by | Apr 4, 2024 4:18 pm | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby Photo
Lunch is self-served.
After a single bite, I realized I had ordered the wrong entree at IKEA. The “veggie balls” were a blank slate: a mush of chickpeas, carrots, peppers, and other veggies I usually enjoy, mashed and blended until they amounted to something almost as thoroughly bland as the cauliflower rice I got on the side.
by | Mar 29, 2024 9:18 am | Comments (5)
artidea.org
Jazz vocalist Samara Joy, an A&I headliner this year.
Shakespeare in circus, choral fusion, climate activism and optimism talks, making your own empanadas: this eclectic mix of events and more is part of this summer’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which is returning with a full schedule of programming that covers just about anything an arts and culture lover would have a taste for — and maybe something they have never tasted before.
by | Mar 22, 2024 3:57 pm | Comments (12)
Nora Grace-Flood Photos
Milling your own grain is like grinding coffee to order, according to Frisch, who does both.
Bill Frisch signed up for the city’s DNA of the Entrepreneur program — and found the right recipe to make his business, East Rock Breads, rise to the top.
City officials joined Frisch outside his shop at 942 State Street Friday to cut a formal ribbon for the new shop and publicize the secret ingredient to that shared success: $15,000 in funding from the city’s Leaseholder Improvement Program.
by | Mar 18, 2024 12:08 pm | Comments (3)
Bo Sandine with a signature gin and tonic in 116 Crown heaven.
The illuminated bar. The welcoming, gorgeous garden in the back. The carefully crafted cocktails, which were worth the extra time they took. Over its now-ended 17-year run, 116 Crown was a singular sensation.
by | Mar 7, 2024 5:11 pm | Comments (11)
Partners in life and business, Jonathan Dolph and Hu Ping-Dolph: cheers to their newest restaurant.
Hot Pot is the name and aim of Hu Ping-Dolph’s latest New Haven revelation: a sit-down soup joint at 68 Whitney Ave. offering a steamy reprieve from the cold season.
Continue reading ‘Ribbon Cut On New Haven's Latest Hot (S)Pot’
by | Mar 1, 2024 12:24 pm | Comments (10)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
The Redberry Basil, Fruit Roll-Up, and "Fortitude" smoothies.
The thick, tawny mason jar smoothie I ordered from The Remedy’s Cultured Cafe on State Street looked, smelled and tasted like soft, cinnamon cream — despite the fact that it was filled with liver, pancreas, blood, tongue and heart.
It also had 2.5 mg of THC, a splash of CBD and CBG, maca- and ashwagandha-infused cashew butter, coconut yogurt and banana.
by | Feb 15, 2024 12:40 pm | Comments (5)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Emojiis: Closed Valentine's Day, ordered to stay closed after 11.
A bar has been barred from expanding its hours — after a plea by the owners of Emojiis on Middletown Avenue got more thumbs down than smiley faces from local police and next-door neighbors.
by | Feb 9, 2024 4:50 pm | Comments (5)
This reporter's favorite student as seen during Friday's Davis magnet school pep rally.
Nora Grace Flood Photos
Ernie's owner Pat DeRiso tries to get orders out for delivery while reporters hound him about National Pizza Day.
A plethora of pizza, pom-poms and politicians flooded Upper Westville Friday morning amidst a pair of symbiotic popularity contests – in which every party was a winner.
The slices of of za and strings of plastic were featured in two separate city celebrations taking place around the corner from one another.
Over at Davis Academy, students screamed out of ostensible excitement or, perhaps, excess energy as their principal announced that both The Magnet Schools of America and the University of Connecticut have recognized the school for “innovative excellence.”
Down the street on Whalley Avenue, politicians and thin-crust fanatics packed like anchovies inside Ernie’s Pizzeria for National Pizza Day and a proclamation by the governor naming New Haven the “Pizza Capital of America.”
by | Jan 15, 2024 11:57 am | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen Photo
Aric Isaacs and Ian Alderman inside the space at 280 Blake St. to be developed into a black box theater.
A local theater troupe is setting the stage to bring a black box theater to Blake Street.
Continue reading ‘Broken Umbrella Pushes Black Box For Blake’
by | Nov 30, 2023 9:23 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
The Nick Di Maria Quartet
Wednesday night’s luminous lunar display recalled the opening line of “That’s Amore”: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…” so it seemed apropos that I was on my way to see The Nick Di Maria Quartet at Nolo, the State Street purveyor of New Haven’s most well-known meal and so much more.
by | Nov 28, 2023 11:36 am | Comments (3)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Lunches at "It's Thai Time" on Orange St.
It’s Thai Time Restaurant
181 Orange St.
New Haven
Mexican restaurant owner Brenda Jain took a chance on her lifelong love for Thai food and decided “It’s Thai Time.” We decided it was time to check it out for ourselves.
by | Oct 20, 2023 5:17 pm | Comments (10)
Say Cheese...
... Gioia is open!
The long line outside Pepe’s pizzeria might soon extend across the street, now that Gioia — a new Italian restaurant, bar, gelateria, and market — has opened its doors at 150 Wooster St.
Continue reading ‘Gioia Spreads Tables And Joy For Grand Opening’
by | Oct 10, 2023 12:19 pm | Comments (0)
Lisa Gray Photos
Wine Down CT’s end-of-summer event, Dear Summer, went down Sunday evening. If you get a chance to go to their next event, get your ticket early because they sell out fast, and I see why. Wine Down CT — which, according to Aislin Magazine, started hosting lusciously curated events as a riff on Wine Down Wednesdays, popularized by the TV show Insecure — throws fabulous day parties that draw hundreds of people to hang out, taste great food, vibe to good DJs and live music, imbibe scrumptious libations and generally have a good time.
by | Jul 25, 2023 9:08 am | Comments (1)
Eleanor Polak Photos
Westville neighbourhood lines up to buy homemade pies.
The air over Beecher Park, located at Mitchell Library at 37 Harrison St., rang with chatter, music, and a heavenly mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice.
Westville Village Renaissance Alliance hosted on Monday evening the latest installment in Hi-Fi Pie Fest, its weekly summer pie baking competition, a community-centric event complete with food and live music.
It’s “really just getting people together,” said WVRA Executive Director Lizzy Donius, who sported a Hi-Fi Pie Fest t‑shirt bearing the words “Come for the music, stay for the pie!” The slogan, said Donius, is interchangeable. Some people come for the pie and stay for the music.
Continue reading ‘Hi-Fi Pie Fest Makes Sure Everyone Gets A Piece’
by | May 25, 2023 5:01 pm | Comments (5)
Haseeb Mohammed whipped up an Indian take on chicken tacos Thursday to feed a crowd on Orange Street celebrating the enhanced rebirth of a popular fast-casual restaurant.
by | May 15, 2023 8:36 am | Comments (3)
Luxuriating in a warm spring day, ArtWalk — organized by the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance — brought out a crowd on Saturday for a full afternoon of art, craft, music, theater, food, and community.
by | May 12, 2023 4:59 pm | Comments (8)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Cross chefs-in-training show off their culinary chops at Friday's presser.
Punchy restaurant pitches and smoke from searing scallops filled Wilbur Cross Friday morning as students showed off lessons learned from participating in a nationwide youth culinary competition — and from living in a small city as culturally rich as the meals served up by the school’s award-winning cooking crew.
Continue reading ‘Cross Culinary Champs Bring Home The Gold’
by | May 4, 2023 5:07 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
Nair and Kesavalu Thursday inside Tikkaway soon-to-open "wow!!tikka."
Decades after starting their careers at the same Indian hotel, Gopi Nair and Kannan Kesavalu have reunited to revive cult-caliber fast-casual Indian dining on a reviving corner of New Haven’s Orange Street.
by | Apr 14, 2023 8:26 am | Comments (5)
Brian Slattery Photo
Ben Wrobel: "How do we shift decision-making power to people with lived experience, people who are proximate to the problem?"
Ben Wrobel had just finished the beginning of his pitch, about the need for solutions to public policy programs that come from people’s lived experiences. The audience at NXTHVN on Henry Street in Dixwell was listening. “So why am I here today?” he said. “Well, last month I quit my job.”
Before he could continue, there was a hearty round of applause. It was support for his willingness to take a risk, on an idea that might lead to some good.
Continue reading ‘Dixwell Pitch Night Gives Biz Dreams A Kick "Start"’
by | Apr 13, 2023 5:07 pm | Comments (6)
Maya McFadden Photos
Salsa's owner joins city officials to cut the ribbon ...
... on outdoor dining on Grand Ave.
Fair Haven diners can now enjoy chicken flautas on the sidewalk-adjacent patio of Grand Avenue’s Salsa’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant a month earlier than usual, thanks to the city’s expansion of outdoor dining season — which will extend year-round for qualifying businesses.
Continue reading ‘Salsa's Kicks Off Citywide Outdoor Dining Expansion’
by | Mar 9, 2023 2:19 pm | Comments (14)
Paul Bass Photo
Here to stay: The Koffee? outdoor parking-space patio.
Duncan Goodall won’t need to dismantle an outdoor dining patio this Friday and rebuild it five weeks later, thanks to a reprieve from City Hall.
by | Mar 6, 2023 5:37 pm | Comments (20)
Paul Bass Photo
The new normal? Duncan Goodall by his Koffee? outdoor patio.
Contributed Photo
A winter fondue meal outside Choupette Crêperie & Cafè.
After maintaining street dining throughout the winter, four local restaurateurs now have five days to dismantle their patios for five weeks or face $250 daily fines.
by | Feb 7, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (2)
Lisa Reisman photos
Manjares chef Wilson Coronel preparing seafood pasta marinara.
Clams. Shrimp. Escargot. Calamari.
All elements are crucial to Wilson Coronel’s seafood pasta marinara. But the secret to its exquisite flavor is in the sauce.
“You have to reduce it, so it’s not too much and the taste comes through,” Coronel said on a recent late afternoon in the pocket-sized kitchen of the Westville institution that is Manjares Cafe.
by | Feb 7, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (2)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Alexander Silver Angeloff and a sampling of his creations.
When you walk into The Cultured Café on State Street, you are greeted by the feeling that you’ve walked into as natural a habitat as you can find that is not actually outside. Philodendrons wind around glass jars full of fermenting vegetables on a wooden counter. Above, cotton ball-like clouds dot a blue sky ceiling. What the café serves is also as close to nature as it can be, courtesy of the café’s owner Alexander Silver Angeloff, who is trying to make the path into the world of natural health safe, welcoming, and delicious.
by | Jan 31, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (3)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Rahaf Sayet about to press another pistachio halloumi panini.
Rahaf Sayet took two slices of blended whole wheat and sourdough bread from Whole G Bakery, layered on Cyprus-made cheese, and placed the sandwich in a panini press — crafting a local-foreign fusion meal that’s selling fast at a new Chapel Street Middle Eastern eatery.
