Yalla Organic Hummus and Grill has taken Fairfield County by storm. Yalla Organic is a consumer-oriented experience where you get to choose exactly how your lunch and dinner is prepared down to the last detail. This family-run business has quickly become a town staple of Fairfield… and their hummus is making me question all previous hummus choices I have made.
The eight of you who read my work know about my passion for all things Italian: the espresso, the wine, the men (hmm, sore subject), the music (1990s Zucchero anyone?), but, when you have good, really good Italian food, it can truly be a spiritual experience.
And that just happened. At Strega in Branford. Owner and pizzaiolo Danilo Mongillo alongside his Chef Marco Giugliano have broken ground, dug their hands in, and come out with gold. Mongillo, from Puglianello in the Benevento region of Italy, has been in Connecticut since 2014 and says he’s been so thankful for the Branford community for how welcoming they’ve been since the restaurant opened in 2016.
When was the last time you thought about where each element of your dinner came from? The plates, the table, the meat, the cups; each item seems to come from an arbitrary supermarket, creating a culture where the process of making and eating food is incredibly solidarity. That, in a nutshell, is why Dan Sabia left the restaurant industry. And now, he’s using his work with wood, fire, and food to change that norm in a world where very few are trying. Chef Dan Sabia is changing the way we think about private catering with his innovative new business, Wood Fire Food.
Max Chef to Farm, an award-winning group of events that celebrate the amazing food grown in our backyard, is heading into their 12th year. Guests are transported directly to the farm to experience seasonal and local food. Their dinners are multi-course feasts showcasing the delicious bounty of Connecticut-grown produce and other locally-sourced ingredients prepared on site by Chef Steve Michalewicz of Max Catering & Events, Chef Hunter Morton, Culinary Director of the Max Restaurant Group, and the entire Max Chef to Farm team.
Max Chef to Farm dinners are adventurous events that celebrate and support CT-grown products. Their host farm for most events this season is the 160-acre Rosedale Farms, located in Simsbury, CT. They have many things in common with the Max Restaurant Group including a commitment to using sustainable farming and business practices. Speaking of support...
Brewery Legitimus, the 7 barrel craft brewery co-founded by husband and wife team Chris and Christina Sayer, is partnering once again withBarden Farm (New Hartford, CT), to bring a Community Supported Agriculture, Beer & Cheese (CSABC) Share to the community. Back for a second year in a row, the 10-week “Farm, Beer and Cheese Share” begins July 11th and will run until September 12th.
The first in the area, the CSABC share brings together locally grown produce from Barden Farm, locally crafted beer by Brewery Legitimus, and locally made cheese from several different farms in CT.
A CSABC share membership is $485 for the 10 Weeks and includes Craft Beer from Brewery Legitimus, Cheese and of course a Farm Share from Barden Farm. It works just like a CSA. Here’s what’s included:
Zaragoza’s tapas bar opened in New Milford in April 2016. The CTBites crew covered them a few months before their official opening and shared owner Artie Praino’s anticipation of a long-time dream come true after years in the deli business. Now, two and a half years later, they are a much beloved, popular spot for delicious, creative plates and cocktails.
Fully informed by several Zaragoza regulars that I was sure to be delighted, my belly gurgled for a new tapas experience. I’ve had the pleasure of going to Spain a few times, so, admittedly, morsels from those adventures like ceviche, calamari, and chorizo propelled me to the restaurant with little hesitation. I was eager to taste what their twist on the classics would be.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this charming eatery in the heart of Ridgefield, Bailey’s Backyard first opened its doors nearly 20 years ago as a neighborhood coffee shop before transforming itself into a charming American restaurant with a simple concept; offer exceptional seasonal cuisine in a cozy, relaxed atmosphere. It would soon become a neighborhood hot spot, offering locals a new dining experience. Several years ago Bailey’s evolved once again and the restaurant is now a farm-to-table establishment with a mission to create a menu based on the freshest local sources. Today meat and produce are still gathered from nearby farms, both in New York and Connecticut, and Seafood is garnered from Connecticut, Massachusetts and the Chesapeake Bay.
I was recently invited to sample Bailey’s new Market Table Tasting Menu offered every Wednesday night. A new menu is introduced each week, giving diners the opportunity to try something new each time. The menu is Prix Fixe, $40 for four courses or $65 for the four courses and a wine pairing.
Middle Eastern restaurants, long a welcome presence in Connecticut, lately seem to be multiplying. One of the most intriguing is Bab al Salam, which is located in an Orange plaza owned by the New Haven Islamic Center, which also hosts the Orange Farmers’ Market, a Muslim clothing store, a Middle Eastern market with halal butcher, and meeting spaces for events.
Bab al Salam opened in the middle of January. Owners Adnan Akil, a restaurant builder, and Suloman Chater, a restaurateur, both of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades, sought to replicate the food one might find in metropolises like Aleppo or Damascus in their homeland. They seem to have found a grateful audience in Orange.
This August, The Hummus & Pita Co. will bring its healthy, fast-casual Mediterranean cuisine to Connecticut in a comfortable and inviting environment, at its newest location in Brookfield, Connecticut. This opening marks the first Hummus & Pita Co. restaurant to open outside of New York City.
What we love about The Hummus & Pita Co. is that all menu items are made-from-scratch on the premises, including freshly baked pita and laffa breads, and traditional-style meats cooked in a taboon oven.
But what REALLY sets them apart from your local Mediterranean haunt, are the signature hummus desserts offering such as the Dessert Hummus and the recently launched Hummus Shake. Yep, you heard me.
On Thursday, June 14th, Chef Geoff Lazlo of Geoff Lazlo Food, in Greenwich, CT will be cooking at the prestigious James Beard House in NYC. The evening's menu will feature Connecticut farms, and is aptly titled "Connecticut Farm Feast." Check out the menu below. and reserve your seat here.
Connecticut Magazine’s Best Chef of 2018 Geoff Lazlo earned his fine dining chops with stints at Gramercy Tavern, Chez Panisse, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and the Mill Street Restaurant Group before venturing out to create his own company. Sample the cream of Connecticut’s farm-to-table crop with a sumptuous, organic spring harvest, fresh picked from his lovingly tended plots at Greenwich Community Gardens.
What do you get when you mix cooking traditions of both the Italian and French? The best of both worlds at ROÌA Restaurant in New Haven. It’s a culinary combo that doesn’t require you to renew your passport.
Located in the former Taft Hotel that dates back to 1912, ROÌA Restaurant and Cafe has historical charm. Step inside and you’ll see what we mean with its two-floor open design with ornate ceilings and impressive columns. The building is truly an architect’s dream. But you don’t have to be a designer to appreciate all that ROÌA has to offer. You just have to be hungry.
Robert Atkinson is impatient with Mother Nature. The 12 vegetable beds beneath the patio of the Barcelona Wine Bar & Restaurant in Fairfield are awaiting the seeds for their sixth year of providing homegrown ingredients to the Fairfield restaurant’s kitchen, but the New England weather has not been cooperating.
This will be the sixth year of Barcelona’s vegetable garden, which offers patrons the opportunity to select ingredients for preparation by the restaurant’s kitchen staff. “I always like to tell people it’s better than farm-to-table,” continued Atkinson. “It is garden-to-table, and there is no transportation because the farmers aren’t even driving it over.”
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 have waited patiently, and the time has come. We reported back in April that the family run Layla's Falafel, cooking up some of the best take out Middle Eastern food in CT, was scheduled to open in Westport. The time is NOW. This Monday, October 30th, Layla's will open its doors at 1537 Post Road East.
The Hummus & Pita Co., known for its homemade, fresh and healthy Mediterranean cuisine, has signed a new franchisee, Rishi Parikh, to open a location in Danbury, Connecticut. The newest store will be located at 15 Federal Road in Brookfield.
The rapidly growing Mediterranean fast-casual concept brings guilt-free, homemade cuisine to the masses in a comfortable and inviting environment. All menu items are made from scratch on the premises and use only the freshest ingredients to create high-quality, flavor-focused eats. The concept stands out with its freshly baked pita and laffa breads, vegetarian dishes and meats cooked in a traditional taboon oven.
“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.
The Muñoz del Castillo family has done it again and opened a winner in Westport, Bistro Du Soleil. You may recognize the name from their Norwalk location (which sadly closed), their prior catering business, as well as one of our favorite Mexican spots, Rincon in Norwalk. This same family has opened a tiny gem by the Saugatuck train station, serving Mediterranean cuisine with strong classic French undertones. From the escargot and Gambas Al Ajlllo to the Magret Duck Breast and gorgeous Beef Bourgignon, this BYOB venue is not to be missed. Bistro Du Soleil and the Muñoz family truly understand the art of both hospitality and simply delicious food.
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”?
