Change is at hand at Fairfield's Miro Kitchen after the end of their collaboration with HAPA, but the new menu for this autumn and winter retains Miro's signature flavors. CTbites was recently invited to take a tour of the food style restaurateur Eugene Kabilnitsky and executive chef Howard McCall have dubbed "Pacific Rim," with ingredients influenced by Hawaii, China, Japan, and the Philippines.
The eating area is a bright space, with white walls and darker seating on the right, and a full length bar running down the left. The bar has a respectable selection of craft beer on tap, in addition to wines selected specifically to match the flavors of the food. Cocktails likewise blend with the food, using ingredients like nigori in the Saketini, and Thai chili in the Thaigarita and the Tom Yum, which tasted like boozy lemon grass tea shot through with spiky kaffir lime.
While Crave Restaurant in Fairfield may seem off the beaten path, it is conveniently located adjacent to the Fairfield Theatre Company and combines a hip vibe with a menu offering a wide array of options from a simple Mac & Cheese to a robust Chicken Scarpariello. The brainchild of owners Peter Prizio and Alfonso Cammarota, the owners’ concept was simple; create a restaurant and bar where everyone would feel at home and serve a global menu with bold flavors. The restaurant consists of two rooms. To the left is a traditional dining area with tables and high-tops and to the right is a bar, with large HDTVs and a U-shaped bar. Overseeing the kitchen is Executive Chef Rigo Lino; many will remember Chef Lino from the Mansion Clam House in Westport. His menu combines his Salvadoran heritage with the owners’ Italian roots.
CTbites was invited to a media event where, over the course of the evening, I enjoyed many of the chef’s creations.
There's a new pizza "truck" in town, one with built-in street creds. Brick + Wood Pizza in Fairfield has set its pizza making in motion with a mobile wood-fired pizza oven, custom designed by acclaimed fourth generation pizza artisans, Acunto Forni, and imported from Naples, Italy.
The mobile Acunto pizza ovenmirrors the wood-burning one in-house, ensuring the same tasty pizza is available no matter where it is prepared. The oven reaches over 1,000 degrees in temperature in a short period of time with an overhead flame cooking the pizzas in 90 seconds or less. The surface is made of volcanic brick, which is more porous and prevents the crust from burning.
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.
The Little Pubyou know from Ridgefield, Wilton and Cos Cob is opening its fourth location in Fairfieldat the intersection of Stillson Avenue and Black Rock Turnpike. This spot has some history as it housed the Angus restaurant for over 70 years. Owner, Doug Grabe says "It's a cute and cozy building in a perfect neighborhood for Little Pub and we’re really looking forward to serving the Fairfield community."
"Little Pub Fairfield will share the traditional old world charm of our other little pubs with thick plaster walls, hand hewn beams, and antique iron light fixtures," says Grabe. In fact, the team re-purposed over 80 vintage beams from their Cos Cob renovation. A massive stone fireplace serves as the focal point for the main dining room, alongside some wonderful pub decor, including a vintage telephone booth.
What is unique to Fairfield is its size. The dining room is over 50% bigger than Wilton, with 130 seats. Grabe says "The bar alone is bigger than our entire Ridgefield footprint."
Fairfield is home to so many terrific restaurants and talented chefs. TownVibe and Fairfield Magazine have announced plans to celebrate Fairfield’s dynamic food scene by organizing Taste of Fairfield on Sunday, October 9, 2016, from 1pm to 5pm, held in the outdoor tented patio area of Southport’s Delamar Hotel.
Guests will enjoy tastes and sips from more than two dozen restaurants and specialty markets from the Fairfield area, all in the courtyard of the Delamar and Artisan Restaurant. In addition to fine cuisine, craft cocktails, artisanal wine, craft beer, and sweets, there will be live music and roving entertainment.
With much anticipation and excitement Miro Kitchen recently opened its doors on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield. The new eatery is the collective brainchild of Eugene Kabilnitsky, former owner of Tomato and Basil, and Hapa Food Truck’s Chris Gonzales. I recently sat down with the two to talk about the inspiration behind this creative collaboration.
“My wife and I were both working from home and we found ourselves going to the Hapa Food Truck at least twice a week,” Kabilnitsky told me. “We couldn’t get enough! At the time I was set to open another Italian restaurant at this location and was in the process of hammering out details.” But then he started to wonder whether the Hapa concept might work in the restaurant space. He joked that after visiting the truck 100 or so times he shared his idea with Chris, and subsequent conversations led to the current partnership, and Miro, an expansion of the wildly popular Hapa Food Truck, was born.
The best way to describe the cuisine is to say it is a play on Pacific, Asian and Hawaiian street food with an American twist, mixing the exotic with the familiar.
It sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s actually the start of a “yolk!” Chefs Eric Felitto and Jason Cade of The Chelsea teamed up with their friend and banker, Michael Bertanza to create The Tasty Yolk food truck located at 4700 Park Avenue in Bridgeport. Despite the rain, the truck made its debut on Thursday May 5 to lots of customers eager to try their gourmet twists on breakfast sandwiches.
“Every year, we try to figure out how we’re going to make our fortune,” jokes Felitto. “We finally decided to use our skills and make a food truck.” The trio makes for the perfect team. Felitto, Chef at The Chelsea, can coordinate with Sous Chef Cade so that someone can attend to the truck while continuing to work at the restaurant. Meanwhile, Bertanza works just across the street at Fairfield Bank. It’s easy for them to come together.
It's official. Fairfield just became the luckiest town in all of CT. On May 9th, MilkCraft will be opening at 1215 Post Road in the Brick Walk area of Fairfield, selling the creamiest ice cream in the universe. Why you ask? Milkcraft serves Nitrogen-churned ice cream, a process that freezes the cream so quickly that those pesky ice crystals that can form when the ice cream freezes slowly, never materialize. The end result is simply the smoothest creamiest ice cream you've ever tasted, with a mouthfeel like no other frozen confection.
But wait...it gets better. Milkcraft will be serving their nitrogen- churned dessert in Instagram ready "Creameebun" donut sandwiches, and Hong Kong-inspired "Bubblecones."
More details on Milkcraft coming soon. Get excited CT.
Not another grocery store… Not something else to create more congestion to our already congested Post Road… These were my thoughts when I heard that yet another grocery store was coming to town.
It started well over 10 years ago in Boston. Two boyhood friends and a dream – a dream to open a restaurant featuring healthy, wholesome food. The company’s founders, Jon and Anthony grew up eating nutritious food from Anthony’s Uncle Faris’s kitchen. When the two friends went off to college they over indulged on fast food. While they loved this way of eating, they hated how it made them look and feel. And so the two decided to open a business together based on the simple premise that they would offer people “fast” food by making it “real” – Food “made by people, not factories.” As they embarked on this journey, they heeded Uncle Faris’ other pieces of advice: “Take it easy, Live life, and most of all ‘be good.’” And with this b.good was born.
With many successful restaurants already established in New England, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Toronto, Canada, the newest location has just opened in my town of Fairfield. (Greenwich will also open its door shortly.)
Early in 2015, Brick + Wood in Fairfield, launched a Guest Chef Series inviting local Chefs to collaborate with Chef/Owner Paolo Cavalli on a special pizza to be offered once a month.
Each Chef in the previous lineup enjoyed bringing their culinary spin to the traditional Neapolitan pie including Poutine Pizza by Chef Howard McCall of Washington Prime, a Charred Octopus Pizza by Chef Matt Storch of Match, and a Pork Belly and Short Rib Chorizo Pizza by Chef Tim Scott of Geronimo Tequilla Bar and Southwest Grill. Each Guest Chef evening often sells out of the special pie with nearly 45+ served each night.
Who's Next?? Here is the lineup from June through December. Plan your pizza nights now!
Who doesn’t love brunch? Sleepy weekend diners can conveniently avoid their own kitchens while enjoying an often decadent and relaxed morning meal. Plus, as a bonus, brunch is often accompanied by a well crafted cocktail. For this reason, we were pleased to hear that Barcelona Wine Bar has launched brunch service every Saturday and Sunday at several of their locations, including West Hartford, Stamford, and now Fairfield. As each Barcelona menu highlights the vision of their executive chef, brunch menus will vary slightly based on style, but bear a similar theme. To investigate this new kid on the brunch block, we decided to visit Chef Darren Carbone, who recently took over the Barcelona Fairfield kitchen, and who brings to the table, a little Latin flair.
In looking at the new Brunch menu, it’s difficult not to get just a little bit excited. Entrées such as Duck Confit Hash, Chocolate and Dulce de Leche French Toast, and a Breakfast “Coca,” (grilled bread, mushrooms, egg and Sriracha), sound like solid reasons to get out of bed.
Fairfield has worked its way up the food chain, offering all sorts of great dining opportunities for those with even the most discerning palates. With all the new restaurant openings, there was one thing that was lacking in the town’s culinary offerings; a really good health-food based option. Until now - enter Freshii.
Sandwiched in between The Fairfield University Bookstore and Chef’s Table is Freshii, recently opened by owner Jonathan Blob who also owns the Westport location. Although word had not yet really gotten out, the restaurant was bustling the two times I went in, first to check it out, then when I returned to chat with Blob.
The store, long and narrow, airy and bright, evokes a fresh, healthy attitude. Bright green, leaf-colored chairs are neatly lined up against the long counter space on one wall just below a large mirror reflecting the words...EAT. ENERGIZE. from the opposing wall. The light woods and grass-like covered wall lend themselves perfectly to an eatery of this type. A large menu board lists many and varied options. There are choices for breakfast, smoothies, juices, salads, wraps, bowls, soups and burritos.
What’s better than pizza? A great pizza developed by some of the best chefs in the area. Over the next six months, local favoriteBrick + Wood will hand over the heat of its wood burning pizza ovens to local chefs for an evening of Love, Life {and Chefs!}. Each guest chef will bring their vision and recipe of the perfect pizza to these ovens for a special evening of food and fun.
As my search for great burgers in CT continues, I always appreciate the opportunity to combine this pursuit with other culinary options. When I found myself in Fairfield, I decided to stop into Archie Moore’s Bar and Restaurant and sample its Bar Burger and while I was there, why not begin the meal with an order of wings, which are consistently voted some of the best in the state.
In terms of eating, the CTbites team of writers, photographers, and chef friends have managed to sample and savor more than most. 2014 has been a stellar year for restaurant openings as Fairfield County and the surrounding areas continue to draw great culinary talent. Instead of coming up with a top ten list ourselves, we asked the CTbites extended family to share some of their most memorable meals and dining experiences this past year.
Here are our favorite meals and restaurants of 2014.
Two words: LOBSTER FRIES. No...Really! If you want to cozy up to some delicious and decadent comfort food, get your claws over to the LOBSTER POST at 222 Post Road in Fairfield. Opened and owned by Jack Jagetic and now run by our man, Scotty and chef Mel, the LOBSTER POST offers fresh, tasty and unpretentious fare that both adults and children will devour.
As we walked in the doors of the simple yet charming little jaunt with a beach town vibe, we were treated to a sample of piping hot LOBSTER BISQUE. Seasoned to perfection with a tiny bit of heat at the end of the gulp, this soup was excellent. Not too creamy, and with a touch of sherry wine, the lobster flavor was allowed to blossom. We sat, we ordered, all was right with the world.
Change is at hand at Fairfield's Miro Kitchen after the end of their collaboration with HAPA, but the new menu for this autumn and winter retains Miro's signature flavors. CTbites was recently invited to take a tour of the food style restaurateur Eugene Kabilnitsky and executive chef Howard McCall have dubbed "Pacific Rim," with ingredients influenced by Hawaii, China, Japan, and the Philippines. 
