Chef Jeremy Martindale, at left in photo
Out-of-towners up for New Haven’s tennis tournament noshed on chilled salt cod esqueixada and crostini di cacciucco — and were served a pitch for the city as a burgeoning foodie destination. And did we tell you about this tournament that could use a new sponsor?
The conversions took place at the third annual New Haven Food and Wine Festival at Pilot Pen tennis Wednesday night, a sold-out showcase of local gastronomic delights. In a large climate-controlled tent next to the tennis stadium on Yale Avenue in Westville, 21 New Haven restaurants set up tables offering sweet and savory tasting dishes for 225 guests.
The esqueixada, a Spanish dish, was from Barcelona restaurant. The crostini topped with seafood puree was from L’Orcio, debuting this year at the festival.
Visitors shelled out $125 for entrance to the event, a fee that included entrance to the evening’s tennis matches. As during the rest of the week-long tournament, the crowd was mostly from out-of-town. Fairfield County was well-represented.
Part of the point of the festival is to give those out-of-towners a taste, literally, of what New Haven has to offer, said Leigh Cashman, a publicist for the event.
Once people see the kind of gourmet delights they can find in New Haven, they might head up the highway for a fancy dinner, rather than down to Manhattan to eat, said Cathleen Decker, vice president at Lou Hammond and Associates, the New York public relations company that markets the festival.
In addition to tempting southwest Connecticut to New Haven, the food festival figured into Pilot Pen tournament Director Anne Worcester’s efforts to woo another title sponsor to pick up the tournament. With the Pilot Pen company pulling out after this year, Worcester is actively lobbying nine different companies to take its place as the main sponsor of the annual tennis tourney. Representatives of some of the those companies were at the food festival on Wednesday, Worcester said. (She declined to name names.)
One famous out-of-towner was not at all incognito: the evening’s host, celebrity chef Jacques Pepin (pictured).
“The food is great,” he said, hoisting a glass of white wine. “It’s amazingly good in New Haven.” He said he was looking forward to trying many of the offerings. “I have a big belly. And I am a glutton,” he said with a laugh.
“I live in Madison. You recognize my Yankee drawl,” Pepin said in the accent of a native Frenchman.
Asked for a recommendation, Pepin suggested the braised beef cheek from Union League Cafe. “It is the best you can do with braised beef,” Pepin said. The cheek is a moist and tender cut, not stringy, he said. Pepin chatted briefly in French with Union League head chef Jean Pierre Vuillermet.
Vuillermet called the food and wine festival a good opportunity to reach “upper middle class” customers: “It’s really our type of clientele.”
“It’s great to see all these people interested in what is going on in New Haven as a food town,” said Chef Carey Savona (center in photo), standing nearby, at the table belonging to Heirloom, the restaurant in the Study at Yale Hotel on Chapel Street in New Haven. Heirloom offered chilled blue salt prawns, with local basil and a heirloom tomato marmellata along with a housemade blackberry soda and prosecco “float” topped with mascarpone gelato. Savona said New Haven is probably “the best food city in Connecticut.”
If that’s the case, it might not be common knowledge among the people traveling to New Haven for the tennis tournament. If they’re not heading into town for the restaurants, “we’re bringing the restaurants to them,” said publicist Cashman.
Once they know what the city has to offer, people may travel to New Haven for the restaurants, said Cashman and Decker, her boss.
“Foodies travel for food,” said Decker. People from Fairfield County are already “making the schlep to New York” to hit the restaurants, she said. “New Haven is just as far.” And the parking is easier, she said. “Only people from New Haven complain about the parking,” Decker said. For New Yorkers like herself, it seems plentiful and cheap.
“I can see it being a destination food place,” said Jeremy Martindale, executive chef at the Omni Hotel. He stood next to dishes of diced heirloom tomatoes with bacon and truffle vinaigrette. Martindale, whe moved to town two years ago from Boulder, said New Haven’s restaurant scene rivals that of the Colorado city.
The food made an impression on former world number-one tennis pro Dinara Safina (at left in photo, with Mayor John DeStefano and Anne Worcester), fresh off a winning match on Wednesday. The tall Russian was making plans for dinner at Union League after tasting the braised cheek. Beef is an important part of a tennis pro’s winning diet, she said. “Well, it’s a protein. That’s what you need after the match.”
Food has been a draw for pros coming to the Pilot Pen for 10 years, after the city started offering the “Mayor’s Passport to Downtown Dining,” said Worcester. The passport lets pros eat free at select downtown restaurants, which cash in on their entourages, who pay for their own meals. Every year when pros sign up for the tournament, Worcester said, they ask her, “Do I still get a passport?”
“The buzz out there is that New Haven is a foodie destination,” Worcester said.
“I love this,” exclaimed Kimberly Higgins (second from left) as she eyed all the tasty delight. Higgins, who works in real estate in New Canaan, was visiting the festival with a group of friends. “We’d love to have one or two of these restaurants.”
Asked if she has previously traveled to New Haven for the food, Higgins said, “We’re definitely going to now! This is so fabulous. We are going to come up here for dinner.”
The food festival was sold out well in advance this year and has been popular each of the three years it’s been held at Pilot Pen. Worcester said she hopes that popularity will eventually make the festival a success as a solo event. “The dream is to have a large-scale stand-alone festival downtown,” she said.
“I want the New Haven food festival to be on the Green and to be open to everybody,” said Jason Sobocinski (at right in photo), owner of Caseus restaurant. (His table was overflowing with artisan cheese, nuts, figs, prunes, as well as chocolate and raspberry goat cheese petit fours.) But it’s not possible to do that right now, he said. The festival works as well as it does because of the marketing and logistical support of Pilot Pen. “We just have to figure out an infrastructure for it,” he said.
Donna Curran, an owner of Zinc and Kitchen Zinc (chilled corn and cilantro soup with blue crab salad, local melon terrine with basil yogurt foam), said she’d also like to see a standalone festival. “We just can’t figure out how to do it,” she said. “Who’s going to pay for it?”
Sponsor Still Sought
The question of picking up the tab is on Anne Worcester’s mind as well, as she works to find another title sponsor for her annual tennis tournament. Pilot Pen announced last year that 2010 will be its final year as the main sponsor of the event that bears its name. Since then, Worcester has been working to land another sponsor to fund the tournament. On Wednesday, she shared a quick update on her progress.
“There are sponsor prospects coming all week long,” she said. Nine companies are “conducting an official review,” she said; half of them are “more solid.” Some of them are visiting the festival.
The companies are mainly in financial services, consumer goods, and insurance, she said.
She’s wooing them with the chance to build their brand through 16 hours of ESPN coverage a day and 90,000 spectators per year, and the ability to entertain clients with professional tennis matches. For Connecticut companies, of which there are several in the group of nine, there is also the chance to associate one’s brand with the tennis programs associated with Pilot Pen, like free tennis lessons to area kids.
Worcester said she’s “cautiously optimistic” that one of the companies will sign on. “It only takes one.”