As city-bound commuters dash to and fro’ and the pulse of the city continues to thrive, the Port Chester railroad station, a landmark since 1890, stands as a symbol of where we’ve been and where we’re going. Today, this turn of the century building is home to Our House Restaurant Group’s newest venture, Station House. In keeping with this dynamic restaurant group’s approach to hospitality, as seen with their popular Rye House Port Chester and Manhattan taverns, and last year’s mega outdoor hit, Village Beer Garden, Station House offers that same neighborhood vibe, this time, it comes rooted in history and coal-fired pizza.ctb
Up until recently, prime rib had all but vanished from restaurants. It remained on menus at less-than-trendy eateries or it was offered at others as a one-day-per-week special, but it never quite reached levels of steak extinction. If you’ve glanced at dinner menus lately—yes, even at hotspot restaurants—there’s a chance you’ve noticed that this beefy blue-plate special has reemerged!
If you’re a prime rib superfan, or if you salivate at the thought of a hearty slice of standing rib roast, Hoodoo Brown BBQ should be on your “Thursday Night Plans” list. Being a BBQ joint, they’re doing what you might imagine they’re doing with prime rib…they’re smoking whole 14 lb. roasts and serving them up until it’s all gone.
A short while back, fellow CTbites writer James Gribbon sent me a text. He asked, “Where’s a good place to get breakfast in SoNo?” I replied with, “There aren’t many. SoNo Baking Company and SoNo Harbor Café. That’s probably it.”
Unless it’s a weekend and restaurants are serving brunch, breakfast in South Norwalk is scarce. I’m not talking wheat grass juice or a pastry at one of the Latin places on South Main Street, when I say “BREAKFAST” I mean eggs, pancakes, and bacon. I want a sit-down place where I can get wired on quality coffee and clean up maple syrup drizzles with that last chunk of sausage.
While heading to Mohegan Sun for the Lady Gaga concert (yes, she was indeed fantastic), my editor at CTBites asked me to check out the casino’s restaurant scene. And not just one or two spots either. She wanted me to work my way through as many as possible. Naturally, I was intrigued. I’ve been to a few of the casino’s restaurants, but there were so many I have yet to experience. So when she asked me to do a restaurant crawl before the concert, I happily accepted the challenge. While I might not have tried them all - Mohegan Sun has a lot of restaurants - I managed to maneuver through a solid few. Here’s how it went.
Say you wanted to eat your way around the globe, but you were short on time and money and didn’t feel like flying. Problem solved. Chef Colt Taylor can take you there through his ever-changing menu. No jet lag or weather delays, and oh, the places your palate will go!
“We want to create more than a restaurant,” Colt explains. “We want to create this experience. Like you can come to four different places, and have four different meals, experiences, moments. We’re on menu 15 in five months. It’s exciting and it keeps things fresh.”
Not big on leaving the comforts of home? His Tuesday night burger night’s got all-American appeal, replete with fries and a craft brew. Wednesday is a popular Italian night. Mexico more your style? Take a trip on Thursday for tacos and tequila. And soon they’ll soon launch bourbon and braises on Fridays.
Then, come Sunday, it’s time for boozy brunch. “It’s eggs Arcadia and red velvet pancakes, all that fun stuff.” What’s eggs Arcadia, you say? “It’s my signature little brunch thing—like merging a Connecticut lobster roll and poached eggs. We put poached eggs over butter-poached lobster on a biscuit with a ginger-citrus hollandaise. It’s delicious!”
One of my favorite new-ish restaurants to pop up in the culinary hot spot of Mystic, Connecticut is the hip Engine Room. This outstanding restaurant highlights fresh, unique food served in a welcoming, very Instagrammable atmosphere. Let’s talk through their scrumptious menu while settling into their comfortable seats and remarking on their friendly staff.
Whether you think brunch is overrated or not, you should find your way to the Engine Room for a leisurely Sunday brunch with friends. Set inside an open wood and brick interior, with metal chairs and shiny black leather booth seating, you’ll feel comfortable enough to linger over your meal, and unlike many crowded establishments, you won’t feel rushed by the staff.
Back to the menu, which has something for traditional sweet breakfast lovers and those who aren’t really into breakfast foods (oh, the horror!).
Nestled at the farther end of a strip mall in Norwalk, right off of Rt. 7, is the newly opened eatery, The Dilly Duck Shop. Honestly, I feel it necessary to begin with the most obvious…what’s up with the name? “Dilly” is British slang for something notable or excellent, Duck is an homage to our fair state of Connecticut and the charm that flourishes here (ducks are also proud and colorful) and shop denotes “workshop”, as in a place of craft. So there you have it. The Dilly Duck Shop. It is not a store for winged fowl nor do they carve decoys. They sell food. Really good food.
When Paul Staley, the celebrated chef and owner of Branford’s Reverie Kitchen, was growing up in Madison, he had a paper route. One Thanksgiving, he folded a menu for rolls and pies into each New Haven Register. Soon, his customers were asking if he could make them the same for Christmas.
“I used the money I earned to pay for cooking classes with Jacques Pepin,” said the genial 53-year-old, who went on to hone his skills at the Culinary Institute of America, then worked as a sous chef in all-world restaurant Nikolai’s Roof in Atlanta, where the five-course prix fixe dinner once had a one-year waitlist.
“The food was elevated,” Staley said with palpable enthusiasm on a recent afternoon at Reverie Kitchen, the Branford Hill bistro with the sublime cuisine and the improbable location alongside a cleaners, one story below a nail salon, and amid a throng of fast-food joints.
“We used everything with the best ingredients. We were constantly pushing the envelope,” said the Madison resident, who was also a pastry chef at Robert Henry’s (now Union League Cafe) in New Haven and once cooked for Pope John Paul II.
Swyft, historic Kent’s new restaurant featuring wood-fired pizza, is now open offering creative small plates, pastas, rustic entrees, and a large selection of craft beers and natural wines.
Swyft is the brainchild of chef-owner Joel Viehland, formerly of the award-winning Community Table in Litchfield County. The historic 18th-century building is divided to house both a modern tavern and a fine dining restaurant. Swyft, a 40-seat tavern and bar, will offer seasonal comfort fare, with ingredients largely coming from nearby Rock Cobble Farm. Through a separate entrance is Ore Hill, where eventually Viehland will serve a tasting menu that draws upon his experience cooking at Noma, Gramercy Tavern, and other renowned restaurants.
At Swyft, the focus is on adventurous comfort food. Small plates include baby back pork ribs with guanciale-spiked XO sauce, a salad of lightly charred brassicas with crispy grains and pomegranate, and pickled wild mussels on saffron aioli toast, while entrees range from wood-fired chicken for two to rabbit milanese with cardoon gribiche or a burger with old-school tallow fries. Swyft will offer a selection of seasonal pizzas, wood-fired in a Pavesi oven from Naples, Italy. In addition to classics like margherita, Viehland will offer a kale and potato pie, with both the greens and the milk for the housemade ricotta coming from Rock Cobble Farm just minutes away.
Market Place Hospitality group is delighted to announce the grand opening of their newest location, Market Place Kitchen & Bar Newton, this Friday, December 1st. The restaurant will be open to the general public for dinner and is located at: The Village at Lexington Gardens, 32 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT. With sister locations in Avon, Danbury, and Woodbury, Market Place Kitchen & Bar is 100% locally owned and operated and committed to sourcing local ingredients and working with local farmers.
Managing Partner Eli Hawli says: “We are delighted and honored to be a local business supporting local farms. As our Market Place family continues to grow, we will continue to provide the same quality of craft cocktails and chef driven cuisine which we know all of our wonderful customers want and expect from us
Four years. That’s the time Tyler Anderson devoted to perfecting his signature dish, Tapioca Custard. A lush confection of clams, bacon, onion, potato and fennel, the delicacy perfectly defines the wizardry of this celebrated chef … a magical spin on homespun.
The small portion is intentionally introductory, a riff on a classic New England starter. As if by sorcery, the custard conjures “all the flavors of clam chowder.”
Anderson conceived the dish as a tribute to the meal – and the moment -- that super-charged his culinary life. “I went to the French Laundry in 1997 when Tomas Keller was in the kitchen,” he recalls. “Up to then I had been cooking mainly to meet women and go drinking with my buddies.”
He began the feast with Keller’s classic, Oysters and Pearls, a sabayon of pearl tapioca with beau soleil oysters and white sturgeon caviar.
“I took the first bite,” he remembers. “And at that exact second understood that cooking could be more than just cooking.” He pauses and grins. “It made me smile. I was happy. I now had a passion to make people happy.”
Chef Luis Restaurant, located at 129 Elm Street in the heart of New Canaan’s bustling retail and dining district, today announced its new name, menu focus and executive chef. “129” will offer American Contemporary cuisine under the leadership of newly-hired Executive Chef Joe Page, who brings more than 15 years of experience in kitchens across the United States and overseas.
“Coinciding with dramatic changes to the look and feel of the restaurant, we are excited to also unveil our new name and menu,” said Sergio Tamburlini, General Manager of 129. “To complement our comfortable, family-friendly ambience, our new all-day menu offers casual cuisine that is accessible to diners of all ages. Guests will recognize a few of their tried-and-true favorites from our old menu – tacos, calamari chorizo and our classic salads – along with Chef Joe’s spin on classic recipes including lobster salad with avocado and grilled tomatoes, tuna tartare with roasted shallots, radish, arugula and avocado, a wild mushroom omelet with organic eggs and gruyere, and more!”
“It’s a 21st Century iteration of a 19th Century Inn,” Robert promised. So, before the six of us scattered to warmer climes for the winter, we chose the newly opened Tavern at GrayBarns for our farewell dinner.
After a pre-prandial toast, our party was served an un-presupposing bread and butter plate. Standard fare? Hardly. Executive Chef Ben Freemole had us at first bite.
That homespun bread perfectly captures the ethos of Andy Glazer’s sweeping reconstruction and fortification of the legendary Silvermine Tavern and Inn, its footprint reduced by almost a third. In this new “Haven of Refuge,” both décor and dining dazzle, no detail taken for granted, not even a humble bread and butter starter.
Simsbury, a bucolic community nestled in the Farmington Valley about 25 minutes north of bustling Hartford, has rarely been considered a culinary hotspot. But unexpectedly, this former mill town is now home to what many critics deem the best new restaurant in Connecticut: Present Company, a small, rustic eatery located in what was once a horse stable astride the Farmington River.
Here the unexpected comes as no surprise. Consider the auspices of its co-owner, Jeffrey Lizotte, the acclaimed former chef at Hartford’s lux On20. His resume includes stints at Eric Ripert’s Le Bernadin and David Bouley’s Danube in New York, and two of France’s highly regarded restaurants, La Rupina in Bordeaux and the Michelin-starred La Bastide St. Antoine in Grasse. After all those glittering dining rooms, what is an award winning chef doing at a relaxed 49 seat venue in what some might call “The Sticks”?
Taproot is one of Fairfield County’s newest chef-driven restaurants. Jeff Taibe (Kawa Ni) and Steph Sweeney (Whelk, Jesup Hall) have teamed up to open the doors to a dining experience that combines a hyper local menu in a charming and down-to-earth setting. If you’re close, it's almost guaranteed to become a contender for a regular hangout spot. If not (but hey, Westport to Bethel is only 30 minutes), it is worth the drive. Thanks to a creative and seasonal menu, it's one of our new favorite spots. And here are just a few reasons why.
The Village Tavern in Ridgefield is just as you expect a New England tavern to be. Exposed brick and dark wood furnishings greet you upon arrival. Handsome forest green paneling and plaid fabrics offer a feeling of comfort and familiarity. On the far wall, local Connecticut artist Sharon Leichsenring dazzles with a larger than life wall mural representing “abbondanza," paying homage to Brunetti's Market, a Ridgefield staple, and the former occupant of the space. The Village Tavern fills a void in the area’s already rich culinary landscape. Their elevated comfort food ranges from simple to sophisticated. Chef Minin will tell you that he creates “American food that has been kissed by an Italian.”
The phrase, "It takes a village" comes to mind when describing the new restaurant that opens today, taking over the old Vespa space on the Saugatuck River in Westport. I've seen many restaurant openings in my day, but few have the support and focus on community in the way owner, Sal Augeri, has at The Port. This is Augeri's first restaurant, but he says "I've always wanted to open a restaurant, a neighborhood spot where locals can enjoy food that is approachable and comfortable." Indeed, Sal and his classic American menu may have hit upon something in the Westport food scene. Where does one go for a team dinner, a casual evening that won't break the bank, or a quick bite with your family after your kids’ practice? We haven't tasted the food yet, but according to Augeri and his 35 local Westport investors, you go to The Port.
One of Connecticut's most highly anticipated restaurant openings is nearing go time in downtown Westport. Bill Taibe and the team from Kawa Ni and The Whelk will open the doors to a new concept next week, Jesup Hall, located in Westport's old Town Hall. In Jesup, Taibe and Chef Daniel Sabia have created a community hangout, a restaurant that serves honest food, "the food we want to eat," says Sabia. In fact, there is nostalgia in both the menu and the concept. The Jesup family played a huge role in Westport's early years and our goal was to create something that felt like it had patina and age, says Taibe" The kitchen reveals a similar sentiment in its large cuts of meat, big salads, extensive burger menu, and popovers you'll wanna stash in your purse. With elegant vintage wallpaper, antique fixtures, warm tones and high ceilings, Jesup Hall is Westport's new local hangout.
Poised to celebrate its 10th year with Chef Tim LeBant at the helm, The Schoolhouse at Cannondale has long been on my radar. When a friend recently asked me to dinner I jumped at the chance. Nestled among the charming shops at the Cannondale train station, the one room schoolhouse is as delightful from the exterior as it is inside. A small entryway outfitted with a tiny bar area is separated from the dining area by a small curtained doorway, while many framed accolades set the mood for an excellent meal.
