Register online for tix. The public is invited to enjoy twenty food exhibitors and vendors plus talks, demonstrations, and tastings with a wide range of experts every thirty minutes. Fleisher’s Craft Butchery and Grass Rxoots will cater lunch, snacks, and beverages suitable for vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, locavores, and those with food allergies or adhering to an organic diet. Chef Silvia Baldini of Strawberry and Sage will share her passion for cooking in three different culinary demonstrations and tastings where locally sourced ingredients take center stage. Read More
GIVEAWAY! Win 2 FREE TIX to Ninety9Bottles Craft Beer Festival Ingredients CT Beer Festival Beer CTbites Team May 19, 2015 Ninety9Bottles Craft Beer Festival is back for it's 2nd Annual Festival where Festival goers will enjoy a variety of brews while overlooking beautiful Norwalk Harbor up atop the hill at Oyster Shell Park. With an emphasis on New England based breweries, we will be pouring samples of 40+ CRAFT BEERS and some old favorites and some that you have yet to experience including new beers to the Connecticut market. YOU CAN WIN 2 FREE TIX TO NINETY9BOTTLES by telling us why YOU need to go, in the comments section below. Please include your email address so we can contact you. Winners announced May 31st. Ninety9Bottles Craft Beer Festival will feature great LIVE MUSIC along with some of the area’s most popular FOOD TRUCKS including LobsterCraft, Bounty, Melt Mobile, One Bro Pizza Co. and The Local Meatball each serving up some delicious local fare. Read More
Friday Froth: Back To The Land With Kent Falls Brewery Ingredients CT Beer Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon May 08, 2015 The drinking population, increasingly located in cities as we carve through the invisible gelatin of time's future, has been separated from the earth. Beer taps in brick buildings reflect the light of televisions, and fluorescent light sears our retinas as we grab a shiny cardboard package from metal coolers. We obtain beer from chrome. The paradox is that brewing culture in the extravagantly digital 21st century has begun to bring us a little closer to the farm, and to the inextricable link between agriculture and beer. Breweries were farms and farms were breweries, for most of human history. People fed themselves with what they grew and raised, but they also drank it, and the beers changed based on whatever crop was in season. We still drink the different styles of beer which resulted from these changes, but now we hardly ever see the farm. That's beginning to change, in food as well as beer. Read More
Cinco de Mayo Tips c/o Aarón Sánchez & Serendipity Magazine Ingredients Features Holiday Recipe CTbites Team May 01, 2015 c/o Serendipty Magazine Chef Aarón Sánchez, Executive Chef of Paloma in Stamford, and well-known TV personality with appearances on Chopped and Taco Trip, is the guest editor of Serendipity Magazine's recent issue. His gourmet take on tacos and Cinco de Mayo party tips will leave you inspired to celebrate this Mexican holiday with his signature contemporary Latin approach. On Party Prep Try to have as many things done ahead of time as possible, and display food in cool bowls. I have dishes with different compartments where you can put little things like pickles in my line at Target.com. Pre-make your drinks in pitchers so you just have to add ice. The key is being proactive with the prep. You don’t want to be working hard while your guests are there. Read More
The Westport Farmers' Market Kicks Off Summer Season May 21st Ingredients Farmers Market Local Artisan Local Farm CTbites Team April 23, 2015 Thursday, May 21, the Westport Farmers’ Market (WFM) will kick off the 2015 summer season, celebrating a decade of fresh, local food. For the last ten seasons, the WFM has been cultivating community and nurturing an appreciation of real food, and the work that goes into growing it. It was June of 2006, when Paul Newman and Michel Nischan planted the first seed, and the WFM welcomed its first shoppers. With 14 vendors present that day, over 500 shoppers showed up to get a taste of something new. Now, about to embark on its tenth season, the WFM has blossomed into market boasting 45 vendors, food trucks, chef demos, yoga, organic eats, and even a pizza truck. And thousands of shoppers from all over Fairfield Country make the WFM Thursday market a destination. Read More
Friday Froth: Brewers' Collaboration Beers Ingredients CT Beer Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon April 17, 2015 Life is better when you're among friends, and people have been gathering together over a beer or a beer-like substance for thousands of years now. Everywhere there are humans, we gather in the sun, the shade of palm fronds, or under a warm tavern roof to enjoy a few drinks and catch up on what's new. We host bottle shares and beer festivals and, increasingly, brewers have been working together across brands to combine their experience, just to see what happens. This week, Friday Froth is going to drink a few of the beers resulting from these evanescent partnerships between breweries. The beers themselves are friendship in a glass. Read More
Celebrate National Beer Day w/ Three Floyds Zombie Dust...If You Can Find It Ingredients Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon April 07, 2015 Apparently today is National Beer Day, so here are my notes from the first time I had Three Floyds Zombie Dust. *Yep - not a Friday at all, but Tuesdays could stand a bit of Fridayness, anyway.I have a friend out in Indiana who floated the idea of doing a beer trade; he'd send me some of his state's beer, and I'd send him a few selections from Connecticut. I sent him Sea Hag from New England Brewing and Two Roads Lil Heaven, and made one request of him: "Whatever you send, please send me some Zombie Dust, too." He did not disappoint. What follows is the result, word for word: Grapefruit hop notes hit from two feet away as soon as it's poured. Barely cloudy amber, head forms and resolves into a thin ring. Big, juicy hops on nose, very fruity. It's hoppy on the tongue like a jungle is green - everywhere and all at once. Far cry from the punch of west coast IPAs. This is a smooth and flavorful pale ale. I want to turn back time and drink it again. Read More
Friday Froth: What's In A Name? Ingredients Features CT Beer Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon April 03, 2015 The waiter gave me a look that said "Dude - work with me here," because I was mumbling. It started like this: Him: "What'll you have?" A perfectly reasonable question, and not an unexpected one, given that I'd just sat down. So I replied:"Nmm nmm.""What?""Nmm nmm... ee."And that's when I got the look. So I said it louder, biting off each word:"Nummy Nummy, please." Dammit. Look, I get it - it's fun to name your beer something ridiculous like "Buttface" or "Even More Jesus," but please, I humbly beseech you, the brewers of the world: please don't make it something I'm embarrassed to order in public. That said... Read More
Saugatuck Grain + Grape Launches Wine Education Class Series Ingredients Cooking Classes WIne Wine Tasting Stephanie Webster April 02, 2015 Saugatuck Grain + Grape is going to be holding a series of wine education classes. Classes will be held every other week this spring. The series will cover everything from "Introduction to Wine Tasting, Lexicon, and Labels" to "The World Through Rosé Covered Glasses" as they dive into specific varietals. For those who don't know Mimi and her team, there will most definitely be fun, food and some bad wine jokes in every session. Classes will be led by Mimi McLaughlin and Jon Carr, the newest member of the SG+G team. There will be nibbles prepared by Mark Hepperman, their in-house chef, so your tummy and taste buds will be happy in a multitude of ways. Below is a break down of the syllabus, cost and dates. Please call the store to reserve your spot. Read More
Kawa Ni Bartender Competition #1: Photo Gallery & Recap Ingredients Cocktails Westport Bar Sarah Green March 27, 2015 Move over "show case showdown," there's a new showdown in town. Jeff Maron, bar manager of Kawa Ni in Westport (and both of the other Bill Taibe's jaunts) hosted the first of six Bartender Competitions where some of the North East's finest BAR-istas concocted some fabulous potions for the judges and guests to imbibe and describe. The goal of this event series is to showcase the art of the craft cocktail and elevate mixology in CT. Each 'tender was required to create 5 identical cocktails using one ounce of the sponsored ingredient - in this case, Appleton Reserve Rum, and one ounce of the secret ingredient - in this case Ancho Reyes chili liquor. Other than that, each drink-master was given free reign to embellish, add, adjust and design their signature cocktail. There was even some blow torching of fruit. The end game was to impress the panel of 4 judges, including the lucky winner of the CTBites cocktail naming contest, and Adam Roytman of Walrus and Carpenter (from whence many of the evening's delicious nibbles were provided). Read More
Recap: Mohegan Sun's Winefest 2015...Good Times! Ingredients Wine Chat Wine Tasting Emma Jane-Doody Stetson March 11, 2015 2015 marked the 12th year of Mohegan Sun’s popular WineFest. The format continued as it has in years past, with a Friday night bourbon tasting, Grand Tastings on Saturday and Sunday, an Elite Cru tasting, and a Celebrity Chef Dine Around on Saturday night. The event also featured many celebrity chefs beloved from previous years like William Kovel, Todd English, Michele Ragussis, Govind Armstrong, Manouschka Guerrier, and Betty Fraser. Yet, 2015 managed to stand apart with new additions and changing trends. This year, I attended the Sunday Grand Tasting rather than staying the span of the weekend. Sunday is slightly less attended, but still provides ample opportunity to see creative chef demonstrations and sample the offerings. Read More
Recap: First Ever CT Beer Summit w/ Live Recording via "Welcome to CT" Podcast Ingredients CT Beer Beer James Gribbon March 06, 2015 What happens when you get the owners and brewers of five Connecticut breweries in the same room at the same time and ask them pointed questions? There's a scene in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou where Bill Murray, as Zissou, explains documentary filmmaking by saying "Nobody knows what's going to happen. And then we film it. That's the whole concept." I kept on thinking about that line as guests filed into a room at the Two Roads brewery in Stratford and watched Tony Pellino of OEC Brewing, Clement Pellani of Two Roads Brewery, Tyler Jones of Black Hog Brewing, Rich Visco of Shebeen Brewing and Conor Horrigan of Half Full Brewery take their seats in front of live mics. Whatever went down, it would all happen on the record. On the record, in this case, means the proceedings would be recorded live for Ken Tuccio's Welcome To Connecticut podcast. The weekly podcast highlights businesses and personalities making an impact here in the Constitution State, and has previously broadcast with guests like Jerry Springer, Aaron Sanchez, Oh, Cassius!, the Nutmeg Curling Club, Miss Connecticut, and Anthony Bourdain's Russian sidekick, Zamir Gotta, among many others. The audio of the beer summit will go live on Thursday, March 19 on WelcomeCT.com, but CTBites was right there to bring you a first look. Read More
Friday Froth: Notes From Big Brew NY Beer Festival Ingredients Festival Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon February 13, 2015 Session beers are popular now, but a single drinking session rarely includes 250 different beers. The Big Brew NY Beer Festival returned to White Plains on Feb. 7 with hundreds of kegged and bottled beers, plus a VIP area with almost 30 casks of special ales. It's tough to write with a beer in one hand and camera in the other, but I managed to record a few notes and observations from what has become a very good midsize beer festival.First: it may look crowded in a few of these photos, but the crowd was never an issue. Beer fest attendees tend to be pretty easy going. Most seem happy just to be in a place where they can simply stick out their glass and have it filled, and it's exciting to try new brands and styles without running the risk of taking your first sip and realizing you're now stuck with a six pack of beer you wouldn't use to poison driveway weeds. Read More
Friday Froth: Tröegs, Jack's and Zoë Ingredients CT Beer Beer James Gribbon February 06, 2015 Tröegs Brewing Company made its Connecticut debut this week at The Cask Republic, The Ginger Man, Coalhouse Pizza, Craft 260, Max Burger and other locations around the state. Troeg's, from Pennsylvania, has a large portfolio of highly rated beers which are welcome additions to the universe of options currently available in the Constitution State. This week's installment of Froth starts with Troeg's Nugget Nectar, one of the darlings of the current American beer scene, and a limited release for the late winter. Nugget Nectar is a 7.5% imperial amber made with traditional European malts and fancy American hops. It pours the color of bourbon with an enticing meringue of head. There are very sweet, peachy hops to the nose, probably due to the Nugget and Simcoe varieties which make part of the hop bill, and a good balance of flavors to the first sip. The color is a faithful predictor of the maltiness in this one, but the fruity hop character is fully apparent early on. Read More
Friday Froth: Snowed In With Barleywine Ingredients Brewery CT Beer Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon January 30, 2015 Deep snow requires strong booze. Our ancestors knew it, we know it, and every year around the winter solstice we can see a certain class of beer made specifically for snow days start to take up shelf space. Barleywine is beer better served at 55º than 35º, and best enjoyed when it's 25º outside. It's usually sold in large format bottles of the 22-26oz. variety, and will wrap you in an invisible sweater of at least 10% alcohol. Blizzards are a good thing when you're properly stocked. Barleywine has been deployed as a winter knock out drop by bored or insufficiently rowdy residents of the frostier climes for centuries. It is NyQuil by another name, and it is a blessed boon to those of us who seek to replace the lost hours of sunlight with - in order - hijinks and oblivion. Read More
Road Trip: Chamard Vineyards Farm, Winery, & Bistro in Clinton Ingredients Restaurant Clinton Road Trip Vineyard WIne Lunch Jessica Ryan January 25, 2015 How often does one get to visit a vineyard that’s blanketed by crisp white snow, or highlighted by a fiery autumnal backdrop, making it even more magical than it already is? Nestled in the shoreline town of Clinton, about a mile beyond the hustle and bustle of the outlet shops is a charming vineyard that boasts over 20 acres of grapes as well as their bountiful fruit, vegetable and herb gardens. One might not consider Connecticut to be wine country, but Chamard Vineyards Farm, Winery, & Bistro is worth noting. Established in 1983, Chamard’s winning Estate Reserve wines are exclusively made in their winery, and can be enjoyed in their Tasting Room or in their dining room. The bistro offers a creative farm-to-table menu featuring a French inspired American menu. Their Chardonnay and Merlot are very good. Read More
Wildly Different Beer Class: Wild Beer Co. & B. United @ Harry's in Fairfield Ingredients Beer CTbites Team January 21, 2015 Harry's Wine & Spirits is teaming up with B. United & Wild Beer Co for a very unique beer class and tasting on Thursday, February 19th 7-9pm. The Wild Beer Co was set up in September 2012 by Andrew Cooper and Brett Ellis to brew beers with a bit of a difference. Their goal is to focus on different ingredients, different yeasts and different barrel aging techniques. Which will be discussed throughout the tasting class. Their Evolver IPA that was featured in Draft Magazine as a one of the TOP 25 beers of2014. Wild Beer Co's beer is not brewed to style but are inspired by ingredients, occasions or experiences. Read More
Friday Froth: Down With Anchor! Ingredients CT Beer Beer James Gribbon January 16, 2015 A California brewer reached across the country to attack Hartford's City Steam and, distressingly, they've won. At issue? Anchor thinks they own the word "steam." Regular Friday Froth readers may remember when I first mentioned the lawsuit brought by Anchor Brewing against City Steam Brewery Cafe almost a year ago. This week a judge ruled Anchor Brewing in San Francisco can force City Steam in Hartford to chance its name. The lawsuit was upsetting then, and it's dead-fish-on-a-hot-sidewalk repellant now. I'm urging every craft beer drinker in Connecticut to boycott Anchor beer. Just don't buy it. It's that easy. Our voices and and dollars will be noticed. Just this week, Lagunitas dropped a similarly frivolous lawsuit against Sierra Nevada due to overwhelming consumer derision. Let's tell Anchor we in Connecticut are not going to take it laying down. Read More
CTbites Readers Get Special Gift @ Sugar & Olives Winter Market Ingredients Farmers Market Norwalk CTbites Team December 18, 2014 CT Bites readers who shop the market get a free gift with a purchase of $25 or more, a seasonal seasoning; a tin of our coffee salt rub (great for roasts or steaks) featuring Gorilla Coffee Beans and Himalayan Pink Sea Salt. Keep it or gift it, either way it’s a delicious addition to your holiday meal. This indoor, rain-or-shine market/outing will run every Friday through February (except after Thanksgiving Christmas and New Year’s), offering locally produced edibles, including milk, eggs, cheese, honey flour, grains, produce and meats. More Info Here. Read More
What Makes A Beer A Connecticut Beer? Ingredients CT Beer Beer James Gribbon December 18, 2014 Recently there was some discussion on Twitter, that infinite forum for public opinion, as to what makes a beer Connecticut Beer. At issue was the newly released Sip Of Sunshine IPA from Lawson's Finest Liquids. SOS, as we'll call it, is brewed at Two Roads in Stratford, Conn., so Elm City Beer Lovers asked if it belonged on their "Best of CT Beers" list. The obvious catch? Lawson's Finest was established in Warren, Vermont circa 2009. So: does being brewed and sold in Connecticut make it a Connecticut beer you're drinking? It depends on what you think.First, we have to consider how hard a line we're going to draw. Some beers are obviously capital C-B Connecticut Beers: New England Brewing in Woodbridge, Beer'd Brewing in Stonington, Relic Brewing in Plainville, Southport Brewing Company... all established, licensed, brewed and sold in Connecticut. Verdict: Connecticut Beers. That's easy, but are beers like these the only ones worthy of the name? What's the orthodoxy here? Read More
