Best of 2006, Part 2
By Todd Lyon
From the New Haven Register
So, have your holidays been merry and bright? Hope so.
Last week, as you may recall, I named seven of 14 restaurants that, in my opinion, were stand-outs in 2006.
Here’s the balance of those memorable eateries.
I hope you’ll visit each and every one of them and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. Make it one of your New Year’s resolutions, OK? Heaven in ’07.
Auberge d’Asie
284 E. Main S., Branford
(203) 643-8067
I’ve been cheering Sophie and Dinh Nguyen from the sidelines since they opened Pot-au-Pho, their Vietnamese noodle house in New Haven, which made my best-of list for 2005. Now, I celebrate Auberge d’Asie, a creative showcase for modern Vietnamese cookery that sits in a former pub off Route 1 in Branford.
Though it’s invisible from the street, Auberge d’Asie has gained a steady following among adventurous diners who are drawn to Sophie’s bright dining room for sensory experiences involving lemongrass, wild betel leaves, lotus stems, star anise, lily buds and other heady ingredients, accompanied by equally interesting cocktails and wines.
Sophie was born in Vietnam and educated in Paris, and her cookery is inspired by all sorts of worldly cuisines; open your mind and take a seat at her "Inn of Asia."
Elizabeth’s Cafe
885 Boston Post Road, Madison
(203) 245-0250
www.perfectparties.com
For nearly 20 years, Perfect Parties has been one of the shoreline’s favorite catering concerns.
Owner Elizabeth Butler started small, in a corner of a charming 1793 building near the center of Madison; with time, she added a gourmet take-out area, and finally, a full-service restaurant featuring intense, beautiful dishes for sophisticated palates. Think duck confit with wild arugula, grilled asparagus with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, free-range lamb with cannellini beans and red wine reduction, as well as a few casual offerings that appeal to a neighborhood contingent.
Intimate, quirky and unspoiled, the 45-seat Elizabeth’s Cafe is the perfect getaway for exhausted urbanites — especially now, when Madison still twinkles with holiday cheer.
Forbidden City
335 Main St., Middletown
(860) 343-8288
www.forbiddencitybistro.com
For 600 years, the Forbidden City was home to China’s royal families. There, emperors would call upon the country’s best chefs, from all of its many districts, to travel to the palace and prepare their finest dishes.
Such is the concept behind Forbidden City, a stylish restaurant on Middletown’s budding Main Street. Specific delicacies — ancient and modern — from specific regions in China are served with contemporary niceties like good lighting, handsome place settings, an expansive bar (with creative cocktails) and a wine cellar, located in a former bank vault.
This is the best Chinese food I’ve had in Connecticut, wrapped up in a fine dining experience that — at last! — elevates one of the world’s great cuisines to its proper place.
Bespoke
266 College St., New Haven
(203) 562-4644
www.bespokenewhaven.com
By now, you’ve been bombarded with press about Bespoke, the months-old restaurant, years in the making, brought to you by the husband-and-wife team who put themselves on the map with Roomba, the ground-breaking Nuevo Latino eatery around the corner on New Haven’s Chapel Street.
The new place is tall, lean and acutely stylish (two of its three stories are now open; a lower-level lounge is soon to come), and its strictly edited menu offers a la carte dishes as well as a four-course prix-fixe option, with or without paired wines. Chef Franco Camacho’s artistry shines; each entree is a complete composition unto itself, and utilizes a paint box of flavors culled from his visits to international ports of call. Prices are steep, by New Haven standards, but those of us on a budget can sit at the long bar, with a view of College Street, and share a $26 bottle of wine and a $12 cheese plate with a friend, and feel queenly.
Kari Malaysian Cuisine
1451 Whalley Ave., New Haven
(203) 389-1280
It isn’t new — Kari first opened as Gunung Tahan back in 1998 — but a visit this summer to the wee Malaysian restaurant impressed me enough to count it among my favorite dining experiences of the year.
The place, located in a strip mall in Westville, is modest but attractive, and the menu is full of curious treasures begging to be discovered.
We especially loved Redang Beef and a special of stingray. The food at Kari is fragrant and spicy, but not uncomfortably hot, and dinner entrees average $12-$14 — affordable luxuries that linger in the memory.
Mickey’s Restaurant and Bar
2323 Whitney Ave., Hamden
(203) 288-4700
www.mickeysgroup.com
I’m a girl who likes fancy chow with an international flair. And so I was deeply pleased when Chef Mickey Josephs came to Hamden, and took over that large eatery in the center of town — the one with the wrap-around patio and the landscaped front yard that had been home to such restaurants as Seabreeze and "R" Place — and turned it into Mickey’s.
I first knew Mickey, and his brother, Molti, when they made a splash at Rosemary & Sage in Old Saybrook, which earned an "Excellent" rating from The New York Times in 2002. The brothers briefly operated MY in New Haven, then returned to the shoreline.
After Molti relocated to their native Israel, Mickey set out on his own, and thus I found myself under an umbrella, gazing at Hamden’s Town Hall and feasting on such dishes as oysters stuffed with crab, spinach and Bearnaise sauce; rack of lamb with whole wheat and horseradish crust; and salmon with seven-spice rub atop couscous and Moroccan carrot slaw.
I’ve heard that Mickey’s first year in Hamden has been a bit rocky, which is understandable. The place is large, and the territory takes some getting used to, on both sides. But I have unshakable faith in the chef’s talents, and I urge you to go support this fine new addition to Hamden’s dining scene.
Katz’s II on Temple
21 Temple St., New Haven
(203) 787-5289
Katz’s II on Temple is such a blast. The crispy pickles and fresh coleslaw, the hot knishes, steaming matzo ball soup, decadent sandwiches made with house-roasted turkey, roast beef, tongue, corned beef and more, plus blintzes, wraps, chopped salads and, of course, breakfast on demand ... we New Haveners have needed Katz’s II for a long time.
Especially those of us who love making an evening of Reubens, followed by a movie across the street at the Criterion. And who also call upon the place for swift delivery of sustenance.
Owners Mark and Amy McKinley previously owned Katz’s 2 Go on Orange Street, built primarily on efficient lunchtime deliveries via a team of hard-riding cyclists; earlier this year, Mark and Amy took over the former Bella’s Downtown Cafe, and in September unveiled Katz’s II on Temple, a full-service, New York-style deli, complete with booths, egg creams and Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda.
The place is frequented by everyone from students to families, but delivery is still a major draw. Mark and Amy tell me that, on any given evening, Katz’s II delivers as many as 12 major orders to Yale-New Haven Hospital alone.
That’s a lot of pastrami. I’ll take mine on rye, with melted Swiss and grilled onions, please.
Todd Lyon of New Haven is a freelance writer. She can be reached at toddlyon@earthlink.net. |
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