Culinary Capers in Connecticut II

You know this is going to be a good experience as soon as you walk in the door and are handed a snack, a slice of one of their delicious pizzas. Even if you are coming in to pickup a take out order you get a snack.



Illianos where we go, on South Main St in Middletown is part of a small chain of locally owned restaurants. They serve pizza, grinders (subs), calzones, salads and Italian and pasta dishes. This is a very popular place, if you arrive on Thursday or Friday after 5pm you will have a wait for a booth. This location is a former “Friendlies” restaurant and has only booth seating. This location offers beer and wine as well, which the Washington St location does not.



I have to admit that I love their bread, more than love I adore it. Even when I order the Caprese salad, I ask for a basket of bread. Their bread has a crispy crust with sesame seeds. The inside is fragrant of yeast and soooo good. But I digress. The Caprese Salad is offered as an appetizer but frankly it is a meal even without the bread. I always share some with Al and still leave stuffed.

It is large slices of beefsteak tomato covered with thick slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and drizzled with olive oil. The center of the plate is filled with roasted red peppers.



Al loves the meatball grinder. He always gets a large and takes half home, sometimes. One thing he does is ask for them to crush the meatballs for him. He has it served with cheese and roasted peppers.



We are also big fans of the calamari here. It is a huge plate with a very tasty marinara sauce.



During Lent this past spring, they offered a scrod Parmesan that Al went crazy for. It is not on their regular menu. It was a special. They do offer a full menu of pasta choices. All the typical southern Italian favorites are here, scampi, marsala, parmigana. You have a choice of chicken or veal. There are thick slabs of rich lasagna and piles of gnocchi. They offer Bolognese, ala Vodka and Marinara among their sauces. Service is friendly and efficient.



But what keeps everybody coming back here is the pizza. It is offered by the slice or by the pie. It is a thin chewy crust. I have to admit it is my favorite and the buffalo chicken is to die for. If you want a salad, they offer several really great choices, they are large and the dressings are very good. The Cobb has warm chicken and bacon, and I always get it served with Caesar dressing. Be sure to get a garlic knot with it. They are addictive.



We have never had dessert here, I never have room and my only gripe is they serve Corona but don’t have lime. I end up getting a seltzer.

For many years we drove by this interesting little building and marveled at all the motorcycles parked there especially on the weekends. Your typical biker bar we thought. Then one day (after Ct had passed the no smoking in bars ban) we decided to stop in for a beer after work. They had a sign advertising a prime rib special. That must have been three years ago and we have hardly missed a Thursday since. Not only has it become “our place” our friends Richard and Jackie and Jeff and Cindy as well as our Grandson Alex have become great fans.

As soon as you walk in the door you begin to understand the attraction. It is open and dominated by a large wooden bar. We don’t sit at the bar however, there are booths, and tables both low and high.

The walls are covered with western memorabilia and some really funny signs. Live entertainment is offered on most weekends and Thursday night is Karaoke night. We always joke about staying late enough to perform but we never do...no talent in this group. There is also a pool table and there are some free game specials. Like most bars there are several TV and a jukebox.

All that is very nice but what keeps us coming back week after week is the food. It’s really good. Thur, Fri and Sat they offer prime rib, as a meal in two sizes and in a sandwich on a nice roll. Al rotates but when the prime rib is rare he never passes it up. When we were doing only Atkins this was the perfect place to eat. They have a double barrel burger which though normally served on a roll; they would do without for us. It is two perfectly cooked burgers with grilled onions and peppers and cheese.

I have to admit that all of us are addicted to their coleslaw. It is the best, some weeks more perfect than others but the horseradish is a kicker. We usually pass on the fries and get a double slaw.

There are plenty of other choices including a specials board. We begged them to make meatloaf for us and it now shows up regularly.

When we first started coming every week I would ask for a Corona Light and Jim (the Bartender) would tell me that didn’t have Corona Light. This went on for a couple of months. One Thursday wee walked in and Jim greeted us by saying “we have Corona Light” and they always stock it now.

I now understand the attraction of Cheers, it fun to have a place where the owner comes out and talks to you when you visit and the bartender has your drink at your table before you even order. Is this still a biker bar, yes it still is and I laugh when I tell Al that most of the bikers are the same age we are.

We watched the creation of this restaurant with great interest. It is located in the Old Saybrook Country Barn and over a two year period they added two new building to their complex. One of them holds the restaurant Aspen. Finally this past week I had lunch there.

One good thing is that there is plenty of free parking in the rear of the building. The bad thing is that when you go to leave the parking lot you can not go toward Saybrook Point, you must go the other direction and then find a way to change direction, annoying but just the way it is.

The feeling is light and open and very contemporary which is a bit of a surprised in a country setting but it is very attractive. We were escorted past the bar and the fireplace to a table by the side window, the tables and the chairs are all wood, no upholstery. When we sat down the restaurant was almost empty, we were just lucky within ten minutes it was completely full.

Service was excellent even when it got busy. We started with soup. The special soup of the day was a creamy tomato, Kathy and Patty ordered that, I on the other hand had the clam chowder with crab. We never did get an order of bread but I did see another table get it and it was in a very cut spiral basket. Presentation is everything here and the soup bowls are a sight to behold. The soup itself was excellent; mine was creamy and loaded with clams and potatoes and topped with the crab.

For entrees we had the vegetable panini, the cheeseburger and the fish and chips. The vegetable panini was served with a side salad on the same plate. The burger was served with their Signiture fries as was the fish and chips. The ketchup that was served with it has quite a kick, not something you want to give to the kids but it was delicious. Kathy and Patty both gave their sandwiches a thumbs up, I was less enthusiastic. The coating on the fish and chips was way too thick and greasy, the fish inside however was tender and tasty and the fries were good.

We had coffee and tea and Patty order the vanilla bean crème brulee. The milk and half and half that was served with the coffee and tea had been steamed, the only problem was that it was hard to tell which was which and I ended up with cream in my tea. I was also less than impressed to have an upscale and pricey restaurant serve me Lipton tea with the bag already in the pot. Come on, that is so fast food.

Over all this restaurant has potential but I was not blown away and it was pricey, $73 for lunch for 3.

Al and I had a gift certificate so we decided to use it for dinner. We shared an appetizer of lightly breaded calamari served with a lemony dipping sauce. I had a pesto pasta special and Al had a steak that he rated 5 star, cooked to perfection and seasoned well. It was pricey again we had to put in $48 with our $25 gift certificate but the food was stellar and so was the service.

Don't let the outside fool you. What a delightful surprise this little strip mall café was. It doesn’t look like much sitting next to a dry cleaner and even when we walked in the door I wasn’t blown away. There are a few booths along the side walls, a counter with stools and some tables. All the space is pretty well filled with places to sit. Service wasn’t especially quick either , they took their time coming to ask us what we wanted to drink. I asked for ice tea and Al ordered just water. Ice tea came in a can and I was very disappointed, I let the waitress know that I didn’t want canned ice tea and she said they had it in the soda machine so I took that. It was still not homemade but at least it was unsweetened.

The menu has an interesting mix of salads, lunch time entrees, sandwiches, burgers, clubs and wraps. We tossed around a couple of ideas and then settled for a rib eye steak sandwich and a turkey wrap. This is where the pedestrian was traded for the near sublime.

I had the turkey wrap, it came with sweet potato fries but these could have been traded for regular fries, coleslaw or potato salad. The wrap was enormous and packed with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. It took all my will power to even eat half of it and every bite was Thanksgiving all over again. It was so good that I gladly took the other half home for later.

Al’s steak sandwich was not a whole piece of steak, the steak had been cut into pieces and mixed with onions and peppers and then cheese was melted over it. Stick this all in a Kaiser roll and add a large side of fries and you have an excellent lunch. How all managed to eat all of it is a mystery to me, but he did.

When you walk in the door the specials board will greet you. They had a lot of different breakfast items on the board. They open for breakfast at 6:30am. I found the blueberry peach pancakes intriguing.

They have a daily entrée special listed on another board and it ran the gamut from meatloaf to macaroni and cheese. There was a hot pastrami sandwich and a turkey burger.
The food we got was good enough to guarantee that we will come back and try something else. For sure next year when we come to Watersedge we will go there for breakfast on Saturday morning.

Gelston House in East Haddam is a wonderful historic building located right next door to the Goodspeed Opera House. At one time they were a real Inn with rooms where you could stay. These days they have a formal restaurant with glass windows all around overlooking not only the Opera House but the Connecticut. You can also eat in the bar which has a small additional dining room and in season a beer garden outdoors in the rear of the building.

The Gelston House has gone through some tough times and has changed owners several times in recent years. When we heard last year tat it was open yet again we were excited to try it. We have season tickets so we are there three times during the season. We tried the bar and were very under-whelmed by both the service and the food.

Since it had been only recently opened the last time we tried it, wee decided that we should try it again. There were three of us and we didn’t have reservations. It was pouring rain out and I have to say they didn’t seem delighted to see us. We were shuffled from one location to another by every person who spoke to us. Finally we were seated in the empty little room next to the bar.

We looked at the made and made our choices. I decided to try the fish and chips .My friends tried a chicken salad and a chicken dinner. We did get a first set of drinks with out issue as well as a good basket of bread. That is where anything even vaguely good ended. Service was horrible. Our drinks were never refilled; I mean my $2.50 cup of coffee was for a single cup.

My fish and chips arrived. Where do I even start? The fish was square. Exactly what fish is it that is square, the dreaded patty fish? It was also gray inside, it was definitely frozen fish and not even good frozen fish. The fries were frozen and the coleslaw was the kind you buy at a grocery store deli. All this for a very steep price. My friends meals were little better. The only flavor in the chicken was the big red roasted pepper it was covered with.

No one checked on us, no one cared. That is until it was time to ask if we wanted dessert. No thank you I can buy better at the grocery. I can’t believe how bad this beautiful restaurant was. It is a shame; they have a captive audience with all the theater goers. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make a good fish and chips, just fresh fish.

Well it is all irrelevant, we will take our business else where and eventually so will everyone else and we will be seeing new owners again. Hopefully next time will be better.

In Middletown there is one restaurant that it an institution and it is O’Rourke’s Diner. Mentioned in Michael Sterns Book Road food it has been feeding hungry people in the area for over fifty years. This is a real diner with shiny chrome and glass blocks and plenty of charm.

A fire closed the dinner for many months but since Feb 2008 they are back in business and so new and improved (the facility) that it is barely recognizable. It’s new and bright and clean but the menu is still very much the focus of why this is such a popular place.

Breakfast has always been what got people to come to the North end of Middletown. It isn’t a pretty area of town and most would avoid it otherwise. On a Saturday or Sunday morning the lines can stretch to fifteen or twenty eager customers. You never feel neglected even when you stand in line. Brian will come out and pass out some of his fresh cake to hold you over.

These days there is a lot more to get you to come into Middletown even in the evening. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5-9 pm dinner is served and Al and I are there almost weekly.

There is a different menu every week and some changes between the days of the week. What is offered is the lunch menu and also a four course prix fix menu. For anywhere form $19 to $22 you can have a tiny bowl of soup, a salad, your entrée choice and dessert.
Meal choices are varied and always include plenty of fish, Connecticut style lobster rolls, catfish with jambalaya, pork cutlet marsala, bangers and mash, Irish stew, and barbecued beef are just a few of the recent offerings. Yesterday’s soup was butternut bisque other recent choices have been beef barley and gazpacho. You never know what dessert will be either, sometimes its Brian’s surprise. It is always an adventure. On Saturday night you will be serenaded with Irish music. This is BYOB and they will supply you with the wine glasses.

Breakfast omelets are still among the favorite early in the day items. There are so many choices it will make your head spin. I love the triple smoker, smoked, bacon, smoked cheese and a smoked horseradish sauce, it is fabulous. All the bread here is homemade and you have choices, one of which is always Irish soda bread.

Several Times a year Brian offers a special by reservation only tasting menu with wine. These are a chance to taste some of his very special cuisine with the local wine pairing.

If you are looking for regular diner food this isn’t you place but if you are looking for creative cuisine in a historic atmosphere come on down, but not at the same time as me, I hate waiting in line.

Harry Place is an institution in Colchester Connecticut. Its fame has spread over much of the state thanks to all the publicity it has received over the years.

Harry is a seasonal stand that sells what is arguably the best hamburger you will ever eat. They sell lots of other things, seafood, hot lobster rolls, soups, hotdogs, red hots, French fries and onion rings. All the rest is just stuff, what you come here for are the hamburgers.

You can order the burger with or without cheese, no choice of cheese just good old American. They are cooked medium well unless you ask for otherwise. You can also add tomato, onion, salt and pepper, ketchup or mustard.

You can watch your burger being cooked. The ground beef is in balls and the cook slams then down on the grill and flattens it with a spatula. The young people all work together here and shout the orders to each other and then remind them which ones go with which toppings. They ask for your name and call to you to ask if you want salt and pepper even if you already told them when you ordered.

I have to tell you that the rolls are just about as good as the burgers. They are big and fat and are made at Colchester bakery. This is not a hamburger for the wimpy; you are going to have to stretch your mouth to get it around this baby. But it is so worth it.

The only place to sit down to eat is at outdoor picnic tables. In the summer there will be a very long line to order food and then there may not be a table available. Luckily they now take phone orders so you don’t have to stand in the sun for 30 minutes to get your Harry’s fix. You can wait 30 minutes at home and come and get your order to go.

We ate in the car today and let me tell you this can be an issue because these are the juiciest burgers in the world. I took one bite and there was meat juice all over my shoe. I had to wrap it in a napkin to absorb all that deliciousness.

They also have an ice cream stand. It has it’s own line. They have shakes, root beer floats, sundaes and cones. Lots of choices and enough to keep the whole family happy.

If you live in Connecticut or are planning a visit make this one of your stops, you won’t be disappointed.