Finding a cocktail in Connecticut is a whole experience. From cool bars to pubs to fine dining, there are countless places to enjoy a libation. A fun way to enjoy a relaxing environment and a curated cocktail is at one of the many speakeasies and speakeasy-style bars. While speakeasies are from the bygone era when alcohol was illegal, many local speakeasies incorporate a vibe of this elusive era (dark and seedy with a modern spin), along with secretive passwords-only entryways. Below, you’ll find a range of expertly crafted drinks - some of which are Prohibition-inspired - light bites, and a mysterious vibe with secret entryways that will have everyone in your party excited to venture into the unknown. Check out more about these 9 cool speakeasies below.
In the old days, you would have packed lunch, dinner, and possibly an overnight bag. Now, you make an appointment online, show up, check-in, bam, boom, out in under 30 minutes, total. So when I recently scheduled my visit, I chose a lunchtime appointment so I could combine it with seeking out a hidden gem in Waterbury. And this time I finally found one…Domenick & Pia Downtown Pizzeria.
Domenick and Pia is located at 3 Brook St. around the corner from the Palace Theatre and the University of Connecticut (Waterbury) and has served pizza to the local community for over 50 years. Any place that successfully thrived and survived through those economic swings of Waterbury has something to offer. To say Domenick and Pia is a hole in the wall would be an understatement. While the exterior reflects the recent gentrification of this small part of Waterbury, walk through the doors and whoosh, back to the 1970s. The general ambiance of the interior is probably reflecting its grand opening with Formica-topped and wood-trimmed tables, push-on prices reminiscent of the side-of-the-road hamburger stands, red plastic trays to carry your pick-up order to the table, the whole nine yards. My guess is the original pie-price was under $2, with a 25-cent slice-price. There is no glamour, no TVs, no beer, just good old-fashioned pizza, a couple of hot oven grinders, a ton of drink options, and one of the most pleasant staff imaginable. To succeed with this formula, the pizza better be really good. Mission accomplished.
The CTBites team paid a visit to Gioia right before it opened last fall— you can read about it here. This past weekend, CTBites returned to check out the newly launched brunch menu where you’ll be sure to find everything your brunch-craving heart desires. In typical fashion, we browsed the menu with discerning eyes, deciding which items seemed particularly delicious as well as photo-worthy. While doing so we nibbled on some Weekend Pastries – a selection of 3 different baked treats served with honey butter and a fruit preserve. Included was a flaky cherry turnover loaded with fruit and a cornmeal scone. This was not your run of the mill scone; this one was particularly light. The cornmeal added a lovely texture and a touch of sweetness which paired beautifully with the honey butter. These were joined by an old-fashioned glazed cake doughnut, reminiscent of eras past — the kind you want to dip into your cappuccino and savor slowly.
Prominent CT bartenders shared with me what they love to make and do to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. The most common answer to what they enjoy making is “plans to get my shift covered”, because we tend to hide on these holidays unless we are working. We enjoy house parties with traditional Irish food and craft minded drinks that have some real Irish pedigree.
Enjoy 4 cocktails & mocktails from local bartenders:Dustin Amore, Dan Rek, Chelsea Solkowski & Victoria Tenzyk.
Whenever town resident David Vogel said he thinks of a badger, an image of a tough little animal comes to mind. That’s why he said he chose the animal’s name for the new cocktail mixer company he founded — Badger Bevs, LLC.
“It’s one of these animals that’s gone viral in recent years for their relentless nature,” said Vogel, referring to badgers. “We love the resilience, that tenacity, because we’re this small brand and we’re going up against billion dollar brands. We have high ambitions but we have to be tough,” said Vogel, who is 39 and a member of the Ridgefield High School graduating class of 2003.
Badger Bevs, which was launched last summer, sells ginger beer, tonic water and club soda. The products are distributed by Chefs’ Warehouse in Ridgefield and Opici Family Distributing, which is headquartered in New Jersey with an office in Milford. Badger also makes a variety of cocktails, the recipes for which are available on the business' website.
Game on! We're bringing back our cocktail naming contest.
WIN FREE DINNER FOR TWO AT the uber-fun TACO GUY in Norwalk. Here's How...
Review the ingredients list below.
Enter YOUR original Cocktail Name (or multiple names) in the comments section under this post (including your Instagram account or email so we can reach out if you are selected).
If your Cocktail name is selected, it will be featured on the Taco Guy Spring cocktail menu & you will receive a FREE DINNER FOR 2 at Taco Guy + a chance to sample YOUR signature cocktail.
A few days after I interviewed owner and bartender, Alan Heron of the Flying Scotsman, he posted one of the portraits I captured of him on Instagram along with the caption, “Mediocre service guaranteed.”
In recent weeks, New Haven-style apizza has been big in the news, with feature stories splashed across such publications as The New York Times and The New Yorker. To the surprise of some, “apizza” is no typo. Apizza is a culinary cornerstone. Now that we’re on the same pie, let’s talk about how your readers can win free apizza for a year for National Pizza Day (February 9).
It was about time this ridiculous, limited (but slowly working on more) series returned to bring you more of the weird, bizarre, and funny tales in the restaurant industry.
And while edition number one was a hodgepodge of stories from chefs that you know in the general area, this version has a focus…
PIZZERIAS!
This one’s got a few longer stories that I promise are worth reading, a Wu Tang sighting, one video of a chef busting his ass, and plenty of weird customer orders.
And if you’re wondering what volume three might look like, we’re hitting up bartenders because we know there’s plenty of tea there.
Roll into the former Davinci’s Pizza (or Cosmos if we take it back to 1985) at 60 Connecticut Avenue, and it’s a way different vibe than it used to be.
Quirky artificial intelligence cartoons, featuring pizza, are pasted in the entryway. Sawed off cookbook bindings are the art on the walls. A black and white photo of Marco Pierre White stares at you if you glance to your right.
In the latter part of July, I covered the opening of Taco Guy and owner Adrian Hurtado. If you read THAT article, towards the end of it, I alluded to the wood burning pizza oven being used at some point.
If you’re a regular to Taco Guy like I have been, I’m sure you’ve asked Hurtado if he was going to fire that oven up. Well, friends, that time is now.
Two people walk into my bar. They both want to make amazing drinks for that holiday dinner. One of them is a bartender that studies the craft on a regular basis. The other person doesn’t know much besides a few drinks they they enjoy and have never made drinks themselves. Does one deserve to have a better time than the other simply because they do this all the time? I say no. We all deserve to have a good time and enjoy our adult beverages or mocktails.
IF YOU HAVE SKILLS WITH CRAFT COCKTAILS: Read the room, and read beyond the room. Holiday gatherings aren’t the time for us to prove why it was smart for us to drop out of college by pulling out the molecular mixology kits or playing with dry ice. The holiday gathering is about a laid back good time, or at least pretending that cooking for 17 hours is a relaxing activity. In any case, the beverage should contain flavors that anyone can understand, pronounce and enjoy without much research .
Use familiar spirits -bourbon and rum are seasonally fun. Vodka is a safe bet. Gin seems adventurous and may get a side eye, but in a sour style fruity cocktail, your guests WILL enjoy it. Sell them on the yummy ingredients.
Just One Thing-One ingredient can make multiple spirits shine and turn your 3-4 bottles into a complete menu.
In the early 1920s, Dominic Zuppardi brought his master bread-making skills from southern Italy to New Haven and after several years of working for others creating artisanal breads and “abeetz,” he opened Salerno’s Bakery on Donnelly Place in New Haven in 1932. Two years later he moved to Union Street in West Haven and opened Zuppardi’s Bakery, and in the 1940s Dominick handed the reigns to his son Anthony. In the early years, Anthony produced a small variety of apizzas, primarily the traditional tomato pie, and as the menu grew (a customer favorite was Anthony’s Italian fennel sausage), he decided to focus on apizza and rebrand the family shop Zuppardi’s Apizza. After Anthony’s passing in 1988, his children and grandchildren assumed the familial leadership to ensure the continuation of Dominick and Anthony’s tradition and almost 90 years after Dominic opened on Union Street, Zuppardi’s Apizza is still considered one of the best in the New Haven area.
The long running Miracle Christmas pop-up cocktail bar holiday pop-up is now open at three Connecticut bars you know and love. For those unfamiliar with Miracle Bar, this beloved Christmas themed holiday pop-up cocktail bar launched in 2014 in New York City, will continue spreading holiday cheer this year with over 100 locations around the world.
Miracle is a Christmas-themed pop-up cocktail bar that serves holiday cocktails in a festive setting. With kitschy holiday décor, professionally-developed cocktails and the nostalgic energy of the best office party you’ve ever been to, Miracle is sure to get even the grouchiest grinch in the holiday spirit.
Where can you find Miracle in CT?
Grab your ugly Christmas sweater and head to Riley's by the Seawall in Stratford, who has hosted Miracle in past years and returns in 2023 for some more fun. You can also track down some Miracle joy at first-time hosts, Perfusion in Newtown and The Hop Knot in Portland.
Riley's will be ready for the holiday festivities on Nov. 17. Perfusion, launches their pop-up on Nov. 21, and Hop Knot's debut on Nov. 29.
All three locations are ready for all the boozy holiday cheer you can muster.
Beyond the beautiful views, calming sounds, and salty smells of Sasco beach, one may hear the cries and laughs of a baby and delicious smells of pizza. These senses come from Proof Pizza, the food truck stationed at the beach Thursday through Saturday between four and eight pm in the Summer seasons, and out and about in CT spots including Sport Hill Farm and St. Thomas School in the Fall.
In another life, co-owner Jennifer DeGirolomo was in the banking industry, and her husband and co-owner Lenny was in construction. The couple has had a love for pizza since they started dating 16 years ago. In 2019, they made this love into a career.
“We had the opportunity to kind of restart and reinvent ourselves. He’s always wanted to do a food truck and we’ve always done pizza together and so it was kind of a no brainer. We said, we’re never going to have this chance again so we took everything we had, threw it into getting this little pizza oven from Italy and we did farmers markets and little pop up stuff,” Jennifer said.
“We love being down here, this has been kind of life changing for us. Like I said we love it, even on bad days that’s your view. We were driving down and my younger son was like, ‘Mom, there’s our office.’”
This oven from Italy was the perfect find for the DeGirolomo’s specific needs. They wanted a wood fire oven that was portable so it would fit in the truck, but was also high quality and could cook enough pizzas at once to keep up with demand. Once the oven was secured, they were able to develop the other key component of what makes Proof Pizza unique: the dough.
We recently had to the opportunity to visit the newly opened RAW* restaurant in downtown Hartford. Raw* is the newest concept by Gina Lauri, founder and CEO of The Statement Group which also owns the successful The Place 2 Be restaurants. Much like its predecessors RAW* is visual eye candy with a vibrant aquatic theme. The interior boasts an artistic and modern flare which was created by mixing assorted metals, white subway tile, neon lights, fun and whimsical artwork, graffiti, and a swimming-pool blue for an ultimate industrial-meets-under-water-vibe. But there’s no need to hold your breath here. In fact you’ll want to breathe deeply and take it all in. And there’s so much to take in!
So this taco and this pizza walk into an Indian joint…
Darbar India located in Branford, Connecticut is a family run business that has been a staple of the Branford community, serving authentic Indian cuisine for nearly 30 years. Sunny, Vinny and their father Haresh Nariyani took over the business in 2008 and this past January they relocated to its current location on Montowese Street.
When we were invited to check them out we naturally had to scope out their Instagram account which was filled with images of pizzas and tacos! Whaaaaat??? We really had to go see what this was all about.
Inside we found a small, modern space flanked by quintessentially Indian artifacts and figurines, punctuated by their fish pond. While the decor might be simple, it’s the food that steals the show. Darbar prides themselves on their traditional flavors and cooking styles. While Sunny and Vinny were both born in the states, Haresh did not come over until 1990.
Dave Portnoy’s 8.2 score of Grigg Street’s popular sour dough pizza was ehhh…good. Could’ve been higher even by a smidge in my opinion, but anything in the “8s” is a fine rating.
What Dave wasn’t wrong about, though, was scoring Grigg’s cheesesteak a full point higher at a 9.2, and despite being on a major pizza eating and scoring tour, he kept going back for another bite, saying, “This is great. You weren’t fuckin’ around.”
Portnoy dove in with his mouth. I’m about to dive into this haute “Philly” by giving you the culinary facts behind it.
To get the skinny on this appropriately greasy, pungently cheesy, slightly spicy, and beefy sandwich, I caught up with my homie, Grigg Street Pizza co-owner and chef, Matthew Watson.
New Haven is a foodie destination. We’ve got a scene for every foodie, but here, every “apizza” is personal. Pronounced “ah-beetz” by folks across the Greater New Haven Region, New Haven pizza always wins.
In the Elm City, pizza is a way of life and a cornerstone of our foodie culture. On our plates and in the books of state lawmakers, pizza is on its way to becoming the official state food of Connecticut, thanks to the “Pizza Bill.” The bill, SB 390, was authored by New Haven’s pizza historian Colin Caplan, and passed through the state house in 2021, up for a vote in the senate again this year. Our pizzas taste good, and our pies are also truly historic, (Frank Pepe’s, Connecticut’s oldest pizzeria, turned 98 this year, and is the fourth-oldest pizzeria in the country).
