USA Restaurants

Again I was meeting someone from the Hartford area half-way... that culinary wasteland I've written about. I suggested to Connie that she find a place to meet, hoping she might discover a place that's worth the visit. Not being from the area either, Connie did her research resulting in two options. We ended up at Michael's Trattoria on Center Street. Sue, our waitress, was the overly chatty but fairly efficient type described the specials, not included in the reasonably priced, Northern Italian menu. Funny. Neither was the eggplant parmigiana that I ordered — at least it wasn't listed on Connie's menu!   Not sure why it's only on some menus, something [...]

Here I was at another networking dinner, this time in Southington (CT) with dinner's topic — one of my favorite — "Making public relations work for you." After the over-adorned salmon I had at the last meeting at Fratelli's, I thought I'd try to order wisely. I asked for the Salmon Napolitana ($19), described as Cajun salmon oven roasted, spinach, fresh tomatoes, capers, onion straws, pesto, sherry wine sauce, couscous. I requested no pesto or sherry wine sauce and, in place of the couscous, asparagus (which another participant discovered to be the veggie of the day). The plate — as you can see — arrived almost empty: missing the spinach, [...]

For the Connecticut chapter of the National Speakers Association, we have monthly networking sessions over a meal. The meetings have a topic (this month's was a “Marketing Idea Swap”), are fun, and encourage camaraderie, but sadly the food is generally mediocre. Fratelli's was no different. I'm not saying the food is bad, it's just not very good. We started with lightly battered fried calamari that we shared while waiting for the group to gather. The squid was tender, not overcooked— but the batter could have used seasoning.  We also had forgettable bruschetta. My salmon was ungapatchka (a Yiddish word meaning ridiculously overdecorated or ornate.) It was moist, not overcooked, but [...]

I had read about the Sunday Jazz brunch at Scoozzi's, but somehow had never made it there until now.  As we walked into the sunlight dining room, I  could hear the soft music. At first I was a bit worried as we were seated just three feet away from the musicians, as catch-up was the order for the day and I wanted to be able to hear our conversation. We did enjoy listening to Tony Lombardozzi & Company's jazz while sipping Mionetto Prosecco ($32/bottle) and waiting for our food. We waited and waited about an hour in a not-packed restaurant. At least we had the seeded flatbread and roasted pepper [...]

My friend Beth and I are always looking for places halfway between our homes to grab a bite while we yak. We've realized that our halfway point is almost a culinary wasteland, but we keep looking. That's why I listened when my Fed Ex delivery woman Susan mentioned that she worked some nights at Avanti, an Italian place in Meriden and she recommended I try it. Since Beth and I were planning to get together, "Why not?" I thought. The food was fine, but service was excellent, having gone a night that Susan was serving! We particularly enjoyed the generous-sized baby spinach salad with goat cheese, roasted pear and lots [...]

It's a new economy and restaurants are doing everything they can to continue and attract customers. 'Set menus' are reappearing as a means to more food for less money, as diners look to stretch their dollars at the dinner table. On this note, I recently took the opportunity to try a special occasion menu at a talked about Atlanta Japanese restaurant I'd yet to sample.  STEEL is engaging at first glance, with a zen garden-like atmosphere that includes an extravagant fountain, forming a literal rain curtain, wrapping around the bar and lounge area. My friend Sous had informed me about the dinner, but I had completely overlooked the fact that [...]