Our go-to gal in lower Fairfield County, Greenwich Girl Laura McKittrick, shared a recipe from her recent Food & Brews Issue with the Homestead Inn's award-winning chef, Thomas Henkelmann. If you don't know about Chef Henkelmann or the Homestead Inn, picture a cozy yet charming setting with a French-inspired menu and dishes that double as works of art. This Sam Adams veal dish is a delicious way you can recreate a bit of the Homestead in your own home.
Samuel Adams Glazed Veal Shank with Red Cabbage, Carrots & Pearl Onions
[updated] This summer 109 Cheese will expand to Litchfield County with a pop-up shop on Kent's beautiful Main Street with an expected opening date of June 6, bringing their cheese, charcuterie, sandwiches, Farm Country Soups, and gourmet products to to the former Farm Country Soup location at 14 North Main Street.
We will bring lots of our gourmet goodies, some local artisan favorites and best of all, our sandwiches and grilled cheese, plus we will have indoor and outdoor seating too! We are so excited to be expanding to Kent, an amazing town and destination. - Monica & Todd Brown
109 Cheese and Wine's homebase in "Ridgefield" will be operating as usual throughout the summer.
Photo: Ross' BreadRoss' Bread in Ridgefield, the popular bakery and café announced on March 31 that the business was changing hands from one Ridgefield family, Ross and Val Schneiderman, to another, Amy Freidenrich after six years in business.
The bakery follows the tradition of neighborhood European bakeries, with daily homemade breads (the Sweet Earth is a personal favorite), to cakes, pastries and soups using predominantly organic flour and ingredients. The location, tucked in the busy Marketplace at Copps Hill, has supported its mission and established the café as a popular meeting spot.
In an excerpt from a letter from the Schneiderman's, the business underscored the community support and its vision:
Yale University's West Campus Urban Farm is hosting “ Maple Fest 2015: Lux et Syrupas ,” a free tasting of saps and syrups along with live demos and “tours of the campus sugar bush,” on Friday, April 10, from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
The Garden of Ideas, the outdoor community center and garden sanctuary in Ridgefield, is hosting a series ofmonthly cooking demonstrations and workshops from May through November with Chef Susie Buckley.
Each class will focus on how to make the most of the seasonal produce, using the bounty of their CSA as a way to highlight the intersection of food, nature, art and science within each workshop. Classes welcome all ages (kids from 8 years and up, and adults) and will feature fresh farm produce, focusing on basic cooking techniques, "nibbles, tastes, and recipes, included." View the complete class schedule below:
Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group which founded Shake Shack and popular restaurants such as Gramercy Tavern, Marta, and Union Square Café, will visit Yale on Tuesday, April 7 as the University's 2015 Gordon Grand Fellow.
Meyer will present two talks at Yale that are open to the public and will be streamed live on YouTube. For more information, or to watch live, visit Yale SOM or Yale News.
Photo: La ZingaraLa Zingara in Bethel will launch a new cocktail program beginning April 1 with a menu spanning classic cocktails to their own crafted creations. The backbone of the new menu will be rooted in house made ingredients, including syrups, grenadine, fresh-squeezed juices, and (a handful of) bitters. In addition to the new cocktail program, Ecco Rooftop Eatery & Bar (located just above La Zingara) will reopen on April 1 as well.
"We are finally bringing La Zingara up to par on the cocktails that we have been doing on the [Ecco] rooftop for a while now. We are looking to bring the same quality that we bring to our food. Clean, simple drinks that utilize what is in season. Twists on the classics," said Lisa Tassone, La Zingara and Ecco owner.
Holbrook Farm in Bethel will be hosting "How To Start Your Home Garden," a home gardening seminar on Saturday, March 21 at 9:30 to 11:30 am at the farm, located at 45 Turkey Plain Road in Bethel, CT. Tickets are $30 per person.
The seminar, led by John and Jess at Holbrook Farm, includes best growing practices, and tackling common questions such as: how to amend soils, when to start what plants, how to plan for succession planting, do I start from seed or plants, when can I start planting my garden outside, raised beds or no, and more. A Q & A session will follow.
Da Legna is the best kept secret for New Haven pizza lovers. But it shouldn’t be.
Ask a friend who lives or works in New Haven for their favorite pie, and steel yourself for a slew of anecdotes, a bit of Elm City history, and maybe even a neighborhood geography lesson – Wooster v. State Street. Then, after declaring their allegiance to one of the “big three,” lean in, because your friend may end their (a)pizza diatribe with an almost conspiratorial whisper of “Da Legna,” the two-year old State Street restaurant devoted to wood-fired pizzas, Italian tapas, and a refreshing lack of pretense.
Chefs Tyler Anderson, Bill Taibe, and Joel Viehland were recently recognized by the James Beard Foundation as semifinalists in the 2015 Best Chef: Northeast category. On the occasion of their nomination, we asked each of them to answer a few questions, from the serious (key influences and mentors) to the hypothetical (a CTbites blank check to open a new restaurant).
Want to know where Chef Tyler Anderson's next restaurant could be, who Chef Viehland would love to cook for, and who is one of Chef Taibe's biggest influences (hint: he is a chef in one of his kitchens)?
Read on for this and more from three of Connecticut's best chefs.
Behind every great man is a great woman. And for Dagwood Bumstead, that woman is Blondie.
Bethel's Sycamore Drive-in Restaurant, founded in 1948 and famous for its summer cruise nights, homemade root beer, and thin French-style burgers, has introduced the new Blondie burger, a fitting companion for their popular Dagwood burger. And I believe it's about time, the cartoon is named after the blonde bombshell matriarch, afterall.
When the winter doldrums set in, and the temperatures flirt with zero, I set my sights firmly on brown spirits. Whisky, not whiskey, to be exact. A dram will usually do the trick, but on occasion I like to sully that perfect spirit by making it the foundation of a Rob Roy cocktail.
If you can reconcile the fact that you’re meddling with the perfection that is scotch, with sweet vermouth and bitters, then you’ve found your perfect century-old cocktail. It’s essentially a Manhattan with a kilt, which is a fitting description seeing as it was created in New York’s Waldorf Astoria in 1894 for an opera based on the Scottish folk hero and outlaw Robert Roy MacGregor.
There is something about peated scotch and a roaring fire, but an unpeated or blended whisky for your Rob Roy will also do the trick.
In celebration of his new book, America: Farm-to-Table, and of the opening of Tarry Lodge in New Haven, Mario Batali will visit the Yale Sustainable Food Program and join its director, Mark Bomford, in conversation on Friday, January 23 from 3 to 4 pm at the Whitney Humanities Center53 Wall St. New Haven, CT 06511. This event is open to the public but seating is limited. Visit the YSFP website for more information on this event.
Batali will also host a three-course lunch at Tarry Lodge, for $85 per person on January 23. For details or to purchase tickets, visit the Tarry Lodge website. If tickets are sold out, contact the restaurant to be added to a wait list: (203) 672-0765 or email infonh@tarrylodge.com.
Wah Lah is the ideal lunch location for a cozy cup of soup or a delicious pressed sandwich, with a side of small town charm. A fast-casual restaurant that focuses on the holy lunch trinity of soups, sandwiches, and salads, Wah Lah sets itself apart thanks to its amiable and talented owner-chef Keith Burke, and a well-executed and consistent menu that honors classic and wholesome recipes.
Keith opened Wah Lah in 2010. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, he worked in the foodservice industry for 14 years, traveling across the country before deciding to change his pace and put down roots in the small Connecticut town of Bethel. The fast casual dining concept appealed to him, and he decided to marry that approach to the lunch-friendly category of soups with salads and sandwiches soon following.
Wah Lah’s menu is a list of eight to twelve soups made fresh daily
Who wouldn't love a culinary-themed weekend getaway that is about an hour away (maybe two for those of you up in Litchfield County)?! The Saybrook Point Inn & Spa is kicking off a series of weekend getaways focusing on different cuisines from around the world centered on the Inn's restaurant, Fresh Salt, and led by its Executive Chef Leslie Tripp. Kicking off this series of three events is Italian Winter Holiday from January 30 to February 1, followed by a Taste of New England on February 20 - 22 and a Tour de France on March 6 - March 8.
The New Haven outpost of Harvest Wine Bar is the fifth restaurant for siblings Kleber, Nube, and Vincente Siguenza, the the trio behind Cava in New Canaan, 55 Degrees in Fairfield, Scena in Darien, and sister restaurant Harvest Wine Bar in Greenwich. CTbites reviewed the Greenwich location almost a year ago, and many of the same culinary observations apply to this newly opened New Haven outpost on Chapel Street. I stopped in recently to experience the restaurant’s $19 two-course prix fixe lunch, perhaps one of the best downtown lunch options among New Haven’s fine dining restaurants.
The gin and tonic has become one of my favorite year-round cocktails. Now before you shout INFIDEL or HERESY and run for the torches to scare me and my cocktail into hibernation until the summer equinox, hear me out.
The first rule of a year-round G&T: the gin must be considered carefully. If you’re looking for guidance here, you can’t go wrong with the St. George Terroir Gin, which grounds this G&T with an earthy bite of “Douglas fir, California bay laurel, coastal sage, and other evocative botanicals.” One whiff and you’ll instinctively look over your shoulder for the bear that modeled for the label. Trust me, this is the gin you want for a cold weather G&T.
Next, find yourself a clean and crisp tonic. I recommend and will rarely stray from Q Tonic. Don’t even think about desecrating the G&T with a tonic like Schweppes, or please don’t tell me about it because I WILL judge you harshly.
THE winter CSA for your bread box is BACK with Scratch Baking's Loaf of the Week club. Beginning on January 9, 2015 for 8 carb-filled weeks, Scratch Baking in Milford is kicking-off their third annual "Loaf of the Week" club. Participants, or "loafers," receive a surprise bread and spread each week, paired with a recipe.
Scratch Baking's manager Alex Malaspinas chalked the success of the program up to Scratch's community-minded approach:
Barrett Bookstore is bringing Dorie Greenspan back to Fairfield County to celebrate the publication of her latest cookbook:Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere for a free event at Deane Inc. in Stamford on December 3 at 6 p.m. RSVP (required) to barrettbooks@sbcglobal.net or 203-655-2712.
Wine and treats will be prepared from Dorie Greenspan's new book by Julia Deane of Deane Inc. Greenspan will be on hand to sign copies of the book.
Reservations are required for this free event. RSVP to barrettbooks@sbcglobal.net or 203-655-2712. Deane Inc. is located at 1267 East Main Street, Stamford, CT.
Photo: Lora Warnick
