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]]>Pairing dinners have become very popular lately and although I have only attended a couple of them, they are something I find thoroughly enjoyable. So, when I had read that Bachi’s Ristorante in Torrington was having a pairing dinner I was excited. The idea of having one in my hometown was very appealing. As much as I love the idea there are normally a couple of problem with them. First you are matching up alcohol with various courses, usually between 4 – 6 courses, which means 4 – 6 drinks. Finding a driver further from home, paying for an Uber or doing your best to regulate a partial partaking of the alcohol to be sober and safe to drive home are all more difficult and riskier further away. Also, pairings are normally on off nights for restaurants to stimulate business and they are time intensive, meaning you are going out on a work night and a long drive back to home makes for a trying day at work the following day. But a local pairing reduces those problems greatly and Bachi’s has my appreciation for doing this. Especially since he said he hopes to have one every month with various pairings of alcohol and food.
It is my understanding this was their first attempt at a pairing and as is typical of the first time at anything there were a few hiccups. However, those hiccups were not enough to mask a very enjoyable evening and I know I will be lining up for the next one and the one after that and however many Bachi’s decides to have, especially if they learn and improve. If you haven’t been to Bachi’s I want to share a few things that are pertinent to the event. One of these days I will get around to reviewing the restaurant as a whole, but this is about this special night. Bachi’s is named after its owner Bachi Prevalla. If you have been in there more than once when he is there, and my experience is he is almost always there, chances are you will get to meet him, because he makes it a personal point to make sure his patrons are enjoying themselves. Actually, believe it or not, his taking such good care of his patrons was one of the hiccups from last night. As you can imagine a six-course meal coordinating specialty foods and drinks can be a challenge to serve to a group all at once for a restaurant. I have learned this the hard way from when our dinner group goes out with about 16 people and watch as some very good restaurants falter in their service. Well serving 32 people or what was supposed to be 32 people all at once, with some pretty fancy dishes and accompanying drinks on the first go around resulted in some lag. In and of itself this could have been a mixed blessing as the amount of alcohol and food served called for little respites to catch your breath, loosen your belt and see if you had your sea legs or not. However, this turned into a large hiccup mainly due to Bachi taking care of all of his patrons. The event was to have started at 7, yet by 9 one table had still not shown up. I think that most restaurants that have a scheduled dinner if people showed up over two hours late for that dinner the customers would at best be out of luck and if they expected to be served their meal would have been told to pound sand, or if the place is a little more delicate explain to them that the nearest beach is Burr Pond and that they could find plenty of sand there to hammer against their nether regions. Bachi however being the much too gracious host actually had his chef prepare them their meals, which did slow the rest of us down a little more, but you have to admire someone that is that concerned with making all of his customers happy.
So much for the hiccups. Now let’s get to the part that makes those hiccups and any other afflictions that you could imagine worth it, the meal. If you like Jack Daniel’s or any Tennessee Whiskey and have been known to go out for an evening and have several such drinks this was a steal. If you like a couple cocktails with a full multi course meal, this was a bargain. If you like don’t drink, but still like good food over multiple courses it is still worth it. And if you don’t like any of those things, why they hell are you reading this? Just go to McDonalds and be done with it.
My experience with pairings is that the alcohol portions are small. Half glasses of beer, a few sips of wine or liquor as you are usually having 4-6 drinks, so they economize. Not so here, the cocktails were full cocktails served in highball glasses. The first was a Winter Mimosa, which consisted of Jack Daniels Winter Jack, Prosecco and apple cider. The mimosa glass was filled and a small bottle of prosecco accompanied it so you had more. The food matching that was a toasted bread on top of a cheese sauce served family style. People could grab a slice, use the accompanying spoons to scoop up the cheesy sauce to cover your bread and enjoy. The cheese sauce was very flavorful and was a great kick off to the night. The chef announced that there was a change in the menu for the next two items That the glazed rib tips, which were supposed to be firey, while the chicken meatballs that were going to be in honey changed partners. Apparently the chef, being a good matchmaker recognized that the two would be much happier and tastier with the others partner, and he was right. The glazed beef tips came out first accompanied by a honey lemon fizz. Two big beef tips on skewers over what was described as risotto. The beef tips were fantastic, sweet tasty, tender. The sweetness fit them perfectly. The risotto might have been the only miss of the night as it had none of the creamy flavor and tasted like bland rice. It didn’t matter. If they put cardboard under those beef tips I am not sure I would have done more than pointed out that there was cardboard underneath them.
Not wanting to be shown up by how well the tips did with their new partner, the BBQ chicken meatballs danced with the fire sauce to perfection. They added such a nice kick to the meatballs that the idea that honey could have done them justice was quickly forgotten. Even better the heat of the meatballs matched up perfectly with the spiced cranberry sour, which I thought was the best cocktail of the night. The heat from the Jack fire, mixed with the tartness of the cranberry and sour mix was a spectacular combination.
The next course was a vinaigrette dressing over fresh salad with goat cheese, accompanied by what they called an Apple Cart Mule, basically a Moscow Mule with Jack Daniels Apple. The salad was very good, although I would have liked more dressing, but than I always want more dressing. This led into the main course after the second long intermission that made you recognize how good the food and drink was, because I have never known Torrington customers to be this patient, yet they all were, maybe from being in either a food or alcohol trance. Prior to the main course, which consisted of Steak Au Poivre, mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables, they sent out an Old #7 Fashioned. By this time, I had given up the drinking ghost. I tried a sip and left it there to admire. The Steak was in a nice crème sauce and the peppercorns that you expect from an Au Poivre added more flavor. My steak was cooked perfectly. Besides the pieces of steak on my plate, they also put a plate in the middle of each table so that people could take extra little cuts if they so desired. A very nice option. At the end of this a shot of Jack Daniels was given out to everyone. Like with the old fashioned I took a sip and set it down.
I repeated the same when they brought out a snifter of Gentleman Jack. I am not the drinker I used to be, and when it comes to whiskey, I probably never was the drinker I used to be. Along with the Gentleman Jack a dessert of pumpkin Pie with whipped cream and smoked maple bourbon ice cream was served. The pumpkin pie was not bad, but the ice cream was excellent.
I hope they fix the timing issues, as I fear some will not be as willing to spend 3 and a half hours at a dinner no matter how good it is, and I want this to succeed. I want to be able to go to many more of these events at Bachi’s and I hope they perfect it to the point that it is a fantastic success for them. I love innovation and bringing things to our town and I applaud Bacchi for doing it. I cannot recommend this and future events like it enough. Bring a group, plan on a full night of good food, good drink and good company (make sure you bring the good company).
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]]>Don’t tell anyone, but I was wrong about this event. I really had very low expectations for The Taste of Torrington. I had gone to the Taste of Simsbury a little over a month earlier, and their line up of restaurants versus Torringtons was like watching the Yankees and then the Yard Goats. I mean how could I expect a good game. Well sometimes it isn’t necessarily the lineup but the entertainment that matters. I mean there is a lot of hastles getting to Yankee stadium, you have to deal with all those New Yorkers and oh yeah, did I mention I hate the Yankees? While the Yard Goats are nearby, the stadium is brand new, they emphasize fun, there are no New Yorkers, or very few, and best of all they aren’t the Yankees. So what does this have to do with the Taste of Torrington? Well unlike my Yankees analogy The Taste of Simsbury was great and I loved it, but there was still that big city, big restaurant brashness, that Yankee or New York state of mind if you prefer.
Last night was pure Torrington. There were no fancy dishes, there was no one item that made you say wow, and despite that it was thoroughly enjoyable. That sums up Torrington to me. It is not fancy, it is meat and potatoes, pizza, grinders, old fashioned Italian and although less so than it used to be a bar on every corner with good bar food type of town. That was the Taste of Torrington. The fanciest dish was a squash or similar filled ravioli (I forget which, too much food and old age paying its toll). Not fancy, but that was at the top of the fancy pyramid last night. After that it was pizza, wings, Italian grinders, mac and cheese, rice and mushrooms, chicken, potatoes, vegetables, donuts, spinach in phylo dough, ham sliders, baklava, pasta and meatballs.
Nowhere near the lineup of The Taste of Simsbury. But it didn’t matter. This was Torrington food, fun food, tasty and true to our roots. This was an upgraded pub crawl in a nicer setting than any pub crawl deserved. I will get to the setting later but lets go over the food. I have had a theme of late in my conversations on Facebook about the Venetian seeming to be the best kept secret that everyone in the state knows about except the people of Torrington. I almost never hear it mentioned in conversations about places to go in Torrington. And yet when Fox 61 came to Torrington for Foodie Friday that’s where they picked and from the look of the food it was a good choice. I mention this because the Venetian made me ask that question again last night. They were by far the best thing on the menu. I have spent enough time giving my thoughts on meatballs at restaurants and how I normally hate them. Well the Venetians were wonderful. Out of respect to all the other diners I only had two of the too small delicious orbs. But it took all my willpower not to hang around that one station and keep refilling my plate. What made it even harder was the pasta next to them. I have had untold plates of pasta from chafing dishes from various events that range from almost edible to barely edible to, I guess I could have seconds, because I am hungry. But this pasta despite its surroundings was as good as the meatballs and called for seconds and thirds. I pulled myself away after firsts, thinking why they hell don’t I go to the Venetian?
Nothing else I had rose to that level. Not that any of it was bad, its just that the Venetian set the bar too high for the rest to vault to. I would love to have seen Sol provide one of its ethnic dishes instead of the vegetable/cheese platters that it provided. But having said that the cheeses were good as were the vegetables and cold cuts, and the winner here was a surprise little pretzel covered in a sweet coating that I didn’t recognize beyond it being delicious. Sawyers won the best effort award providing three different types of wings, mac and cheese and a mushroom and rice dish. All were good options. Ciesco Caterings ham and cheese slider was better than my label gives it. I am sure if it was served at a catered event, they would provide a fancier name to do more justice to it. Carbones chicken and its potatoes, which were separate dishes, are exactly what you would expect from Carbones if you ever stopped in there for lunch and didn’t have the arm strength to carry out one of their grinders. Yia Yias spinach in phyllo and their baklava is a testament to flakey pastry everywhere. Hanq’s ravioli with (damn it I wish I could remember what the filling was) was probably the second tastiest thing I had there. Unfortunately I was too busy enjoying it and I forgot to take a photo of it and when I went back to correct my error, they had run out. So, I took a picture of the little cherry cupcakes that they also were giving out. They were good, but not as good as the dish I can’t show you and can’t remember well enough to explain properly. It was really there though, trust me.
That brought me to the second floor. Now one of the things that I loved about the Taste of Torrington, is that unlike Savor of Litchfield, they wanted you to know where everything was. The food and drink were spread out in the different rooms and in wings all over the place as well as on the second floor. But despite this, and this is something that Litchfield might learn from, everyone that “worked” there made sure that you knew there was food in “that room there… and don’t forget to go upstairs as there is more up there.” You mean they let you know where the food is? Wow, what a unique idea. I am wondering why other places or let’s say one other place didn’t think of that. Anyway, back to the second floor. Here Sasso’s had several different pizzas to choose from. Pizza is another dish that doesn’t age well in buffet type situations. Despite that the flavor of the two pizza slices I did try held up, especially the truffle infused one. Sliders chicken nuggets and BBQ (they had 5 choices) sauce added to the bar crawl theme, at least in my head. As did Nardelli’s Italian Sub sections. As nice as that was I couldn’t help thinking I wish it was Carbone’s roast beef or pork with the works, especially their peppers. The display for the Donut Station looked wonderful and I wanted one so bad, but this was at the end of my crawl and I had no room to put it, as enticing as they made them. I almost had to do a double take to see if they snuck in one of those new fancy donut places that you see all over Instagram.
I have not even touched on the alcohol. What would be a true Taste of Torrington or my personal pub crawl image of the night without alcohol. I am sad to say that I cannot drink like I used to. Some may say that’s a good thing, but with so many good liquors and wines and beers, I don’t think so. I did have a couple of glasses of wine, a taste of the apple pie moon shine and a taste of the hard cider, along with two regular ginger ales. There was so much more to try that I didn’t. Don’t let anyone kid you, age sucks.
Now despite this being a food review blog, I would like to discuss the venue and the real reason for the event. This is probably one of the reasons why I, despite it being the same price as Simsbury’s event and no where near the level of food, I didn’t care and loved last night. This was a fundraiser for the Torrington Library. When I went to school at Torrington High, in the old days before the Internet, we had to go to the library to research our term papers and other reports. The Torrington library sucked as much as age does. It was an embarrassment to our community and I often commented on it. It wasn’t then, and isn’t now, supported by the town, like library’s often are. We had outdated books, outdated research materials, moldy facitilies and equipment that you flipped a coin to see if it worked that day. Even at 16 and 17 I knew this was wrong. Fast forward to last night. If you haven’t been to the Torrington Library, you need to go. If you are looking for a reason to have a sense of pride in your community, look no further than the Torrington Library. They have transformed that building into a magical place. The second floor that was once accessed through rickety steel steps and was filled with old outdated books on steel racks is now accessed by real steps or even better an elevator. The second floor has a children’s area that an adult can get lost in. Look up to the wide trim that is painted by a local artist of all the childhood fictional characters. Hobbits, Alice, and so many more are up there for children and adults to gaze at in amazement. The walls look like stone from a Roman or Greek Antiquity giving weight to the importance of this building. And it is important. Without reading and knowledge and teaching our children the love of those things we are doomed. There is a section dedicated to photos of the flood, so that Torrington can remember its past. Another section with colonial era guns, which you may find as a reminder of what our Forefathers were thinking of when they were protecting our gun rights, or may be a celebration of gun ownership depending on your political slant. Either way it is our history and it is stimulus for thought, which is what a library should be.
Finally, The Taste of Torrington does not taste as good as The Taste of Simsbury, but more importantly it tastes like Torrington. That is pretty damn good and its good enough for me. Furthermore, it is the Taste of pride in an establishment in Torrington that it is about time we should have pride in. The next time someone bad mouths Torrington to me and asks me what’s so good about Torrington I have another answer. “Go to the library, spend a day there and if you don’t find something good about Torrington then, something to be proud of then it is more than your taste buds that are dead.”
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]]>Max Restaurant Group hosts events they call Chef to Farm at various farms, vineyards and breweries. Today they held the Oyster Fest at Rosedale Farm and Vineyards in Simsbury. Dining events like this seem to becoming more prevalent with several places in the area offering some form of Wine/Beer pairing, Farm to Table or Chefs special menu that take diners beyond the typical restaurant experience. The Oyster Fest cost $59.00. The event was from 1 PM to 5 PM and although you could come whenever you wanted, if you didn’t get there early or at least right at 1 you would have regretted it. I am not sure if they were short on chairs and tables or just short on chairs and tables under the tent. Which on a hot sunny day like today was almost the same thing. We got our seats early and we spent a good part of our time defending the seats of the people opposite us who seemed to like the longer lines and was gone waiting in them quite often. This brings us to the three problems with the Fest. As I said there was a shortage of chairs and my heart went out to the people wandering around looking for chairs as if they were the Ghosts from Dickens A Christmas Carol that Marley showed to Scrooge, constantly reaching out to others trying to make contact with them or in this case with their chairs. Forced to roam the tent because they failed to get their early enough. Which brings us to the second problem. Lines for food were long. This was exacerbated by the cooked foods not being ready at 1 so that all the hungry diners lined up at the raw oyster stations, that only needed to be shucked so were done earlier. As other stations came online they never completely recovered as they were always playing catch-up. So once the long lines started they didn’t slow down until half way through the event. Apparently this was a result of them having a lot of walk up ticket buyers on the day of the event. Somewhere, it seems advisable that a company with the reputation of Max Restaurant Group would think to either not sell same day tickets or put a limit on the numbers in order to maintain lines.
Despite these aggravations this was still a great event. You can’t beat being out in a beautiful farm field, under a white tent, with nice live music and good food. And once you got to the front of the line the food was good. They had three stations with various types of raw oysters, all tasty with plenty of lemon, horseradish and cocktail sauce. There was ribs and shrimp skewers and an excellent cucumber salad, that as a meat and seafood eater I was shocked to enjoy as much as I did. There was a long line for the oyster buns, po boy, street corn and heirloom tomatoes station that didn’t slow down until I was too full to crawl over to try them. There was a wide variety of pizzas from cheese, pepperoni, Margherita, clam, shrimp and my new favorite corn. That’s right corn. It was amazing, I want a whole one please.I ‘m not done yet, oyster stew, fried green tomatoes, oyster Rockefeller, wood fired oysters, blueberry pie and strawberry shortcake. I didn’t find the littleneck and cherrystone clams they mentioned. This brings us to the third problem as the menu lists craft beers, seltzer and cocktails, yet they left out a little detail. Even though the beer, seltzer and cocktails is listed on the menu list right under the shortcake with no spacing, no asterisk or anything to indicate otherwise it was not included but was part of a cash bar. When I got there and saw this I figured I had read it wrong, but in writing this review I have gone back three times and reread their page. No where does it mention a fee for the beer, seltzer or cocktails. Since many of these events include drinks and there is no mention of a fee for the drinks or even a break in the menu before the drinks are listed, I feel this is a bit of false advertising.
However, if you can get by the short comings and the misrepresentation, the food, atmosphere, music and location all made the event very enjoyable. To be honest, since I thought I had screwed up about the charges for drinks and didn’t know until I got home about the deception, I was happy throughout and there really isn’t any reason to let that sink a thoroughly enjoyable time. However, Max Group if you ever read, this you can invite me back for free cocktails to make it up to me. lol.
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