As the holiday season approaches, there are restaurants and catering companies ready to make this Thanksgiving memorable. While there are plenty of businesses open for seating on Thanksgiving, there are even more offering holiday catering with all of the classic fixings to take the work out of your Thanksgiving Day hosting. To help you find the restaurant nearest you to order from or dine at on Thanksgiving, we’ve organized the guide by county. At the end, you’ll find a list of local businesses including farms, markets, and butcher shops where you can purchase turkey to prepare at home. We also noted which businesses specialize in vegan options. Happy Thanksgiving!
Covering the hospitality industry for as long as I have, it’s a given you’ll come across people who left a completely different career to pursue their passion in cooking or baking. Sandeep Gupta is one of those people. She left her job doing app design and once she moved from San Francisco to Stamford, she started her own donut business. “I told my husband (Mayank), who’s also a developer and does IT, that I love designing apps and logos and everything, but that I want to follow my passion as a baker,” Gupta says. “I actually liked my job! It was creative and I wasn’t just coding. I made buttons, themes, making apps look pretty. That was me.”
Gioia, an Italian restaurant, market, gelateria and rooftop space located at 150 Wooster Street, New Haven, is hosting “Chefs for Chef,” a 5-course tasting dinner on Sunday, October 26 beginning at 6pm. In partnership with the Connecticut Restaurant Association, proceeds from the dinner benefit the Connecticut Hospitality Education Foundation, supporting education and opportunity in the local hospitality community.
The event will begin with a festive welcome cocktail and passed bites, followed by a five-course dinner featuring a signature dish from each chef with wine pairings. Participating chefs include:
Tyler Anderson, Millwright’s Restaurant
Tim Cabral, Gioia, Ordinary
Prasad Chirnomula, Chef Prasad Indian Cuisine
Michelle Greenfield, Allium Eatery
Avi Szapiro, Gioia
Chelsea Tripp, Kouign
Tickets are $175/pp for café and bar seating (not including tax and gratuity), and $350/pp for VIP Chef’s Counter Seats (only 4 are available!).
To purchase tickets, visit https://www.opentable.com/r/gioia-wooster-street-new-haven.
Something that Lazlo reflected back on wasn’t his storied culinary career at places like Gramercy Tavern, The Whelk, or Mill Street Bar & Table, it was smoking meats and listening to music. “It was about what brings me back to what my groove was,” he says. “Twenty years ago, I had this little smoker. I’d invite my friends over, crank up the Grateful Dead, have a couple beers, and have a good time.”
Governor Ned Lamont today announced a statewide social media giveaway to celebrate the October 1 launch of the Connecticut Pizza Trail. Anyone who reshares CT Visit’s official “Connecticut By The Pie” social post will be entered into a raffle to win two tickets to the Connecticut Pizza Trail event—a two-day bus tour on DATTCO’s one-of-a-kind “Pizza Capital of the U.S.” coach, featuring the state’s most iconic and up-and-coming pizzerias.
On Instagram, X, or Facebook, share CT Visit’s official Pizza Trail.
Include the hashtag #CTByThePie in your caption.
Tag @CTvisit (Instagram/X) or @VisitConnecticut (Facebook).
Entries are valid only if all three steps are completed. One entry per person per platform.
Celebrate the magic of the Mid-Autumn Festival at Mooooncake Fest -- a vibrant weekend of food, culture, and community coming to CT Hartford Amp on October 11-12, 2025.
Tradition Meets Celebration
One of Asia's most beloved holidays, the Mid-Autumn Festival is all about reunion, gratitude, and the beauty of the full moon. At Mooooncake Fest, you'll experience glowing lanterns, authentic mooncakes, and cultural traditions brought to life.
A Feast for Every Foodie
Savor 90+ Asian food vendors offering street eats, festival favorites, and seasonal specialties, plus 40+ merch stalls with crafts, gifts, and cultural treasures.
Celebrate Shelton is bringing their most popular event Food Trucks on the River back for a very special Fall Edition!! This year's event will featuring an amazing lineup of 25+ food trucks, live music by: Mushroom Cloud, The Inside Out, Ros. Co., Doey Joey, Benny Mikula of The Alpaca Gnomes, Seth Adam & more, local artisans & vendors, mobile bar with New Belgium beer & Love Lou wines, Pop-Up Circus performances, and more!
$5 Suggested Donation
Audrey Hepburn once had a quote about gardens, where she stated: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Sam Reyes is thinking about and believing in cocktail culture for tomorrow and a lot of tomorrows that will follow. Ever since Reyes (Mariposa Taqueria’s co-owner/bartender) captured a statewide award in 2023, specifically, a Connecticut Restaurant Association CRAZIES win for Bartender of the Year, he’s taken that W and he’s run with it.
"Escape to Ore Hill, an intimate, seasonally driven restaurant set in a beautifully restored 18th century farmhouse in idyllic Litchfield County. Executive Chef Ryan Carbone presents a summer tasting menu, featuring the bountiful produce, dairy, and heritage Randall beef from partner Rock Cobble Farm. Prior to returning to his native Connecticut to helm the kitchen at Ore Hill, Chef Ryan was Chef de Cuisine with James Beard Award Winner Debbie Gold in Chicago, then at Jupiter, the second restaurant from the team of the celebrated restaurant King in NYC. Supporting Chef Ryan at Ore Hill and the adjacent casual Tavern Swyft, is Culinary Director and multiple James Beard Award semifinalist® Tyler Anderson, who will be on hand in the kitchen for this exclusive experience.
Reflections of a Summer in Kent at Ore Hill is part of the Friends of James Beard Benefit series; events hosted by generous people, businesses, and organizations outside of JBF that provide critical funding for our programs. Each event supports our mission to champion a standard of Good Food for Good® anchored in talent, equity, and sustainability."
Downtown Hartford will be teeming with live music and an eclectic variety of local cuisine by restaurateurs in the region as the city welcomes back Hartford Taste, presented by The Hartford, Friday and Saturday, June 6-7, on Pratt and Trumbull streets.
The 2025 event will feature more than 35 restaurants, 30 musical acts, live visual art and a brand-new cultural stage experience called The Kitchen Table – Good Food & Good Conversation, where chefs, mixologists and creatives will share live demonstrations, storytelling and interactive dialogue about what food and culture mean in Hartford today.
The Hartford is the presenting sponsor for the third year in a row and will continue to cover all vendor fees, allowing restaurants and food businesses to participate at no cost.
