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Food in New England Editor's Favorites Connecticut

Connecticut Is Home to Food Festivals, Wine Trails, Other Dining Delights

People who are traveling have to face a certain question several times a day: Where can we get some good food? How do we find a restaurant? From seacoast to mountains, New England is blessed with wonderful, fresh, regional cooking and skilled chefs to bring it to life. Food tourism includes more than simply sitting down and dining. Connecticut has wonderful food festivals and winery tours, seasonal delights like pick-your-own orchards, and craftsmen creating artisan-quality foods in small, family operations. Below are some ideas; keep checking back for frequent updates.

Stylish Escape With Endless Possibilities

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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.

Tea. Savvy??

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Tea is a beverage, a mood, and a lifestyle (just ask the Chinese or the British). Savvy Tea Gourmet on Durham Road in Madison is a tea room that does not simply serve tea; it serves tea living. This small restaurant serves 250 loose leaf teas along with a menu of delicious tea-compatible dishes: soups, cheeses served with dried fruits and crusty breads, sandwiches, desserts. Formal high tea is presented every other weekend and tea tastings are held weekly. For the discerning palate, this opportunity to visit a real tea room is too good to pass up. Phone: 203-318-8664.

Winery Offers the Best
of California and Connecticut

Located in the beautiful small town of North Stonington, Jonathan Edwards Winery is situated on a 48-acre hilltop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Jonathan Edwards creates premium California and Connecticut wines to highlight each coast’s climate. The two diverse product lines complement each other and allow guests to sample delicious wines that showcase what each area is known for. Wine lovers are welcome to stop in, taste the wines, tour the winery and vineyards, enjoy a picnic, and browse the gift shop for wine items and local treats. Each season in the vineyard has its own unique charm. Phone: 860-535-0202.

You Bring Lunch, They'll Supply the Wine

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For the folks at Gouveia Vineyards in Wallingford, producing first-rate wines is clearly a labor of love. Joe and Lucy Gouveia planted their first vines just ten years ago and to today visitors can sample wines made from the eight different types of grapes that thrive there. Set on top of a hill overlooking the vineyard, the Winery Building boasts a large stone fireplace, panoramic views of local pastures, woodlands and spectacular sunsets. Guests are even invited to bring their own picnic lunch to enjoy as they sip on Gouveia’s award-winning Stone House Red, Whirlwind Rose, or Oaked Chardonnay. Open Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. For information call 203-265-5526.

Dairy Treats Served
With Moo-sical Entertainment

Stew Leonard's , with stores in Norwalk, Danbury, and Newington, calls itself the world's Largest Dairy Store. Offerings include wine, cheese, meats, produce, fish and a packed calendar of cooking events. As visit to Stew Leonard’s is not only a shopping experience, though. Kids love the moo-ing cash registers, costumed characters, and animatronics. Stew Leonard's was dubbed the Disneyland of Dairy Stores by the New York Times, because of its milk processing plant, costumed characters, scheduled entertainment, petting zoo, and other fun for children. A favorite entertainment for younger visitors is the Farm Fresh Five, a band of realistic, state-of-the-art animatronics that performs original songs that entertain the kids while Mom and Dad shop. Phone: Norwalk, 203-847-7214; Danbury, 203-790-8030; Newington, 860-760-8100. Website: http://www.stewleonards.com/

Desserts by David

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David Glass went to Paris to further his studies in art history but took a slight detour after a mind-blowing meal at Archestrate. Quickly changing professions, Glass worked as a chef in restaurants around the world. Now, he is committed to making the most delicious desserts in the world. You can draw your own conclusions on this commitment at public tastings, held every Friday and Saturday morning at the David Glass factory at 1280 Blue Hills Avenue in Bloomfield. A partial list of Glass cakes includes Pumpkin Cheesecake, Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake, Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake, Caramel Apple Cheesecake, and Almond and Lemon Curd Crunch Cake. Glass is proud to serve his creations, which are constantly changing. Dessert lovers shouldn’t miss this chance. Phone: 860-769-5570 (no reservation required).

Dining Where Dinner Was Harvested

Here is a chance to enjoy dinner under a big tent on the farm, possibly just s hop and a skip away from the place your food was produced and harvested. Dinners at the Farm series, a project of River Tavern Restaurant in Chester, will visit four Connecticut farms to cook dinner with locally grown food. Dinners feature locally grown produce cooked on the back of a 1955 Ford F-600, flat-bed truck retrofitted into a portable mini-kitchen. Each meal is served on the grounds of a selected local farm, vineyard, or farmers market. Guests are seated under a great white tent to a long draped table. Menus are feature locally produced foods like scallops, heirloom tomatoes, naturally raised beef and pork, goat cheese and many others.
Dinners are at Stanton-Davis Farm in Pawcatuck on July 16-18; White Gate in East Lyme on August 13-15; Barberry Hill Farm in Madison on August 27-29; Old Maids Farm South in Glastonbury on September 10, 11, 12. Dinners begin at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail and a tour of the farm. Dinner starts at 7:15 p.m. and is served family style. Reservations are highly encouraged. Cost: $150. Phone: 860-526-8078.

American Cuisine, Executed With Fine Taste

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The Woodward House , on the Green in Bethlehem, invites guests to a dinning experience in American cuisine. The dinner menu features such inspired dishes as Roasted Butternut Squash Tortellaci, Colorado Rack of Lamb, House made Profiteroles with a Chocolate Espresso Icecream served with a Espresso Carmel and Kahlua Sauce. There is have an extensive wine list with vintages from California, France, Australia, Italy, and Spain. A handsome saltbox built in 1740, today’s Woodward House encompasses four unique dining rooms, each adorned with artwork by renowned contemporary artists. Subtle lighting sets inviting ambiance for any occasion. The paintings on the restaurant’s walls are echoed in the chef's artistic presentation of his food on a variety of white china. Phone: 203-266-6902

American Icon Born Here

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One day in the year 1900 a man dashed into a small New Haven luncheonette and asked for a quick meal that he could eat on the run. Louis Lassen, the establishment's owner, hurriedly inserted a broiled beef patty between two slices of bread and sent the customer on his way, so the story goes, with America's first hamburger. The tiny eatery was Louis' Lunch. Today, Louis's grandson, Ken, carries on the family tradition: hamburgers that have changed little from their historic prototype are still the specialty of the house. Each one is made from beef ground fresh each day, broiled vertically in the original cast iron grill and served between two slices of toast. Cheese, tomato and onion are the only acceptable garnish -- no true connoisseur would consider corrupting the classic taste with mustard or ketchup, according to Louis’s tradition. Phone: 203-562-5507.

Arcadia Offers Lots of
Off-the-Beaten Path Entertainment

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Arcadia Café in Old Greenwich can hook you up any day of the week with hearty café fare like Irish oatmeal, quiche, Ploughman’s or Shepherd’s lunch, a charcuterie plate, and esoteric coffees trailing names from almost every continent on the planet. That’s the basic stuff. Arcadia also offers a wide variety of entertainment for every taste. For example, some events for the February 2009 include jazz on Sunday afternoons; Erica Jong discussing her new book of poems; cabaret singing by Beatrice Alexander; photography; hair braiding and henna tattooing; classic rock ‘n’ roll; Girls Night Out Networking; discussion of Toni Morrison’s “A Mercy”; children’s entertainer Graham Clarke; Around the World Cheese Tasting and on, and on. Get involved and get interesting. Phone: 203-637-8766.

Asian-Inspired Cuisine
Makes Shrine a Knockout

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The smoldering red-lacquer-and-gold-leaf interiors of Shrine, the new restaurant / nightclub at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, gives a visual hint of the alluring, Asian-inspired cuisine that awaits at the hands of warm and welcoming staff members. The executive chefs have designed a deeply interesting and unique menu culled from the cuisines of Japan, Thailand, Korea and Vietnam. The menu includes small plates and big plates, so that guests can taste, pass, share and experiment, which is a great idea, since everything on the menu is worth trying. The creative sushi and sashimi menu offer Chirashi sushi bowls, combining tuna, crab, seaweed, avocado and spicy mayonnaise. And, please, please leave room to taste the desserts. Phone: 860-312-8888.

Award-Winning Wines Come with a View

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Set among the Litchfield hills in Goshen, Sunset Meadow Vineyards is one of the newest additions to the Connecticut Wine Trail. Take a visit to the vineyard’s tasting room, where you can sip on Sunset Meadow’s own award-winning Sunset Blush inside a restored 19th Century barn, complete with estate antiques and original hand-cut wooden beams. The vineyards span over 40 acres of picturesque hillside, and the owners pride themselves on a respect for the environment, using only sustainable farming methods. So you can relax and enjoy the gorgeous scenery—it isn’t called “Sunset Meadow” for nothing. The Tasting Room is open Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. For information call 860-201-4654.

Barbecued Bliss

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Fans of barbecue will find something close to Nirvana at The Cookhouse on Danbury Road in New Milford. You know you are in a place of inspired use of pork and spices from when you see the featured appetizer, the BBQ Sundae, which is a Mason jar loaded with pulled pork, baked beans, creamy coleslaw, a dollop of BBQ sauce and a pickle spear. (And finished with the slogan “May inspire world Peace.”) The best of the menu brims with pulled pork, fried okra, nachos, skins, chili, ribs, brisket, meatloaf … it is a heavy business just to absorb the descriptions. So belly up to the checkered tablecloth and wade deep into barbecued bliss. Open daily, year round. Phone: 860-355-4111

Best Brunches Anywhere

Brunch on the weekends is a pleasure that is accessible to just about everyone. And it is always fine to go out and be waited on. Here is a sampling of some of the best brunches to be found in Connecticut. The readers of Connecticut Magazine have voted Water’s Edge Resort & Spa in Westbrook The Best Sunday Brunch Statewide. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering a wide range of options for early and late-later risers. Seasonal fruits, Belgian waffles and French crepes, imported and domestic cheeses, even a raw bar. And the water view is grand (860-399-5901. We love the idea that pancakes are made to order, while you watch, with the fillings that you choose, at the champagne brunch buffet at the Silvermine Tavern in Norwalk. Traditional fill-‘em-up dishes like eggs Benedict, corned beef hash, cheese blintzes, smoked salmon, and honeybuns will keep you fueled well into the evening (203 847-4558). Somebody had to think about the well-being of our hearts and waistlines, and that somebody is the Pond House Café in West Hartford, with its Healthy Brunch. But healthy does not mean dull. Among the brunch offering at Pond House are the breakfast quesadilla, vegetarian burrito, Greek salad and French toast consisting of Anise raisin bread filled with apple ricotta cheese mixture and topped with a brown sugar ginger sauce. Wow (860-231-8823).

Colonial Home Makes Way for This Cozy Tavern

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Once a 1850 Colonial home located off the beaten track, the G.W. Tavern on 20 Bee Brook Road in Washington Depot is now a tavern offering summer and autumn dining on a flagstone patio overlooking the Shepaug River. (For cooler nights, the Tavern has a floor-to-ceiling fieldstone fireplace, surrounded by hand painted murals of the old town and farms.) The menu contains a blend of the traditional and the contemporary, purchased from local purveyors whenever possible. Recent food items have included everything from Kobe beef to locally raised venison, quail, and duck. As the weather warms and seasons change, the menu reflects the wide range of local crops and seafood. Shad roe and soft-shell crabs will be available as well as wonderful swordfish from the Grand Banks. Game and fowl are served throughout the winter. Phone: 860-868-6633.

Cooking School in a...Silo

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Custom cooking classes, shopping, tasting, museum tours, slide shows, and gallery talks are among the offerings for groups and tours visiting Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford, in the Litchfield region of western Connecticut. Since 1972, Hunt Hill Farm has been the location of the Silo, a combination cooking school, art gallery, and gourmet kitchenware and food store. The cooking school offers high-quality recreational classes for all skill levels and of endless variety. World-class instructors like Rachael Ray, Betty Rosbottom, and Rick Rodgersstill enjoy the intimacy of the school and the beautiful farm.
Among the classes coming up in April, May, and June 2009 are: Teens Cook Classics from Around the World, Saucier’s Apprentice II, All-Around-Asia Dim Sum Party, April in Paris - Spring Bistro Dinner, Orilla Del Mar Delights!, Nature-Inspired Cupcake Decorating Workshop, Plow to Plate and the Mediterranean Diet, Summer Tapas and Paella on the Grill, and more. Phone: 860-355-0300.

Cupcakes on Wheels and Food on Foot

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Join food expert Stephen Fries on a Culinary Walking Tour of Downtown New Haven that encompasses some fine and legendary New Haven eateries, like Bar on Crown Street, the Cupcake Truck, Louis' Lunch on Crown Street, Union League Café on Chapel Street, Villarina's Pasta Gifts and More on Chapel Street, Willoughby's Coffee & Tea, and York Street Noodle House on York Street. The tour departs from the Davenport's at the Top of the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, 155 Temple Street, at 1:30 p.m., rain or shine, on June 13, July 18, August 15, and September 26. Fries writes a food column for the New Haven Register and has produced and hosted many academic and culinary events such as The New Haven Iron Chef Competition Cost: $59. Phone: 203-777-8550 or 800-332-7829.

Much More Fun Than a Supermarket

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“Eat local” has become the mantra for food purists, spawning new categories of peculiarly American diets: the hundred-mile diet, the slow-foods diet, the localvore diet. But if you buy your food from local markets like the Litchfield Hills Farm-Fresh Outdoor Market, not only do you revitalize a community of farmers, butchers, foragers, and cheese makers, avoid foods that contribute to obesity, and save on carbon emissions; but you will find that the peach or tomato in your hand tastes better too. Location: Center School, 125 West Street. Time: Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.; June 13 through October 10, 2009. Information: 860-567-8302. Click here for a full listing of farmers’ markets in Connecticut.