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.
by | Jan 27, 2023 8:52 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Bluegrass Jamming
The back room at Next Door was jam-packed with bluegrass music lovers as the Humphrey Street restaurant featured its latest installment of the Bluegrass Jam, held on the fourth Thursday of every month and hosted by the New Haven-based band Five ‘n Change. According to band members Ken McEwen and David Sasso, the jam has been growing steadily since it began back in the spring of 2022.
by | Jan 19, 2023 9:45 am | Comments (33)
Allan Appel file photo
Sandra's owners Miguel and Sandra Pittman: Planning to push back on zoning board rejection.
Nora Grace-Flood photo
The contested outdoor refrigeration containers on Arch St.
City zoners turned down a Congress Avenue culinary institution’s bid to store five outdoor fridges in a residentially zoned area — following testimony from the restaurant’s neighbor that the restaurant’s expansion has resulted not just in nationally renowned chicken wings, but also pesky rodents and stenches.
The restaurant’s owners now plan to contest that decision so that they can continue to keep corn, sugar, flour and plenty of perishables nearby as they look to continue serving the neighborhood they’ve long called home.
by | Jan 3, 2023 11:58 am | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
A hot over-the-counter remedy this pandemic-flu-Covid season turns out not to require a prescription — and it goes down smooth while soothing your sinuses.
by | Dec 19, 2022 4:09 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Didi Muhammad and Angel Jiminez Monday with New Haven's largest mimosa glass.
Didi Muhammad showed up at New Haven’s “The Place 2 Be” Monday — wielding a mimosa glass large enough for a striped bass to swim in.
by | Nov 23, 2022 1:30 pm | Comments (5)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
The homemade spice rack Tsering Yangzom draws from while cooking.
Tibetan Kitchen partners in business and life: Yangzom and Sherab Gyaltsen.
Sherab Gyaltsen and Tsering Yangzom weren’t willing to spill the secret of their homemade magical mainstay chili spice-blend — but they did plump eight dumplings into a sizzling pan to reveal how to make momos you won’t forget.
Continue reading ‘Spice Mixed Just Right In Tibetan Kitchen’
by | Nov 17, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (6)
Take a last look: Sign changes to "G Cafe" next week.
Keeping the joe flowing: Andrea Corazzini.
New Haven may still be part of a blue state, but it is no longer a safe space for Blue State Coffee.
by | Oct 24, 2022 3:39 pm | Comments (1)
It was 10 on a weekend. The night was young.
But not young enough for a tender chicken wing.
by | Oct 4, 2022 1:21 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photo
Alexis Evans at work at Raw Juicescape.
Alexis Evans was ready for the start of flu season with a natural weapon. Four natural weapons.