These are the state’s best restaurants in Connecticut, according to industry experts and the public
The Connecticut Restaurant Association recently handed out its annual CRAzies awards, honoring the top restaurants and culinary professionals in the state.
Six restaurants honored with the top awards are unique in their own way. What makes them special and beloved by the restaurant community and the general public, which voted on the awards?
Millwright’s in Simsbury
Millwright’s, at 77 West St. in Simsbury, won Restaurant of the Year. It was the second time the restaurant has won the top award. Millwright’s’ Kristin Eddy also won best pastry chef of the year.
Tyler Anderson, mastermind of Millwright’s, said respecting the team is essential. “There’s nothing wrong with owning a hot dog stand, but I would have a hot dog stand if it was just me,” Anderson said.
The menu at Millwright’s changes daily, but two dishes are perennials. One is his tapioca clam chowder. He created it in honor of “the best dish I’ve ever had,” a tapioca-based dish called “oysters and pearls” at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California.
“It was a souffle, very savory, with caviar. When I ate that, I realized I wanted to be a chef,” he said. “Clam chowder is my favorite overall dish, so I combined my favorite dish with the best thing I ever ate.”
The second is chicken and dumplings. “It’s our take on the traditional dish. We smoke the chicken. It’s more like a pasta dish than a stew, made with ricotta gnocchi instead of traditional dumplings,” he said.
In January, Anderson will start a new feature at the restaurant, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
“It’s called The Workshop at Millwright’s. It’s me cooking upstairs in the loft. It’s a tasting menu only. You buy a ticket, give us your allergies and food dislikes. I work around it. It will give me the opportunity to cook exactly what I want to cook. It will have a dinner party feel,” he said. millwrightsrestaurant.com.
Viron Rondo Osteria in Cheshire
The south region of Connecticut includes New Haven, a foodie mecca. So it says a lot that a restaurant in Cheshire, Viron Rondo Osteria at 1721 Highland Ave., won Restaurant of the Year in that region. It was the first time the eatery founded 7 and a half years ago by Viron Rondo has been honored by the CRA.
“We have created a very special place,” said Rondo, who is from Albania and is of Greek ancestry. “All of my people make it special, the cooks, the food and beverage program, the designers.”
Ambience is important to Rondo. “The interior reminds people of New York and the exterior reminds them of the Mediterranean. Guests’ first response is, it makes you feel like you’re on vacation.”
Everything about Viron Rondo is big. Indoors, the restaurant seats 250 to 300 people. In warm weather, 300 more can fit on the deck. The two kitchens, combined, are 5,000 square feet. The lengthy wine list includes Italian whites and reds and wines from Spain, Portugal, Lebanon, France, Argentina, Australia, Greece, Israel, New Zealand and California.
The menu offers salads, pastas, pizza, veal, beef, salmon, chicken, pork chops and a wide variety of appetizers, including octopus, mussels, squid and a customer favorite, My Mother’s Chips.
“It’s eggplant and zucchini, sliced thin, fried. It’s beautiful and very tasty,” Rondo said. Other popular dishes are the Faroe Island salmon and the organic chicken from Bell & Evans. vironrondoosteria.com.
Oyster Club in Mystic
Oyster Club, 13 Water St. in Mystic, has been honored by the CRAzies three years in a row as the east region’s Restaurant of the Year. Owner Daniel Meiser said the key to success is trusting your team. A second key, he said, is sourcing food locally.
“Myself and my wife are part-owners of Stone Acres Farm [in Stonington], which has been in my wife’s family since 1765,” Meiser said. “We get about a quarter of our produce from there.”
Oyster Club’s produce is good year-round, he said, because Oyster Club does its own preserving, dehydrating, curing and pickling in late summer and early fall.
To make tagliatelle, one of the most popular dishes since Oyster Club opened 10 years ago, Meiser uses finback cheese from Mystic Cheese Company and beef from Beriah Lewis Farm in Stonington. “We make a rich beef ragout, similar to a Bolognese, with carrots, celery, onion, wine and tomato,” he said.
Another popular dish, on the menu since Day One, is the chowder, in both the creamy New England style and the brothy Rhode Island style. “It’s super simple food, executed at its highest level, with cream from Sweet Grass Creamery in Preston,” he said.
Other than those popular items, the menu changes “almost daily,” he said. Dishes include a raw bar, oysters, mussels, monkfish, swordfish, steaks and chicken. oysterclubct.com.
@ The Corner in Litchfield
The Litchfield eatery @The Corner, at 3 West St., won Restaurant of the Year in the west region. The 15-year-old restaurant is owned by Jayne Lanphear. Her husband, Red Lanphear, runs their other restaurant, Black Rock Tavern in Thomaston. Their son, Jeff Schmidt, owns Hindsight BBQ in Waterbury.
“Restaurants are in our blood,” Jayne Lanphear said.
That said, Lanphear gives a lot of credit for @ The Corner’s success to her chef, Carlos Perez. “He is so passionate about what he does. He takes risks with food,” Lanphear said. “He just did ‘Grocery Games’ [Guy Fieri’s TV cooking show]. It just aired. You can see it on Discovery.”
The restaurant is known for its cocktail and craft beer selection, with many Connecticut-made brews, and its multifaceted business model. “We have takeout, we have retail — hot sauces, local honeys, infused oils and vinegars — we have a taco bar and a cocktail bar. We are constantly evolving,” she said.
Among the most popular menu items are the turkey-apple-brie sandwich, the cowboy burger and the primadonna salad, which changes ingredients with the seasons. “In the summer, we put fresh blueberries on it. In the fall, we have cranberries and slivered almonds. Sometimes in the spring, we have strawberries. Carlos is doing the winter menu. We’ll see what he comes up with,” she said.
The CRA honor was the first, and the first nomination, for @ The Corner. athecorner.com.
The Charles in Wethersfield
The CRA gives a Newcomer award every year. This year was unusual. All nominees opened during the pandemic. With eateries struggling, opening during COVID was seen as an act of foolhardy optimism.
But for many, optimism paid off. Bryce Hardy opened The Charles, at 161 Main St. in Wethersfield, in June 2020 and won the Newcomer prize this year. From the start, he had to make up his strategy on the fly.
“We were outside for an entire month under our tent. Then the first Saturday it was going to rain we had to go inside. We all had to grind and figure it out,” Hardy said.
“In one way we were lucky. Think about the place you like to go the most. Going back after COVID, it was different. Everything was changed,” he said. “But at the Charles, it was how we were from the start. All our customers knew were dividers, wide seating patterns. I think it helped consumer confidence.”
Since then, The Charles has been embraced by the community and by critics. The kitchen, led by chef Tom Kaldy, has created customers favorites such as chicken and dumplings made with airline chicken breast and potato gnocchi, homemade Italian fennel sausage with pickled long hots and garlic butter, ad deviled eggs with smoked jamon and sriracha.
Entrees include spicy miso ramen, steak frites, fish and chips, chicken cacciatore, banh mi, French dip sandwich and a ham croque. thecharlesct.com.
Red36 in Mystic
Red36, 2 Washington St. in Mystic, won the People’s Choice Award, a vote held entirely by the general public. The restaurant, which opened in 2014, is named after a buoy. Like a buoy, it’s all about the ocean: the menu is dominated by clams, oysters, shrimp, lobster, mussels, scallops, calamari, crab.
Owner Angela Kannabis said Red36 won Restaurant Newcomer shortly after it opened. This is its second CRA award. Kannabis said when her restaurant started out, she was happy with the crowd it attracted. Now, however, it has boomed in popularity.
“In the last five years or so, Mystic has blown up, become more well known,” Kannabis said. “We have really developed and grown as a community, with more restaurants, retail shops, hotels and inns. And as unfortunate as COVID has been, it has brought people from different cities here, into the suburbs.”
The lobster roll is especially popular. The recent volatility in the price has led Kannabis to list the dish at market price, sometimes up to $30 for a roll. She said guests have accepted it. “People realize what is going on. The entire country is going through this. As long as they are getting what they ordered and are enjoying it, they are happy,” she said.
Their oversized salads are popular, too. “We tried to take some off the menu to try to make room for other things, but we got pushback from our regular customers, so they stayed,” she said. red36ct.com.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
