by | Feb 28, 2024 3:05 pm | Comments (2)
Marcus Harvin and volunteers deliver meals to Varick Warming Center.
“This was our vision in prison,” said Marcus Harvin, as he led his team with boxes of meals past a queue of people waiting for the doors of Dixwell’s Varick A.M.E. Zion Warming Center to open.
by | Feb 23, 2024 5:16 pm | Comments (11)
Laura Glesby Photo
Lactation consultant Dionne Lowndes: Working to destigmatize and accommodate breastfeeding with renewed REACH funding.
Fair Haven doctors will soon be able to “prescribe” fruits and vegetables to food-insecure patients, thanks to a new round of federal funding for health equity advocacy at CARE.
by | Feb 13, 2024 9:27 am | Comments (2)
The Gorilla Lemonade team at the Big Connecticut Food Event.
In a spirited battle, lemonade and empanadas fell just short of kids’ frozen pancakes, non-vinegary kombucha, and grassfed yogurt.
The scene was Yale’s Kroon Hall. The occasion was the pitch competition at The Big Connecticut Food Event, an affair designed to stoke the development of emerging food and beverage brands. The stakes, to be determined by judges from Stop & Shop, Big Y, and Fresh Direct, among others: a $25,000 grand prize, with $10,000 going to the second-place winner, and $7,500 to the third.
by | Feb 5, 2024 2:10 pm | Comments (1)
Lisa Reisman Photo
fREsh-taurant crew at Pitts Chapel; Marcus Harvin, in yellow shirt, left center.
(Updated) You can speak all you want into somebody’s ear. If their stomach is growling, they can’t hear it.
Those were the words of Marcus Harvin, the visionary founder of Newhallville fREshSTARTs, at Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church on Friday night. The occasion was the grand opening of the fREsh-taurant, a food recovery initiative that will provide free hot, nutritious meals for the community, either eat-in or take-out, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. Everyone is welcome.
by | Jan 30, 2024 12:03 pm | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden Photos
Junior Klever Chilel practices omelet making.
Friday's fresh blackberry scones and brown sugar banana muffins.
Genesis Correa flipped a farmer’s omelet onto the grill, Damani Wheeler cut thick slices of ciabatta toast, Klever Chilel delivered the fresh off the grill breakfasts, and Tracey Salazar poured customers of the Wilbur Cross Bakeshop a cold cup of fresh grapefruit juice.
by | Jan 29, 2024 12:12 pm | Comments (2)
Jamil Ragland Photo
Jamilah Rasheed at the Hill pop-up food pantry.
By the time I arrived at the pop-up New Haven Inner City Enrichment (NICE) Center Food Pantry, 40 people were standing in line on a blustery Saturday morning.
by | Jan 8, 2024 9:16 am | Comments (9)
Maya McFadden photo
NHPS Food Services Director Baron Young: Backing up student ID numbers will avoid cafeteria traffic jams.
Faster lunch lines. More student feedback. Less wasted food.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Food Services Director Baron Young has these goals in mind as he learns and works to resolve a myriad of food-related concerns six months into the role.
Continue reading ‘NHPS Food Chief Seeks Shorter Cafeteria Lines’
by | Dec 20, 2023 8:24 am | Comments (6)
Allan Appel photo
Mother Helen Carr (center) with Babatunde Akinjobi and Marcus Harvin.
Marcus Harvin is working on a fresh start: for the food in his home community of Newhallville, and for formerly incarcerated people like himself who are looking to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them.
Enter Newhallville Fresh Start: a food pantry he’s in the process of founding to provide healthy produce and, eventually, programming for neighbors in need.
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 | Nov 22, 2023 1:42 pm | Comments (1)
DeJadonyea Council gets thankgiving turkey from Gateway’s new food pantry.
Twenty-five year old nursing student DeJadonyea Council cut the ribbon for a new food pantry at Gateway Community College then picked up a free frozen turkey and fixings to go with it for Thanksgiving.
Continue reading ‘New Food Pantry Keeps Gateway Students Nourished’
by | Nov 22, 2023 12:19 pm | Comments (21)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
669 Dixwell today: what will best boost the Avenue?
Ricotta pies and pepperoni slices may replace the ghosts of bygone fifths and whiskey bottles at a former Dixwell Avenue liquor store — though neighbors are offering mixed reviews about a potential pizzeria on their main commercial strip.
Continue reading ‘Pizza Pitch Splits Newhallville Neighbors’
by | Nov 21, 2023 11:09 am | Comments (7)
Allan Appel Photo
George Carranzo, ready to pack up at Grand Apizza.
George Carranzo had been working off and on in pizzerias since barely becoming a teenager. But it wasn’t until the snow-filled winter of 2005, when he recalls driving shift after exhausting night shift in a plow truck for the City of New Haven, that he decided it was absolutely time to make a big life change: to buy a pizzeria and go into business for himself.
Roll the clock eighteen years later and Carranzo, the owner of Grand Apizza at 111 Grand Ave. near Clinton Avenue, is ready to make another life change, and the successful pizzeria is up for sale.
by | Nov 17, 2023 3:04 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photos
Luz Ayala (center) with friend Paula De La Cruz, and plenty of food ...
... at Friday's Thanksgiving giveaway at Loaves & Fishes.
Luz Ayala lifted up a frozen turkey wrapped in plastic and netting and talked through the culinary transformation that bird will go through on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
She’ll peel back the whole turkey’s skin and stuff it with a blended mix of green peppers, onions, olive oil, cilantro, and garlic. Then she’ll baste the bird in butter and pop it in the oven as she works on making a side of stuffing — also filled with meat, she said apologetically to this vegetarian reporter — for her visiting family members sitting down for dinner at her Columbus Avenue table.
She’s ready for that annual big cook. And, thanks to a bustling food pantry turkey giveaway in Wooster Square, she won’t have to worry about stretching her budget to buy the meal’s centerpiece.
Continue reading ‘700 Free Turkeys Fly At Food Pantry Giveaway’
by | Oct 31, 2023 2:08 pm | Comments (2)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
"Sweet Flame" Empanadas! on Spring St.
Independent restaurant review crew with Madeline's owner Hazel Lebron (center) on the beat.
Madeline’s Empanaderia
86 Spring St.
Madeline, the 11-year-old cello player who is also the namesake of a Hill empanaderia, likes the Guava Lava her mother serves there — it’s her favorite, the one that sticks while she goes through phases of Cheeseburger or Sweet Flame.
It’s not mine, though. I liked the Baked Bee, whose combination of sweet potatoes and chili-infused honey surprised me.
But our table couldn’t agree on a favorite, and it’s not hard to tell why.
by | Oct 19, 2023 3:33 pm | Comments (3)
Lisa Reisman Photo
Jasmeen Hasar and Lamia Mohammad making crepes.
It’s Cezerye, pronounced jehz-air-yeh. It’s made with carrots, nuts, and sugar, and it’s coated with coconut flakes. It conjures an ancient city of mosques and narrow streets, the sounds of a bustling marketplace, the warm, dry Mediterranean air.
“This is only from Latakia, only we do this,” said Ammar Chekhess who, along with his partner, Mohammad Ali, recently opened Marshmallow, at Chaps Grille, on Chapel Street near Park. Chekhess’ wife, Lamia Mohammad, as well as her friend Jasmeen Hasar, run the business.
Continue reading ‘Juice Bar With Middle Eastern Treats Opens On Chapel’
by | Oct 13, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (3)
Allan Appel photo
Maria Espinal with malanga in the right hand, mangu in the left
Humberto and Maria Espinal tried out serving home fries at their home-style, Dominican cuisine-inspired new restaurant on Orange Street in East Rock.
But they quickly learned that customers wanted “the real stuff”: malanga, which is pureed root vegetable different if similar to taro root and having a kind of deep nutty taste; and mangu, a puree of green plantains.
“We gave it a two-week chance,” Maria said about the staple American-style home fries. But malanga and mangu, to customers’ delight, have won out.
by | Sep 18, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (1)
Lisa Gray photos
Friday night's Grand Prix bike race ...
... and Apizza Feast on College Street.
Pizza lovers and cycling enthusiasts filled downtown to watch one of the last chances in the season for competitive bikers to race — and to enjoy everything from cheese to broccoli to potato pies put forward by ten pizzerias.
by | Sep 13, 2023 9:40 am | Comments (1)
Lisa Reisman photo
BioLaunch head trainer and lab operations manager Brionna Davis-Reyes sharing the magic of electrophoresis.
The opportunities must have sounded too good to be true for Alfred Washington, Elizabeth Cropper, and Shayne Miller.
But there they were, as part of an open house hosted by the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT).
Washington, a trainee on the cusp of an internship at a New Haven biotech company, was discussing the separation of protein molecules based on their size and electrical charge. Cropper, an instructor, was demonstrating blood draws in the phlebotomy lab. And Shayne Miller, a Culinary Arts Academy grad, was offering guests a cup of green tea lemongrass ice cream artfully wedged with a sesame seed cookie that he had earlier created.
by | Aug 25, 2023 9:20 am | Comments (2)
Lisa Reisman photos
Order's up: Deari'e's Surf & Turf, at Dixwell's Dope N Delicious.
David James, Deari'e Allick, De'Ari Allick Jr., De'Ari Allick, and James Nelson on a recent afternoon at Dope N Delicious.
Talk about a dream summer internship.
Deari’e Allick, who’s 14 and a student in culinary arts at Eli Whitney Tech, spent the last two months whipping up dishes that range from lamb chops with smashed potatoes to the Pineapple Bowl to, on a recent afternoon, Surf & Turf.
Her boss is her father De’Ari Allick, owner of Dope N Delicious, a pocket-sized joint specializing in southern comfort food, seafood, and soul food at 300 Dixwell Ave. De’Ari learned to cook from his mother Audrey Maysonet. De’Ari passed it on to Deari’e.
by | Aug 23, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden photo
Tuesday's food packaging set up at NHPS' central kitchen.
A bag full of fresh peaches, Frosted Flakes, bread, milk, and peanut butter was packed to its brim and readied for delivery to a New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) family in need during the final week before school begins.
by | Aug 23, 2023 8:20 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photo
Adam Matlock.
Adam Matlock, executive director of the nonprofit Winnett Food Forest in Hamden, was moving from garden bed to garden bed with an empty bin. Soon, that bin and another one like it would be filled with fresh greens and a few tomatoes — part of the week’s harvest from a new approach to growing food that leans hard on community and sustainability.
Continue reading ‘Winnett Food Forest Grows For The Community’
by | Aug 4, 2023 11:58 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden photo
Troup's summer meals backbone: Cafeteria worker Robin Jones.
Mother of three Falilat Enny stopped by Troup School to visit a friend who her kids call “grandma” — because she has loved to serve Enny’s three girls free meals for breakfast and lunch all summer.
Continue reading ‘Free Summer Meals Come To Quiet Close At Troup’
by and | Aug 1, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (1)
Asher Joseph Photo
A taco truck customer picks up a piña colada at Long Wharf's "Food Truck Paradise."
Asher Joseph Photo
Mark Aronson’s ivory suit, complete with woven tan sun hat, did not stop him from indulging in the dripping tanginess of three birria tacos during a lunchtime visit to Long Wharf’s Food Truck Paradise.
Continue reading ‘In "Paradise," Birria Becomes Tac-O The Town’
by | Jul 27, 2023 8:57 am | Comments (0)
Nieda Abbas encouraging guests to dig in at Tuesday's celebration.
Local bakers, daycare leaders, and healthcare providers came together to celebrate the success of a downtown cafe’s efforts to get New Haven employers to hire refugee and immigrant women.
by | Jul 26, 2023 9:47 am | Comments (1)
Allan Appel photo
The line was five deep for the nectarines, peaches, and corn, and by about 40 minutes later those items were sold out – although there was a lot of other bounty left – tomatillos, chives, blueberries, collards, cilantro, and kale.
That’s why by the end of the harvest in the fall, the line will be 20 deep.