The Connecticut Table

SAYULITA IN GLASTONBURY OFFERS SAVVY, SOPHISTICATED MEXICAN CUISINE IN A HIP, RELAXED ATMOSPHERE.

Years ago when contests involved describing a product or service in 25 words or less, I won prizes—once a car, another time a vacation at a resort hotel. I was thrilled with both. The car was a Hillman Minx convertible. The resort was in Puerta Vallarta where Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner were co-starring in Night of the Iguana. I was a film critic at the time and a foodie who had yet to sample Mexican cuisine in situ. We hopped the next plane.

I loved Puerta Vallarta, the palms, the beach, the sea and the Mexican food—not in the hotel dining room but at a small inn a short walk away. Memory may romanticize but the food at that little mom-and-pop place seemed fresher, more vibrant and somehow more uninhibited than anything I had encountered at Mexican restaurants in the U.S.

The dishes on Sayulita’s modern Mexican menu may bring back memories but they are not exact replicas. In the culinary world what goes around often comes around in very different ways, be it reflecting a healthier lifestyle, taking advantage of newly available ingredients or sometimes because chefs just like to have fun.

That pretty much describes what Sayulita’s owner Bill Driggs says he had in mind when he opened a Mexican restaurant in Glastonbury and named it for a fishing and surfing village about 25 miles from Puerta Vallarta. The vibe he says he’s aiming for is beachy, laid-back, relaxed, sand-in-your-sandals, with the food equally free-wheeling, Mexican-inspired and prepared by a savvy, sophisticated chef. This we have to see.

We arrive early on a Sunday evening. At the door we bump into a long-time-no-see acquaintance rushing out. Greetings and salutations and how was the food? Terrible. Everything. Inedible. Even my husband couldn’t eat it. Stunned, we watch her drive off—presumably to Taco Bell.

Housed in a 1790 colonial building, which from the outside gives no hint of the Mexican fiesta within, Sayulita’s rustic-chic interior—like the food on its menu—honors the past while resisting cliché. No stucco arches, piñatas or sombreros. No blockbuster burritos smothered with cheese. Instead, a handsome bar made from a centuries-old oak tree serves Sixpoint Sweet Action cream ale in a sleek room with a black ceiling and four TV screens, while waitresses in jeans serve lobster tacos with black truffle shavings in a dining room furnished with whitewashed pine booths, nostalgic posters and vintage photographs.

The wait for a table in the dining room is indeed long, but the staff, young, solicitous and informed, finds us a seat on the patio and attentively deals with a too-small table by moving candles, bottles and glasses around and diligently removing and replacing plates.

We start with a few rounds of what the menu calls snacks before moving on to heartier fare. Ceviche de Playa is so beautiful we almost don’t recognize it. Forget ceviche in an oversized martini glass and behold a palm frond created with paper-thin slices of avocado on a narrow white china plate decorated with a jewel-bright dice of scallops, tomato, jicama, lime chili and cilantro, and punctuated with tall plantain chips like double exclamation points.

Heirloom salad is equally exuberant with thick slices of prize tomatoes—yellow as a fire hydrant, magenta with almost purple skins, topped with watermelon, asparagus, arugula, radish slices and candied pepitas—a large, filling portion and a vegetarian bargain at $9.

It’s worth noting that prices at Sayulita may be higher than at a run-of-the-mill tacos bar because every ingredient is top-of-the-line. The scallops in the ceviche are Bomster, the chicken is antibiotic-free Bell & Evans, the beef is natural grass-fed. Not to mention the fact that the chef is Texas-raised Van Hurd, familiar to TV fans for his appearances on shows like Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” and also known for his expertise in fine dining at venues including the famous French Room in Dallas. At Sayulita he says he has fun “getting a little fancy” with some of the old standbys and sending them out as specials. Duck confit with Luxardo cherries, a white clam quesadilla and bacon-wrapped Tijuana dog tacos are recent examples.

Personalized choices are also offered at Sayulita. You can top your salad or fill your taco or fajita with vegetables, shrimp, chicken or steak.

We order a steak fajita and marvel at what arrives: Flavorful strips of sizzling hot grilled skirt steak piled on a mountain of sautéed onions, squash, chilies and poblano peppers served with pico de gallo, Mexican créme, guacamole, Chihuahua cheese and flour tortillas. We eat every bite.

Like many dishes, buttermilk fried chicken is available as a taco or an entrée. With its tissue-thin film of golden crust and trendy accoutrements (bacon-sautéed kale and maple aioli), it’s my new love. More Dixie than Mexicali but so delicious it’s hard to care.

Not everything works. The bartender says she can’t serve us a mojito. What? The skirt steak is a tad overcooked for my taste and as of this writing, Sayulita is not taking reservations so when it’s crowded it’s unpleasantly cramped and the noise level sometimes rises so high it’s hard to carry on a conversation. But Sayulita is not for intimate tête-à-têtes. It’s a party.

And what’s a party without dessert? The kitchen delivers in an unexpected way. The list is short: Tres leche cake, flan, chorros. But the chef turns same-old into a delight, embellishing the cake with strawberries and prosecco sabayon and the flan with coffee, caramel, blackberries and vanilla bean chantilly. Then, in a surprise throwback to Mexico’s most iconic food, classic churros arrive in the traditional brown paper bag. We plan to take some home but end up eating all of them because they come with two luscious dipping sauces and we can’t resist.

Open daily 4:30-9:30 p.m. (Fri. to 10 p.m., Sat. 1-10 p.m., Sun. 1-9 p.m.). Price range: snacks and salads, $6 to $14; entrées, $16 to $26; desserts, $8. Wheelchair access. Major credit cards.

Gulf & Anchor in Milford, where Beach House used to be, has become a house of many rooms, stylistically reconfiguring its extensive floor space to create areas that beg to be explored. There’s the fireplace room with its tiny water view; a chef’s counter where foodies can watch the action; a giant octopus in navy-blue and white flagging attention to the raw bar; and a handsome outdoor patio designed to fit into the shoreline neighborhood of romantically Italianate houses. The monumental bar remains monumentally cozy, with bottles of wine and colorful liqueurs lining the walls, but the menu is now unabashedly partial to everything seaworthy. There’s pan-seared halibut, Indian-spiced salmon, Portuguese fisherman’s stew, hot buttered lobster roll, oysters and mussel pots galore. Carnivores get burgers, lamb and aged N.Y. strip. (203) 877-9300, gulfandanchor.com

“Huge” is the word for Sign of the Whale, half-gastropub, half-nightclub at Harbor Point, Stamford’s newest, hippest dining destination. The action’s on the roof—while good weather holds. Live music or a DJ. Trendy cocktails and snacks. When it gets cold, the crowd moves downstairs where the kitchen serves “elevated comfort food.” Appetizers include Moroccan chicken tostadas with granny smith apples, golden raisins and crispy wontons. Mains include short ribs braised in Half Full Bright ale, brewed in Stamford. Think pizzas, mussel pots or go for a Whaleburger—with porcini-dusted, applewood-smoked bacon, gruyère, a fried egg and truffle spread on an English muffin, it’s young, fun and well, like huge. (203) 883-8282, signofthewhalect.com

When Versailles Patisserie opened in Greenwich in 1980 it rather quickly morphed into a sidewalk cafe. Soon lunch and dinner were being served—the homey, deeply satisfying French bistro food Americans were discovering when they went abroad. Fast forward to 2015. Versailles has become Bistro V, a showcase for contemporary bistro-style cuisine under the direction of executive chef Erik James Erlichson. Classically trained with international experience, he's best known in Connecticut for his four-star performance at La Colline Verte in Fairfield. In the kitchen with him is chef Cedric Lamouille, who studied at Thonon Les Bains culinary school in France and cooked at prestigious restaurants before becoming sous chef at four-star Restaurant Jean-Louis under Master Chef Jean-Louis Gerin for more than 30 years. Bistro V’s new menu is au courant and impressively extensive, and with so much talent in the kitchen, it’s nice to know that the masters have not thrown the baby out with the bathwater. You can still get Boeuf Bourguignon and steak frites while your companion has a summer roll of wild shrimp, gluten-free rice noodles, microgreens and hoisin aioli. (203) 661-6634, versaillesgreenwich.com

Growing up in Israel, Yosi Awad was immersed in the flavors of the region. There was (and still is) a falafel cart or shop in every town. At home, his parents raised him on the rich scents, flavors and spices of neighboring Yemen, where Awad’s family was originally from. “You grow up with a taste in your mouth and you feel the taste—it’s all the time in you,” he says.

When he immigrated to America in 1988, hummus and other delicacies popular in Israel had not spread to the mainstream American diet. Middle Eastern food was scarce in Connecticut; to get it “you had to drive to New York,” Awad recalls.

Over the past few decades that’s changed, and Awad has dedicated himself to bringing freshly prepared, authentic hummus and many of the other dishes he grew up with to the masses of America.

Awad is the founder of Yosi Kitchen and Yosi Kosher Catering, a Windsor-based catering and prepared-food producer. The company manufactures 5,000-6,000 pounds of Middle Eastern fare weekly and its products are carried in 38 Whole Foods stores and 60 Big Ys. In 2014, the company received the Whole Foods Special Recognition Award and Prepared Foods Partnership Award at the annual Whole Foods North Atlantic Supplier Appreciation Luncheon. The 2,500 square-foot Windsor facility also has a takeout menu and the company regularly caters events.

Popular prepared dishes include the tabbouleh salad, hummus, falafel wraps, sesame noodles and squash kugel. “There’s no preservatives, it’s all natural. When you get it in the store, the shelf life is about 14 and 20 days, just because it’s made very fresh,” Awad says. “We don’t cut corners. We blend our spices, we squeeze our own lemons.”

Awad started his catering in the early 2000s along with partner Dafna Cramer, who specializes in pastries and baking. (Currently the traditional Middle Eastern cookies and cakes that are Cramer’s specialty are available only from the catering branch of the business, but plans are underway to launch a cookie line.) In 2007, Awad and Cramer brought in executive chef Ian Barstow to supervise the growing staff at the kitchen. The following year Yosi launched a prepared-food line and began distributing to grocery stores and building the Yosi brand.

The successful company has not forgotten about giving back to the community. In addition to Yosi Kitchen, the company also runs “A Taste of Life Pizza,” a pizza place that operates on Thursdays and Sundays out of the Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford and is staffed by youths with autism.

Though Awad had no formal training as a chef, he learned from his mother growing up and his culinary creations are powered by generations of enthusiasm for the food he is making. “Sometimes the passion you have is worth more than any school you go to,” he says. “My passion is to show people the best you can get out of a product.”

As the company has expanded, it’s never wandered from its fresh-first culinary roots. “We still work in small batches,” he says. “Instead of shooting chick peas out of tubes, we do it on a small scale, to keep the flavor.”

And Awad is still hands on with quality control, tasting each batch and comparing it to the ingrained memory he has of the flavors of Israel. “Any little change and you can feel it,” he says.

Middle Eastern food is more common than it was in the ’80s, but Awad would like to see it continue to grow in popularity. “Hummus is the ketchup of the Middle East,” he says. “I think it’s going to become that here, too. It’s started already. Ten years ago nobody recognized hummus, today it’s like almost every household has hummus in the fridge.”

It may seem odd that we’re drawn to one of the non-vegetarian dishes at an eatery that heralds itself as a “vegetarian enclave,” but that’s just the way it works out sometimes. Besides, the Guilford’s Shoreline Diner prides itself on trying to be “the place for everyone,” so of course, carnivores, vegans and anyone in between can find something on the menu to enjoy.

Maybe what captures our attention about this sandwich is that it’s not something usually encountered on menus in old Yankee New England. The combination of chicken and waffles is known more as a soul food staple, and only more recently has found its delicious way into other cuisines and the mainstream, where it has been warmly accepted as a meal that will stick to your ribs.

But just in case a crispy fried chicken breast and thick, fresh-made sweet waffles together weren’t substantial enough, melted cheddar and a maple mustard sauce are added here. And to top all that off, of course, there’s bacon!

It makes for a sandwich that some might consider hefty, but all the elements work together well, with the maple mustard giving it all a nice little zing. The waffles here are also a key component, fluffy and tasty.

The sandwich comes with a choice of side: fries, cucumber tomato salad, cup of soup, coleslaw, pasta salad, fruit salad or vegan chili.

As previously mentioned, the Shoreline Diner features a varied vegetarian and vegan menu, with choices ranging from salads, wraps and veggie burgers to tabouli and “spaghetti and meatballs” (red lentil and bulgur meatballs over spaghetti squash with marinara sauce). There is an extensive gluten-free menu, many diner favorites (burgers, pasta, sandwiches, soups, salads, etc.) and breakfast is served throughout the day.

The first time I tasted Hoodoo Brown BBQ’s food, I knew the new restaurant off of Route 7 in Ridgefield was poised to become a player on the budding Connecticut barbecue scene. I was just surprised by how quick it happened.

Since it opened on Memorial Day weekend, crowds have been drawn to Hoodoo Brown like bees to honey-flavored barbecue sauce. Seemingly overnight the place has joined places like Bear’s Smokehouse Barbecue in Hartford and Windsor on top of most foodies’ “barbecue in Connecticut” depth charts. Even on weeknights, the wait for a table can be as long as 45 minutes. Because menu items are slow-cooked daily and the barbecue joint’s smoker is currently operating at capacity, Hoodoo’s can run out of popular items like pork ribs by 7:30 or 8 p.m. each evening, if not earlier.

“We have been slamming busy since we opened,” says Chris Sexton, the bar and front of house manager. “The customer feedback has been amazing, and has now levied into our best marketing program yet, word of mouth. If our biggest issue is we need to make more food to feed more people, well there are worse problems to have in the BBQ biz.”

Plans are under way to fix this not-really-a-problem problem. Hoodoo Brown’s will soon install an additional smoker, a move that will allow the restaurant to serve lunch (currently it opens at 4 p.m.) and offer takeout.

The Hoodoo Brown space itself has a laid-back cowboy feel, with wood décor and an open dining room that connects to a long bar where you can enjoy craft beer and cocktails while waiting for your table. Once you’ve tasted one of the place’s signature dishes, you quickly realize what all the fuss is about.

Hoodoo Brown is named for the notorious leader of the Dodge City Gang in Las Vegas in the late 1800s and specializes in what it calls “outlaw barbeque,” a mixing and matching of various barbecue styles from around the country.

“Our culinary team of owner Cody Sperry and his partner and expert pit master Nestor Laracuente wanted to take the barbecue from across the country and put their own spin on it,” Sexton explains. “So instead of just doing it Texas-style, or Carolina-style, Memphis or Kansas City, they wanted to cherry-pick the best stuff from each.”

Sexton and Sperry are both longtime Ridgefield residents who met while going to school in town. Prior to opening Hoodoo, Sperry operated the barbecue catering business CodyQ. He recruited Laracuente to head up the food side of his new restaurant. A veteran smoker, Laracuente had previously worked at Hometown Bar-B-Que in Brooklyn, a beloved New York City barbecue joint, but was convinced to join the Hoodoo Brown team after Sperry agreed to purchase a Lang 108 smoker, the only type of smoker Laracuente will cook on.

Today that Lang smoker, visible from the dining room through large glass windows, is being put to good use. Most meat is served by the half pound and I have not yet found a dish that isn’t a winner.

The brisket and beef ribs are a nod to Texas-style barbecue. Each is made with a simple salt-and-pepper rub and smoked at a low temperature for as long as 16 hours. The result is moist, tender meat. The giant, like must-have-come-from-a-dinosaur big, beef ribs have become a particular obsession of mine. The equally good pork ribs are made in a St. Louis-style says Sexton, and the sweet house barbecue is influenced by Kansas City. He adds, “Our Carolina Gold and Mojo BBQ sauces come straight from the Carolinas and their approach to pork and whole hogs.”

But with all these culinary inspirations from across the U.S., Hoodoo’s still makes sure to throw a little love Connecticut’s way by featuring Connecticut-brewed beer at its bar. “As much as we wanted to bring the Texas, Carolina, Kansas City styles of BBQ to Connecticut, we also wanted to bring Connecticut to Connecticut. That is why six of our taps rotate with some of our favorite Connecticut craft beers,” Sexton says. The place regularly features brews from Thomas Hooker, Black Hog, Two Roads, Stony Creek and New England Brewing. It also offers some hard-to-find gems including a recent keg of New England Brewing Co.’s sought-after Fuzzy Baby Ducks and the elusive Sip of Sunshine brewed in Stratford at Two Roads for the Vermont-based brewery Lawson’s Finest Liquids.

Beyond both types of ribs, the brisket and the beer, other standouts include pork belly (the must-try dish at Hoodoo’s according to Sexton), and the BBQ nachos, served over chips with chopped brisket or pork, pit beans, jalapeños and smothered in fresh guacamole and sour cream—a delicious dish with one drawback: it’s so filling it’s hard to eat anything else after it.

There is also an assortment of excellent sides from mac and cheese to collard greens and pit beans. I’ve also heard a rumor that there are some excellent desserts but have always been to full from the barbecue to give one a whirl. But there’s always next time.

Closed Mondays. Tues.-Thur. 4 p.m.-midnight, Fri.-Sat. 4 p.m.-1a.m., Sun. 4 p.m.-midnight. (203) 438-6033, hoodoobrownbbq.com

Hoodoo Brown creates terrific barbecue under the watch of pit master Nestor Laracuente (at right) including the pork belly (opposite page, top left) and the Texas poutine (above right). There’s also an abundance of craft beer and other delicious sides and desserts.