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MELT MARKET + CAFE: 7 LAFAYETTE CIRCLE, BRIDGEPORT

Melt, not to be confused with newcomer Melt Mobile in Stamford, opened earlier this year just up the road from the Connecticut Post, so naturally I had to check it out.

Our own Lee Steele and Eileen Fischer beat me to it, as did CT Bites, but they all missed the most important thing: Raclette.

Raclette is a Swiss dish made with melted raclette cheese over potatoes. I guess whoever came up with the dish was too busy taking a cheese-and-potato-induced nap to think of a real name. That’s alright because it’s fantastic.

I talked to owner Damon Itin about it and, it turns out, not many people seem to know about raclette, so he rarely prepares it. This is criminal. Consider this a call to action, Bridgeport: Go to Melt and demand raclette. You won’t regret it. In the meantime, you can get your fix at Swizz in Manhattan.

Other offerings include sandwiches, salads, macaroni and cheese, and soup. In addition to the café menu, Melt will sell you everything from cheese and meat platters to fondue sets (hence the “market” part of the name).

I tried the Vermont cheddar, apple, and chutney melt and my only complaint was that it could have spent a few more seconds in the grill press. The ingredients were fresh, bread was great, and cheese was just sharp enough. Melt is a welcome addition to the Bridgeport lunch spot roster.

Melt Market + Café

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UPDATE: Frank Carpenteri, Jr., son of Garden Catering owner Frank, Sr., says that they the East Main and High Ridge locations are no longer part of the Garden Catering family, but that the business will be expanding (including a store in Norwalk on Westport Avenue).

FURTHER BACKGROUND:

We are also now 100% family owned and operated. Frank Carpenteri Sr., reopened Garden Catering back in 1991, and has been the principle owner ever since. We’ve had a few partners along the way, but have since consolidated our operations and are focusing on expansion and improving our existing stores.

To answer your question about the “original”, Garden Catering has been open since the late 70’s, when it was owned & operated by Lou Iandoli. Frank Carpenteri Sr. purchased the business from his family when Mr. Iandoli passed in the late 80’s. It would be tough to argue that anyone else came before us!

* * *

An anonymous source — let’s call him Heath Whamond — alerts me to a name change at two-or-more Garden Catering locations in Stamford. The joint is now called “Reddi Rooster,” not to be confused with Top Chef’s Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster in Harlem, though they both serve fried chicken.

Previously, a split led to the Great Chicken Joe’s/Garden Catering Schism, which was way before my time. Heck, I’m not even sure which one came first, except that they are both good but people get all ornery about which one is the real deal.

Anywho, they will still have the high school with cones.

What’s going on?

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JAKE’S WAYBACK BURGERS: 324 HOPE STREET, STAMFORD

With Station Eats recently opening and Five Guys and Plan B coming soon, Stamford is undergoing a burger renaissance.

And now the franchise chain, Jake’s Wayback Burgers is up and running on Hope Street. They replaced the short-lived Chef Luis Express, and blew out of front end, easily doubling the seating.

The good news:

It’s cheap. Cheaper than five guys and pretty much cheaper than any other decent-quality fast food place around here. I paid around $7 for a cheeseburger, fries and a drink.

The portions aren’t out of control: My biggest beef with Five Guys that I leave feeling like I just ate for three, no matter how hard I try not to eat all the fries.

The semi-good news:

The burgers are pretty good, nothing to write home about, but still pretty solid and I’ll be coming back.

The bad news:

Unrelated, but nearby Mi Ranchito has still not reopened after a kid crashed into it and wrecked the place a few months ago.

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Everyone’s favorite celebrity chef, guy who probably doesn’t write his own books, and television host, Bobby Flay, will hit Stamford Thursday as the Melt Mobile grilled cheese truck makes its debut.

UPDATE:

Ok, so the truck — and Flay — are already in Stamford. Yesterday they were filming a segment of the show, pitting Melt against the Caseus Cheese Truck of New Haven outside of UConn Stamford, giving away free food, and generally creating a scene.

Supposedly, they’ll be in or near the Bedford Street Annex this evening at 6.

PRESS RELEASE:

Stamford, CT, March 2012 – With MELT Mobile ready to roll into Stamford this Thursday, March 29th at 11:30 a.m., part of Bobby Flay’s Food Project, a new reality show on the Food Network that follows food entrepreneurs through the arduous task of opening a food service business, the city’s street food is finally speeding past hot dogs and potato chips. Meticulously sourced ingredients transform traditional grilled cheese comfort food into serious gourmet eats.

The MELT vision was born when two friends purchased a paddy wagon. They decided it was time to drive the gourmet food truck trend north of NYC, and bring this popular new style of eating to suburbia. Darlene Andersen, an experienced entrepreneur, took no short cuts. She had the state-of-the-art “wich on wheels” custom built for what her business-eye lens saw as a wide open market. Diana Hall, a graduate of NYU and the French Culinary Institute, and a former restaurateur, used to host feasts only for friends and family. Now she’s decided to let Stamford in on the action.

The partners believed that taking the food truck phenomenon to a new frontier was a no-brainer. Part of their business model, and a personal commitment on each woman’s part, is support of community families. Darlene and Diana will donate 2% of MELT Mobile’s proceeds to The Umbrella Club, a local charitable organization devoted to helping children in need.

Serving revived versions of America’s classic comfort food, MELT Mobile offers a menu with something for everyone. Options range from the Insanewich, with 6 ounces of Angus beef, featuring MELT sauce sandwiched between two classic grilled cheeses, to the fashionista friendly Svelt Melt, made with low fat jarlsberg, grilled vegetables and homemade pesto aioli, on Beldottis’ 7-grain bread. For those on the corner of salty and sweet, there’s even a dessert melt. The truck’s signature Cheesecake Melt presses delicious cheesecake between two slices
of buttery rich pound cake.

Street meat beware, Melt Mobile’s rollin’ up.
Parked in Veteran’s Park, Atlantic Street in Stamford/Landmark Square
(Across from old Town Hall)
Open 11am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, year round
Average sandwich price: $8

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ABOVE: A Doritos Locos Taco at Taco Bell.

The lure of a taco wrapped in a giant Dorito was too hard to resist. Being a Bay Area native, I am a taco snob, but I will admit to occasionally, perhaps drunkenly, consuming a Taco Supreme. I am not proud of this.

So today — after test marketing the Doritos Locos Tacos in the culinary wonderlands of Bakersfield and Fresno — the neon orange monstrosity is available nationwide.

Apparently, it’s catching on down there:

Taco Bell said one out of every three purchases at those stores included Doritos Locos Tacos — about twice the typical number of purchases of a test product.

“It’s kind of like the brand has its mojo back,” said Brian Niccol, Taco Bell’s chief marketing and innovation officer who declined to give details on the company’s deal with PepsiCo Inc.’s Frito-Lay snack unit, which makes Doritos. “We’re doing what we really do best, which is first innovation.” (Associated Press)

Congratulations Taco Bell, you have innovated a mediocre fast food into a saltier, weirder mediocre fast food.

While it lives up to its billing, chiefly that is tastes like what you’d imagine a Doritos taco would taste like, this isn’t necessarily an improvement and the result is an unappealing dry texture that leaves you reaching for your Pepsi-branded beverage of choice.

“It’s salty as f—. I bet they will sell, like, a f—ing lot of these,” said one customer at a Connecticut Taco Bell Thursday, likely echoing the sentiments of everybody else in the room.

Final judgement will be reserved when the restaurant chain releases the Cool Ranch version of the taco, which is arguably a slightly better sounding  idea.