Ill-Timed Roadtrips: New Haven, Connecticut

Occasionally, despite overwhelming outward confidence, I can be a little too bold for the sake of a good meal. For a week we had planned a short day trip to New Haven, but the forecast incomprehensibly predicted snow. "Snow?" I scoffed. If Hurricane Irene was overrated, then certainly this snowfall would, at most, consist of a few flurries falling on overeager weathermen.

Not so. Amidst the pouring rain, we picked up our rental car, which was armed with suspiciously weak headlights, for what was supposed to be a fairly short drive. I'll avoid describing our first stop, Cannelle Patisserie, for the sake of narrative consistency. Suffice to say, everything I tried out of the $30 worth of pastries Melissa and Emily purchased was pretty damn good.

By this time, the freezing rain had turned into heavy snow as we headed north on I 95. As the self-designated driver, I was determined to show off my hardcore driving skills, but before we reached New Haven, I had to pee. Also, we needed gas.

Luckily, Colony Grill in Stamford was only an exit away. Stepping out of the car, I sunk to my ankles in slush. We scattered and ran inside, sliding into a long booth, hoping in vain to dry off. The bar style pizzas here are only $8.50, plus $1.50 a topping. Resolved to pace ourselves, we ordered one pie with hot oil, which is the draw.

True to its reputation, the hot oil had a slow burn, but the ripper did not. It had a quick, intense burn. The thin crust was nice, but not better than Star Tavern, the gold standard in bar pizza. Good pizza, but I'd probably hyped it up a bit too much in my mind. Slightly disappointed, we trudged out of the bar and sprinted to the car, continuing our journey.

Colony Grill
172 Myrtle Avenue
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 359-2184

72-Hour Lobsterfest in Portland, ME

J's Oyster

In an attempt to escape the infernal heat plaguing New York, as well as providing a convenient excuse to gorge on fresh lobster, I joined MW and her family for a trip to Port Elizabeth, Maine. Arriving late Saturday with a hungry party of eight and having no reservations, we naively asked and were promptly rejected by the hostess at Street and Co. Regrouping, MW and I were able to get a table at the nearby J's Oyster. Little more than a locals bar on the water's edge that just so happens to serve food, J's seemed anything but pretentious. Featured on No Reservations, showing Anthony Bourdain happily scarfing down steamers with beer, J's was filled with locals sharing the latest gossip and food over ice cold beers.

Indecisive in Atlanta: Pizza and Pupusas

This is Part 2 of The Great Roadtrip Series. Read Part 1 here.

Thursday night, we are starving after (just) eating Chick-fil-a at dusk. We pull into my friend James’ house around 9, but still need to eat dinner, buy beer and meet up with the rest of our former law school posse.  After too much debate, a decision is made to eat in-- or maybe pick up-- from a tacqueria along Buford Highway, but pulling into the parking lot, indecisiveness again overtakes us (due to earlier activities) and we freeze, panicked. Worry washes over me, should we wait to pick up? Don’t I want to see my friends ASAP? Will this place be any good? What if it takes forever? The waiters seemingly pleaded desperately to us from inside, mouthing “please... taste our tacos…" We are the only car in the parking lot, and the employees stare at us dejectedly as we drive off into the night.

A Kentucky Time Warp and Chick-fil-a Love

This is the first post of my "Great Roadtrip of 2010" series. Our trip was unfortunately cut short (more on this in later entries), but we were able to eat some amazing food in the short time we had. So without further ado...

My brother and I got a late start out of Cincinnati on a bright Thursday afternoon. Our goal: Atlanta. We planned on making a stop at Benton's Ham south of Knoxville, Tennessee to stock up on bacon and ham, but a quick phone call revealed the closing time to be 5pm. Would we make it? Not unless we drove 90mph+ (which was probably not a good idea). So we slowed down to a leisurely 80mph and debated our options for out-of-the-way places along I75. It was between a small diner in Kentucky, or push on to Knoxville for BBQ. Figuring we would probably have our fill of pork and ribs throughout the trip, we decided to stop at Burger Boy in southern Kentucky. I was intrigued after reading praise for the fried chicken, but had heard almost nothing about the burger.

The Great Roadtrip of 2010

It came together very quickly, but I'm excited to say that I will be taking a serious roadtrip with my younger brother between March 3-15th. We will be starting in Cincinnati, driving south down I-75 through Kentucky, Tennessee and into Atlanta for a night or two. I'm very familiar with this drive, but I'm debating taking a detour south of Knoxville to Benton's Bacon. There are also many, many delicious eats in Atlanta that I'll be revisiting.