OmNomCT is hittin’ the road . . . in a good way!

Oh heyyyyy OmNomivores! We have some super exciting news to share with you. Well, at least we think so, and we hope you do too!   

Remember back in late 2017, after our “we need to lose weight” hiatus, when we were all like, yeah, we’re gonna come back and just do blog posts on our “treat days” when we take a break from our healthy lifestyles? And then we did like 3 posts, and POOF, we were gone again?  Yeeeahh . . . first, please know that it was COMPLETELY our intention to do just that, but we no sooner realized a slight problem in our plan . . .  our treat days were usually taking place on weekend trips or vacations, when we traveled out of Fairfield County. Whoopsie! On the positive side, we found ourselves really enjoying sharing our food experiences from our trips on Instagram and wondered if that enjoyment could become something more. Then, with that curiosity, we began to think, brainstorm, work, and plan, and we’re ready to share! 

 

So, without further ado, we’d like to introduce you to our new endeavor, an endeavor that is dedicated to giving you the same honest, enthusiastic food and drink pics, news, reviews and more that we’ve always brought you, with the same fun and goofy attitudes, but instead of from Fairfield County, it will be from our travels near (as near as our own state) and far (as far as across the globe).

We’re really excited about this new approach because it will allow us to share our experiences as the OmNomivores you’ve come to know and love, at the times when we’re our truly gluttonous selves, with no apologies, no inhibitions, no holds barred. And, as usual, we’ll be sharing pics, stories, and of course, our perspective on the best food & drink this awesome planet has to offer, from the seediest dives to the fanciest schmanciest restaurants, from hidden speakeasies to crowded pubs, from food trucks to donut shops, and all the breweries, wineries, and distilleries in between! 

And, with this new approach comes a new name. . . OmNom on the Road, and a new logo and look, a new website, and most importantly, a new enthusiasm and commitment! We’d love for you to come join us at our new website, OmNomOTR.com. We even pre-populated it for you with round up posts from some of our 2018 travel. 

 

We’ll also be using social, specifically Instagram, more frequently to capture more “in the moment” content, so be sure to follow us at the links on our blog. If you’re already following OmNomCT you don’t need to do anything more, since in the next couple of days we will be switching those accounts over to this new name. We hope you will continue to follow us there and share it with even more friends and family! 

 

So, with that, we’d LOVE if all of you will come along “On the Road” with us and hope you’ll enjoy the journey as much as we’ll enjoy sharing it, as your loyalty and support since we first launched this baby in 2010 has meant the WORLD to us! 

Around the world and back again, and again, and again @ El Segundo (Review)

All the noms!

We’re just going to say it outright . . . we can’t frickin’ get enough of El Segundo. And yeah, we were admittedly late in the game getting there. It was always on the top of our (long) list of places to hit, but when we don’t go out to eat nearly as much anymore, it became a little overwhelming. BUT, once we got there, oh man, we had to go back again STAT. And again after that. Aaaand again with friends. Aaaaand then again with family. Yep. That’s how much we love it. I mean, what’s not to love when each time you can try different ridiculously delish street food from another part of the world? Or, you know, you could try like a ton of them each time you go . . . because that’s how we roll.  

So why are we so in love with this spot? Well, first of all, it’s the second restaurant from the same guys who brought us The Spread in Norwalk, so you know it’s going to be good. And while we love The Spread for a nice night out, what we love about El Segundo is their brilliant approach to bringing street food from across the world right into one place, divided on the menu into Americas, Europe, and Asia. The best part about this is if you just want to hop in for a quick lunch or pre-movie snack, you can order up one or two. Or, if you want to have a more proper meal, order a few of each. Or, want to have fun and chill for a while with friends? Then order a bunch to share. It’s really the perfect restaurant for any and all occasions, and any and all tastes! Add to that a killer, chill, yet lively and fun vibe, awesome outdoor seating in nice weather, and excellent service, and you really can’t go wrong.

CT Restaurants Band Together to Help Puerto Rico – CT ❤️ PR

Helping out is simple: just have a drink and a dish . . . or maybe two or three of them! ;)

CT Loves PR is a collective of restaurants, bakers, bartenders, restaurant owners, and more who are coming together to help the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. As you might be aware, recovery efforts have been difficult, especially because 90% of the island is still without power. In addition, many communities still struggle to find clean drinking water, with some people having to wait in lines all day. While it is certainly overwhelming and difficult to think about what is going on in Puerto Rico, CT Loves PR plans to help out.

From October 21-28, participating restaurants will offer up one dish and one cocktail that is inspired by Puerto Rico. 100% of the proceeds from these drinks and dishes will go directly to Unidos Por Puerto Rico, a fund started by, Beatriz Rosselló, the First Lady of Puerto Rico. That’s all you have to do: drink and eat up! 

Here are the restaurants (as of 10/12) that are participating. If you are a restaurant or bar and would like to take part, please e-mail here by Friday, 10/13. 
 
21 Oak (Manchester)*

@ The Barn Restaurant (Granby)

Amis Trattoria (Westport)

Artisan (West Hartford and Southport)

Artisanal Burger Company (Manchester)*

Avert Brasserie (West Hartford)*

Beachland Tavern (West Hartford)

Black Bamboo (West Hartford)

Bricco Trattoria (Glastonbury)

Butchers & Bakers (Farmington)*

Camille’s Wood Fired Pizza (Tolland)

Carbone’s Kitchen (Bloomfield)*

Carbone’s Ristoronte (Hartford)*

Caseus Fromagerie Bistro (New Haven)

Chief Brody’s Bahn Mi (New Haven)

Cook & The Bear (West Hartford)*

Cure (Unionville)*

Flora Plant Food + Drink (West Hartford)

Geronimo Tequila Bar & Southwest Grill (Fairfield and New Haven)

Grants Restaurant & Bar (West Hartford)

GZen (Branford)

Han Restaurant (Hartford)

Hub & Spoke (Bridgeport)

Ichiro Habachi & Sushi (West Hartford)*

India (West Hartford)*

L’escale (Greenwich)

Liquid Nirvana (Glastonbury and Avon)

Max Oyster Bar (West Hartford)

McLaddens (West Hartford)*

Millwright’s (Simsbury)*

Park & Oak Restaurant (West Hartford)

Park Tavern (West Hartford)*

Restaurant Bricco (West Hartford)

Rockin Chicken (Hartford)

Rooster and Co (Newington)

Seoul BBQ (New Britain)

Shell & Bones Oyster Bar & Grill (New Haven)

Shu (Fairfield and West Hartford)

Table 580 Asian Fusion (Simsbury)

The Cottage (Westport)

The Green Teahouse (West Hartford)

The North House (Avon)

The Sweet Beet (Granby)*

Toscano Trattoria (Manchester)

Treva Restaurant & Bar (West Hartford)*

Vitality Juice and Smoothie Bar (Manchester)

Zohara Mediterranean Kitchen (West Hartford)*

*Want to dine at home? Dine-In Connecticut is donating 100% of all delivery fees when customers order the special dish inspired by Puerto Rico at their partner restaurants

A win win WIN at Judy’s Bar + Kitchen, Stamford (Review)

A while back, our friend Terri Smith, who curates Franklin Street Works in Stamford, reached out for help in creating a fun experience for their annual fundraiser event: the opportunity to review a restaurant with yours truly. We were completely on board (hey, anything for a great local charity), but wanted to pick the perfect restaurant for the experience. We immediately thought of Judy’s Bar + Kitchen, and being the good soul she is, Chef Judith Roll (also of Tabouli Grill) was totally on board! Skip ahead to the fundraiser event, and wouldn’t you know, our friends John and Lori Beth won! That’s the first and second “win” of our win, win, WIN. So, for our first (admittedly overdue) review back, we’re sharing not just our own thoughts, but also what our friends thought about this Stamford hotspot.

First of all, let’s just say how excited we were to be at Judy’s, having been major fans of Chef Roll since we lived in Stamford the first time around ’07-’13 and ordered Tabouli Grill on the regular. And while the Judy’s Bar & Kitchen concept is VERY different, with down home BBQ and comfort food and killer cocktails, we just knew we were going to be in for a treat! (That’s the third WIN, for those of you keeping track with the title.)

#SoMuchYep Lorca Opening 2nd Spot @ Fleishers in Greenwich!

Greenwich, you ready for Lorca? Picture courtesy of Leyla Jenkins.

YEP (so very much of it), that’s right, Lorca, our favorite coffee shop in Stamford, is opening up a second shop real soon right inside of Fleishers Craft Butchery in Cos Cob!!!

According to owner Leyla Jenkins, there will be 14 seats so you can drink and relax while you munch away on Spanish cafe treats to your heart’s content, or take your order to go. Some of the options that will be available include their amazing alfajores (shortbread cookies con dulce de leche y coco), nitro and speciality coffee, avocado toast, housemade empanadas that feature Fleshers chorizo (OH EM GEEEE), and lots more. Adding even more fusion with Lorca and Fleishers, there will be a speciality coffee drink with raw milk from a local farm that Fleishers sells. 

Guess Who’s Back? Back Again. OmNom’s Back, Tell a Friend.

Checking out this year’s Greenwich Wine & Food Festival. Photo courtesy of Elisa Gorman of the awesome New View PR.

Hello there our beloved OmNomivores! Oh how we’ve missed you! 

We know, we know—it has been a while since we posted on the blog with the regularity you had come to love from us. So, it’s time to fess up why, share how we’d like to come back into all your awesome lives in the future, and get your opinion, because we do this for you, after all. 

But first, you may be asking what prompted us to FINALLY write this post after all this time? Well, this year at our favorite event, The Greenwich Wine & Food Festival, we were greeted with the warm smiles and enthusiasm we always have been greeted with, but it was followed by a lot of, we miss you, please come back, omg we rely on you guys, and so on. It was SO NICE to hear all of that, but it also made us feel terrible . . . like we let our awesome food community and readers down, and, well, we just aren’t having it. 

Giveaway Time: 3 Pairs of Tix for Food for All 2017!

Read on to see how you can win one of 3 pairs of tickets to the amazing Food for All 2017 fundraising party!

Update: We used our favorite little random number generator, and we have picked three winners! One was (randomly) on Instagram and the other two were on Facebook. Here they are:

IG: @amandacakes and @lallalee13

FB: Jennifer and Louis M.

       Amanda and John S.

It’s contest time, OmNomivores, and boy do we have a great one for you: three pairs of tickets to Food for All 2017: An Evening to End Hunger! This historically awesome event lets you check out some of Fairfield County’s newest and best food and drink from Fairfield County’s newest and best chefs and mixologists (or whatever the “it” term is these days for a person that makes kickass cocktails) all while helping to fulfill Food Rescue US‘s vital mission of ridding our county and country of hunger. What’s not to love about that? Read on for more details and how to win:

These Buffalo Cauliflower Bites from Marcia Selden Catering Are 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (Recipe)

It’s just cauliflower, so you can have like 1,000,000 of these bites . . .

Cauliflower is quickly becoming this year’s Brussels sprouts . . . and here we are with another great use for them: Buffalo Cauliflower from Marcia Selden Catering!  Serve ’em up as an app, at your next party, or switch it out with classic chicken wings. Happy noming! 

Ingredients for Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

• 1 C Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 C Water
• 1 t Garlic Powder
• 1 t Kosher Salt
• 1 head Cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 C Franks Red Hot Sauce
• 1 stick Salted Butter, melted
• Handful Chopped Parsley

Bookmark this Event: A Novel Affair 2017

This year’s A Novel Affair features an awesome

Now that we’re back in Stamford, we have access (again) to an amazing library system! In fact, the Weed Hill branch is just around the corner, so if we ever want to pick up a book or any other item, it can get sent us to right there from any of the other branches. Besides that, all of the libraries in Stamford offer an ever-expanding selection of books, audio, magazines, online items, and even games! But, that doesn’t even take into account all of the programs that take part in the library . . . the Stamford library is truly a social center that brings the community together.

Wassup with Jesup Hall? A Review of Westport’s Newest Restaurant from Bill Taibe

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We know, we know, it’s been a while since our last review, but while we’ve been focusing on cutting back the cals and subsequent lbs, an amazing new restaurant opened up that we HAD to get back in the game for, and STAT. That restaurant is Jesup Hall in Westport, and the reason it was a must-review is because of three words: Chef Fu&$ing Bill Taibe. Ok, that’s four words, but the colorful adjective was necessary for such an iconic and amazing chef in these here parts.

So, way back in October 2015 when we talked to him at The Whelk during a special oysters, sherry, and pork dinner, he was excited about the idea of expansion after the closing of leFarm. And with noted Chef Dan Sabia who comes from Campagna (in Bedford) and Bedford Post Inn on board, his hopes of starting something new took flight in Jesup Hall,  located at the old town hall where you can also find Rothbard Ale + Larder off to the side.