Filtering by Tag: Entertaining,Ridgefield

Guide To Connecticut Caterers: 2018 Holidays Made Easy! sponsored post

Features Catering Holiday Best of CT Entertaining Homepage

April Guilbault

Less than 90 days until Christmas and less than 70 until Hanukkah. Please don’t hate us, we want to help you! Wonderful, albeit somewhat stressful holiday gatherings are fast approaching and with them come the planning, cooking, and hosting. Looking to streamline and maybe, eh-hem, enjoy your holidays this year? Toss those oven mitts aside, grab a cold, ice-clinking drink and hire a caterer for your soirees! Courteous and attentive staffs, creative and unique presentations, swoon-worthy and drool-worthy foods. When we put it that way, what’s to discuss? CTbites has assembled a list of caterers that are sure to lend that special bit of flair to your gathering, whether it be grand or cozy. These folks are eager to please and ready to tackle the upcoming season with panache. Book now, though, or those oven mitts might be back on your hands.


Bailey’s Backyard in Ridgefield Welcomes New Executive Chef Zach Campion

Features Chef Ridgefield

CTbites Team

Nearly 20 years ago, a neighborhood coffee shop was transformed into a charming New American restaurant. The concept was a simple one; a seasonal menu presented in a relaxed atmosphere; a concept that would grow with the town; and a restaurant where a chef’s creativity could shine. Owner Sal Bagliavio opened Bailey’s Backyard in October of 1999 and continues to make his culinary mark on the town of Ridgefield, CT.

Today, this seasoned restaurateur is joined by Executive Chef Zach Campion, a Johnson & Whales alumn with kitchen cred that includes; Local 121 in Providence, RI whose concept was tagged as “locally harvested food and drink”; the ground-breaking Metro Bis in Simsbury, CT under the direction of Chef Christopher Prosperi; and continued to hone his craft in the kitchen of ON20 restaurant, a Hartford, CT culinary institution.


Guide To Connecticut Caterers: 2018 Holidays Made Easy! sponsored post

Features Kitchen Gear Design Entertaining

CTbites Team

Every two years Clarke, New England’s Official Sub-Zero/Wolf/Cove Showroom and Test Kitchen, hosts its Sub-Zero and Wolf Kitchen Design Contest to celebrate the best kitchen designs in the six New England states. On May 10th, Clarke awarded $15,000 in prize money to first and second place winners in three categories: Traditional Kitchen, Contemporary Kitchen and Transitional Kitchen. This year, two of the six awards went to kitchen designers in Connecticut. Veronica Campbell of Deane Inc. received the first-place award for a transitional kitchen, while Gerard Ciccarello of Covenant Kitchens & Baths won second place in the traditional kitchen category.


80+ Food Trucks in New Haven, Hartford, & Beyond: 2018

Restaurant Food Truck Catering Entertaining New Haven Hartford Glastonbury Meriden To-Go Best of CT homepage Homepage

Emma Jane-Doody Stetson

Recently, we told you about over 50 food trucks traveling the streets of Fairfield County.  Mobile eats are taking over the state though, with trucks and carts serving New Haven, Hartford, and beyond!  Here are over 80 trucks serving everything from Mexican to Vietnamese to BBQ!

  1. Skyscraper Sandwiches, Glastonbury: Skyscraper Sandwich Truck serves massive sandwiches stacked high like skyscrapers! It's no wonder they earned top honors from the CTNOW Best of Hartford Readers Poll in 2018.

  2. Mamoun’s Falafel Cart, New Haven:Mamoun's Falafel got its start in Greenwich Village in New York City. Now, its cart serves Middletown and the surrounding areas. Find their latest stops on their facebook page.

  3. Mercado, Glastonbury: A Span-ish inspired truck featuring local ingredients and full service catering, Mercado is owned by Roy and Heather, a husband a wife team, who set out to make their hobby a reality.

  4. Ricky D’s Rib Shack, New Haven: Ribs! Pulled pork! Brisket! Ricky D's will bring their smoker and BBQ on the road and roll up to your next event.

  5. Tacos Los Michoacanos, New Haven: Tacos Los Michoacanos is a fleet of Food Trucks that are based out of New Haven offering Mexican fare.

  6. Thai Taste, New Haven: Thai Taste Food Truck opened in January 2018! Find them on York Street in New Haven.

  7. Pork Friends and Company, Meriden: Pork Friends and Company is Latin fusion at its tastiest! Their background is Spanish, but they draw influence from around the globe.

  8. Cado’s Egg Truck, Trumbull: Cados egg truck serves up a unique spin on breakfast in Trumbull.


50+ Food Trucks in Fairfield County: 2018 Edition

Restaurant Food Truck Best of CT Comfort Food Entertaining Catering Homepage

Emma Jane-Doody Stetson

They say life is a highway… and it’s a good thing too because more food trucks are hitting the streets than ever before!  Connecticut is home to a bevy of mobile eats serving everything from crepes to tacos to meatballs to grilled cheese.  Here are over 50 food trucks based in the Fairfield County area.  Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we cover even more in New Haven, Hartford, and Beyond! 

Is your favorite Fairfield County food truck not on our list? Let us know. 

  1. Milkraft Milktruck, Fairfield: Milkcraft has a Milktruck! They are available for private events and have had as many as 500 customers waiting in line when the truck hits the road.

  2. MamaKitchen, Stamford: MamaKitchen just opened in Stamford on Richmond hill in front of Jackie Robinson Field. It serves up authentic Dominican fare and is the first Chimi truck in the area.

  3. Seaside Sliders, Norwalk: Seaside Sliders by Mr. Frosty's is exactly what the name implies- hand-crafted sliders!

  4. Daniels Food Truck, Stamford: Daniel's Food Truck in Stamford is Guatemalan American fare on-the-go. They have everything from breakfast to burgers to "shukos" to tacos.

  5. Jefes Tacos n Grill, Stamford: Jefe's Tacos n Grill makes authentic Mexican food with fresh ingredients and seasoned spicy marinated meats cooked on a flat top grill. They also salads and burgers.


Battle of the Chefs Returns to Ridgefield's Founders Hall on June 3

Features Ridgefield Events

Amy Kundrat

Battle of the Chefs returns to Founders Hall on Sunday, June 3, 4 – 7 pm.  In a culinary showdown similar to those featured on television shows such as Top Chef and Chopped, three seasoned chefs will match sharp knives and quick wits for the benefit of Founders Hall. Chefs Brian Bender (David’s Soundview Catering in Stamford,  formerly of Cutting Board Café in Ridgefield), Zachariah Campion (Bailey’s Backyard, Ridgefield), and André Gainer (Luna Rossa, Ridgefield), will compete to create an entree from a basket of surprise ingredients, in just sixty minutes, in front of a live audience.  A panel of food experts, including Brendan Walsh (Dean of Culinary Arts, the Culinary Institute of America) and Amy Kundrat (executive editor, CT Bites) will judge the chefs on their creativity, craftsmanship and culinary results as the crowd cheers the chefs on. Ken Tuccio, host of CTbites new Food & Drink podcast, will emcee the action.


Guide To Cooking Classes in Connecticut: 18 Spots To Get Schooled

Features Cooking Classes kids cooking party Education Entertaining Catering Homepage

April Guilbault

It’s not warm enough to totally be outdoors and you’ve got a wicked case of cabin fever after this roller coaster of a winter. What’s a food loving, experience-hungry, knowledge-loving person to do? Take a class! Specifically, a *food* class! From breads to butchery, cheeses to fondant, we’ve assembled a class list that will have you hungry to learn, so to speak. Using the skills offered in these classes, you (and your friends, if a group activity if something you are looking for) can learn a wide variety of culinary skills that will allow you to have fun in the moment but then take that fun back to your own kitchen and share it. Learn to cook for a crowd, perfect skills you’ve been thinking you need a smidge of help with, or just do something different for an evening. Break out of that bread box! Strike a new (knife) pose! Any way you slice it (see what I did there?), you are going to have a grand time…learning! Who knew? 


On Thursdays, We Eat Prime Rib: Hoodoo Brown BBQ in Ridgefield

Restaurant BBQ Ridgefield American Special Occasion

Andrew Dominick

Up until recently, prime rib had all but vanished from restaurants. It remained on menus at less-than-trendy eateries or it was offered at others as a one-day-per-week special, but it never quite reached levels of steak extinction. If you’ve glanced at dinner menus lately—yes, even at hotspot restaurants—there’s a chance you’ve noticed that this beefy blue-plate special has reemerged! 

If you’re a prime rib superfan, or if you salivate at the thought of a hearty slice of standing rib roast, Hoodoo Brown BBQ should be on your “Thursday Night Plans” list. Being a BBQ joint, they’re doing what you might imagine they’re doing with prime rib…they’re smoking whole 14 lb. roasts and serving them up until it’s all gone. 


Guide To Connecticut Caterers: 2018 Holidays Made Easy! sponsored post

Recipe Holiday Cocktails Recipe Catering Entertaining

CTbites Team

The Holidays are here...time to entertain. A well-stocked bar cart is an essential ingredient in any successful holiday gathering.  Here's some tips from Festivities Catering to ensure that your holiday entertaining is festive, fun  and filled with style.  

Holiday Cocktail Cart Tips:

1. Create a "signature" drink that can be made in batches.  Have some pre-made in pitchers that can easily be poured into glasses as guests arrive. We suggest a Poinsettia Spritz Cocktail. 

Poinsettia Spritz Cocktail Recipe: 3/4 cup vodka, 1 1/2 cups cranberry juice, 2 ounces St. Germain, 3/4 cup prosecco, cranberries & rosemary for garnish.  Serves 6.


"The Impossible Burger" Now Available at all CT Bareburger Locations

Restaurant Features Stamford Ridgefield Lunch Vegan Vegetarian Special Dietary Needs Homepage Burgers

Andrew Dominick

Elk, beef, duck, bison, lamb and turkey are just some of the proteins used in burgers at Bareburger. The microchain makes sure their burgers are more than just meat-based, and keep vegetarians and vegans in mind with offerings that already include the Farmstead, made from sweet potatoes and wild rice, and the Guadalupe, a black bean and roasted corn burger. Recently, Bareburger has slowly started to roll out another all-natural vegan burger that supposedly tastes close to, or like beef.

Created by Impossible Foods and CEO/founder/scientist Pat Brown, and appropriately named The Impossible Burger, this meatless option is solely made from plants. It’s made up of wheat and potato proteins for a familiar beef burger-like texture, vitamins, amino acids, sugars, and uses konjac (from Japanese yams) and xanthan (made by fermentation) as binders for the patty. It also uses a molecule called heme, which carries oxygen in our blood. Heme is in every living thing, plants included, and makes our blood red. Since red meat contains large amounts of heme, The Impossible Burger uses heme made from fermentation, and gives it a meatier taste than most vegan or veggie burgers on the market. It uses two fats, coconut oil and soybeans to give it that much needed sizzle effect when it hits the grill.  


Cotton Candy Find At Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe in Ridgefield

Features Ingredients Dessert Specialty Market Ridgefield Kids Kid Friendly

Natalie Levitt

A trip to Ridgefield, Connecticut would not be complete without a visit to the quintessential ice cream parlor and candy mecca that is Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe. Offerings span from homemade chocolates, fudge, and ice cream. There is even an entire room devoted to nostalgic candies and gummy treats. I am always looking for fun and interesting food experiences and packaging. During one of my recent visits to the shop/food safari, I noticed a wall of cotton candy made by Chocolate Storybook. The brand’s assortment offers upwards of 50 flavors including sweet and savory delights like Bacon, BBQ sauce, Atomic Fire, Pancake and Syrup, Frosted Donut, PBJ, seasonal desserts and fruits, merlot, and even a gender reveal option. The most unusual flavor however was Trump hair! The jury is still out on that one. You can add these to the list of memorable hybrid sweet treats trending these days.


The Porchetta Burger: Bareburger Debuts Its James Beard Winner

Restaurant Comfort Food Stamford Ridgefield Lunch Homepage Burgers

Lou Gorfain

Now, as an adult, card-carrying carnivore, I’m still leery of burger extenders, be they crumbs, flour, veggies or any other manner of filler.  So when asked to review Bareburger’s Porchetta Burger, half ground pork and half wild mushrooms, I approached the assignment with some hesitation.   Fifty percent filler?  No beef?  No red-pink medium rare interior when I cut into the patty?  No juices oozing at first bite?  Likely no deal.

At the Harbor Point location, I asked the kitchen to cut the Porchetta sandwich in half, so I could check the interior before biting in. To my surprise, the patty looked remarkably like a medium rare beef-burger. Traditionally the pork is wrapped about other savories, but in this version, the pork (wild boar sourced from Fossil Farms in Boonton, New Jersey) is ground in-house, then mixed with chopped wild mushrooms and seasonings (fennel, garlic, and rosemary).


Guide To Lobsterbake & Clambake Caterers in Connecticut

Restaurant Catering Entertaining Best of CT Seafood Homepage

Stephanie Webster

Steamed clams, sweet mussels swimming in flavorful broth, freshly harvested sugar corn, creamy red potatoes, maybe a tangy fruit pie to top it all off and certainly lots and lots of warm, creamery butter. Add to all of these delights, the perfect setting, some decorations and maybe some help along the way serving it up and what do you have? The perfect summer gathering and we at CTBites certainly love those. That said, we have compiled this list of restaurants, shacks, and caterers for all of your seaworthy hankerings. Grab some friends, break out the bibs and the crackers, and drawwwww that butter, baby! Get ready to enjoy summer, New England style~


Great BBQ Restaurants In CT: A Summer Wish List

Restaurant BBQ Ridgefield Redding Hartford Windsor Bridgeport Branford Comfort Food Homepage

CTbites Team

The summertime heat makes me crave a meaty backyard barbecue with crunchy roasted corn on the side and finished off with a sweet slice of juicy watermelon. But where can you get a meal like this if you don’t feel like cooking at home? Mix summertime with the great eats in Connecticut, and you get a barbecue wish list extraordinaire with several spots ranking high on CTbites’ favorites list and others that we really need to try.


Elm City BYO Party Bike Coming to Milford: Pedaling + Drinking = Fun

Features Entertaining Bar

CTbites Team

Check out what's new in Milford via CTPost. 

If you’ve been to New Haven lately, you might have seen a strange vehicle on her streets.

It looks like a bar on wheels, complete with barstools and a countertop, and even a bartender, Another strange thing about it is that it’s a human-powered contraption, pedal-powered by the the cool people sitting at the bar.

It’s called the Elm City Party Bike, and now it’s coming to Milford.

Mayor Benjamin Blake on Tuesday announced a new partnership with the Elm City Party Bike, New England’s “first and foremost pedaled sightseeing bike.”

The Elm City Party Bike offers groups of 8-15 the ability to visit restaurants while viewing architecture, historical sites, the coast and more. Each seat on the party bike has a set of pedals, and while a trained Elm City driver steers the bike.


The Village Tavern in Ridgefield: New England Fare with an Italian Touch

Restaurant American Italian Ridgefield Lunch Homepage

Jessica Ryan

The Village Tavern in Ridgefield is just as you expect a New England tavern to be. Exposed brick and dark wood furnishings greet you upon arrival. Handsome forest green paneling and plaid fabrics offer a feeling of comfort and familiarity. On the far wall, local Connecticut artist Sharon Leichsenring dazzles with a larger than life wall mural representing “abbondanza," paying homage to Brunetti's Market, a Ridgefield staple, and the former occupant of the space. The Village Tavern fills a void in the area’s already rich culinary landscape. Their elevated comfort food ranges from simple to sophisticated. Chef Minin will tell you that he creates “American food that has been kissed by an Italian.” 


CT Guide to Outdoor Dining (2017): 80+ Restaurants for Summer

Restaurant Outdoor Dining Best of CT Westport Norwalk Stamford New Canaan Darien Fairfield New Haven Milford Ridgefield Homepage

April Guilbault

“What’s the secret ingredient?”, you ask. Well, it’s…Air. 

The winter-that-wasn’t (save for one last see-I-told-you-so storm) is now officially behind us and folks everywhere are throwing open the windows and enjoying the sight of lush green grass and a continual parade of Spring flowers. Out come the patio chairs! Behold the grill! Phew, we have missed you. Let’s all enjoy this week of Connecticut Spring before it leaps to 90 degrees, shall we?

In the event that you have neither of these aforementioned outdoor items, you can hightail it to any one of these delightful establishments to dine alfresco. Doesn’t a little fresh air always put a pep in your step? And, in this case, a little sunshine on your biscuits. Head outdoors to dine and enjoy!

If we missed an outdoor venue that you frequent, please share your find below.