Photo courtesy of Julie BidwellFull disclosure: I’m crazy about Paris. For many years, when David and I went to Europe we stopped off to visit his college roommate who lived in an elegant apartment near the Eiffel Tower. The 7th Arrondissement has no shortage of fine restaurants and bistros de luxe, but more often than not we would have an apéritif in the apartment before heading off to a lively brasserie or bistro populaire in the Latin Quarter.
I still love French bistros and keep my eye out for new ones in Connecticut. Some are French in name only, but the minute I entered À Vert, a new brasserie in West Hartford, I was in Paris. The zinc bar, the wine list chalked on the mirror. The pressed-tin ceiling, the white tile and exposed-brick walls—authentic, romantic and real, including the warmth and friendliness that define bistro dining in the City of Light.
It’s all good, but food beautiful food is the overriding reason to dine at À Vert. How could it not be? It’s owned by two chefs who in recent years have been making the Connecticut foodie world sit up and take notice: David Borselle at Bar Bouchée in Madison and Dorjan Puka at Treva around the corner in West Hartford.
The season we’ve just entered, that glowing, golden transition from high summer to early autumn, with cooler temperatures and the first blush of fall foliage, is the year’s best backdrop for fine dining. This menu of gorgeously-presented, heavenly-tasting farm-to-table cuisine will continue indefinitely—just like the unparalleled views of the cityscape and the Connecticut River Valley that guests enjoy at the restaurant, named for its location on the 20th floor of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company - and here’s the season’s best invitation: ON20 in Hartford, a nonpareil Connecticut restaurant with a very talented young chef, is launching a new $30 prix fixe lunch menu that highlights locally-grown ingredients.
Close your eyes and order anything on the menus created by Executive Chef Jeffrey Lizotte, who, barely into his 30s, has worked with David Bouley, at Le Bernardin and at the two-star Michelin Restaurant, La Bastide St. Antoine in France. He’ll send out plates that are works of art, and bites that will leave you trying to put words to the rhapsody of flavor epiphanies with each forkful.
(ON20 is open Monday through Friday for lunch, Thursday and Friday for dinner, and hosts happy hours Wednesday through Friday.)
Yelp will be hosting a roaring good time at their Prohibition Party at The Russian Lady in Hartford on April 30 at 7:30 pm. Complimentary bites, prohibition-era hooch, jazz, burlesque, vintage swing dancing are planned (fedoras are optional). This party is FREE to attend with a $10 SUGGESTED DONATION to Hartford Preservation Alliance, Yelp's nonprofit partner.
Celebrated author Amy Bloomwill host FOODSTOCK, Wesleyan’s first food writing conference, on Saturday, May 5th, 2012 from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. This event is FREE and open to the public. Online registration is required at www.wesleyan.edu/FOODSTOCK and registration will begin on Thursday, March 22nd.
FOODSTOCK will feature talks, Seminars, Book Signings, a Farmers Market, Food Trucks, a Cocktail Party, and more!
On Friday, September 23rd, the Mark Twain House will host their 4th Annual "Tapping Into Twain" Oktoberfest. This event features a selection of locally produced beers and artisanal ales paired with bites from local restaurants.
This is the event the Hartford Advocate has called "absolutely, positively, without any doubt whatever, one of the best charitable events Hartford has beheld in quite some time."
Breweries participating include Blue Point, Bru Rm/Bar, Cavalry Brewing, City Steam Brewery Café, Hartford Better Beer Co., HDI & Franklin Distributors, Hook & Ladder, Hooker Brewery, Maltose Express, Narragansett, Old Burnside Brewing, Southport SBC, Willimantic and Zok's Home Brewing, with more signing up every day.
I'm no food diva- sure I love a fine dining experience. I enjoy white tablecloths- and the particularly high-end places that scrape the crumbs from your table between courses. But there is a time and a place for this sort of event.
Though I love a great restaurant, I am equally satisfied by a well made sandwich, burger, or just about anything from a greasy spoon diner. When I worked in Boston I frequented the street meat kabob purveyor, and enjoyed a couple visits to Clover- a vegetarian food truck. Cheap, hearty, and satisfying, I miss these lunch options more than I miss Barbara Lynch.
So when Gmonkey mobile, a sustainable & vegetarian food truck, began tweeting their presence in Hartford earlier this month, I knew I had to try it.
Taste of Hartford 2010 will take place from Mon., July 26 through Sun., August 8.
Hartford's top restaurants will participate in Taste of Hartford's summertime promotion, offering 3-course gourmet dinners for only $20.10. Patrons can visit the individual restaurants to take advantage of this special price. No tickets are necessary, though reservations are strongly recommended.
Photo courtesy of Julie BidwellFull disclosure: I’m crazy about Paris. For many years, when David and I went to Europe we stopped off to visit his college roommate who lived in an elegant apartment near the Eiffel Tower. The 7th Arrondissement has no shortage of fine restaurants and bistros de luxe, but more often than not we would have an apéritif in the apartment before heading off to a lively brasserie or bistro populaire in the Latin Quarter.
