Adventure in Good Taste Describes This Lobster Dinner Cruise
 

A thrilling and tasty adventure awaits just off the coast of southeastern Connecticut with help from the Mystic Whaler, a schooner that offers, among other cruises, a lobster dinner cruise. Departing from its summer berth at the city pier in New London, the Whaler takes visitors on a sail to view the scenic waters, lighthouses, and coastlines of Fisher’s Sound. Learn the history of many islands and lighthouses. Haul a line, take a turn at the wheel, or plot your course. A special guest – of sorts – of the three-hour dinner cruise is a boiled lobster (accompanied by the traditional clam chowder) served onboard. Guests can crack shells and dip lobster meat while they take in the sunset and the spectacular water views. Check the Whaler’s schedule on its website for Lobster Dinner Cruise dates; they are scattered throughout the summer. Phone: 1-800-697-8420.

Brewery / Restaurant Calls Itself “Stylish Escape With Endless Possibilities”
 

South Port Brewing Company’s Restaurant & Brewery have offered culinary excellence and brewing expertise to Connecticut visitors for 11 years. SPB’s owners say the restaurants, in Branford, Stamford, Southport, Milford and Hamden, are more than restaurants; they try to serve guests as a friendly neighbor with guests’ comfort in mind or “a stylish escape with endless possibilities.” SBC’s 27 home-brews are processed with the finest natural ingredients meant to satisfy everyone from the casual taster to the sophisticated connoisseur. Sampling is encouraged. Phone: 203-256-2336.

Coconut Cake “a Mile High” Is One Enticement at This Cafe
 

Chef Carole Peck was darned serious when she named her Woodbury restaurant the Good News Café. This is a hip, upbeat and friendly restaurant with our focus on good food from local farms. The menus offer a range of original dishes including appetizers and salads, vegetarian compositions, fresh fishes, local farm-raised meats and seductive sweets. Fans of the Good News Café travel from far and wide for the desserts that have won Connecticut Magazine statewide honors -- Chocolate Yankee Doodles, Mile-High Coconut Cake, and Mocha Pecan Pie, to name a few. And the Good News Bar pours 30 wines by the glass, thirst-quenching cocktails, aged Scotches, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and many brands of beer. None of this can even describe the enthusiasm for food and service to be found at the Good News. Open daily except Tuesdays. Phone: 203-266-4663.

Cultural Center on Historic Farm Offers Classes, Kitchen Store
 

Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford in Connecticut’s Litchfield region is not easily categorized. To begin with, it is a combination of two historic, 19th-century dairy farms with authentic farm architecture that is in use today (and listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The property is preserved and managed by stewards who are devoted to protecting this piece of New England agricultural history and its buildings, stone walls, and fields. The property includes a cultural center, museum, art gallery, and – in a building known as the Silo – a retail store offering gourmet foods, high-quality cooking supplies, and gifts. The Silo is also home to a cooking school, offering cooking classes taught by culinary faculty from around the country. Classes are offered for both the novice and the experienced cook, children and adults. The farm and its cookery offerings have been luring food fanatics for decades. Phone: 860-355-0300.

Dedicated Carnivores Should Visit this Brazilian Restaurant
 

Unabashed lovers of meat dishes need to make tracks for Churrascaria Braza in Hartford, a unique dining experience modeled after the Brazilian tradition of serving slow-roasted meats at tableside. This tradition originated in the south of Brazil in the 1800s. The concept is to serve a wide variety of different cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and poultry in succession at tableside. Menu is a fixed price for all you can eat. Dinner starts with a buffet of salads, peel-and-eat shrimp, grilled vegetables, and appetizers. To start tableside meat service, guests use a small disk with a green side and a red side. The green side signals waiters to begin service; red stops service. Dinner consists of 12 to 15 selections of different meats, seasoned carefully and slow-roasted over an open rotisserie. Just remember: leave your vegan friends at home. Phone: 860-882-1839.

Downtown Chic Finds a Home in South Norwalk
 

Historic South Norwalk, better known as SoNo, is delightful mixture of classy and tasteful restaurants, shops, and clubs, museums and galleries. The neighborhood is anchored by the Maritime Aquarium on North Water Street, and it includes the Norwalk Museum, the Norwalk Hat Factory (now a traditional hardware store), Oyster Shell Park (with views of Norwalk Harbor). Our interest here is in food, and it is plentiful. Among the choices in this pedestrian-friendly area are Goccia Ristorante (Italian) at 203-642-3355, Barcelona Wine Bar (Mediterranean) at 203-899-0088, El Acapulco (Mexican) at 203-853-6217, Habana (Cuban) at 203-852-9790, Kazu (Japanese) at 203-866-7492, O’Neill’s Pub & Restaurant (Irish) at 203-838-0222, and The Loft (a martini bar) at 203-838-6555, as well as steak and seafood eateries. Keep an eye on local calendar listings for food- and history-related festivals at SoNo. They include the SoNo Arts Celebration (in August), the Norwalk Jazz Festival (July) and the Norwalk Oyster Festival (September).

Elegance in Every Detail Describes Foxwoods’s Paragon
 

The word paragon means the tops, and the Paragon restaurant at Foxwoods Casino and Resort in Ledyard fits that description in any number of ways. First, it is situated on the 24th floor of the Grand Pequot Tower, with stunning views of the Connecticut countryside. Next, Paragon is one of only seven Connecticut restaurants to earn the AAA Four-Diamond rating. A French- and Asian-influenced menu tempts sophisticated palates with lobster thermidor, Wolfneck Farms organic ribeye steak and spring lamb rack. At Paragon, diners can indulge in caviar and select from tableside service of carved Dover sole or Chateaubriand for two. A comprehensive wine selection is also offered. An elegant setting for a pre- or post-show drink, the Champagne Bar offers more than two dozen champagnes by the bottle, half-bottle or glass as well as a variety of champagne cocktails and martinis. Is Paragon the tops? Hmmm... could be. Phone: 800-FOXWOODS.

Feed Your Mind at This Book-Laden Eatery
 

Feed the belly; feed the brain. That could be the motto of the Traveler Restaurant in Union, in the northeastern corner of Connecticut. The restaurant is a combined eatery and used book bin, which, for many of us, is pretty close to heaven. In addition to the solid, satisfying American cuisine served year-round, Traveler welcomes every diner to take three used books from the restaurant’s collection. While waiting for your meal, you can browse and find just about anything you can imagine: children’s books (just say “no” to video in the car), fiction and non-fiction, cookbooks, you name it. About 5,000 selections are available for diners to browse and take. Downstairs, in the Book Cellar, you can choose even more selections, for a small price. The menu offers a variety of offerings, including vegetarian meals and a kids’ menu. For the head or the stomach, it’s all good. Phone: 860-684-4920.

Leffingwells Martini Bar Takes You Out of this World
 

Among the artistic delights of the spectacular Mohegan Sun in Montville is a jagged, three-story crystal mountain known as Wombi Rock. A zig-zag climb up several short flights of stairs through the mountain takes explorers to Leffingwells martini bar, serving 50 specialty martinis. In addition to the bar, tiny intimate clusters of plush chairs and cocktail tables tucked in cul-de-sacs all through the mountain allow you to snuggle up for a drink and small talk. Overhead is the 150-foot-wide planetarium dome that uses fiber optic technology to project displays of constellations, sun cycles, and clouds. Visitors can view the nighttime sky and constellations as they would appear on a late summer night. Several spots in the three-story mountain offer views of the vast gaming floor below – watch for James Bond to waltz into view. Open daily, 11 a.m. to midnight or later. Phone: 888-226-7711.

New England Diners

New England diners offer no-frills food, from corned beef hash to Boston cream pie

Authentic diners and traditional diner food are alive and sizzling in every corner of New England. From the outside, diners mark their territory with their characteristic barrel roofs, neon lighting, and fringe of cars and trucks with local license tags. Inside, counter stools and booths are packed with families craving hash browns, meat loaf, home made pie and other diner staples.

New England is the birthplace of the diner. In 1872, a pressman at the Providence Journal newspaper began to sell prepared food from a horse-drawn wagon outside the Journal building. Next, companies were founded to manufacture and sell “lunch wagons” with interior seating. Then others began buying old horse-drawn streetcars and converting them to diners. By the 1930s, diners began to adopt a more streamlined, railroad-car appearance. In the 1950s, diners began to lose customers to new fast-food establishments, but a diner revival began in the late 1970s. Hot spots for diner history also include Worcester, Massachusetts, home of the prolific Worcester Lunch Car Company.

The Web site www.dinercity.com has extensive listings of diners by state. Here are some highlights in New England:

Connecticut

Collin's Diner
Route 44, RR Square
Canaan, Connecticut
Phone: 860-774-1837
Notable: National Historic Landmark built in 1941. Open 7 days a week.

Curley's Diner
62 West Park Place
Stamford, Connecticut
Phone: 203-348-2020
Notable: Open 24 hours, near university, low prices, breakfast served day and night. Specialties are cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes.

Eggs Up Diner
1462 Portland Cobalt Road
Portland, Connecticut
Phone: 860-342-4968
Notable: Southern Eggs Benedict includes sausage gravy, a biscuit, and country ham. Really good food and service.

Norm’s Diner
171 Bridge Street
Groton, Connecticut
Phone: 860-445-5026
Notable: Popular with the locals, open 24/7. Great diner authenticity.

Olympia Diner
3414 Berlin Turnpike
Newington, Connecticut
Phone: 860-666-9948
Notable: 1950’s atmosphere with great neon lights. Great meatloaf and Olympian breakfast. Open daily until midnight.

O'Rourke's
728 Main Street
Middletown, Connecticut
Phone: 860-346-6101
Notable: Special dishes are the steamed cheeseburger — a Connecticut passion — 3-way chili “Seeley style” (named for the diner’s most devoted patron), and the tuna smelt.

Parkway Diner
1066 High Ridge Road
Stamford, CT,
Phone: 203-329-9511
Notable: Platter specials with big portions.

Quaker Diner
319 Park Road
West Hartford, Connecticut
Phone: 860-232-5523
Notable: Best breakfast in the world. Friendly people and great 1930s atmosphere. Super busy on Sundays after church.

Maine

A1 Diner
3 Bridge Street
Gardiner, Maine
Phone: 207-582-5586
Notable: This Worcester Diner arrived by truck in Gardiner in 1946. Flaky biscuits, grilled sandwiches and burgers are still favorites.

Brunswick Diner
101 1/2 Pleasant Street
Brunswick, Maine
Phone: 207-729-5948
Notable: This diner was a vintage Worcester Lunch Car that has gone under many renovations but has kept its charm and originality. Hot turkey sandwiches, breakfast at any time and thick frappes (milkshakes) are all good. Step up into the booths and play the Old Elvis songs on the juke box.

Becky's Diner
390 Commercial Street
Portland, Maine
Phone: 207-773-7070
Notable: Located right on Hobson's Wharf in the Old Port in Portland. Great breakfasts every time. Open 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

Maine Diner
2265 Post Road
Wells, Maine
Phone: 207-646-4441
Notable: Served its four millionth customer in fall 2005.

Moody’s Diner
U.S. Route 1
Waldoboro, Maine
Phone: 207-832-7785
Notable: The blueberry muffins won a gold medal from the Culinary Hall of Fame and Gourmet magazine has requested the recipe for the world-famous walnut pie.

Miss Portland Diner
49 Marginal Way
Portland, Maine
Phone: 207-773-3246
Notable: The diner appeared in the Mel Gibson film “Man Without a Face.” It is an original 1949 Worcester diner filled with Art Deco influence and lots of families.

Palace Diner
18 Franklin Street
Biddeford, Maine
Phone: 207 282-6468
Notable: A landmark 15-stool diner 1926 Pollard diner where mayors and mill workers have eaten side by side for almost 80 years.

Massachusetts

Al Mac’s Diner
135 President Avenue
Fall River, Massachusetts
Phone: 508-679-5851
Notable: Slogan is "Justly Famous Since 1910." Built in 1954 by the DeRaffle Manufacturing Company of New Rochelle, New York.

Arthur's Paradise Diner
112 Bridge Street
Lowell, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-452-8647
Notable: Authentic Worcester Diner car, circa 1937. A favorite item is the Double Meat Boot Mill Sandwich, with egg, home fries, cheese and bacon on a grilled roll, is a real stick-to-your-ribs breakfast.

Agawam Diner
Route 1 and 133
Rowley, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-948-7780
Notable: Tiny chrome diner with red vinyl seats. Hamburger plates, grilled cheese sandwiches, beef stew and terrific pies. Great prices too.

Blue Bonnet Dinner
324 King Street
Northampton, Massachusetts
Phone: 413-584-3333
Notable: “Has to be one of the best diners in New England.” Daily specials.

Boulevard Diner
155 Shrewbury Street
Worcester, Massachusetts
Phone: 508-791-4535
Notable: A classic Worcester Lunch Car with the wooden interior and wooden booths. Fluffy omelets, cheese steaks, and Brazilian-style hamburgers.

Deluxe Town Diner
627 Mount Auburn Street
Watertown, Massachusetts
Phone: 617-926-8400
Notable: Great breakfast. Many healthy choice meals. Classic dishes and unique desserts every day. Sweet potato pancakes with real Massachusetts maple syrup.

Morgan Square Diner
6 Myrtle Avenue
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-343-9549
Notable: Manufactured in 1941 by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, with porcelain exterior, hardwood interior, beautiful Gothic lettering.

Miss Florence Diner
99 Main Street
Florence, Massachusetts
Phone: 413-584-3137
Notable: Classic techno-fifties diner with large portions of good food. Table juke-boxes to entertain. Pancakes are terrific.

Salem Diner
326 Canal Street
Salem, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-471-7918
Notable: This Sterling Streamliner was built by the J.B. Judkins Company in 1941 and has occupied a small lot at 326 Canal Street for nearly 60 years.

New Hampshire

Littleton Diner
145 Main Street
Littleton, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-444-3994
Notable: Traditional New England home-cooked food. Great cheeseburgers, French fries, meat loaf, and corned beef hash.

Plain Jane's Diner
Route 25
Rumney, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-786-2525
Notable: This beautiful 1954 O’Mahoney sits in the middle of nowhere, on a long stretch of mostly deserted but highly traveled mountain highway. A tasteful and tasty experience.

Peterborough Diner
10 Depot Street
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-924-6202
Notable: The Boston cream pie is out-of-this-world great.

Sunny Day Diner
Connector Road
Lincoln, NH
Phone: 603-745-4833
Notable: Beautifully restored diner made by the Master Company of Pequannock, NJ in 1958. The owner-chef is a Culinary Institute of America graduate. Everything is delicious and prepared from scratch. Don’t leave without having a piece of pie.

The Red Arrow Diner
61 Lowell Street
Manchester, New Hampshire
603-626-1118
Notable: Slogan: “We really serve it on a blue plate,” the diner says of its Blue Plate Specials.

The Tilt'n Diner
Exit 20 off Route 93
Tilton, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-286-2204
Notable: Slogan: “Think ‘Happy Days’ in New Hampshire”

Rhode Island

Haven Brothers
Parking space next to City Hall
Providence, Rhode Island
Notable: This historic figure is towed every night to the edge of Kennedy Plaza next to City Hall, this classic stainless-steel diner serves up food all night long to club goers, bikers, and other wanderers. Two barstool-style seats at a short counter are the only indoor seating. Outdoor annex seating is the front steps of City Hall.

Seaplane Diner
307 Allen Ave. at Mural Street
Providence, Rhode Island
Phone: 401-941-9547
Notable: A true mobile diner in every sense of the word. Many hidden surprises and nuances in their menu offerings. The service is terrific.

Jigger’s
145 Main St.
East Greenwich, Rhode Island
Phone: 401-884-5388
Notable: The best Johnny cakes (cornmeal pancakes) on the planet, according to aficionados.

Bishop's 4th Street Diner
184 Admiral Kalbfus Road
Newport, Rhode Island
401-847-2069
Notable: Thin and crispy Johnnycakes and biscuits and gravy that are not to be missed. Try the Portuguese sweet bread. Service is great and prices are what you want from a diner.

Modern Diner
364 East Ave
Pawtucket, RI 02860
Phone: 401- 726-8390
Notable: 1941 Streamliner Diner. First diner to be listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Cash only. Hearty breakfasts and great meatloaf.

Vermont

Blue Benn Diner
314 North Street
Bennington, VT
Phone: 802-442-5140
Notable: Authentic diner. Specialties include turkey hash, breakfast burritos, all sorts of pancakes and lots of vegetarian options. Local people rate it as the best diner in the country.

Chelsea Royal Diner
Route 9 West
Brattleboro, Vermont
Notable: 1938 Worcester Diner with breakfast and dinner specials and three or four blue plate dinners every day.

Farmers Diner
5573 Woodstock Road (Route 4)
Quechee, Vermont
Phone: 802-295-4600
Notable: Everything on the menu is from local farmers.

Miss Bellows Falls Diner
90 Rockingham
Bellows Falls, Vermont
Phone: 802-463-9800
Notable: Built in the 1920s by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, Vermont's only surviving barrel-roofed diner was moved here from Massachusetts in 1942. Look for part of an earlier name painted on the back.

Putney Diner
Main Street
Putney, Vermont
Phone: 802-387-5433
Notable: Serving classic Vermont cooking with a few surprises, like the Cajun Skillet Breakfast, a short, tasty trip from sugar maple forests to the Gulf Coast bayous. Also displays the work of local artists.

T.J. Buckley’s Uptown Dining
132 Elliot Street
Brattleboro, Vermont
Phone: 802-257-4922
Notable: T.J. Buckley's Uptown Dining Some say this is a Worcester from the 1920s; others claim it is a converted. Unusually tiny in size, with two seatings per night.

Yankee Diner
Quechee Village, Route 4
Quechee, Vermont
Phone: 802-296-7911
Notable: a beautifully restored 1946 Worcester Streamliner.

Diner Slang

Cup of Joe or Java -- cup of coffee
Adam and Eve on a Raft -- two eggs on toast
Soup jockey – waitress
Sun kiss -- orange juice
Baby juice -- glass of milk
Life preservers – donuts
Blowout patches with Vermont – pancakes with maple syrup
Wreck ’em -- scrambled eggs
Shingle with a shimmy and a shake -- toast with jelly
Burn the British -- toasted English muffin
Sweep the kitchen or Clean up the kitchen -- a plate of hash
Noah’s boy on bread – a ham sandwich
Cow paste – butter
Dog soup – glass of water
M.D. – Dr. Pepper
Mike and Ike – salt and pepper shakers
Sea dust – salt

And, to order a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion, your waitress may tell the cook to “burn one, drag it through the garden, and pin a rose on it.”

Web Sites

American Diner Museum

i Love Diners.com

Diner City

Diner Reading

Lost Diners and Roadside Restaurants of New England and New York, Will Anderson, 2001.

American Diner, Richard Gutman, 1979.

Diners: People and Places, Gerd Kittel, 1990.

Blue Plate Specials and Blue Ribbon Chefs: The Heart and Soul of America's Great Roadside Restaurants, Jane Stern, 2001.

Greasy Spoon. A quarterly periodical.

New England Foods

New England cookery combines the older English methods of steaming and boiling with ingredients familiar to Native Americans, like corn, game, shellfish, potatoes, cranberries, maple syrup, and cornmeal. New England has meager and rocky soil but it has a bounty of fish — especially cod — and shellfish, including clams, oysters, and lobster. Boston baked beans, which became a Saturday supper staple because of the Puritans’ Sabbath rules, cranberry dishes of all kinds, and maple syrup and candy have all found a place in the American palate through New England.

Clambake The New England clambake is both a meal and an outdoor construction project. The work begins with cooks assembling the ingredients (lobsters, whole fish, ears of corn, clams, mussels, red bliss potatoes, and onions) and cooking gear (firewood, charcoal, stones, seaweed, tarps, and shovels). The crew begins by digging a hole – preferably on the beach -- and lining it with stones, wood, and charcoal. Essentially, they are creating a below-ground bonfire and heating the rocks to create a steam bath for the food. When the wood has burned down to ash, saturated seaweed is laid over the hot rocks, creating a pit of steam. Small packets of seafood, corn, and potatoes wrapped in wet cheesecloth are laid on top of the seaweed. The food packets are covered with more seaweed, and the whole pit is covered with a tarp for up to about two hours. At the end of the cooking time, the food is unearthed and served with lots of drawn butter and compliments for the cooks.

Lobster A New England lobster feast is no place for the shy or faint of heart. It takes work and skill to bust open the exoskeleton of the bright-orange, spiny beast, but the delicate taste of the lobster meat, dipped in drawn butter, is well worth the effort. The most popular variety in the United States is the Maine lobster. It has five pairs of legs; the first pair is large, heavy claws that contain a good amount of meat. The other meat-rich portion of the animal is its tail. Boiled lobster is served with a bib, drawn butter, a cracking tool, and a narrow fork for easing the meat out of the broken shell.

Cod Cape Cod, the sand-scoured curl of land extending from Massachusetts into the Atlantic, didn’t get its name for nothing. Cod is New England’s fish, a white, lean, firm and mild-tasting meat. Cod and scrod (the name for young cod and haddock) can be baked, broiled, poached and fried. Whole fish, which can range in weight from one-and-a-half to 100 pounds, can be stuffed. Cod cheeks and tongues are a local delicacy.

Clam Chowder Clam chowder has many varieties, and each has its loyal following. One three-way division of clam chowders is New England clam chowder, with a creamy broth; Rhode Island clam chowder, with a clear broth; and Manhattan clam chowder, with a tomato-based broth. The chowders made by early settlers used salt pork and biscuits. Today chowder cooks discard the biscuits, but often sprinkle crackers on top of the chowder. Clams, hard or soft, are the basis of the most common chowders, but other types of fish are often used, depending on the season and the catch. According to “50 Chowders” by Jasper White, the oldest known fish chowder recipe in print appeared in the Boston Evening Post on September 23, 1751.

Cranberries Shiny, scarlet cranberries have a bigger job than just looking beautiful on the Thanksgiving dinner table. They grow wild but also are extensively cultivated in huge, sandy bogs, mostly in Massachusetts. The peak period to buy and use fresh cranberries is October through December. Apart from cranberry sauce, this fruit makes delicious chutneys, pies, and cobblers. Because they are sour, cranberries are best combined with other fruits, such as apples or dried apricots.

Maple Sugar The maple forests of northern New England do more than cover the hills with blankets of gold every fall. In later winter – February to March — the combination of freezing nights and warmer days causes sap in the maple trees to begin to move. The Indians collected sap by making slashes in the tree trunks. Early European settlers in New England at first copied the Indians’ sap-collection methods, but by 1800 they began harvesting the sap by drilling a small hole in the tree and inserting a tube made from a hollowed twig. In the early years, maple sap was boiled down and made into maple sugar, not syrup, because it was easier to store the dried and hardened sugar. Early makers of maple products boiled sap in iron kettles hanging over an open fire. This process evaporated water out of the sap, leaving the essential syrup. When it was thickened, the syrup was stirred until it began to crystallize, and then poured into molds. Today, during March and April, hundreds of sugar houses all over New England welcome visitors to watch the process and taste the fruits of the maple tree.

Boston Baked Beans The short definition of Boston baked beans is dried navy beans baked slowly with molasses and salt pork. The early colonists learned to cook dried beans from the American Indians, who would dig pits in the earth and slow-cook beans with maple sugar and bear fat. This dish evolved into baked beans with salt pork and molasses. It was traditionally served on Saturday nights in Colonial times. The Puritan Sabbath — when no cooking could be done — ran from sundown Saturday to sundown on Sunday. Puritan wives baked beans in brick ovens on Saturday for that night’s supper. The leftovers were still warm when the family returned from church Sunday morning.

New England Boiled Dinner This dinner, with roots in Ireland, is a one-pot meal native to New England that contains various ingredients, but primarily corned beef, cabbage, carrots, turnips, and potatoes. These ingredients, along with seasonings, are added at various times during cooking and slowly simmered together to create a hearty one-pot meal. Common condiments include horse radish, mustard, and vinegar. The dish is representative of the cultural heritage of the region, notably that of the Irish.

New England is Apple Country Apple growing has found a fertile home in rocky soils, long, hot summers, and crisp fall days of New England. The New England apple industry is still largely family-owned and orchards are an important community resource. Many growers offer pick-your-own sales and farm stands that sell homemade apple butter, applesauce, pies, and other treats. Among the other treats is apple cider -- fermented (“hard”) or non-fermented. Until the mid-1800s, hard cider was the most popular beverage in North America because apples were plentiful; it was cheap to make; and, unlike milk, it would not go bad. All the colonists, young and old, drank hard cider at all types of family and church occasions.

New Haven – Inventor of the Pizza – Serves the Best Pies Anywhere
 

According to legend, the American version of the pizza was born in New Haven in the early 1900s, created by Frank Pepe, an Italian restaurateur (note to New York and Philly: we are not prepared to mediate any Creation Story disputes). As the New Haven story goes, Pepe opened his first pizzeria on Wooster Street and in 1938 his nephew left the family business and opened his own pizzeria, Sally's. Later, Pepe moved out of his original store, now called The Spot, and opened a larger restaurant. Today, Frank Pepe's Pizzeria (157 Wooster Street at 203-865-5762) and Sally's Apizza (237 Wooster Street at 203-624-5271) and Frank Pepe's The Spot (163 Wooster Street at 203-865-7602) are among the top choices of pizza connoisseurs. Note that these establishments are within burping distance of each other, so a comparison tour along Wooster Street is always a great option for a long Saturday afternoon.

Rustling Wind Cheese Company Raises Cheese Making to Art
 

This story starts with a small dairy in Falls Village whose owner, Joan Lamothe, realized she had to ramp up the value of her milk in order to turn a fair profit. So, in 1998, Lamothe and Florence Brocklehurst, a British native and master cheesemaker, founded Rustling Wind Cheese Company. Cheeses such as Chesire, Wensleydale, and goat cheese are sold at the company store, which is open seven days a week. Along with cheeses, the business has expanded into making and selling jams and jellies, chutneys, pickles and relishes, maple products, goat’s milk fudge, goat milk soap, and hand-knit clothes from the farm’s own sheep’s wool. A relaxing springtime drive to Rustling Winds, located in lovely Litchfield, is a joy all by itself and the cheese and other foods are a superb treat to flavor the day. Phone: 860-824-7084.

Stonewall Kitchen
The Shops at Evergreen Walk
501 Evergreen Way
South Windsor, CT  06074  
Toll-Free: 800-207-JAMS
Email: info@stonewallkitchen.com

Stonewall Kitchen, Creators of Specialty Foods, respected and honored for our award-winning product line since the early days at the Farmers’ Market. Walking into our Company Stores, you are taken back to a simpler time with tin ceilings, schoolhouse lights, wainscoting and the aroma of good food simmering on the stove. Browse through our Company Stores and sample our specialty foods including: preserves, mustards, dessert toppings, grille sauces and more. Also find distinctive serviceware, linens, cookware and home décor. Stonewall Kitchen, a visit that will long be remembered. Company Store Locations: South Windsor, Connecticut *Avon, Connecticut * York, Maine * Portland, Maine * Camden, Maine * Portsmouth, New Hampshire * Rochester, New Hampshire * North Conway, New Hampshire. Please visit stonewallkitchen.com for more information and store directions.