Visit Mama’s Boy Southern Table and Refuge in SONO and experience some good old-fashioned southern hospitality and cuisine. The newest addition to SONO offers a Georgian-Carolina cuisine with the flavors and ingredients not seen on other Fairfield County menus; not spicy Cajun or Creole but grits, okra, shrimp, catfish, with a little fried chicken thrown in.
Fairfield County native and owner Greer Fredericks, and her business partner Ami Dorel, bring a southern feel to the décor, and flavors to the menu, from Greer’s years in the South. Overseeing the kitchen is Chef Scott Ostrander who recently relocated from Jacksonville, Florida. His previous restaurant, ‘Town, won the Robert W. Tolf Award for Best New Restaurant from Florida Trend magazine and voted one of Jacksonville Magazine’s Northeast Florida’s Top 25 restaurants. After graduating from the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, Ostrander worked in restaurants from DC to Florida and brings authentic southern cuisine to the Mama’s Boy menu. Ostrander is currently sourcing many of his ingredients from South Carolina while simultaneously building a stable of local farms, vendors and merchants.
With little fanfare, Mama’s Boy Southern Table and Refuge, the newest addition to the SONO food scene is slowly opening its doors. Based on traditional Southern hospitality and cuisine, the restaurant will deliver the comfort food of the south combined with a relaxed atmosphere. As the website states, “Mama’s Boy is putting the “South” in South Norwalk.”
The interior has been completely redesigned. Using woods and material from an old water tower from Florence, South Carolina, owners Greer Fredericks and Ami Dorel created a warm environment from top to bottom. The lighting is soft and inviting, the music gives a perfect background through various genres and the service is straight from Charleston, friendly and incredibly helpful. Upon entering you can choose a seat at the long bar or one of the tables along the wall with a long comfortable banquette. In the rear is a second dining area that is guarded by two windows that were reclaimed from Al Capone’s summer residence. This dining area features a traditional “mirror wall,” you have to see it to completely understand and appreciate.
Chef Leticia Schwartz is the author of The Brazilian Kitchen, the cookbook that made Brazilian cooking accessible to the masses. She has appeared on The Today Show and teaches cooking classes in Fairfield County and NYC.
Welcome November! With the aftermath of hurricane Sandy and the elections behind us, I think we all want to move on to Thanksgiving, just around the corner, and the perfect occasion to be thankful for what we have. This is my favorite American Holiday and truly the biggest gourmet feast on the calendar year.
As a Brazilian living in the US, it took me a few years to understand the deep meaning of Thanksgiving— especially the repeated menu every year. On the other hand, the chef in me loves to see the whole country talking turkey and cooking this one giant meal.
One of my favorite desserts from the Thanksgiving picture is Pecan Pie. Over the last few years I have tried recipes from magazines, newspapers, cookbooks, and web sites. They are all good but in every recipe I wish something was different. There are just so many variables that impact the end result of a pecan pie.
As the gauchos paraded by our table brandishing huge spears of juicy, caramelized proteins in a non-stop moveable feast, I had a question:
"Can you eat healthy in an all-you-can-eat Brazilian Steak House?"
It was a concern I imagined many a health or diet conscious CTBites reader might harbor, especially if a friend or significant other was suffering a severe steak jones and insisted on a visit to Stamford's new Rodizio Grill, an authentic Brazilian Churrascaria in the space formerly occupied by Houlihans.
Chef Leticia Schwartz is the author of The Brazilian Kitchen, the cookbook that made Brazilian cooking accessible to the masses. She is also a Fairfield County resident, and if you have had the opportunity to take one of her cooking classes, you already know that her recipes are worth coveting. In Chef Leticia's blog she posted the original version of this recipe for Toalha Felpuda, a heavenly delicious Coconut Cake from a store in Rio de Janeiro. This recipe can not be found in her cookbook, and it takes this classic cake to a whole other level.
You never know what to expect when you sign up for a cooking class. How much cooking will you do? Who will attend and what will they want from the class? How will the personality of the chef influence the experience? What if you could cut down on all those variables by gathering a group of friends with common food interests and visiting the home of a chef whose only motive is to ensure you have a good time and eat well? It would be a fabulous experience – wouldn’t it?
Recently, eight CTBites contributors had just such a fabulous culinary experience with chef, teacher and cookbook author Leticia Moreinos Schwartz at one of her in-home Brazilian cooking classes.
Frankly my dear, you SHOULD give a damn! OK, so Tara was in Atlanta, and Rhett Butler is no where to be found. But for a flavorful and thoroughly authentic southern meal, harness up the horses and giddy-up to A Taste of Charlestonat 195 Liberty Square in Norwalk. This charming and relatively new restaurant located just over SONO’s “Stroffolino” Bridge is serving up some amazing southern cuisine, South Carolina’s finest, complete with fried chicken, collard greens and catfish po-boys.
A Taste of Charleston Southern Cuisine is a labor of love, co-owned by Chris and Catherine Reed and their partner Chris La Rose; the Reeds had a dream of re-creating culinary memories of their childhood trips down south, and La Rose was immediately on board. Mr. Reed, “…grew up on my grandmother’s cooking” and the magical smell of Grandma Daisy’s kitchen is just what the team at A Taste of Charleston is attempting to recreate. They are succeeding.
