The Muñoz del Castillo family has done it again and opened a winner in Westport, Bistro Du Soleil. You may recognize the name from their Norwalk location (which sadly closed), their prior catering business, as well as one of our favorite Mexican spots, Rincon in Norwalk. This same family has opened a tiny gem by the Saugatuck train station, serving Mediterranean cuisine with strong classic French undertones. From the escargot and Gambas Al Ajlllo to the Magret Duck Breast and gorgeous Beef Bourgignon, this BYOB venue is not to be missed. Bistro Du Soleil and the Muñoz family truly understand the art of both hospitality and simply delicious food.
Simple is usually best—particularly when it comes to food—an adage that proved itself more than true on my recent visit to Rice & Beans food truck, based out of Danbury.
The concept: Stewed meat or roasted veggies over black beans and rice m topped with fresh herbs, radish, pico de gallo, and guacamole served up in a bright yellow food truck. The eatery is the brainchild of chef/owner Jasson Arias and based on the traditional foods of his Guatemalan heritage.
“I grew up eating rice and beans,” says Arias, whose original career was bartending in Stamford. “I thought it would be the great basis for a quick, filling lunch sold from a food cart.”
For me, it's hard not to be attracted to the scent of frying empanadas and Puerto Rican music which is why I found myself gravitating towards Pito Sofrito today. Pito Sofrito is a mobile food truck located in Stamford. CT and usually hangs around Atlantic and Bell street near the Veterans Park during lunch hours. They are serving up fresh, authentic Puerto Rican cuisine to the masses and we just can't get enough. The proprietors of the truck are two Puerto Rican natives who grew up cooking in the kitchen with their grandmother and mother which after all is where all great recipes, memories, and traditions are born. They came over in 2003 and made the intrepid plunge into the food truck industry just six months ago and have experienced great success.
The diverse cuisines that the cultures of Latin America gave the world are well represented in Connecticut. Markets in our state serve more than 540,000 Hispanic residents---and foodies of other ethnic origins who pass over Ortega taco kits for more enlightened fare. Whether you’re making corn tortillas from scratch, seeking beautifully ripe fruit at a great price, looking to pick up a luscious pastry, or preparing your grandmother’s mole, these stores are well worth the trip. Here’s your guide to Connecticut’s best Latin American markets.
Photo courtesy of CTWeekender.comAs the name implies, The Corner began as a small mom and pop breakfast place -- just around the corner in Milford. Back then, nineteen years ago to be exact, Michelle and Amer Lebel mostly catered to the neighborhood, rarely filling their homey 50 seat café.
The eggs, potatoes and toast were damn good. But the star of the show arrived with the Stuffed French Toast: split French bread, filled with fresh, sugared fruit and berries, bathed in an egg batter laced with orange zest, nutmeg and cinnamon, then deep fried to a golden brown and served under a puddle of nutty maple syrup. The luscious confection scored an immediate hit, eventually inspiring a morning menu as adventuresome, imaginative, and playful as any in Connecticut, if not the country.
Today, Michelle and Amer’s creative breakfasts have been featured on network television and celebrated in all manner of social media.
Recently the CTbites team previewed the menu at El Segundo in South Norwalk, the newest restaurant from the talented partners who created The Spread just up the block. The concept: Eat the Street. Intersect some of the world’s tastiest street food at the corner of Washington and North Water in SONO.
What began as a tasting quickly turned into a party ... a coming out party for Carlos Baez, Executive Chef of The Spread, one of the region’s most versatile, yet unheralded, chefs.
The menu flaunts Baez’ extraordinary range -- a gastronomic tour de force featuring over 3 dozen dishes curated from the boulevards and back allies of 27 countries on all seven continents, including barren Antarctica. (More about that selection later)
Even though it’s one of the largest cities in Connecticut, Danbury was once regarded as a restaurant wasteland. The downtown eateries catered to a family demographic who sought a reasonably priced menu that took few culinary chances. Very mid-century. However, in the past few years, a vibrant international food scene has burgeoned on the city’s west side. The cuisines are sophisticated, diverse, and creative, reflective of 21st Century dining.
Many credit Richard Reyes’s Mezón Tapas Bar and Restaurant with transforming Mill Plain Road into destination dining. The year was 2011. Reyes was then a former Wall Street Executive who decided to come home to Connecticut and open a restaurant where people could dine on food prepared in the Latin tradition of his family. From the heart. From the home. Richard was all of 25 … and Mezón posed far more of a risk than even the stock market. At the time, Mill Plain Road was dotted with a string of mostly red-sauce Italian/American restaurants. “Sure, we were taking a chance,” he recently told us, “But we helped break the mold.”
Rich invited CTbites to sample some of the Latin and Caribbean fare that has attracted Mezón’s diverse and discerning clientele from across the region. Though the Paella and the Churrasco are the most popular dishes on the menu, Reyes had other ideas for our feast.
You know that little place, right around the corner? The one that serves just that dish you were craving? The one that serves food you just know comes from a parent or grandparent’s tried-and-true recipe? You know the place, your go-to joint, always reliable, where you don’t have to dress up and you don’t have to spend a fortune? Well, “La Esquina,” literally, “the corner,” is just THAT place, serving up authentic South American yummies with home-style flare and flavors that impress.
La Esquina Latin Grill,right on “the corner” at 50 Hamilton Avenue in Stamford, is a labor of love for the young and extremely talented co-owner and head chef, Robert Monegro. Chef Robert grew up in Stamford with his Guatemalan mother and Dominican father, both chefs. He decided that after learning all he could by growing up in the kitchen of his parents’ restaurant, Flamboyant in Stamford, he would put his own mark on the culinary map of Fairfield County. And he is doing just that.
After a bloggers’ tasting at Paloma in Stamford’s Harbor Point, CTBites sat down with Chef de Cuisine Chris Bateman to review the menu -- and his creative relationship with celebrity chef-owner Aarón Sánchez.
Bateman is a culinary prodigy. Fresh from CIA, the young chef opened Four Seasons Restaurants and Hotels around the world. So debuting Paloma last summer wasn’t his first big time rodeo. Sánchez may be its star, but Bateman runs the day-to-day show.
We wondered how much the celeb is involved in the creation of Paloma’s menu. “Very much,” Bateman replies. “We work closely. But he’s wide open to my ideas, and listens really well.” The unshaven, still youthful chef, sporting jeans and a Yankee cap worn backwards, confides, “Aarón is the reason I’ve stayed here. I love cooking with him.”
I never thought “gourmet” and “Mexican” belonged in the same sentence. Until I had dinner at Zarela's, a Mexican restaurant which had just opened on Second Ave. back in 1987. A revelation! Zarela Martinez orchestrated textures and flavors just as artfully and lovingly as the new chefs who were redefining Manhattan’s food scene. Zarela’s fast became the Nobu of Mexican food, one of the hottest spots in town. There, I learned the magic of mole and the enchantment that truffles could lend to an enchilada.
A generation later, Aarón Sánchez, the Food Channel’s charismatic Mexican rock star chef, hopes that his new Stamford restaurant Paloma (opening Monday, July 21st, in Harbor Point) will similarly introduce Connecticut to the fire and the finesse of fine Mexican and Latin American cuisines. Revelations run in the family -- Aarón (pronounced "AH-rone") is Zarela's son.
For all his celebrity, Sánchez feels he remains not only in his mother's debt, but also her shadow.
"I honor her because she did it first," he told us when we chatted last week, a comfortable conversation marked by his humility and respect.
"I believe family is at the center of the Mexican experience."
Desperately seeking authentic Latin inspired cuisine with a strong Mexican flair and some cocktails that can render you “muy feliz?” TIERRA could be the place for you. Deep, down (way down, under SPRUCE on the Post Road) in the heart of Westport is the new TIERRA, love child of married chefs Sue Torres and Darren Carbone. Torres - previously chef in such notable jaunts as La Grenouille, The 21 Club and former owner of Suenos in lower Manhattan -and hubby Carbone (Rosa Mexicano and Alma De Cuba in PA) have created a cozy and inviting restaurant that has Westport diners in a chile infused tizzy. Complete with outside seating for 30 (perhaps not the greatest view but who cares, it’s summer!) and indoor seating for at least 45 - including a beautiful private dining room for 16 or so, TIERRA lures you in and treats you right.
Chef Carbone is always on duty and on our first visit, showed us around his well appointed kitchen and dining room. The cast iron, homemade tortilla press - a rarity - is in plain view and sous chef Mario was busy breaking down lobster and fresh Bronzini for the evening’s freshest picks.
Hard to believe, but spring beckons. It’s just a few days away. And along with hyacinths and daffodils, a number of new eateries will soon be blossoming at Stamford's Harbor Point -- just in time for those hazey lazey dayz. (Yes Virginia, there is a Summer)
At the spectacular 6000 square foot Glass Garden on the waterfront, Aaron Sanchez is now shooting for a Cinco de Mayo opening for his new latin themed resto. As CTBites first reported last year, Sanchez will be working his spanish sorcery in a sexy, high end dining, cocktail and wine lounge space. But there's a name change: “Alegre” has become “Poloma”
According to Jon Sabrowski, Harbor Point's Leasing Director, a bouquet of other new eateries are targeting a Memorial Day opening. Among them is an American grill from South End Hospitality, whose pedigree includes Black Bear, Darien Social, Bobby Q's and McFadden’s. The tap house will feature a rooftop bar, offering a panoramic view of the harbor and the Sound beyond. (Yes Virginia, there are sea breezes.) The restaurant faces the 22 story twin towered apartment complex currently under construction (We can report that the 242 unit complex will not be the hotel-condo once envisioned.)
Craving some Latin American delicacies? Head over to 1229 Post Road in Fairfield and check out the brand-spankin'-new BARO' New WORLD CANTINA, the latest labor of love brought to you by the Reyes family (also owners of MEZON and 2 other restaurants in Danbury.) The wine list is mostly Spanish but the food selection - served mostly "tapas" style - comes from Brazil, Uraguay, Argentina, Mexico and the Dominican Republic where Juan and Richard Reyes and family were born. The decor is welcoming and stylish, complete with a glass-faced ceviche bar which looks onto the bustling and aroma filled kitchen. Dark wood tables and benches, some high tops and a large bar as well as birch branch wall decorations are inviting. But the food's the thing. We'll be back for a more intensive review but here are our first impressions:
Acclaimed chef, author and restaurateur Rafael Palomino recently opened Bistro Latino in the space first occupied by Boxing Cat Café and then Greenwich Tavern in Old Greenwich. The vast dining room has been done over indark wood flooring which is flanked by racked walls that flaunt an extensive portfolio of international wines.
Palomino won his food-star stripes when he opened Sonora in Manhattan almost two decades ago, introducing Manhattan to Nuevo Latino cuisine, and earning raves from the city’s food critics. Sonora's wild success inspired Rafael to bring his unique cooking style to satellite restaurants in New Haven, Tuckahoe, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Sonora now lives in Port Chester.
Despite its name, Greenwich's Bistro Latino is not really Nuevo Latino since the dishes are more of Spain than Latin and South America. Rafael has created a menu that features European tapas and paella -- which he anoints with flavors from his Columbian and Queens roots. "Spanish bathed in Picante Style," is how the restaurant describes it. As a result, Bistro Latino is really more about invention than tradition.
Chef Parra will introduce each dish, while Fabio will expertly pair each course with wines from the extensive wine list at Brasitas, featuring wines from all over the world including Argentina, Chile and Spain.
MENU:
Crema de Calabaza y Coco, a roasted pumpkin-coconut and lemongrass bisque, toppped with toasted pepitas and maple syrup.
Followed by Ensalada con Higos Rellenos; Garrotxa cheese stuffed Black Mission Figs wrapped in Jamon Serrano.
Lechon con Pozole; Slow roasted suckling pig, red chile Pozole, Avocado, Crunchy Cabbage and Tortilla "Polenta."
Just as the crisp Fall air reminds us that winter is around the corner, Brasitas in Norwalk (and the original location in Stamford) transports us to the warm Caribbean or to sunny South America.
Colorful in tropical hues of marine blue, coral and yellow, the decor of Brasitas feels very much like a Caribbean beach front café…as authentic native art from Colombia, hand picked by owner Jaime Guerrero and his wife, Nubia, adorn the walls, and brightly colored embroidered pillows line the banquettes. Two to three times a year the husband and wife travel to their native Colombia in search of new recipes and native art.
The Norwalk location, opened in 2008, is managed by Jaime’s nephew, Fabio Rojas, and has a loyal following among lovers of authentically prepared and beautifully presented Pan-Latin cuisine.
The waterfront dining scene in Stamford is about to get a whole lot spicier, and OmNomCT has the scoop on a new restaurant concept from a familiar team.
If you’re familiar with Stamford restaurants by the water, you’ve probably had some food and drink down at Paradise Grill (next to The Crab Shell). And if you’re familiar with what really great food is, then you were probably disappointed. With such a great spot, it could’ve been so much more! Well, it will be because Paradise Grill is gone and a new kind of paradise is taking over from Nick Racanelli Sr. & Jr., owners of the beloved Pizzeria Molto Wine Bar in Fairfield and Zaza Italian Gastrobar in Stamford. Yup, the new restaurant is called Dolce Cubano Restaurant and Rum Bar.
Oh heck yeah. When’s the last time (if ever) you hit up a rum bar and you weren’t at some sort of tropical destination? And, in addition to a ton of rum drinks, there will be wine, beer, mixed drinks and dishes of Cuban meets Italian cuisine. -- via OmNomCT
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re experiencing a taco moment.
The latest in the list of talented Connecticut chefs to jump on the taco bandwagon (or in his case, back on it) is Arturo Franco-Camacho and his wife Suzette, the dynamic pair behind our state’s latest taco joint, Tacuba in Branford. Opening just this past week, Tacuba isn’t exactly in the neighborhood, but trust me when I tell you this is a place you should know about.
The folks behind one of the state’s first taco carts sixteen years ago, the initial iteration of South Norwalk’s Habana, New Haven’s beloved Roomba and upscale Bespoke, they couple is currently running Branford’s Suburban, and now Tacuba and the adjacent wine bar, Swill.
Greenwich: just say that word and you can see fancy convertibles cars slowly driving through the Avenue, white gloved policeman directing traffic, and people carrying shopping bags awaiting for a whistle command to cross the streets. On and surrounding this fashionable Avenue, you will also see lots of eateries, among them Douro, a Portuguese inspired restaurant that opened doors in September of 2009.
With its typical blue tile sign outside the entrance, terracotta floors, and dark wooden tables, Douro might appear to be just another trendy Greenwich restaurant. Good looking people and a good looking staff fill this charming place. Douro sets its standards and fits its West Putman Avenue location like a glove, but this Portuguese/Mediterranean venue is more than it seems.
BODEGA: hispanic/spanish/:Latin mini-mart, kind of like a 7-11, but usually smaller and more like a liquor store atmosphere. The word came from the actual Spanish word for "grocery store"- le bodega.
The following are two takes on opening night @ Bodega Taco Bar in Fairfield, the 1st by Stephanie Webster, the 2nd by a new CTbites contributor, Emily Sackett.
Chef Michael Young, owner of the popular Valencia Luncheria, is expanding his cult following and heading to Fairfield. His highly anticipated new venture, Bodega Taco Bar, opened this week at 1700 Post Road representing a culinary journey from Venezuela to Mexico. The concept? "Tacos and tequila with a slice of Brooklyn" says Young. The new menu features Mexican beach food… tacos, tortas, and well priced platos. Loyal Valencia diners will find that the menu retains the casually vibrant Latin American flavors they have come to crave, but at Bodega Taco Bar, breezy cabana meets bar scene chic resulting in tacos with a playfully upscale twist.
