On April 20, visit Hartford for the Smokin' Hops Brewfest 2019, presented by Bear’s Restaurant Group . A ticket includes a Smokin’ Hops Brewfest Commemorative Tasting glass, tasting of 40+ beers from 12 local breweries, tasting of an exclusive small batch beer brewed for the festival by Alvarium Beer Co., and live music by Hartford’s own, Boo-Yah. Buy tickets here. The event benefits Knox, Inc, a community-building organization that plants 500- 1,000 trees each year, maintains 20 community gardens, supports 6 urban farmers, trains young adults in landscaping, provides environmental education, and beautifies Hartford’s parks and green spaces.
El Segundo is celebrating its 2nd Anniversary with a party on Thursday August 30. It begins at 4pm with Complimentary Bites until 7pm. Live Music in the courtyard by PANA starts at 8pm. There will also be Drink Specials, A Dunk Tank, and more carnival activities.
The 2018 New England Food Truck Festival takes place September 1 & 2 at Mohegan Sun Casino. There will be food, live music/bands, face painting for the kids, field games, and fireworks on Saturday starting at 9:30 P.M.
On Monday, August 27, Chef Billy Grant of Grants Restaurant & Bar, Restaurant Bricco, and Bricco Trattoria will host a gourmet dinner featuring award-winning, local celebrity chefs in an unforgettable evening to benefit Foodshare.
This year Blues Views and BBQ will feature 20 bands, hours of family fun at the famous Imperial Jam with the bounce park, Touch a Truck, airbrush tattoos, pie and rib eating contests and our second stage showcasing local and family friendly musical entertainment all day long. The festival will be held in the Imperial Ave commuter lot in addition to the Levitt Pavilion.
Don’t miss the KCBS BBQ competition, and CTBites returns on Saturday 9/1 with cooking demos providing culinary inspiration.
CTbites Chef Demo Tent Lineup
12 Noon-Chef Jonas Daniela from Amis Trattoria
1 pm- Chef Pietro Scotti from Da Pietros Restaurant
2 pm- Chef Carlos Baez from The Spread and El Segundo
Hartford Baking Company is turning eight and has decided to break out the bubbly to celebrate! On September 1st, the West Hartford Center location (965 Farmington Ave, West Hartford) will be launching beer and wine sales and expanding their operating hours until 10 pm nightly. A roster of small plates will be added to the menu to pair with the beer and wine selections.
The first annual New Haven Cocktail Week kicks off on August 20! There are 25 participating venues all offering special cocktail lists you can try throughout the week along with 2 tastings and seminars per day.
Stamford Restaurant Week returns August 20-September 2. 20 Downtown Stamford restaurants are serving up special lunch & dinner prix fixe menus. Lunch ranges from $14.18 to $22.18 and dinner ranges from $28.18 to $38.18. Stamford Restaurant Weeks are presented by Stamford Tables.
New at El Segundo, join them for Trivia Night on Industry Night every Monday 7:30pm. Best Trivia Ever hosts an Epic Trivia Battle alongside global street eats.
The Hey Stamford! Food Festival is back! The two-day, family oriented food festival will feature a full concert experience on the Minchin Buick GMC mainstage. Joining us is legendary rapper Tone Loc, “The Worlds Best Party Band” Party Rock, Country star, Dylan Scott and regional country favorites, Jump the Gunn to name just a few. The Blind Rhino Beer Garden will highlight the finest in regional and national breweries, the Fairfield County Bank Kids Zone will include a host of games and activities for the family. And it’s not a food festival without some amazing cuisine! Check out the amazing line-ups of food trucks and vendors...
Do you remember seeing Finding Nemo in theaters? Or when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California? How about when a young rapper named 50 Cent won “best new artist?” It probably feels like a long time ago… and it was! 2003 to be exact. And that’s also how long Mohegan Sun’s Winefest has been around. January 26-29, 2018 marked the FIFTEENTH anniversary of this massive event that brings together celebrity chefs, wine, beer, spirits, food, and local vendors for an entire weekend. I first attended the festival in 2013 and had the opportunity cover the event on behalf of CTBites for the fourth time this year.
On August 26th, Hey Stamford brings local restaurants together at Mill River Park for Hey Stamford Food Festival, an innovative culinary festival.
In an effort to unite great restaurants and tasty brews, the food festival will take place at Mill River Park, Saturday August 26th 1-9pm, with a $10 admission.
Restaurants include: Seaside Sliders, Rice & Beans, Magee's Curbside, M.O.C. Eatery, The GRANOLA bar, Nosh Hound Food Truck, Hapa Food Truck, Bang Burger, DrewbaQ, DoughGirls Pizza, Kona Ice of Stamford, Boothbay Lobster, Gotta Go Greek, Bareburger, Brother Jimmy's BBQ, Remo's, The Spread & El Segundo, Hoodoo Brown BBQ, Cask Republic, Knot Norm's Catering, Acuario, Sign of the Whale, Nikki Glekas Events
Over 250 wines were poured and 30 restaurants sampled the best of their culinary offerings at the first ever West Hartford Food & Wine Festivalon the rolling grounds of the Kingswood Oxford school district. Guests enjoyed live music and plenty of space to roam, mingle, taste and sip over a leisurely summer afternoon.
When I married a fellow Yale grad student whose parents came to this country from Norway, I was struck by how intensely my newly adopted culture focused on light. There was the magic of Norwegian Christmas, when it seemed that every window in Oslo shone with candles lit against the darkness. At the opposite end of the year, there was the solstice at Midsummer, which has also been an occasion for partying it up since pagan days. Summer visits to a family farm north of the Arctic Circle brought grilling, beer, and card games in the brilliant light of the midnight sun.
While Connecticut residents, being well south of the Arctic, can count on dark summer nights, you do not have to visit Scandinavia, or even claim family connections, to celebrate Midsummer. You just need to be able to appreciate that there’s something about this peak of sunlight hours that invites us all to lighten up and Let It Go. It’s a rare person who could not use the reminder.
The solstice technically falls on June 20th, but Midsummer parties typically take place from June 19th through the 25th. Locally organized festivities include the Scandinavian Club of Fairfield’s annual celebration complete with a Maypole, a Swedish tradition. This year it’s on Saturday, June 25th, at noon, at 1351 South Pine Creek Road, Fairfield, CT 06825.
Photo courtesy of CTNOWBrace yourself for a grillin’ and chillin’ good time at Sun BBQFest. On June 11th & 12th, sink your teeth into the best barbeque around with festivities featuring celebrity BBQ Chef — Myron Mixon, live music, beer trailers, barbeque showdowns, local vendors, food trucks and so much more!
Tickets are $5.00 per day and go on sale Friday, April 1st through the Mohegan Sun Box Office. Kids 6 and under get in free. The weekend of the event, tickets for entry are available at the gate along with food and drink tickets.
Eat, Drink, Compete
Get in on all the BBQ action and decide who reigns supreme during the People’s Choice Contest all weekend long. Purchase $2.00 samples from 20 participating Kansas City BBQ Society teams and cast your vote for the ultimate best at Sun BBQFest. Competition remains fierce on Saturday with a Rib Contest fromNoon to 2:30pm followed by a Wing Challenge from 6:00pm to 8:30pm. For $5.00, each contest offers a sampling of 5 wings or 5 ribs for you to judge! A portion of the proceeds benefits the Sun BBQFest official charity, Operation BBQ Relief.
On Saturday October 17 take a drive to Litchfield County to enjoy the fall foliage and enjoy the richness of the local, handcrafted fare offered by the Farmstead Festival at Percy Thomson Meadows Farm, 78 Thomson Road in Bethlehem. The festival, organized by Artisan Made Northeast and Percy Thomson Meadows Farm, begins at 11 a.m. and runs through 5 p.m. and features handcrafted cheeses, wine, meats, condiments, chocolates, baked goods, produce, an educational pig roast and entertainment.
As an added incentive, Sister Noella Marcellino, “The Cheese Nun,” will make an appearance at the festival and participate in a question and answer session in the education tent. She is internationally recognized as one of the foremost experts in the art of natural-milk cheese making. She received her PhD in microbiology from the University of Connecticut, and was awarded a Fullbright grant to study cheese making in France. Her focus was the Auvergne, in central France, and the study of fungal populations in the many cheese caves of the region. For her work, she received the prestigious French Spirit Food Award.
Top Chefs from all around Fairfield County gathered at the CTbites Chef Demo Tent to delight guests at the Blues, Views & BBQ Festival this past weekend in Westport. They grilled, demoed recipes, and served up some great eats to thousands of eager fans. Was it fun? Heck yeah. The chefs you see above hail from: Match, Walrus + Carpenter, The Spread, Fleishers Craft Butchery, Bobby Q’s, Vespa, Can Tiin & NEAT, as well as Da Pietro's. They made brisket, pork buns, sliders, pork belly, and every other cut of every meat imaginable. Good times were had by all. Check out the pics!
The Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival, one of the East Coast’s most sophisticated and anticipated events, returns for its 10th year from September 25 – 27, 2015. Once again, the Marble House lawn will be the setting for the two-day Grand Tasting, which offers guests the chance to sample hundreds of wines from around the world and cuisine from nearly two dozen regional restaurants and caterers.
Martha Stewart will return to the Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival for her second year, headlining a brand new signature event with French chef Jacques Pépin. During A Conversation with Martha Stewart and Jacques Pépin, guests can enjoy a lively and engaging conversation with the lifestyle expert and the French chef while sipping Champagne Taittinger in the Marble House Gold Ballroom before heading out to the Grand Tasting.
Chef Pépin will also join daughter Claudine Pépin for a cooking demonstration on the KitchenAid Culinary Demonstration Stage during Sunday’s Grand Tasting. Claudine Pépin joined her father in preparing delicious meals and sharing cooking techniques on three public television shows and has served as a Brand Ambassador for Moet & Chandon and Dom Perignon Champagne. She recently wrote her first book, Kids Cook French, a collection of thirty favorite, simple, classic French recipes in both English and French, illustrated by her father Jacques and daughter Shorey.
The 8th annual Blues, Views & BBQ Festival presented by the Westport Downtown Merchants Association will be held in Westport CT on September 5 & 6 at the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts and the grounds of the Westport Library.
CTbites will once again play host to the areas top chefs as they grill up and demo some of their favorite dishes and offer up samples for attendees of the festival. Come on down and meet this incredibly talented group of local chefs.
Tis the season for Farmer’s Markets and they are taking place all over Connecticut. Find one near you.
Have you ever heard of “Moink balls?” Prepare to be amazed… they are meatballs wrapped in bacon! On Mondays, Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford sells them for 50 cents each.
Newly opened Brother Jimmy’s BBQ, located in Stamford, has announced that kids eat free Monday-Saturday until 7pm (with purchase of an adult platter and southern specialty).
June 10th, join Cask Republic Stamford for “What the Funk,” a night featuring beers with extreme tasting profiles. Starting at 5pm they’ll serve “funky” beers from bitter to sour to barnyard!
Fairfield Cheese Company offers “Perfect Pairings: Cheese & Wine”at its Fairfield Location on Tuesday, June 9 and at its Greenwich Location Thursday, June 11. They’ll pair the perfect cheese with its perfect wine match. 7-9pm, $45 per person.
Stratford, CT's Two Roads Brewing Company will be celebrating their 2nd annual Road Jam concert on the grounds of their 100 year-old brewery building and it promises to be just as fun as last year with four awesome bands, great food trucks and plenty of Two Roads beer.
Building on the success of last year's event, this year's Road Jam will be a must-attend festival for music lovers. Two Roads has hired three local bands as well as a headliner all the way from New Orleans to keep you dancing until last call.
Returning this year will be the Alpaca Gnomes who killed it at last year’s event and new to the line-up this year are two other Connecticut favorites, the psychedelic Snooty Garland and jam group The McLovins.
Headlining the event is New Orleans' finest brass band: The Soul Rebels. They have shared the stage with everyone from Kanye West to Dave Matthews and have collaborated with some of this generation's best musical acts. They have been described by the Village Voice as “the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong.” Two Roads is thrilled to feature them as the main act.
Ninety9Bottles Craft Beer Festival is back for it's 2nd Annual Festival where Festival goers will enjoy a variety of brews while overlooking beautiful Norwalk Harbor up atop the hill at Oyster Shell Park. With an emphasis on New England based breweries, we will be pouring samples of 40+ CRAFT BEERS and some old favorites and some that you have yet to experience including new beers to the Connecticut market.
YOU CAN WIN 2 FREE TIX TO NINETY9BOTTLES by telling us why YOU need to go, in the comments section below. Please include your email address so we can contact you. Winners announced May 31st.
Ninety9Bottles Craft Beer Festival will feature great LIVE MUSIC along with some of the area’s most popular FOOD TRUCKS including LobsterCraft, Bounty, Melt Mobile, One Bro Pizza Co. and The Local Meatball each serving up some delicious local fare.
Session beers are popular now, but a single drinking session rarely includes 250 different beers. The Big Brew NY Beer Festival returned to White Plains on Feb. 7 with hundreds of kegged and bottled beers, plus a VIP area with almost 30 casks of special ales. It's tough to write with a beer in one hand and camera in the other, but I managed to record a few notes and observations from what has become a very good midsize beer festival.
First: it may look crowded in a few of these photos, but the crowd was never an issue. Beer fest attendees tend to be pretty easy going. Most seem happy just to be in a place where they can simply stick out their glass and have it filled, and it's exciting to try new brands and styles without running the risk of taking your first sip and realizing you're now stuck with a six pack of beer you wouldn't use to poison driveway weeds.
The 5th annual Connecticut Cheese & Wine Festival, a celebration of local artisan made foods & wines will take place at Hopkins Vineyard, 25 Hopkins Rd in New Preston, on Saturday, October 18, 2014, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This event will feature locally made handcrafted cheeses, boutique wines and specialty foods and crafts from some of the Northeast’s top producers. This varied celebration, with the special wine and food pairings, promises to be the artisan food event of the year.
