Restaurant Day

This will, I promise, be less stressful than Training Day.

For those of you near our locale in Connecticut here are a couple of recommendations.

Dew Drop Inn, Derby

Not much to look at, is it?

In fact, I'd driven by a hundred times without noticing it before our friend, and faithful THC reader, JS brought it to our attention.  He also cautioned us not to go there late in the evening and New Haven Magazine recently noted that "The Harleys out front can make a visit to the Dew Drop a bit intimidating for the first-timer . . . riders sport tattoos, heavy metal T-shirts and facial hair right out of Sons of Anarchy . . .".

As to the food, I don't normally like wings.  Had never ordered them at a restaurant.  But if you go to the Dew Drop and don't order the wings then I pity the fool (per Mr T).  They have about 40 varieties and the quality varies from really good to the best damn wings you've ever, hands down.  My favorites are Parmesan Garlic Butter, Montreal and Cajun Butter.  Plus a great beer selection.  If that's not enough order the thin cut potato chips with bacon and cheese.

In the best Dew Drop style Larry, Dr Rob and I recently enjoyed a very lengthy lunch at the end of which the waitress treated us to free shots!  Now our only worry is that with New Haven Magazine listing them as the Editor's Pick this month it's gonna be harder to get in.


In the past week, Barb and I tried out two Tapas Bar & Restaurants; Solun in Woodbridge (near the Wilbur Cross Parkway) and Crave (in downtown Ansonia).  We'll go back to both again.  Crave is a little more expensive but the portions are a little bigger and we thought the tapas were a little better.  Both have bars.

We had four tapas and no entrees at each restaurant so it was a good comparison.  At Solun all the dishes were good and two were outstanding  - picodon (bake goat cheese & herbs with tomato sauce) and pincho de faldo (hanger steak with chimichurri).  The hanger steak was spectacular - tender and tasty seasoning - and I'm going to order it as an entree on our next visit.(Solun)

At Crave, three of the dishes were terrific - camarones diablo (cajun shrimp with mango salsa); lomo de cerdo (pork tenderloin with manchego cheese and red pepper) and aquacate relleno (avocado stuffed with shrimp and mango).  (Crave)