Community Table in Washington CT
Restaurant American Farm to Table Litchfield Local Farm

Do you have a cabbage recipe that you think can win a contest for the best cabbage recipe?
On January 19, next Saturday, The Westport Farmers' Market will be accepting all entries. At 11:00 a.m. celebrity Judges/Chefs Nancy Roper (from Boxcar Cantina and Truck) and Bill Taibe (from Lefarm and Whelk) will taste their way through the entries declaring a winner at high noon.
The winner will receive a Westport Farmers' Market tote filled with market goodies worth well over a $100 and have the option to share their recipe with the 3,000 people who receive the WFM newsletter each week. There is one stipulation to the contest - the cabbage that is used must be from a local farm and the name of the farm must be noted with the entry.
Email Lori Cochran, Market Director, by Jan 17 to enter- director@westportfarmersmarket.com
Word of mouth, and great word at that, brought me to The Spread, a spanking new dining hot spot in Sono. Two months young, the restaurant is the result a partnership of four guys, all with two decades-worth of bar and restaurant experience combined, plus one young and very talented chef, Arik Bensimon. Formerly the Executive Chef of Napa & Co., Chef Arik brings the food in this rustic yet hip joint to a level of excellence and seriousness not seen in Fairfield County in some time. The Spread’s menu is global in scope. It represents a range of cultures--Arik’s Moroccan background and French training, the partners' of Costa Rica, Italy, and France with a dash of New York and California in the mix. Indeed, the menu is all over the place, locally sourced and international, but somehow this eclectic mishmash works. Though dishes are simply titled on the menu, they are, in fact, complex and beautifully executed.
What is all that activity on the corner of Washington and Main Streets in SONO? CTbites has discovered that SBC Restaurant and Brewery will open its fifth location in the space formerly occupied by Wasabi Chi. Currently name NOLA, SBC's Bill Dasilva told CTbites that the new restaurant will be an Oyster bar with “twists on traditional seafood from New Orleans to Maine” in “a very casual, comfortable and cool” atmosphere. The opening is targeted for February 2013.
Overseeing the kitchen will be long time favorite to many in Fairfield County, Executive Chef Dan Kardos. Chef Kardos began his culinary career with SBC while a teenager and worked in several Fairfield County restaurants over the last few years including Napa & Co., Harvest Supper, @Bar Rosso, and most recently with Chef Bill Taibe at The Whelk.
The 7th season of Dinners at the Farm has just been announced...just in time for holiday shopping. Every summer Dinners at the Farm brings their celebrated benefit dinner series to local Connecticut farms by hosting amazing multi-course feasts of just from the earth food, cooked fresh that day. They'll be dicing, chopping, sautéing and plating delicious locally grown food in the fields of host farms including Barberry HIll Farm, Scott's Farm & Greenhouses and White Gate Farm for 12 glorious summer nights in 2013.
And, as with every year, these dinners are benefits. Dinners at the Farm will be donating $20,000 towards the critical work of our beneficiaries CitySeed, CT Farm Land Trust, Working Lands Alliance,Region 4 Schools and NEW this year, The New Connecticut Farmer Alliance, a group of emerging farmers working to grow and sustain new farms in Connecticut ensuring a viable agricultural future. Visit their schedules and tickets page for more details and to purchase tickets.
Farm dinners make great gifts, just in time for the holidays. View our PHOTO GALLERY here.
Winter is drawing near, and many of us will eat the last of our local, farm-fresh veggies alongside our Thanksgiving turkey. Luckily, with Winter Sun Farms & Wakeman Town Farm in Westport, you get to keep eating Hudson Valley vegetables and berries all winter. You don't want to miss your first pickup. If you haven't signed up yet, now is the time! (Here is more info on CSA's and how they work.)
The season kicks off in December, when your share is projected to include: Sweet Corn, Butternut Squash Puree, Green Beans, Peppers, Tomato, Blueberries and Pea Shoots. New this year, our tomato puree comes in a shelf-stable jar. Sign up at www.wintersunfarms.com and check Westport, CT as your pickup point.
WinterSunFarms Winter CSA Pickup at Wakeman Town Farm
Fall is here and Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907, is celebrating the season with great products for your whole family. For those who haven’t shopped this local gem, take a a trip down the aisles of Walter Stewart’s Market, where you’ll find an amazing array of local, seasonal and specialty items...not to mention the Stewart’s wine shop. Finally one stop shopping.
How better to enjoy in these crisp Fall months, than with local apple and apple cider from Lyman Orchards in Middlefield CT or the exceptionally delicious Cider donuts from Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel.
The last year has given Westport three high-profile (if completely divergent) openings. Danny Meyer's Shake Shack opened its first venture into Connecticut and shook-up the Westport fast food scene and Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich opened a second Tarry Lodge in Saugatuck, bringing a different twist to traditional Italian restaurants. Finally, Chef Bill Taibe, the James Beard nominee and Owner / Chef of LeFarm opened The Whelk, his second Westport restaurant, on the Saugatuck River, just a short stroll from Tarry Lodge.
The Whelk, named after a sea snail similar to a conch, is primarily focused on seafood and addresses an oddly unexploited niche, a high-end seafood restaurant on Connecticut’s Gold Coast. For that reason alone, I was especially interested in The Whelk, and thus began my exploration, with multiple visits to this award winning kitchen.
“The SoNo scene has lost a bit of luster and we'd like to help bring some flavor back downtown,” says Chris Hickey, Co-Owner of The Spread opening October 2012.
Mr. Hickey, and his partners, Christopher Rasile, Andrey Cortes, and Shawn Longyear may be just the men for the job. With strong backgrounds in hospitality and almost legendary careers managing Bar at Barcelona’s SoNo and Greenwich locations, these four partners are poised to create some dining buzz in Michael Young's former Habana location.
But, despite boasting one of the largest bars in Fairfield County, The Spread is not just about creative cocktails. Enter the talented Chef Arik Bensimon, most recently the Executive Chef at Napa & Co., and now you’ve got yourself some serious culinary street cred to compliment the talent behind the bar.
Gavrielides Restaurant Group, the family behind Harbor Lights, Eastside Café, and Overtons, all located in Norwalk, have added yet another egg to their already full basket of food establishments.
Recently opened “Estia”, which shows off the Gavrielides family’s Greek roots, is a welcome addition to SONO’s Washington Street. It’s official: This tiny block now proudly boasts a veritable potpourri of cuisine, and with Greek cuisine now on offer, it is fast becoming a diners paradise. Let’s hope Estia, along with its’ neighboring partners in crime can live up to the increasing demand for quality, sophisticated food, so SONO can continue to thrive.
With summer in full swing there are even more reasons to shop Walter Stewart's Market, a fixture in downtown New Canaan since 1907. This family run grocer features not only outstanding customer service and a great selection of everyday needs for your family, but also local producers and hard to find specialty goods in every aisle.
Can't get to the farmers' market? Browse through Walter Stewart's produce section where local CT farmers from Wagner Farm in East Windsor, Millstone Farm in Wilton, and Dzen Farm in South Windsor, are delivering the very best of the CT harvest. What's in season right now? Here is the lineup: corn, yellow and green squash, green beans, blueberries, apricots, sugar plums, and green cabbage. Beautiful beefsteak tomatoes will be coming soon.
Join Barcelona Wine Bar in Fairfield and CTbites on Tuesday on July 24 from 6 to 8 pm for a "Harvest Happy Hour" to welcome the new Farmigo CSA program to Connecticut. This casual and free event will take place in Barcelona's garden with a cooking demo by Chef Helton. Light bites made with ingredients from the Barcelona garden and local farms. Meet Farmigo representatives, local farmers and artisans partnering with the program.
Please welcome Conor Johnson, one of CTbites' summer interns, who will be covering the local Farmers' Markets throughout the 2012 season.
This past Thursday at the Westport Farmers’ Market, the grilling, searing, and sautéing began as they kicked off the season with their first of the many scheduled guest chefs. The first chef featured was Jon Vasst, Executive Chef of The Dressing Room, who awed a sizeable audience as he worked his culinary magic before their hungry eyes. His first of two demos began at 11 am, the second at 1 pm, with upcoming market guest chefs Bill Taibe, of LeFarm and Arik Bensimon, of Napa & Co. in the audince to show their support.
CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY
The Westport Farmers' Market opened today with an official ribbon cutting ceremony attended by members of the Fairfield County community who came to show their support for the market and "living local." First Selectman Gordon Joseloff and State Representative Jonathon Steinberg brandished their scissors with vigor as market shoppers applauded the start of the Westport Farmers' Market season. Also poised for the big day was Chef Jon Vaast of Dressing Room, one of the 23 guest chefs who will be appearing at the market throughout the season doing recipe demos and tastings (more on that later). The crowd was packed with people enjoying their Skinny Pines Pizza, Raus' Cold Romans, Boxcar Cantina Tamales, and Du Soleil Fine Foods...and the rain held out. VIEW PHOTO GALLERY HERE.
The second annual Dine with Design will happen June 9, 2012, on the magnificent and incomparable grounds of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan. With the tremendous success of prior year’s food presentations, the afternoon will again feature incredible tasting menus designed and prepared by some of the most renowned and respected chefs in America. Several of the chefs are featured in Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer’s cookbook, Harvest to Heat and this year’s day and evening lineup will create one of the most delicious culinary experiences of the season.
The participating chefs include three locals, Jeremy McMillan from The Farmhouse Restaurant at The Bedford Post Inn, Frederic Kieffer from Artisan in Southport, and Tim LaBant from The Schoolhouse at Cannondale in Wilton; two chefs from Cambridge, MA, Tony Maws from Craigie on Main and Ana Sortun from Oleana; plus Missy Robbins from A Voce in New York City and Gabriel Rucker from Le Pigeon in Portland, OR. The last two of the featured chefs, Missy Robbins and Gabriel Rucker present two vastly different paths up the culinary ladder and as well as approaches in their current restaurants.
When restaurateur Colin Ambrose decided to follow his wife and three daughters and return to Fairfield County from the eastern end of Long Island, he brought with him a reputation for delivering creative farm to table cuisine. As the former owner/chef of Estia’s in Amagansett and the current owner of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, Ambrose is celebrating his Darien homecoming by opening his latest restaurant, Estia’s American. After Ambrose settled on the location that formerly housed Ole Mole, he immediately set to create a rustic Americana décor that included American flags created from book spines, relaxing beach paintings and his personal collection of cookbooks and novels, including several by his uncle Stephen Ambrose.
The 3rd annual "Farm 2 Fork" dinner series will officially begin on Wenesday, June 20th at Millstone Farm, 180 Millstone Rd., Wilton, CT. Those of you who have enjoyed these wonderful communal dining experiences in the past, are likely already drafting that email for reservations. For newbies, here's what to expect. A tour of the beautiful 75 acre Millstone Farm will begin at 6:00PM followed by a pristinely farm fresh, family style dinner beginning at 7:00PM. The cost is $100. per person with a featured wine. BYOB is welcome. Tax & gratuity is excluded.
Space is limited so I would suggest you act quickly. Reservations will be taken by email starting this Wednesday, May 16 at 10:00AM.
It takes quite a bit to impress this native New Yorker when it comes to home design stores, but Terrain opened its doors in Westport tonight, and I have to say...I’m impressed. This breathtakingly beautiful space is quite literally a gallery for impeccably sourced home, garden, specialty food and gift items. The use of indoor/outdoor space and broad skylights makes this store feel like a walk through an elegant English garden. And in the middle of this green space is a coffee bar boasting Counter Culture beans, well trained baristas and baked goods, as well as a restaurant with a local, organic menu that will reflects the cycle of the seasons and the local Westport community.
Wakeman Town Farm is giving local backyard chicken fans something to cluck about! Announcing the First Annual Wakeman Town Farm Chicken Coop Tour, in which local chicken coop owners in Westport and lower Weston will open their unique henhouses to the public.
Wakeman Town Farm threw down the gauntlet to local chicken-keeping aficionados. We asked: Who wants bragging rights for building the Hautest Henhouse...the Cadillac of Chicken Shacks...the Coop De Ville? The result is Wakeman Town Farm's First Annual Chicken Coop Tour, Saturday, May 5 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., a fun-filled afternoon touring approximately 15 chicken coops in Westport and Weston and enjoying a casual After-Tour Sundae back at the farm, with ice cream generously provided by The Farmer's Cow!