by | Jun 7, 2024 11:35 am | Comments (0)
One hundred sixteen years after George Smith’s Grand Avenue workers started flattening warmed hard candy into circles on a stick, Connecticut’s governor has officially recognized his contribution to American culinary culture.
Continue reading ‘It's Official: New Haven's "Lolly" Is Connecticut's Candy’
by | May 28, 2024 5:29 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
4th-generation Louis' Lunch burgermeister Jeff Lassen tends to lunchtime crowd in between hosting elected officials.
Fresh off planting New Haven’s pizza flag in D.C., Mayor Justin Elicker led an official delegation to Crown Street Tuesday to lay claim to yet another round-and-flat New Haven original.
by | May 23, 2024 1:29 pm | Comments (0)
The following photos were taken on May 22 during a trip that a 100-person-strong delegation of New Haven apizza makers and boosters made to Washington, D.C. to witness U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro enter a statement into the Congressional record declaring New Haven the “Pizza Capital of the United States.” Click here for a full story on the day’s events.
The delegation, holding custom "Connecticut: The Pizza State" pizza boxes in front of the chartered Avelo plane.
Continue reading ‘In Photos: Apizza Delegation Heads To D.C.’
by | May 22, 2024 3:44 pm | Comments (47)
Arthur Delot-Vilain Photos
Mayor Elicker and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, surrounded by New Haven pizza-lovers on the steps of the U.S. Capitol: Pizza accomplished.
Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "I like pizza."
“Nothing ah-beetz New Haven apizza!” Mayor Justin Elicker led the chants of 100 assembled New Haven pizza-makers and boosters on the steps of the U.S. Capitol as the delegation that had traveled to Washington, D.C. for the day reached its destination — to witness U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro enter a statement into the Congressional record declaring New Haven the “Pizza Capital of the United States.”
On the Capitol’s steps, DeLauro read from the declaration she had entered into the Congressional record Wednesday. She spoke about her family’s connection to New Haven pizza: “Frank and Filomena Pepe were at my parents’ wedding,” she said, and “my mom and Sal Consiglio played baseball together on Wooster Street.”
She reiterated the importance of the declaration as the rest of Connecticut’s congressional delegation joined her on the steps. “There are some naysayers from Chicago,” DeLauro said. “Really? No contest. Connecticut has the most pizzerias of any state per capita.”
Continue reading ‘U.S. "Pizza Capital" Declared; MTG Dodges Question’
by | May 13, 2024 2:03 pm | Comments (0)
Lisa Reisman Photo
New House Garganelli at Hotel Marcel.
Legend has it that garganelli originated with a Bolognese housewife who was making tortellini for her guests when she realized her cat had devoured all the filling. So she took the squares of pasta she had already cut for the tortellini, and then rolled them around a stick and over a loom comb for ridges.
“She made it happen,” said Megan Gill, the 28-year-old executive chef at BLDG, a 70-seat, three-meal restaurant inside the iconic Hotel Marcel on Sargent Drive, as she added the pasta into boiling, salted water on a recent afternoon.
by | May 9, 2024 1:35 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Miriam Camacho, back at FAME with her new book.
Former Principal Miriam Camacho returned to her old school in Fair Haven to encourage students to always hold on to their home cultures — and, when possible, to make sofrito from scratch.
by | Apr 30, 2024 12:16 pm | Comments (4)
Lisa Reisman photo
Jimmy Apuzzo and Joseph "Pino" Ciccone at the meat counter.
Ex-business owners make the best employees, according to P&M Orange Street Market meat department manager and ex-business owner Jimmy Apuzzo, who’s retiring on May 15.
“I have almost a photographic memory,” Apuzzo, 69, said on a recent morning in the basement storeroom of the East Rock market where he began his working life on Dec. 6, 1967. He was 13. “I can walk into the cooler, look around, and instantly know what’s there and what’s not.”
by | Apr 18, 2024 9:30 am | Comments (49)
Thomas Breen photos
162 James St., now owned by CitySeed.
Food truck owner Clementine Johnson (second from right) checking out the space Wednesday.
A factory building that once churned out button-down shirts and laminated credit cards could soon grow local food businesses.
by | Apr 17, 2024 11:37 am | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Brandon Haynes and Javon Culbreath on a mission: groceries first, then basketball.
Sixth- and seventh-graders Javon Culbreath and Brandon Haynes headed to The Shack to kick off their spring break playing basketball in the sun — and wound up grabbing some free groceries to take home, too.
by | Mar 25, 2024 12:47 pm | Comments (8)
Maya McFadden Photo
Student composters Akira Torres, Zuhal Jamal, and Juliette Bolanos...
...and their life-saving food scrap stats.
11 New Haven Academy (NHA) students have helped to divert 3,285 pounds of food scraps from landfills so far this school year.
Continue reading ‘NHA Composters Get To Work Saving Food Scraps — & The Planet’
by | Mar 12, 2024 1:39 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photos
It fits! Eddie's Everything Extravaganza, prize item (above) at Whalley's newly opened Lea's Falafelhaus.
Would all those fixings fit into that palm-plus-sized pocket of flexible flatbread?
“We’re gonna learn,” Eddie Eckhaus said, “right now.”
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.