The iconic New Haven pizza spot, Sally’s Apizza is getting ready to open the doors at their NEW LOCATION IN FAIRFIELD next month!!!! This will be their third location in Connecticut, the 2nd of which opened last year in Stamford.
The restaurant will be located in the Trademark building at 665 Commerce Drive, in the space formerly occupied by Barbacoa Smoke House
On the heels of a slick renovation at their Rye, NY location, The Granola Bar founders, Julie Mountain and Dana Noorily are at it again. This time, however, their focus is in Westport. No, not at their flagship of TGB, but in the Compo Beach area at Old Mill Grocery & Deli.
Old Mill, though, is a very different venture for this dynamic duo. But before Mountain and Noorily could put their magic touch on this neighborhood gem, a lot had to happen.
First, the building that was built in 1919—which had been many iterations of Old Mill and a few Elvira’s in an over 100 year span—needed to be saved after the owners up to last year, Betsy and Hal Kravitz, moved out of Westport, putting a longtime neighborhood favorite at risk of being purchased and demolished for what likely would have been another beach area home.
Well, Connecticut. Your gal Emily Mingrone did it again. The one so rightly deemed our latest Chef of the Year has now brought you seaside with Fair Haven Oyster Company along the Quinnipiac River. She gives us cozy date nights with Tavern on State; she brings us into the kitchen with Provisions on State, and is now taking us to the water.
Barely two weeks old, her latest venture with business partner and libation genius Shane McGowan is satisfying CT gourmands just in time for summer and for that much-longed-for taste of fresh seafood and just-plucked-from-the-garden veggies.
Many might be surprised to know, but the idea for Fair Haven was brewing well before her award-winning spot Tavern on State came to be. “I’ve been in Connecticut my whole life,” says Mingrone, “so summer lobster rolls, steamers and oysters are something I look forward to every year. [Even though] seafood spots dot the shoreline, there’s really nowhere in New Haven like Fair Haven. With its small, “stop in and enjoy” atmosphere, there’s nothing grandiose or overwhelming about the location or the menu (let alone dear Chef Mingrone, tbh) “I always had this idea in the back of my mind, to create an elevated New England seafood experience.”
If you’ve been by Brown’s Marina lately to cast your line in the water or to take a sunset stroll, you may have noticed a super-sized food truck parked just to the left and construction on what’s soon to be a retail store.
These upgrades are courtesy of the Bloom Family, a name synonymous with oysters, specifically Copps Island Oysters. According to food consultant Matt Storch—who you should know from his acclaimed Match Restaurant in South Norwalk—the Blooms purchased Brown’s Marina a few years ago from its original owners. “They spruced it up and made it a working oyster and clam dock and are in the process of turning the building into a Copps Island retail store (similar to the one in Norwalk),” he says. “They wanted to activate the beautiful space on the water because there could be more waterside dining here with exceptional, but simple food.”
One fish, two fish, red fish…lobster. And seafood in all its forms. Oh yeah, baby! Get the bibs, the frosty beers and get crackin’, shuckin’ and lovin’. Nothing signals the start of summer quite like eating by the water while the sunshine sparkles on the waves. Picture, if you will, your teeth sinking into a lobster roll dripping with drawn butter, or wistfully dragging fresh steamers through (more) butter or popping hot-out-the-fryer clam strips and fritters into your mouth. Whether dining on land or by sea, seafood rules the roost this season. These simple summer pleasures make time stand still for a few blissful moments. Summer is here, and food is easy.
Enjoy our guide to over 40 summertime—or anytime—spots to get buttery lobster, chow down at a clambake, and sit and eat at a seafood shack!
So much has changed since we last covered Swyft’s modern tavern concept located on Kent’s main drag.
Like most restaurants, Swyft had to deal with pandemic restrictions. But unlike most restaurants, they had to get up off the mat three more times. Lauded chef and partner Joel Viehland parted ways with Swyft around the time COVID shutdowns hit Connecticut.
Mere weeks after Viehland’s exit, Swyft’s owner, philanthropist Anne Bass, sadly passed away on April 1, 2020, after a battle with ovarian cancer.
And if that wasn’t enough, dynamo pastry chef Anthony D’Amelio went off to pursue other goals sometime last year.
We know, that’s a lot to take in.
According to Allison Mitchell—who’s essentially Swyft’s Swiss Army Knife as she handles social media, does photography, coordinates events, waits tables, bartends, and somehow fits in marketing duties—Swyft went through a “huge overhaul.”
When you hear that a legendary hometown restaurant is ending its run after almost 40 years, a flood of memories tend to hit you. Suddenly, I was a kid again, sitting on a barstool next to my father. He’d chug away at a Heineken while I sipped on bubbly cola straight from the soda gun. Thin-ish, crispy crust bar pizzas—likely extra cheese, pepperoni, or both—were involved, too.
Even as an adult, I’d occasionally grab a couple pies from Partner’s Cafe & Pizzeria to-go. Every time I drove by, I’d think about pizza, soda, my dad, and feeling pretty damn cool sitting at the bar.
Thankfully, for me, and I’m sure for a hell of a lot of Norwalkers, Partner’s gets to live on thanks to B.J. Lawless and Keith Torpey, under a new name, but with intentions to preserve the bar’s neighborhood “where everybody knows your name” charm.
“If this is good, people might throw bricks through the window. It would be a badge of honor.”
The “this” that Brian Lance is referring to is the twice weekly pizza pop-up that goes down on Thursday and Friday at Atticus Market in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood.
Lance—who serves as Atticus’ bakery manager—knows that taking on pizza in New Haven could be viewed as crazy, but he, along with chef Matthew Wick and their staff have created something that’s both current and pays tribute to the city’s pizza style.
They also know if they were going to tackle pizza, they needed a stellar dough recipe.
Emily Mingrone (recent winner for "Chef of the Year" at CT Restaurant Association’s Crazies Awards, and her partner, Shane McGowan, are expanding their presence in the New Haven area with a new spot opening this April, Fair Haven Oyster Co. Co-owners of Tavern on State, as well as the nose-to-tail butchery, Provisions on State, in the East Rock neighborhood, they are poised for a trifecta with this new seafood focused oyster bar on the waterfront of the Fair Haven Marina, a beautiful old water town dating from the late 1700’s.
As if Carlos Baez wasn’t slammed enough as a partner and executive chef of The Spread and two El Segundo restaurants, he has added another gig to the mix as a pizzaiolo.
Located at the East Norwalk train station in a lower level of the new Brim & Crown apartments is Magic Five Pie Co., a name that stands for the five owners including Baez, Chris Hickey, Christopher Rasile, Andrey Cortes, and Shawn Longyear.
But from New American at The Spread and global street food at El Segundo, to pizza?
Baez simply wanted to challenge himself to not only to learn to make something different, but he also wanted to make his favorite food. “Pizza is my favorite thing to eat,” he says. “If I knew a meal was going to be my last, it would be a good pie.”
We continue our holiday recipe tour with Chef Emily Mingrone of Tavern On State. She shares a Christmas holiday classic that is near and dear to her, but truly can be made any time of the year littlenecks are available. Enjoy Chef Mingrone’s recipe for Stewed Clams with Fregola. If you make this at home, send us a photo!
Sometimes where you live is just where you sleep. Maybe the area has a bit of feel, or maybe some real estate conglomerate slapped it together like processed-cheese-food, named it The Crossing At The Shops At The Superfund Site, and well, at least the commute is short and everyone can understand the urge to show I-95 your personal taillights.
In Connecticut’s old – let's be kind and call them historic – cities, there are still to be found that most nostalgic living situation: The Actual Neighborhood. New Haven’s East Rock is one of the latter, and lately, what’s old is new again.
East Rock Market opened this November in a space which rubs shoulders with East Rock Brewing Company, and close enough to the in-building gym to borrow a neighborly cup of protein powder. By Thanksgiving of 2021, the Market’s large, bright space housed five concepts: RAW Bowls & Juice, Panciale pasta and pizza, Nicoll Street Gelato, Rick’s Bar, and Rockfish sushi. Developer Rishi Narang has named the former WWI-era Marlin Arms factory East Rock Center, and market, brewery, and gym are all contained within the massive footprint in a sort of indulgence/repentance love triangle.
This holiday season, CTbites is teaming up with three local pizzerias to benefit the Norwalk-based Filling in the Blanks. All YOU have to do to fight childhood hunger is order the specialty pies created by Letizia’s Pizza, Dave’s Planet Pizza, and Parlor Pizza, and a significant portion of the $$ goes directly to help feed children in our community this December.
Additionally, CTbites will match the donations gathered from the combined pizza sales. And for our readers…if you post a creative pic on Instagram, tag the restaurant you bought it from and Filling in the Blanks, and the hashtag #pizzaforgood, we’ll pick our favorite and send you a gift card from that establishment.
Founded in 2013 by mothers and community activists Shawnee Knight and Tina Kramer, Filling in the Blanks is a nonprofit that provides weekend meals to children and teenagers that come from food insecure households in Fairfield County and into Bedford Hills and Mount Kisco.
Filling in the Blanks now distributes meals in 80 schools year-round for youths who are eligible for the free or reduced lunch program and also to the A.L.I.C.E. Population.
From NOW through January 1, 2022, Letizia’s Pizza, Dave’s Planet Pizza, and Parlor (in Darien and Wilton) are offering specialty pizza creations to lend a hand to Filling in the Blanks’ mission.
Here’s what each spot is offering:
Let’s just get right to it.
The legendary Sally’s Apizza expanding outside of Wooster Street is a pretty big freaking deal.
Yeah, yeah. We know. You like (INSERT YOUR FAVORITE NEW HAVEN PIZZA JOINT HERE) better. Or you’ll have a snarky comment to leave that’s along the lines of “Sally’s New Haven is better!” or “I’m done because they sold out!”
Don’t care.
We don’t even need to dive into the history of Sally’s. Chances are you probably know it already anyway.
But either way you slice it—yeah that’s a pizza pun—you’re intrigued by what the inside looks like and a few tidbits about what’s new at Sally’s first shot at a modern version of their growing ‘za business. And a couple visuals of their famous pies won’t hurt you either!
Sally’s. Stamford. Go crazy!
If you’ve cruised down Bank Street in Downtown Stamford, you may have noticed there’s a new Italian restaurant located in the former Cotto Wine Bar space.
The Quartiere—roughly translated is Italian for neighborhood, area, or district—aims to be a go-to spot for pizza, pasta, and the like, in an elevated, casual setting with affordable prices.
“The Q” is owned by Martin Bates, a 30-year industry vet from the United Kingdom where he ran an umbrella of 400 pubs, bars, and restaurants before taking on the role of president at a well-known sandwich and coffee franchise.
“I worked for a brewery in the U.K. that owned all these pubs; I was all over the country driving 60,000 miles a year, living out of a suitcase, I never saw my kids, and they kept buying all these businesses while I was burning myself out,” Bates says. “I took a sabbatical for a year, traveled, went to Spain. I eventually met the founder of Pret A Manger who offered me a job where I ran a chunk of the businesses. I came to NYC in 2007 to run Pret.”
Post Pret, Bates started his own private restaurant consulting firm, Ellis Rowan, and continued to open restaurant all over.
Three years ago, Bates decided he’d eventually like to open up something of his own. “I was looking for my thing,” he says. “I started looking into neighborhood Italian because I love this style of pizza and pasta. I’m a carb freak. I love it.”
There’s a rejuvenated buzz in Byram’s business district at the old digs once housed Mill Street Bar & Table and before it, Lolita Cucina.
The sounds of chatter and laughter, forks clanking and squealing against bowls, and hungry patrons slurping peppery, parm covered cacio e pepe are all coming from Rosina’s, a new Italian restaurant brought to you by a couple of young industry veterans you should recognize.
Rosina’s is the creation of Jared Falco and Coby Blount, who met at Fortina’s Armonk location in 2014. Falco helped run the show in the kitchen, while Blount managed front-of-house operations. “We’ve been trying to do something together for five years,” Falco says. “When we met, we clicked and always had mutual respect for each other. Even if we had it out, we could still be cool.”
The pair had a dream to work together, they just needed it to come together. Separately, they kept honing their crafts in the restaurant industry. After his first stint at Fortina, Falco took up executive chef duties at Washington Prime, Amore, Speedy Romeo, and he’d return to Fortina to express his creativity as a co-culinary director. And there’s a chance you’ve come across Blount at SE Uncorked or East End to name a few.
Their friendship kept them in touch, and they’d occasionally entertain meetings with possible investors.
“They didn’t have what we wanted,” Falco says. They wanted Sophia Loren on the walls eating spaghetti and that’s not us.” Blount chimes in, “Some of them wanted to use other people’s ideas or rip them off completely,” he says. “It didn’t feel like what we wanted to do. Or they wanted to do something corny that we weren’t into.”
What they wanted to do was classic but refined Italian food. And although it took a few years to come up with the concept, it’s the food Falco has been cooking for over a decade. Think along the lines of riffs on traditional pasta dishes, big salads, thin and crispy pizzas, and seasonal vegetable small plates. They also knew they wanted to be a neighborhood spot with affordable prices but with a handful of indulgent offerings if the mood should strike you.
La Plage is officially open in Westport. The Inn at Longshore and adjoining restaurant were recently acquired by the Greenwich Hospitality Group, the parent company of the Delamar hotels and restaurants. La Plage is their gift to Westport.
Pronounced plah-je, plage is the French word for beach, and a fitting name when you have a French chef at the helm in the kitchen. Until recently the restaurant was home to Pearl at Longshore which shuttered its doors in January. The interior has undergone a bit of a facelift to embrace its new coastal, casual vibe. Gone is the darker, refined and urban inspired décor which has been replaced with brighter white-washed walls, wicker lampshades and a livelier, beachier ambiance. Queue in the steel brass drums perhaps, but this isn’t your piña colada/Cheeseburger in Paradise type joint. This upscale yet casual eatery is best perhaps described as a beachy chic shack of sorts.
Long before the term ghost kitchen became part of our vernacular, Jonathan Brennan was busy building his in the heart of Stamford. Today his virtual food hall features six farm to table kitchens under one roof, is bustling and has plans for expansion in the very near future. Each kitchen features a unique menu with a different flavor profile to accommodate a wide range of different tastes and lifestyles with a focus on heath and sustainability. While Flavorism could be touted as a Ghost Kitchen, it’s really so much more. It’s a focus on sustainability, the elimination of excess waste, serving the local communities and hiring local talents.
Quietly, three months ago, Captain William Michael Harden aka “Captain Mike” opened his second Lobster Craft location in the heart of Greenwich on Greenwich Avenue.
We sat down to chat with him about the Greenwich location, new menu items, new restaurants down the pipeline and the challenges of opening a restaurant during a pandemic.
Like most restaurants, staffing has been an issue and he’s operating with a skeleton crew but he’s very proud of his young workers, their work ethic and dedication. With over a decade of success with the original Fairfield location as well as the Lobster Truck, the recipes have been perfected and feeding the masses is the easy part. (The hard part, for us, was deciding which roll to get! Scroll down and you’ll see what I mean!)
If you live in the New Haven area and are looking to book a trip to Naples, Italy, don’t buy that ticket just yet. At the end of Wooster Street on the right hand side, there is a place that will take you there in 90 seconds for a fraction of the price. Zeneli Pizzeria e cucina Napoletana is the new kid on the block of this already famous street known for some of the best pizza not only in Connecticut, but America as well. Wooster Street is home to several pizzerias, none more famous however than Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and Sally’s Apizza. These two legendary powerhouses are what enshrined this street on the pizza map forever. Cue the Zeneli Brothers.
