September 5 is, apparently, national cheese pizza day. I’ve done a lot of research on this topic (two minutes on Google) and have scientifically determined that this is a made-up holiday. Compared to other made-up holidays (I’m looking at you, Groundhog Day), this really has a cause I can get behind.
I suspect national cheese pizza day is a thinly veiled attempt to distract breakfast haters from the fact that this week is national waffle week, but I’ll take them both (and a side of antacid) without complaint.
It’s probably worth mentioning that today is just a preamble to October, which is national pizza month. If you need to warm up for the pizza onslaught, check out some of our favorite cheese pizzas:
Plan B Burger Bar finally held its grand opening opened in Stamford, and I missed it.
But that’s OK, they’ve sent me a few photos from the event and it only makes me want to go even more.
Plan B opens in Stamford
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I’ve been to their West Hartford restaurant a couple of times and I think it would be fair to say if the new Stamford location is up to par, we may have a new contender for the best burger joint in Stamford.
JOHN DOUGH’S PIZZA BAR: 77 NORTH MAIN STREET, NORWALK
“We’re going to introduce New Haven style pizza to SoNo.”
If you’ve ever tried the pizza at Behind the Net in the Darien Ice Rink, you already know what owner Bill Ferguson and chef Derek Furino are all about. If things go forward as planned, they’ll be slinging fresh Elm City-inspired pies by the time September rolls around.
Ferguson let the LBC sneak in for a preview.
“The heavy lifting is pretty much done. Now we’re getting into the details,” he said. “We’re probably a couple weeks out.”
Unlike Ferguson’s prior ventures in the space, Archie Moore’s and Rivals, John Dough’s will have a singular focus.
“Previously, we had mainstream burgers and wings and fried foods,” he said. “Now we’re keeping it a lot simpler.”
Aside from pizza, the menu will consist of salads and a full bar.
The interior has been repainted and refinished, 12 TVs will broadcast the latest sports, and there might even be some outdoor seating.
I asked if there were plans to experiment with other types of pizza (maybe jumping into the Colony-style pie fracas).
“If there is a demand for a thicker crust, a different style, a thinner crust, some additional toppings, then we can explore that,” Ferguson said. “Coming out of the gate we’re going to do what we’ve been successful with.”
Back in March of 2009, I left the Norwalk bureau of The Advocate for a new job at Greenwich Time. I was excited for my new challenge and, though the Norwalk office was right next to Whole Foods and down the street from Stew Leonard’s, I didn’t really consider Westport Avenue to be a culinary hotspot.
A lot’s changed in three years. Apparently right around the time I left, a little gem called Sugar and Olives opened right across busy Route 1 on Lois Street, right near the Montessori Middle School I had written a few stories about.
Sugar and Olives scores points for getting most of its ingredients from the Westport Farmers Market, but what really struck me was that it was one of the most delicious and creative, but still unpretentious, brunches I have had in ages. I stumbled upon it while looking for a place to meet friends from Fairfield on Sunday. The place was surprisingly empty, so no wait for a table. It had modern decor with a rustic air… if that makes sense. It wasn’t super barnyard-y like some other “eat local” establishments. Our server was extremely nice and enthusiastic about explaining where the ingredients came from and how things were prepared.
The food was also pretty fantastic. Our meal included heavenly (pardon the pun) angel food French toast sticks, which my friends’ 4-year-old daughter happily enjoyed, and I got “rolled eggs”, a crepe-like omelette filled with pea and leek puree. My friends were excited the place had Gorilla Coffee from Brooklyn, and I enjoyed a pot of Earl Grey and a glass of Prosecco with blueberry liquor. They also have a separate bakery, and we brought home some “sugar bombs,” basically doughnut holes with cinnamon and sugar.
I know this place is three years old, but I thought it deserved a little recognition from us. Just don’t go making it all impossible to get a table on Sunday morning.
The first time I went to Anthony’s, shortly after they opened their doors in February, Chuck Locke, director of operations for the chain, told me I could take as many photos as I wanted, as long as I didn’t photograph the oven.
That’s too bad, because the thing is a beast. From what I can tell, there’s basically a gigantic lazy Susan rotating around the hot coals. Pizza goes in one side as dough and comes out the other as crust.
Speaking of the crust, let’s cut to the chase. It’s a chewy, charred, thin crust. That sounds like something you’d get in New Haven, but it’s not. It’s more dense and has less flavor. In the crust arena, the big selling point for this kind of pizza, New Haven still very much wins. Even the Behind the Net snack bar in the Darien Ice Rink, just half a mile away, outshines the crust here (to be fair, Behind the Net, sometimes called Zamboni’s, is much better than ice rink snack bar pizza has any right to be). That’s not to say the crust is bad, it’s just up against some stiff competition.
The most interesting pie at Anthony’s is a cauliflower number (see below) with garlic, romano, mozzarella, and a noticeable kick from red pepper flakes. Even the small version of this is daunting in size, but totally delicious. I thought the cauliflower might be too tough, but it’s surprisingly tender.
The traditional cheese pizza is heavy on the cheese, with the sauce on top. It’s not the most delicate pizza you’ll ever have, but the flavor is pretty darn good.
Overall, I’d say Anthony’s is a welcome addition to the Darien food scene and a lot better than a chain from Florida has any right to be, but nowhere near the upper echelon of pizza joints in Fairfield and New Haven counties.
STAMFORD — When Rico’s (now Riko’s) opened and claimed to have a Colony-style pie that could top the original, we balked. I vehemently defended Colony as a Stamford institution and the purveyor of the gold-standard of the Stamford bar pizza.
Things have changed.
Riko’s has opened up a second shop in Newfield and Ridgeway Pizza has begun to sell Colony-style pies. I began getting cryptic all-caps emails from the owner of Ridgeway Pizza shortly after Riko’s opened, stating they would be the new kings of the pan pizza in Stamford.
Naturally, a taste test was in order.
At the behest of Brett Mickelson, the executive producer of the Hearst Connecticut Media Group’s interactive team, we lined up seven pies from the three pizzerias and dug in.
The results were not all that surprising, though we only slightly preferred Colony over Riko’s. Ridgeway was a distant last — as sports producer Sean Bowley described it, “basically the cheapest knock off…like Stop & Shop brand cola versus Coke or Pepsi.”
It’s hard to discern the difference between Colony and Riko’s though there are visual cues to the look of the crust. In the end, the main advantage Colony had over Riko’s was the hot oil, which was noticeably hotter and more flavorful in the original. We also thought Riko’s had a little too much sauce.
Given that Riko’s also uses the same sausage and other toppings as Colony, I may be willing to withdraw my passionate appeal for Colony and call it a case of personal (though still passionate) preference — but the Ridgeway pie was just not up to the comparison.
First off, the sauce was too sweet, having a disagreeable tomato-paste quality, the cheese was too sparse and the sausage, being ground was borderline tasteless.
Ultimately, for a takeout pie, proximity to either Colony or Riko’s may be the deciding factor.
Colony, however, certainly wins in the atmosphere and overall experience category.
So there is it, the final word on the great Stamford pan-pizza debate…hopefully we can put this to bed…I’m beginning to tire of the drama.
When Ole Mole in Darien closed, the town lost it’s only Mexican eatery — and even that was short lived. But the town is poised to see the second location of the popular Bodega Taco Bar land on the Post Road.
Last year, restauranteurs Mario Fontana, Michael Young and Luis Chavez opened the first Bodega in Fairfield to critical success. Soon after Young and Chavez expanded their ever-popular Valencia Luncheria in Norwalk.
But they didn’t stop here: Bodega is coming to 980 Post Road in Darien this fall.
“We think Darien has some similar characteristics as Fairfield, so we were excited. It’s going to be a great place,” said Fontana, who first worked with Young and Chavez with Ocean Drive and Habana in South Norwalk.
“The restaurant in Fairfield is a booming success. Bodega serves modern Mexican and we stray to South and Central America, so it’s a much more varied menu and is much more creative than what a traditional Mexican restaurant would be. It brings the experience to a whole new level,” he added.
David Genovese of Baywater Properties, the building’s owner, felt the fit was right too.
“We’ve been trying to find the right restaurant for that space. We didn’t want to lease to any old restaurant, we wanted something that would compliment the area,” Genovese said after explaining that he had been approached with more than one proposal for an Italian restaurant.
It’s also a win for fans of sidewalk dining, as Bodega will become only the second restaurant — after Scena — to have waited tables on the Post Road in Darien.
“It drastically improves the curb appeal of a restaurant and is something customers really love,” said Fontana.
The space became available with the exit of Café D’Azur and Genovese, who had been talking on-and-off with Fontana for a few years, made the deal with the trio.
“When Mario and Michael and Luis got Bodega going, we thought this would be a nice addition to the town,” said Genovese, adding, ”It’s an exciting change, Bodega in Fairfield has been a very successful restaurant. It’s going to be transformative.”
