Filtering by Tag: Grocery Store,Tapas

BD Provisions: Gourmet Bulk Food Shopping That’s Really "Out of the Box"

Features Ingredients Shopping Specialty Market Grocery Store Newtown Ingredients Coffee

Jessica Ryan

Bulk shopping isn’t exactly a new concept – we’ve been filling the trunks of our cars and SUVs with oversized products from those mammoth box stores for years. But bulk shopping that’s zero waste is something we don’t often see. BD Provisions, in Newtown, takes this familiar concept and gives it a breath of fresh air with a new, environmentally friendly spin. 

Less is more, especially here. Less waste means more product which means greater savings and more fun, but you really need to head over to experience it yourself. 

At BD Provisions you’ll find 270 carefully curated products sold by the pound in massive sustainable containers. Products range from dehydrated and powdered superfoods. You won’t want to pass by the creative, flavored rice, quinoa and soup blends that will enhance any weeknight dinner. Of course there are plenty of healthy snack options from the most beautifully colored wasabi coated soybeans, beautiful and delicious dried, crunchy beets, spicy chick peas, a wide selection of nuts both raw and flavored. Gorgeous beans and pastas. Beautiful aromatic spices, a generous selection of the most beautiful tea blends. 


At Gaudí Tapas and Wine, Dreams Come True via CT Magazine

Restaurant Spanish Tapas Openings

Connecticut Magazine

Connecticut Magazine recently sited Gaudi Tapas and Wine as one of their favorite restaurants for 2018. We thought you should take a look…and taste.

Saray Ruiz saw something in the little house-like building off Route 37. The one with the small parking lot and everyday architecture. The one others drove by thousands of times without a second glance.

I’m going to open a restaurant there one day, she’d tell her twin sister, Noemi Ruiz, and anyone else who would listen to her dream. “It’s not going to happen,” Noemi would say.

At the time, a few years back, the spot was home to a Mexican restaurant. Saray had a feeling that would change and thought the cozy spot could host a restaurant inspired by her childhood in Lleida, a small town in the Catalonia region of Spain, within driving distance of Barcelona. This past fall, when she and her once-skeptical twin opened Gaudí Tapas and Wine, her dream became a reality.

And what a dream it is.


Zaragoza Tapas Bar: Excellent Tapas & Award Winning Cocktails in New Milford

Restaurant Milford Tapas Lunch Spanish Mediterranean Homepage

Kristin L. Wolfe

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.


190 Main Bar & Restaurant: New Tapas Eatery Opening in Westport

Restaurant Openings Westport Tapas Bar

CTbites Team

New bar & restaurant opening in Westport as reported by WestportNow. 

A new bar and restaurant, 190 Main, opens Dec. 15 at 190 Main St., according to Melissa Gorman, co-owner with Sam Alang. Gorman said the eatery offers small plates and tapas featuring seafood specialties. Gorman is a Weston resident who grew up in Savannah, Georgia where she previously managed several restaurants. The 190 Main Street space was previously occupied by the Vine Wine Room that closed in July and the the Luxe Wine Bar, which closed in April 2016. The restaurant offers lunch Thursday through Sunday and dinner every day, according to Gorman. 


Bar Lupa in Westport Brings Italian Twist on Tapas

Restaurant Italian Westport Openings Lunch Tapas Spanish

CTbites Team

 In Italian, stuzzichino means a snack, or appetizer, or nibble. Assaggio, similarly, means a small amount of food or drink.

From Italian to Spanish, both translate roughly to tapas, an Iberian food culture that pairs small servings of food with drink in a laid-back setting.

It’s the kind of cuisine and vibe that Massimo Tabbacco and Miguel Angelo D’Onofrio, co-owners of the recently opened Bar Lupa, want to achieve at their redesigned space on the Post Road in Westport.

“It’s little portions, so you can taste a variety of things,” Tabbacco said. “It’s basically the same thing as Spanish tapas. But here in America, they know the word tapas more than stuzzichino.”

To avoid confusion, the items are listed on the menu as “Italian tapas,” but the dishes are inspired by Tabbacco’s and D’Onofrio’s respective upbringings — in Rome and Sao Paolo, Brazil, which has a large Italian population — and shared experience working in Italian restaurants throughout Fairfield County, as well as New York City.

Read the complete article on Westport News.


Barcelona Wine Bar Opens in Waypointe Norwalk

Restaurant Cocktails Norwalk Openings Spanish Tapas Wine Bar Bar Lunch

Stephanie Webster

After 20 years as a Sono institution, Barcelona Wine Bar has moved up the street and officially opened its doors in Norwalk’s new Waypointe complex. Their new home looks and feels much like the creative dining spaces guests have come to expect from Barcelona’s five CT locations, but as SVP Adam Halberg says “ Waypointe will feel familiar, but there are some key areas that make this new location quite unique.” The open kitchen, massive 40 seat bar, and a new menu approach will take their authentic and distinctive Spanish tapas menu even closer to the markets and restaurants of Spain. 

Taberna Mediterranean Tapas and Wine Bar in Fairfield's Brick Walk

Restaurant Fairfield Italian Mediterranean Spanish Tapas

Jessica Ryan

I have an affinity for those underexplored sweet spots that are slightly off the beaten path, tucked away, or unheard of. For whatever reason, Taberna, a Mediterranean tapas and wine bar located in the Brick Walk in downtown Fairfield hasn’t been widely discovered. Although I hadn’t heard of it many have, and those who have sing its praises.

Some of you might be familiar with the name, thinking it’s not in Fairfield, it’s in Bridgeport! And you would be correct, sort of... Prior to opening the Fairfield location, Chef Daniel Lopez and his brother Jaime owned and operated the Bridgeport restaurant for 8 years. Upon hearing that it was closing, longtime diners were happy to follow to the new larger venue with light-filled dining area, large bar and outdoor patio.

I was able to sit down and chat with Chef Lopez who was born and raised in Ecuador who revealed to me that he had been enamored with the flavors and cuisines of the Mediterranean since he was a child. In 1994 he and his brother emigrated to the states and immediately began working in the restaurant industry - for many well-known Fairfield County favorites.


Mezón Tapas Bar and Restaurant in Danbury – From the Heart, From the Home

Restaurant Caribbean Danbury Tapas Latin American

Lou Gorfain

Even though it’s one of the largest cities in Connecticut, Danbury was once regarded as a restaurant wasteland. The downtown eateries catered to a family demographic who sought a reasonably priced menu that took few culinary chances.   Very mid-century. However, in the past few years, a vibrant international food scene has burgeoned on the city’s west side.   The cuisines are sophisticated, diverse, and creative, reflective of 21st Century dining.

Many credit Richard Reyes’s Mezón Tapas Bar and Restaurant with transforming Mill Plain Road into destination dining. The year was 2011.  Reyes was then a former Wall Street Executive who decided to come home to Connecticut and open a restaurant where people could dine on food prepared in the Latin tradition of his family. From the heart. From the home. Richard was all of 25 … and Mezón posed far more of a risk than even the stock market. At the time, Mill Plain Road was dotted with a string of mostly red-sauce Italian/American restaurants. “Sure, we were taking a chance,” he recently told us, “But we helped break the mold.”   

Rich invited CTbites to sample some of the Latin and Caribbean fare that has attracted Mezón’s diverse and discerning clientele from across the region. Though the Paella and the Churrasco are the most popular dishes on the menu, Reyes had other ideas for our feast.


New Tapas Restaurant ZARAGOZA Coming to New Milford

Restaurant Milford Tapas

CTbites Team

 

Zaragoza, a new tapas and craft cocktail bar, is scheduled to open at 31 Bank Street in New Milford in the spring of 2016. Zaragoza represents the next adventure by Newtown resident Artie Praino, who previously owned the Newtown Deli, Sandy Hook Deli, Sideline Café, Woodbury Deli, and Bayside (NY) Salumeria.

Praino is following his passion for Spanish cuisine combined with small bites to be shared with friends and family. “Tapas are simple, but hearty and unpretentious food. Our ingredients and recipes will be fresh and robust, beautiful to look at, and mouthwatering to eat. Tapas to me means friends and family enjoying food and flavors on shared small plates -- a warm and familial dining experience.”

 


Lugano Wine Bar & Salumeria Opens in Greenwich

Restaurant Greenwich Italian Salumeria Tapas Wine Bar Bar

Emma Jane-Doody Stetson

Going out for a meal can be an incredibly rewarding experience.  There is a reason restaurants are a popular spot for a night out and a number of people proudly refer to themselves as “foodies.”  However, it can also be a downright chore.  Do I brave the downtown traffic?  Where do I park my car?  How do I get there?  Will there be a table for me?

Lugano Wine Bar and Salumeria, newly opened in Greenwich, alleviates all of those hassles. The Italian inspired restaurant sits just off of exit 6 from I-95 on East Putnam Avenue in Riverside, far removed from the droves of people downtown.  It has its own lot next to the restaurant for easy parking as well as a valet service.

Indoors, the space is approachable, yet impressive.  When you walk through the front doors, you enter a spacious bar with plenty of seating and room to stand and mingle.  Wine glasses elegantly line the bar’s counter, as if inviting patrons in for a drink.

Just off of the bar to the right is a large dining room with high ceilings and a dome that serves as a skylight.  It is light and open, lined with large windows. Lugano even boasts a private dining room for special functions, or for guests who prefer a quiet dining experience.

The lovely space was the impetus for the restaurant.


Olea in New Haven Delivers Extraordinary Spanish Dining

Restaurant Spanish Tapas New Haven

Connecticut Magazine

Olea's condomiz / Photo: Jen Kaufman, Connecticut Magazine

Many in the New Haven area mourned the closing of Ibiza last spring. The restaurant has been reimagined by former Ibiza chef Manual Romero who is now the owner and chef, reviving this modern Spanish tapas mecca for the city once again.

Our friends at Connecticut Magazine recently visited, giving it an excellent rating, and here's why:

When Ibiza in New Haven closed last spring, Connecticut lost a culinary treasure. Located on High Street, steps away from two famous art museums, it was itself a work of art, showcasing the best of modern Spanish cuisine in the state and on the East Coast. Busy, buzzy, frequently bustling, with a mile-long list of intriguing tapas and a devoutly loyal customer base, it vanished suddenly, as if it had never been. Rumors flew. Diners mourned. But within six months, the spirit of Ibiza rose like a phoenix in the same location but in a glamorous new guise, re-imagined and rechristened, Olea.


Vinted Wine Bar and Kitchen in West Hartford

Restaurant American Tapas West Hartford Wine Bar

Emily Cahill

Vinted Wine Bar and Kitchen

Cuisine: American, Tapas, Wine Bar, West Hartford
Price: Small plates range $3.95 - $17.95
Our Highlights: wine, charcuterie, tapas
Hours: Kitchen open Mon – Wed 4-10pm, Thurs: 4-11pm, Fri-Sat: 4-12pm (Bar open late Mon-Sat) Sun: Kitchen & Bar 4-9pm
Online: Official Website | Facebook

 Small plates reach new heights at Vinted Wine Bar and Kitchen, where food is anything but secondary. Add 68 wines by the glass and you’re well on your way to finding that perfect pairing. Sister restaurant to The Federal in Agawam, Vinted burst onto the West Hartford dining scene in late 2012 when owners Ralph Santaniello and Michael Presnal launched their newest venture in Blueback Square. A classy vibe, inventive array of modern American tapas, and encyclopedic wine list leaves little, if anything, to be desired.  


Picador Opens in New Canaan: Tapas

Restaurant French Greek Spanish Tapas New Canaan

Jeff "jfood" Schlesinger

The culinary landscape of New Canaan now includes the vibrant cuisine of the Iberian Peninsula with the opening of Picador, the second restaurant of owner Alan Basaran. Located on Elm Street in the space formerly occupied by Harvest Supper, the interior’s décor offers a warm and inviting environment as backdrop to the region’s vibrant cuisine. Copper-topped tables and a wrap-around leather-covered banquette fill the entire back and side walls with additional copper-topped tables with dark leather chairs occupying the remainder of the space. The walls are adorned with plates, mirrors and sconces; reminiscent of the region.