The Taste of Torrington

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.

Pure Torrington

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.

Venetian Shines

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?

Sawyers Good Effort

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.

Helpful People

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.

Alcohol Too

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.

Torrington Library

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.

Tastes Like Torrington Pride

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.”