The inaugural “Mansfield-Willi Restaurant Week ” is going down February 21 through March 6 celebrating the great and varied dining in the Mansfield Willimantic community with special prix-fixe menus and packages from participating restaurants—On February 23 & 24, don’t miss Chef Adam Greenberg on Food Network Guy’s Grocery Games “Food Network Champs” edition!—National Margarita Day is coming up on February 22nd, and to celebrate, the margarita experts at bartaco aren’t just limiting the fun to one day - they’re kicking off a whole month with Margarita March!—Stamford Winter Restaurant Weeks return February 21 – March 6, 2022.—Go shake it up at Wakeman Town Farm on March 3 @7 p.m., with their popular mixology class that is equal parts cocktail inspiration and fun.++
bartaco has brought back its crispy avocado taco as the newest #bartacosecret taco.—Sally’s Apizza is doing a Super Bowl package this year with pizza and wings!—Fig Cooking School has some great cooking classes coming up.—Bertucci’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta is excited to announce a partnership with celebrity chef, Christian Petroni—Hartford Baking Company is delighted to announce the return of their popular hot chocolate month for February—Sloshed just got a new definition. Join SONO1420 and Harbor Harvest in Norwalk on Friday, February 11th—Two Roads Brewing is getting ready for THE ULTIMATE TWOSDAY @ LITTLE PUB STRATFORD ++
Join Grass & Bones in Mystic on January 28th for a Dry Aged & Natural Wine Dinner. A six course dinner cooked by Chef James Wayman and his team—Oyster Club in Mystic is having a Happy Hour glow up! Every day, 4-5pm—Artisan is adding an extra incentive to start out 2022 on the right foot, with their NEW "5-6-7 Happy Hour" 3:30-6pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the Tavern—Clean Juice Simsbury opens Jan 22nd with USDA-certified organic juices—Join Wakeman Town Farm for a workshop about how to make your own Fire Cider, an old-school elixir that is having a moment—Ambler Farm is offering a fun Valentine's Tea for Two + Cookie Decorating Kit.Grab your Valentine's Party For Two Kit here.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year and with it comes plenty of wonderful eats! For your Christmas celebrating on the day or the eve, restaurants and caterers in all corners of the state have lovingly assembled delicious menus, kits and take out packages for you and your family. What a gift-spending time together, enjoying a beautiful meal and not being holed up in the kitchen. Wishing you all a very merry and delicious holiday!
Here are 50+ restaurants and caterers for your Christmas festivities.
Hindsight BBQ will be popping up at New England Brewing Co. this Saturday 12/11 from 12pm to 9pm. Join them for some great drinks and some of the best BBQ in CT.—Pastry chef Zac Young (creator of The PieCaken) opened Foxwoods own Sprinkletown Bakeshop pop-up open all holiday season long into President’s Day weekend.—Join Redding Roadhouse on Dec 15th for their second annual Winter Harvest dinner to celebrate their third growing season at Holbrook Farm with Farmers Ian Johnson and Katie Gallagher.—Spread some holiday cheer, sip, shop, and sample at SONO 1420 Distillery on Wednesday, Dec 15 from 4-7pm in their Tasting Room.
With Winter upon us, and CT residents itching for some warmth and sun, we asked our sister site MIABites.com for a little dining advice for all those heading to Florida this season. Here are some of MIAbites Contributors Best Bites for "am to pm" dining in and around Miami, Miami Beach, Wynwood and the Design District.
Obviously, all of the Miami Beach hotels have top restaurants and prices to match. Jose Andres The Bazaar and Katsuya at the SLS South Beach, Scarpetta, StripSteak and Pizza Burger by Michael Mina and Hakkasan at The Fontainebleau , Mr. Chow at The W South Beach, Pao by Paul Qui and Los Fuegos at Faena and Jean Georges, The Matador Room at the EDITION, the relocated NOBU in the Nobu Hotel Eden Roc, are all popular and top picks where chances are you will have a delicious albeit expensive meal. But if you’d like to dig deeper into the Mimi food scene, check out our guide by category…
Bring on the good food, the gratitude, and the tablecloth you use once a year-Thanksgiving is here! This holiday, thankfully, will be more about in-person celebrating than seeing how many Zoom family chats we can schedule between the appetizer course and the dessert course. Man, doesn’t it feel good to greet a holiday with thoughts of “looking forward to this!” rather than “how the heck are we going to do this?”. To that end, one of your biggest challenges this month will be which of these wonderful establishments to order your food from and you will win no matter who you choose. From turkeys and pies you can bake yourself so they are bubbly warm when you serve them, to vegan and gluten-free options and dine-in options across the state, bellies will be full and happy. You can even send a meal to a loved one or donate one to spread the love. Oh, and make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, where you will find places to order fresh turkeys. Eat up, celebrate well. Psst-We’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you that we are grateful for our fabulous readers. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Bruno. Joe Bruno. AKA Joe. Bold. Intense. Irreverent. Stubbornly set in his ways, yet with the naive audacity of a young teenager. Joe Bruno cares about one thing only: perfecting his art. A perfectionist in an imperfect world.
Everything else is just show, point of view, shock and awe. “I’m not a chef,” he once said to me, “but I know that I have to recreate a dish exactly as I made for you the first time.” Right? Exacting execution— that’s what we grew to expect and that’s what we were given, night after night after night.
He was 35 when he opened Pasta Nostra. It was never meant to be a restaurant. “I wanted to sell pasta. I made a few dishes to showcase my pasta and the next thing you know it’s a restaurant.”
Two Roads Brewing Company invites you to join us for our Annual Roadsmary’s Baby Pumpkin Fest on October 24, 2021 4:00 pm - 9:00 pm including an outdoor screening of Friday the 13th starting @ 7:30pm!—-Small State Great Beer Festival is October 30th. Sip on unlimited tastings from Connecticut’s top breweries. Vibe out to live music.—-New England Brewing Company hosts a Halloween Bash on October 29—-A fun adult cooking class in Wakeman Town Farm Sustainability Center's Tim's Kitchen with @Chef Diana Andrews of @Fine Cooking Magazine, teaching three basic sauces that can be used again + again—-Fairfield Restaurant Week is going down on October 25 - November 8.++
Who doesn’t love a wedding? Wait…what? Did you know that Oktoberfest got its start in 1810 as a celebration of the wedding of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen? (please try saying that last name after a stein of brew.) We can get onboard with any wedding celebration that involves giant pretzels, bratwurst for miles, and beer flowing like a Bavarian river. Another little factoid for you to thrill your beer-buddies with: the current Oktoberfest in Germany only serves beer from the original six breweries in Munich. Our list, lucky for you, is a tad longer. You can call that a win and not even have to fly anywhere. Oktoberfest, weddings, whatever you are celebrating-Raise those steins! Prost!
Enjoy these 25+ spots to celebrate OKTOBERFEST in Connecticut!
September 29th is National Coffee Day. Coffee addicts unite. Or those who just love a good cup o’ joe, stand up. Love learning about coffee and trying new varieties? Raise your hand (or mugs). Coffee is here! Connecticut is happily strewn North to South, East to West with roasters, cafes and lots of folks who know a whole lot about these little beans that captivate our attention. There are roasters who have subscription services, cafes with drink lists a mile long and honestly, many happy and caffeinated faces to go with each. You could spend all of next year jumping around the state and trying each one of these…hey, why not start now? And psst-if we have missed any places you love, please let us know in the comments section!
Chef Jeff Lizotte of Present Company will be cooking a five course menu on Thursday, October 7th at the Farmington Polo Grounds—-Parkville Market in West Hartford will be offering much more than just beer and bratwurst during their Oktoberfest celebration ——-The Hops Company invites you to their 6th Annual Oktoberfest on Sunday October 10th!—-Char & Lemon, an upscale pizza restaurant has just opened in Oxford, CT.—-Don’t miss the Beer Garden at the Farm, Sunday, Oct. 17, noon-4. Wakeman Town Farm, 134 Cross Hwy, Westport.—Join The Redding Roadhouse for their 3rd Annual Oktoberfest Friday October 8th at 8pm featuring Nod Hill Brewery and music by Hitch and the Giddyup.+++
314 Beer Garden is opening September 25th from 12p-6p. Drink specials all day long. This rustic outdoor beer garden is nestled on Village Creek in South Norwalk, and we hear it’s gonna be fun!—-Niantic Bay Oyster Festival is September 25.—-October 7th & 28th hop aboard the Naugatuck Railroad for a Litchfield Hills BBQ & Tequila Special train ride.—-The Brass City Brew and Que, September 25th, is one of the largest brew fests in New England, now in its 16th year includes an Amateur Pit Master BBQ competition along with barbeque-inspired food options available for purchase.—-On October 7th at 6pm, the remarkable documentary, A Fine Line, will be screened at The Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield. This feature-length documentary explores the role of women chefs in a changing industry, with a look into a single mom's 25-year journey as a restaurateur.++
Hundred Acre, one of the world's most sought after and highly regarded wine portfolios in Napa Valley to Washington Prime for a private wine pairing dinner on September 15th, 2021 @ 7:00PM——-
Seaside Rides and Good Time Vibes! The 43rd Annual Norwalk Oyster Festival is ON for 2021: September 10, 11 & 12. Sea Y'all There! Presented by First County Bank.——-
Celebrate the end of summer at Stamford Museum & Nature Center’s annual Knobloch Family Farmhouse Lobster & Clam Bake on September 30th! Enjoy a delightful feast with friends and family on the Fedele Family Farmhouse Plaza. This special supper supports the bedrock educational programming and operations of the SM&NC. $135 per person
If there is one thing that makes us long for summer all year long it is the ability to eat, play, explore, even sleep and just “be” outside. That carefree feeling of stepping outdoors without the boots and the hats and the puffy coats. Grab your flip-flops, maybe a bit of sunscreen and off we go! Ah, the carefreeness of it! And eating outside? How can it be that a bit of sun and air will elevate even the simplest food? A hot dog never tastes better around a campfire or at a ballgame. A bag of chips at the beach with a sandwich? Perfection. So, to that end, we have compiled a list of GREAT WATERFRONT DINING spots-some of which have indoor dining with fabulous views and many perch you outside on beautiful, expansive decks or docks to enjoy their dishes. If a simple hot dog tastes great outside, these venues will have you giddy.
GET READY! It’s almost time for two huge weekends of food and music at the Hey Stamford Food Festival with 100 hand-picked food vendors, ✅ Live music with NELLY, ✅ Ice Cream Sunday, ✅ The Blind Rhino Happy, Parma-palooza with Chef Christian Petroni and so much more. August 12-15th and Aug 19-22. Get your tickets here!
Looking for a unique venue to reconnect with friends and family this summer? Foxwoods has you covered with a first-of-its-kind outdoor experience of indulgent food, craft cocktails and live music in a garden fantasy setting.
Chef Chrissy Tracey hosts a Food Pop-Up SATURDAY, AUGUST 14 AT 5:30 PM. Chrissy Tracey, a featured vegan chef on Bon Appetit Magazine, will be offering delicious vegan entrées which pair beautifully with our craft beer.
It is doubtful that, when mentioning summer eats, lobster anything wouldn’t be in the Top 3 list of foods that folks love, drive miles for, yearn for during the winter months and spiritedly debate (hot? cold? with mayo? just butter?). Well, summer is here, time to strap on that bib, lick those buttery fingers and well, get crackin’. From piled-high lobster rolls and creamy bisques, to hot fried clams and fluffy fritters, seafood rules the roost when temps rise and those ocean breezes soothe the soul. Whether you are searching for a lunch by the water or hosting a party for friends (weee! finally!), these venues will add some buttery fun to your summer days. Bon appetit! Here, let me tie that bib for you….
Sitting on a bench, licking a drippy ice cream cone on a warm summer day or a balmy evening can be, well…sublime. The skies are clear, the sun or moon is hanging in the sky-all is right with the world and these are a few moments to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. And creamy rich ice cream or scoop of blissful gelato is one of those pleasures, indeed. Honestly, unless you have dropped that cone (bloop, splat! *tears*), when have you ever gone for ice cream and left unhappy? Cream, fruits, swirls of caramel, bits of chocolate chips, a nut here and there-nothing can beat it. Take a few moments this summer to enjoy those simple things, like a cone with a friend or even by yourself. Here’s a list to point the way…
Enjoy these 75+ Spots for Ice Cream, Gelato and Frozen Desserts in CT.
Gotham Burger Social Club teams up with Winfield Street Coffee for a POP UP to remember on July 11th 12-4pm ( Rain Date - July 10th 12-4pm.) This collaboration will include the award winning Gotham Smash Burger paired with Aperol Spritzers, Pasta Salad, Artisan Tater Tots & Nutella Stuffed Cookies as add ons. Local vendors like Longford’s Ice Cream will be scooping their small batch, along with Living Juice spiked with Cylinder Vodka and RowHouse Stamford will be show casing what they offer on their Rowers. Note: this will be a pre order event all info on Instagram : @gothamburgersocialclub.
RHK Seafood Boil and Bar, located at 19 North Water Street in the heart of SoNo across the street from the Maritime Aquarium, is launching a new Wednesday “Aperitif Hour.” Beginning Wednesday, June 30, the weekly special will run from 4-8pm. For $23.99, guests can select one beverage (choice of house red or white wine, beer, Negroni, Old Fashioned, Campari Spritz or Aperol Spritz), and following in the European tradition, receive a rotating selection of “Chef’s Choice” small bites.
Join Washington Prime Sono for their 7th Anniversary Yacht Party on Thursday, July 22nd. They set sail at 9:00PM with DJ Norbs 3000 spinning and kicking off the beats. The Patio Deck will have a Tiki Tequila Bar sponsored by Olmeca Altos 100% Agave Tequila! We also have High Noon Seltzers in the house all night long!! No Cover Charge. Dress to Impress. All White or Hawaiian Style. This Event is a 21 and Over Event Only.
Did ya know?? You can buy straight off the boat local oysters, clams and lobsters from The Oysterman’s Daughter, a small ‘hidden’ shop located at the boatyard where Copps Island oysters are harvested and distributed nationwide. It was created with the intention of providing fresh shellfish straight off the boats to the consumer from the folks at Copps Island Oysters. It is a lifestyle shop selling an assortment of different products unique to boaters and beach lovers alike.
Rosé all day! Royal Rosé is back at Foxwoods on June 13 – spend a day in a world of wines! Featuring unique rosé wine, vodka, champagne and other libations, delicious gourmet bites and eye-catching, Instagram-worthy displays, Royal Rosé is the perfect event for a girls’ day out, a daycation getaway with your loved one, or an afternoon with mom! Tickets are $45 and available for two time slots: 12-3pm or 4-7pm.
Lake Compounce Amusement Park hosts the “Bites and Pints Food & Drink Festival” – taking place every Saturday and Sunday in June. They partnered with local chefs and owners of The Art of Yum to create an elevated menu for the festival with samplings including the award-winning TAOY Taco, Vegan Nachos, Chicken and Waffles, Caramel Banana Pound Cake, local craft beer, and more. Grab a Bite Card and sample EVERYTHING!! Ticket info here.
Saltwater Grille CT is hosting a Cigar Dinner on their Patio Wednesday, June 16th at 7PM. RSVP ASAP as we have limited seating on the patio and porch. The dinner will feature their new summer menu. Bring your own sticks or try from Litchfield Distillery's selection of private label cigars. Litchfield Distillery will be bringing their good spirits and great smokes! RSVP online at www.saltwater-grille.com or by calling 860-567-4900
Ordinary Bar New Haven is doing a TWIN PEAKS themed menu and decor through September, including breakfast for dinner on Wednesday nights. Don’t miss this.
Citizen Chicken & Donuts has a special Pride Chicken Sandwich to benefit Out CT for the month of June. Check it out!
