Sick of the same old greasy bar food consumed with flavorless big beer brands while out with colleagues or friends on Friday night? Me too. Skip the ho-hum bar and head directly to The Social, a relatively new spot on Bank Street in New London. Providing a new and much needed hang-out spot, the Social gives diners great food, a family-friendly atmosphere, and an extensive beer list; it definitely knocks it out of the park as a new place to spend Fridays after work or Saturday evenings with family or friends.
Largest Selection of Craft Beers on Draft in Southeast CT
The Social has selected hyper-local, local, regional, and U.S. beers, serving a whopping 50 on draft.
CTBites' own beer writer and food critic returned to WTNH's "CTStyle" on October 30th to discuss how breweries and fall road trips go together. Leaf peeping, orchard visits, whatever gets you out of the house, autumn is a great time to get to places you haven't been, and many of those out of the way places have a great brewery to visit. One of the spots mentioned in the segment was 5 Churches Brewing Company in New Britain, and you can watch the whole interview on CTStyle right here.
Chef Brian Lewis’ latest restaurant offering Japanese inspired cuisine in the historic Vigilant Hose Company Firehouse at 6 Wilton Road in Westport, Connecticut, is launching weekday lunch service and to-go options on Wednesday, November 7.
Lunch will be available Wednesday – Friday from 11:30am-2:30pm and will feature a daily lunch-specific menu for this new service. Options will include Hand Rolls, Bento Boxes, Nigiri Sushi meals featuring 5x pieces of Nigiri Sushi, Sashimi meals featuring Chirashi Sushi, Sashimi Moriawase or Spicy Tuna Sashimi OKO poke, as well as favorites from the dinner menu.
Located in a 2-story townhouse on Downtown Stamford’s Restaurant Row, the brick façade of Kashi Sushi Bar and Japanese Restaurant gives way to a multi-sensory experience. Introduced to the city’s thriving restaurant scene in January of 2016, Kashi’s modern industrial design element combined with its innovative and artistic approach to sushi and Japanese food preparations quickly landed this exciting new restaurant on the radar of local food enthusiasts.
NORWALK NOW presents CRUSH, A 5 Day Celebration of Beer, Wine, and Spirits Tuesday thru Saturday, October 16-20, 2018 (*Sunday Bonus – DETOX Run/Walk/Bike/Yoga).
CRUSH comes to Norwalk! This5-day schedule of thirst-quenching events celebrating the beer, wine, and spirits world is being presented by Norwalk Now’s talented group of businesses and special guests from the beverage world. Visit the CRUSH calendar page for the complete schedule. New events are being added every day, and reservations are suggested for all events.
When Ken Tuccio first launched Food & Drink one of the things he wanted to do was a series of "With …" episodes. Episodes where he shared a meal or drinks with someone and had a conversation … not so much an interview, but more of a real chat. This is the first episode in that conceptualized sub-series. Ken sits down and has "Beers with" Patrick DiCaprio, the co-host of the Full Pours podcast. They discuss beer festivals, the boom of the CT beer scene, the new trend related to "one off labels" showing up in the market and more. Listen here.
This week we're going to look at some beers which could be confused for the country's least glitzy style, the Extra Special Bitter, or ESB. Most people who had access to beer, legally or not, in the Cro-The problem with taste sensations is their inevitable ubiquity. Like a new song quickly overplayed into agonizing repetition, the new hotness becomes common as mud or lobster mac and cheese. Bloody Mary gimmicks are an excellent example.
Magnon craft beer era of the 1990s will remember Red Hook ESB. It was a good touch bitter, with a sharp roast and a twinge of sweetness to its malt-forward profile. English inspired bones fleshed out by a toddling American craft beer industry, it sold a ton as a delicious change of pace from Bud/Miller/Coors/Molson/Corona, and was to be one of the first brands bought and ruined by "Big Beer," in this case Anheuser-Busch.
This week in Friday Froth we're going to toss back a beer in the middle of a trend, a new creation in an old style, and some brewery news which leads us to an aged beer.
And now, as another James May say, the nyeewws:
I recently was among the first few dozen civilians to ever see the inside of Two Roads' new mixed fermentation secondary brewery, Area 2.First announced in 2016, this new on-site facility in Stratford will focus on sour, barrel aged, and wild ales - all the little organisms bursting with possibility, and voted most likely to make your wine or Bud Light drinking friends say "This is beer?!?"
It was a long road for Tribus Beer Co. to become a reality. One of the founders of Tribus, Sean O'Neill, sits down with Ken Tuccio to tell the story about how he and his partners got together, took their idea and turned it into one of the most anticipated brewery openings in the state. Listen here.
You never know where you're going to see CTBites. This past week our own food writer and "Friday Froth" beer columnist James Gribbon was invited to make a guest appearance on Channel 8 afternoon talk show CT Style to talk about great spots to have a beer outside. Summer may be winding down, but there's still plenty of time to enjoy a drink in the fresh air.
Some of his favorite spots included the beer garden and hop yard at Two Roads in Stratford, The Hops Company beer garden, the yard at BAD SONS in Derby (with a nod to take out wings from nearby Dew Drop Inn), and road trips to OEC brewing in Oxford, and Kent Falls farm brewery.
Watch the whole video below, and keep an eye out for James appearing on CT Style in the future.
Like oncoming headlights appearing out of a foggy night, genetics are indicators which don't tell the whole story. Heredity may lay out a path, but time and observation tell where it leads. Phil Markowski helped launch New England Brewing Company in 1989, and decades later did the same as the master brewer at Two Roads. In the last Froth I talked about how NEBCo's dandelion head was spreading seeds all over Connecticut - from new beers under their current brewer, to Counter Weight Brewing in Hamden from his predecessor, and a tip about the inaugural tapping of beers from Tribus in Milford, the newest offspring of the ancestor brewery. This week, for the first time anywhere, we'll take a look at Tribus and its beers to see where this is all headed.
You can't understate the importance of Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. in the history of Connecticut beer. However for a while they got lost in the shuffle. Then, with a beer called #NoFilter, they had a bit of resurgence within the Connecticut craft beer community. Ken Tuccio sits down with Jonas Griggs, the head brewer of Thomas Hooker Brewing, to talk about Hooker's spot in the CT beer scene, the importance of #NoFilter to the growth of the company and his plans for the brewery moving forward. Listen here.
We're taking Friday Froth on the road this week, and making the trip to New England Brewing Company in Woodbridge. You can practically hit NEBCo from the Merritt Parkway if you had a t-shirt cannon or severely misjudged your speed upon taking exit 59. You should do this (not overcooking the exit, I mean - and standing on the highway firing large projectiles is probably some sort of Nanny State "offense," come to think of it), but you should nonetheless take the drive because the beer at the end is, as anyone living in the state for more than three weeks can attest, quite good.
Have you ever looked down into the swirling foam at the top of a freshly poured beer and thought "that looks like a galaxy"? Ever had your mind blown by a Carl Sagan quote? Do you like New Haven pizz- OK, unless you're a CAPTCHA-bot, of course you do. The point is, whether you've watched the original Cosmos ten times, or you just wonder how far away the stars are, BAR in New Haven has re-started Astronomy On Tap, where beer, pizza, and cosmology come together.
Astronomy On Tap is a a global event series where professors, PhDs, and grad students talk about their areas of expertise at bars full of anyone who's interested, and it's free.
Ken Tuccio sits down with Johnny Kraszewski from Armada Brewing in this week's episode of Food & Drink, but the conversation isn't just about beer or the Connecticut beer scene. It's a conversation about marketing, promotion, the challenges associated with self-employment and more. Ken is also joined during the monologue by Patrick DiCaprio from the Full Pours Podcast and Ken gives Pat the rundown of his experience with cruise food last week. Have a listen here.
We are happy to share this exciting burrito news from Connecticut Magazine.
The opening-night crowd filed into the postcard-worthy red building that was once a railroad station but had just officially become Broken Symmetry Gastro Brewery. Eight-hundred pints of beer were poured as people thronged around tables, overflowing into the aisles and then outside onto a patio area.
Many, like me, were intrigued that a new brewery had opened in the Greater Danbury area. But that wasn’t the only reason we left work early and endured long lines and unintentional, mosh pit-like jostling.
Last summer Prime opened its doors in Stamford’s Harbor Point area. The stunning restaurant boasts exquisite views of the Long Island Sound and the Rippowam River. Removable tempered glass walls offer guests unparalleled views, thus making it a perfect dining destination no matter the season and an absolute must during the summertime. Inside the restaurant, the space’s elegant yet relaxed interior offers a New England-inspired decor reminiscent of Cape Cod and the Massachusetts islands.
Dining al fresco at Prime is an experience to remember. Their newly redesigned Cabana Bar is destined to be the “it” place to be this summer. In addition to the many events that will be held there this summer, the Cabana can be reserved for private functions, accommodating parties up to 50. The space itself has been updated with a custom bar from the Vermont islands of white solid core and backlit translucent white face panels integrate the bar with the rest of the décor - soft grays and blues.
Being a beer writer, as you'd expect, has its perks. For a few years one of these was being chosen to serve on a panel of expert judges at the Connecticut Blind Beer Awards, a competition between a dozen local beers which takes the popularity contest aspect out of the equation by serving each from unlabeled, color-coded taps. The event is held each year at the Blind Rhino in South Norwalk, and while brewery representatives are on hand in case their brewery wins one of the awards, they are sequestered away from public view in the bar's basement to bottle share, play beer pong, and perform impromptu interior decorating with some cans of spray paint they found, until the Experts Choice and People's Choice are handed out. I had no formal connection with the awards this year, attending instead as a civilian, and drank all twelve of the CT beers on tap. Here is how that went.
