I submit that raw milk might just be the most real of all foods.
Start with the fact that milk is the only food created specifically to feed something. (Honey doesn’t count, as the pollen honey is made from has its own agenda.) Synonymous with nourishment, raw milk is the first food most human beings—all mammals—ingest. And raw milk, for it to be free of any off flavors and to be safe to drink, requires painstaking care to produce. Every little step in the process matters.
The subtle and intricate flavors in raw milk, the very opposite of the one-note flavor of pasteurized milk or, worse, the waxy cardboard taste vacuum of skim, come from the undenatured biocomplexity in unpasteurized milk. When I read chemists-for-hire claiming, on behalf of big commercial dairy, that there isn't that much nutritional difference between pasteurized and raw, I choose to trust my palate. Well, my palate and the biochemists who say that the difference is real and considerable.
Chef Tim LaBant and The Schoolhouse At Cannondale have released the schedule for the 2018 season’s Farm to Fork dinners.Tickets go on sale May 1st...and they go fast! Check out the schedule below.
Four locally sourced courses served family style under the stars (weather permitting). Beginning at 6 pm, Cocktail hour (drinks included), Farm Tour and Dinner (BYOB) by Wilton's own, Chef Tim LaBant of The Schoolhouse at Cannondale. Location: Millstone Farm, Wilton, CT.
Dinner is BYOB starting at around 7 pm and is four courses, family style.
We are excited to announce that Community Table Restaurant and Bar will be reopening this spring. We don’t have an exact date yet but, we are hoping to open our doors before Memorial Day and work out any ‘kinks’ before the busy season kicks in.
We have spent the past months contemplating what direction Ct should go in next. We turned to Adam Riess, a Washington native and restaurant consultant, to help us define our goals and offer us options. Though many interesting ideas were discussed, hearing from so many of you who simply wanted Ct to come back the way it was, eventually swayed us to move in that direction.
We are only a few short weeks into this brand-spanking new year, and TVs are blaring with eating program ads, magazine covers are screaming about how to “Lose 10 lbs. in a week!” and gyms are overflowing with people running for their lives on treadmills (Run, Forrest, Run!). Naturally, the CTBites answer to the holiday indulgences? EAT! Ok, ok…eat…HEALTHILY! Our fair state is brimming with amazing grocers, restaurants, and speciality stores that can help you get back on track after a season of going full-tilt boogie with the eating and drinking. The best part is that everything is so delicious and interesting. Branch out this year and try some new flavors and foods…goji berries, Matcha, Cauliflower pizza crust (wha!), Jackfruit! Dive in and explore. Here are some venues that will help you do just that. One more note: We fully realize that due to the sheer amount of noteworthy establishments, we are not able to list them all here. Please refer to our past Healthy Eats roundups for more listings and also, please chime in with places that you know and love. The more the merrier!
Market Place Hospitality group is delighted to announce the grand opening of their newest location, Market Place Kitchen & Bar Newton, this Friday, December 1st. The restaurant will be open to the general public for dinner and is located at: The Village at Lexington Gardens, 32 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT. With sister locations in Avon, Danbury, and Woodbury, Market Place Kitchen & Bar is 100% locally owned and operated and committed to sourcing local ingredients and working with local farmers.
Managing Partner Eli Hawli says: “We are delighted and honored to be a local business supporting local farms. As our Market Place family continues to grow, we will continue to provide the same quality of craft cocktails and chef driven cuisine which we know all of our wonderful customers want and expect from us
“It’s a 21st Century iteration of a 19th Century Inn,” Robert promised. So, before the six of us scattered to warmer climes for the winter, we chose the newly opened Tavern at GrayBarns for our farewell dinner.
After a pre-prandial toast, our party was served an un-presupposing bread and butter plate. Standard fare? Hardly. Executive Chef Ben Freemole had us at first bite.
That homespun bread perfectly captures the ethos of Andy Glazer’s sweeping reconstruction and fortification of the legendary Silvermine Tavern and Inn, its footprint reduced by almost a third. In this new “Haven of Refuge,” both décor and dining dazzle, no detail taken for granted, not even a humble bread and butter starter.
Simsbury, a bucolic community nestled in the Farmington Valley about 25 minutes north of bustling Hartford, has rarely been considered a culinary hotspot. But unexpectedly, this former mill town is now home to what many critics deem the best new restaurant in Connecticut: Present Company, a small, rustic eatery located in what was once a horse stable astride the Farmington River.
Here the unexpected comes as no surprise. Consider the auspices of its co-owner, Jeffrey Lizotte, the acclaimed former chef at Hartford’s lux On20. His resume includes stints at Eric Ripert’s Le Bernadin and David Bouley’s Danube in New York, and two of France’s highly regarded restaurants, La Rupina in Bordeaux and the Michelin-starred La Bastide St. Antoine in Grasse. After all those glittering dining rooms, what is an award winning chef doing at a relaxed 49 seat venue in what some might call “The Sticks”?
Taproot is one of Fairfield County’s newest chef-driven restaurants. Jeff Taibe (Kawa Ni) and Steph Sweeney (Whelk, Jesup Hall) have teamed up to open the doors to a dining experience that combines a hyper local menu in a charming and down-to-earth setting. If you’re close, it's almost guaranteed to become a contender for a regular hangout spot. If not (but hey, Westport to Bethel is only 30 minutes), it is worth the drive. Thanks to a creative and seasonal menu, it's one of our new favorite spots. And here are just a few reasons why.
Opening this week, Taproot will bring a true taste of Connecticut to the plate punctuated with Southern and global influences in a down-to-earth setting. Nearby farms, producers, and foragers will be the source of ingredients for a hyper-local and evolving menu—an unpretentious chef-driven dining experience soon to be situated in the quaint northern Fairfield County town of Bethel.
Why this focus on local? It’s not a trend to chase for Jeff Taibe and Steph Sweeney, Taproot’s partners who live in Bethel and are raising their family there.
Mark your calendars. On Monday, March 20th, the first day of spring, tickets will go on sale for the 2017 season of Outstanding In The Field.
The 2017 CT locations will be held at Waldingfield Farm on September 12th and The Hickories on September 13th. The guest chefs for Waldingfield will be Jason Sobocinski & Alex Lishchynsky of Caseus in New Haven. The Hickories will feature James Beard nominee Tyler Anderson of Millwright's in Simsbury. Additional details on chefs and farms can be found below.
Poised to celebrate its 10th year with Chef Tim LeBant at the helm, The Schoolhouse at Cannondale has long been on my radar. When a friend recently asked me to dinner I jumped at the chance. Nestled among the charming shops at the Cannondale train station, the one room schoolhouse is as delightful from the exterior as it is inside. A small entryway outfitted with a tiny bar area is separated from the dining area by a small curtained doorway, while many framed accolades set the mood for an excellent meal.
We usually post our “Healthy Eats” roundup at the beginning of January, when everyone is recovering from their holiday-induced food stupors. Indulgence ruled the roost for one-too-many weeks, so January brings a time of detox “get it all away from me” vigilance. After thinking about all of this healthy food, though, we realized that healthy eating isn’t just for those first weeks in January; it’s for all twelve months. I mean, man cannot survive on pork belly and butter alone (can he?).
Chef Brian Lewis' The Cottage is spreading its wings just in time for the new year...or rather its footprint, with a beautiful new expanded bar area. Lewis has taken over the adjacent space, once housing a barber shop, and has spent the last few months building out the perfect drink haven. The new bar area will have full service dining at the 10 seat bar alongside creative cocktails, local draft beer and an expanded wine program. Another addition is bartender, Ralph Leon who has been in the business for over 18 years, and has some very exciting new drinks planned for 2017.
Gino and Cathy Riccio have been an integral part of the Fairfield County restaurant scene for the past three decades, but their newest venture – an organic plant-based eatery – is uncharted territory for the couple. While many alleged healthy eateries have been popping up all over the place, Organika Kitchen takes the idea of healthy eating to a new level. I recently sat down the Riccios to learn about the inspiration behind their latest endeavor.
Organika is more than a restaurant Gino explained, “It’s an experience that is as much about the food as it is the customers and the employees.” Organika opened its doors in August to praise from vegetarians, vegans and meat-eaters alike. Cathy expanded on her husband’s thoughts. “We felt that we needed to be eating healthier. We grew up eating healthy, but somewhere along the way processed foods started to enter our diets. Now we have all this modified food and heavy-duty pesticides so even when we try to eat healthy we aren’t always.”
Up the steps off the city streets of New Haven, you may feel transported to another time and place. A space that somehow manages to feel elegant, yet contemporary and welcoming at the same time. This could only be ROÌA, where its elaborate high ceilings and attention to a bygone era’s architectural detail make a striking first impression. But they only set the stage for you to be further impressed with the sights and flavors about to arrive at the table.
CTbites first visited ROÌA for its grand opening back in 2013—grand being a most fitting descriptor. We were thrilled to return and experience a dinner featuring summer’s bounty of the local heirloom tomato, in one interesting configuration after another. And just one in the “veg-centric dinner series” Chef Avi Szapiro has offered since last year, when they first showcased asparagus, followed by summer squash, then tomato.
Lloyd Allen’s Double L Market in Westport is celebrating its 20th year. The market, now in its third location near Hillspoint Road, is the “original” farmstand. Described as “eclectic” it has weathered every storm and outlasted the competition thanks to a very dedicated group of followers. “When you’ve done this for as long as I have you get to know a lot of people and what they want. We want to be able to offer the best!” Allen told me.
“We were a farmstand and farmers market long before anyone else - before it became a thing. We were wild, and on the side of the road, in the open air and having lots of fun doing it.” Although Allen and his staff are no longer on the side of the road, and are now in an enclosed air-conditioned corner store, a little bit of that wildness still remains. “We are still having a great time,” he added. “You meet people who are passionate on both sides of the market - the growers are passionate about producing the best and our consumers are passionate to find and eat the best.”
Summer is here and that means road trips! Day trips! Exploring this great state of ours with its interesting nooks and crannies! You know, there is always one Big Kahuna of a question when out-and-about (besides, of course, “Where is there a good public restroom?”) and that would be: ”Where can we eat??!”. Aaaaannnd the answer goes on to get a bit more complicated when there’s a vegetarian or vegan in your traveling band of explorers. But thankfully, we have you and your veggie-eaters covered. Great spots all over the state to dine in a delightfully meat-free fashion. Many of these eateries even cater to gluten-free diners, too. Check the websites ahead of your travel time and you are good to go! Be off, young men and women! p.s.-You might be interested in taking a detour through Hamden on July 23rd for their Compassion Fest. It’s a gathering to promote the ideas of kindness, equity, and compassion AND there will be lots of vegan food there.
Here are 16 delicious vegetarian & vegan Restaurants in CT.
Green & Tonic opened today in downtown Westport, bringing its own unique brand of cold-pressed juices, smoothies and plant-based food. Located at 70 Jesup Road in the nexus of Westport’s shopping district, this new grab-and-go location will offer organic cold-pressed juices, smoothies, cold brew coffee and a full plant-based menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner including acai bowls, soups, salads, savory wraps, rice bowls, snacks and chia dessert items. The store will be hosting a Grand Opening party on Thursday, June 16 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm to introduce the store and will offer complimentary food and beverages. And for those unable to make the first party, Green & Tonic will host another community party also open to the public on Thursday, June 23 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Hours are Monday – Friday 7:00am – 7:00pm, Saturday 8:00am – 6:00pm and Sunday 9:00pm – 5:00pm.
Bold…intense…complex…flavors, these are the words that best describe the menu that Master Chef Prasad Chirnomula is serving at his latest restaurant, INDIA, in New Canaan. Chef Prasad is no stranger to New Canaan, or Connecticut. As the owner/chef of the highly successfully Thali restaurants, he announced several months ago that he was closing his flagship restaurant in New Canaan, desirous of opening a smaller, more intimate, restaurant in town. The interior of INDIA does just that, with a relaxed, sensual feel accentuated with flowing silk curtains engulfing many of the tables.
Chef Prasad invited CTbites to enjoy traditional cuisine from various regions of India, as well as sample many of his creative and inventive renditions from across southeast Asia and Africa. During the visit, this gregarious Master Chef joined us to explain the history, the composition, his vision for the dish as well as the numerous ingredients that were required to meet his high standards. His exuberance was evident in every description, and it translated into each of his creations. After close to twenty different dishes, my appreciation for his talent and the Indian heritage was significantly elevated, this was a culinary adventure. I was also pleasantly surprised when he told us that most are gluten-free, Indian recipes do not thicken sauces with gluten.
