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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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]]>My experience with the old Painted Pony has been for the Easter Buffet with friends a couple of years. The fact that it was more than one year should tell you we liked it. So, we were disappointed when it closed. That is why when we heard it had reopened, we went out at our earliest opportunity to give it a try. Now there is always a risk in going to a restaurant when it first opens. There are things that need to be worked out that typically apparently can only be worked out in front of live customers or guinea pigs. If the guinea pigs are aware of this and are more patient with the waitress and the restaurant once they are there than they were in rushing out to go there right away, things should be fine. We were aware of this and when reading this review I hope you keep in mind that they had only been open a matter of days so some things are expected to be amiss as they work things out.
The first thing you will notice as you enter the parking lot and the restaurant is that the New Painted Pony looks like the old Painted Pony. Now, there may be differences that I didn’t notice as typically we sat in the room to the left as you enter on Easters and we were seated to the right side on this occasion and it looked like the left side was not yet open. Having said that, if you are familiar with the old Painted Pony, you should feel very much at home at this one.
I was first to arrive, ordered a drink and sampled their rolls, which were served with a cinnamon butter. The butter gave a little sweetness to the bread but was not overwhelmed with cinnamon flavor. This was probably a good thing as my anti-spice friend is also opposed to cinnamon (I guess he doesn’t just discriminate against green spices). Yet despite his stance on cinnamon and the presence of it in the butter, he neither grumbled about it or even seemed to notice until another friend asked about the butter and the waitress uttered the “c” word. Even then he barely grumbled indicating the impact of the cinnamon was just a touch of sweetness without its stronger aspects.
Next came appetizers, and this is where I felt the New Painted Pony was at its best. I got the Pork Belly and Pickle Board. This came with two nice thick pieces of pork belly loaded with bacon flavor and not overly fatty which happens sometimes with this item. It was accompanied by sour pickle chips and pickled onions to cut the salty goodness of the pork. It also came with their house made cinnamon chipotle chips. The chips were good but could have used some more cinnamon and chipotle to give them some extra kick, and to keep away the anti-cinnamon member of the group. The breaded mozzarella was another winner, with two large triangular wedges of cheese in a very good breading. This was a big hit with the table and probably was the thing most would have picked as their number one appetizer, although I like my pork belly order too. The third appetizer was the BBQ chicken wings. These had a decent BBQ sauce with a slight kick to them, which I liked and left Kens lips smarting. I thought the wings were decent, but there are so many decent wings around that personally unless you are the type that normally orders wings for your appetizer, I would try one of the other two instead. The last appetizer was a bowl of the chips like the ones that came along with the pork belly except this comes with a Cajun sour cream dip. It seems home made dips and chips are becoming popular as this is the second restaurant in the last few weeks that I have tried them. These were comparable to the wings decent and the dip was a nice touch. Maybe If I hadn’t had The Beamhouse’s version so recently I would have rated them higher. However, the Beamhouse’s were much better. But these are still a good bar item and a lot closer than Glastonbury.
That brought us to the main courses. There were a few hiccups with the appetizers that I didn’t mention because as I explained earlier, they had only been open a couple of days so that is to be expected. I will mention one mix-up here as the main courses, like the prime rib that I ordered came with two sides. For one of those I chose avgolemeno soup, which I had never heard of and was described as a lemony Greek soup with chicken broth. Unfortunately. this was not delivered as in the turmoil of a new restaurant it was forgotten. The waitress was very apologetic and did give it to us to go. A little note though, if you want to know the difference between a great restaurant and a decent restaurant, in addition to the quality of the food, I think it is in how they handle mistakes. You want to see how a great restaurant handles it read my review of Flemings. To be fair the pricing difference is significant, but one can argue good customer service should not be dictated by price. Anyways, although there were other hiccups before and after, they were almost expected from a freshly open place and none involved the quality of the food or the attitude of the waitress which was always friendly. Either of those would have been inexcusable. The others, given the circumstances were understandable.
I ordered the prime rib. I am not sure if I am getting pickier in my old age or whether restaurants aren’t doing as good a job as they once did, or if I have been on an unlucky streak. But I have been disappointed lately with three of my favorite dishes at restaurants. This night it was prime ribs turn. Now let me say, to me there are two types of prime rib, good and great. I have rarely had a prime rib that I would turn my nose up at. Some may be cooked more than I like, fattier than I like or even drier than I like, but hell it is still a big cut of meat, and that’s a good thing. But the kind of prime rib that makes me close my eyes and just want turn off the rest of the world while enjoying the wonderful cut of beef that it can be has escaped me for a long time now. Part of it is that that I like the charred, flavored outside of the prime rib, ideally with a pepper or garlic rub that just bursts with flavor, but I want the inside medium rare, just warm and juicy with fat enough to add flavor, but not so much that you cannot fit it and the meat next to it in your mouth at the same time. And for gods sake I do not want to have parts of my prime rib that I have to chew for a week until I finally give up the ghost and dispatch it to my napkin. Not that I will not eat a prime rib like that and still say I like it. I go back to my big cut of meat statement. But I search for that great prime rib. The Painted Pony’s prime rib was good, in that it was cooked appropriately, medium rare, it had decent fat but not so much that you either had to leave half of it on your plate or chew large globs of it with just a touch of meat to justify it. But what it lacked was a decent rub. The kind that would turn a decent cut of meat into meat heaven. Its flavor was decent. I think it was equivalent to just about every other prime rib I have had lately, which includes Bacchis Wednesday night $15 prime rib special. Two others in our group got the prime rib and although I did not hear any feedback, I did not hear any compliments either. Hopefully this is an area that they will grow into.
The other two entrees that people got had one winner and one average rating. The Chicken Alexander was very good. The one thing I could see is that the Painted Pony knows how to handle breading. The chicken, its breading and the sauce over it were all delicious (the friend made the mistake of offering us a bite and most of us took it, especially her husband Mr. anti-spice who took and took and took, apparently liking it much better than his prime rib. The other dish was the mac and cheese with short ribs. We finished off with a lemon cake that was moist, a little tart and not overly sweet, a fine ending to the meal.
For being open such a short time I see some real potential with the New Painted Pony. Some things they are already spot on with. Others are near misses, and that is a good sign for a kitchen and staff that are just learning to work together. I like the location and liked the appetizers and the Chicken Alexander. Those would be enough to bring me back. Now if they could turn the prime rib into a hit, I could be spending a lot of time in the little town of Bethlehem.
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