We Nutmeggers are blessed with so many terrific dining options. This is especially true in Fairfield County, which is why it’s unavoidable that many of my reports are bound to originate there. Within Fairfield County, the Gold Coast towns may be replete with restaurant royalty, but there are certainly gems to be found in inland towns as well. Without a doubt, one of my favorite Fairfield County restaurants is Carl Anthony Trattoria in Monroe.
The food at Carl Anthony is creative yet comforting, exciting yet familiar enough so that no one is likely to find it off-putting. Unlike at many restaurants, you won’t find the same vegetables and starch appearing with each meat or fish, nor will you find everything plated alike. Despite not having attended culinary school, owner Sam DeVellis is unquestionably one of Connecticut’s top chefs.
Because it’s my job to get out and about as much as possible, I don’t get to visit Carl Anthony—or any other favorite eatery—nearly as often as I’d like. But if I lived close by and my time was my own, I guarantee I would become a regular. A recent visit to Carl Anthony illustrates why I so love this restaurant.
From a wine list calibrated to be affordable, my companion and I ordered a 2006 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, just $28 for a wine that started well and ended even better. It was so good we drained the bottle, when normally we take advantage of Connecticut’s recently changed liquor laws to bring the remainder home. On prior visits, I have led off my dinner with one of Carl Anthony’s tempting martinis.
My companion and I began with an appetizer called Rockefeller on the Riviera, which showcased blue point oysters on the half shell baked with pancetta, arugula, Sambuca and bread crumbs, and then topped with a roasted garlic aïoli and tobiko.
We followed up the unusual oysters with a plate of DeVellis’ handmade burrata cheese. Burrata, which means “buttered,” refers to a shell of Mozzarella filled with a mixture of Mozzarella and cream. In some people’s hands, this simple cheese can seem too bland, but DeVellis wisely enlivened it with a few crystals of fleur de sel, making it the best Mozzarella I had sampled since visiting a dairy in Friuli.
Our next course was an appetizer of quail over polenta with wild mushroom in a tomato-red wine sauce. The bird was incredibly tender and flavorful. It was love at first bite, and Carl Anthony’s is certainly a place where love can bloom!
We followed the quail up with housemade tagliatelle in a carbonara sauce, the broad chewy noodles graced with bacon, Parmesan and a fried egg. This is a dish I avoid at most restaurants because it’s so seldom well done, but at Carl Anthony, it was an absolute delight.
My companion’s salmon entrée best illustrates how DeVellis’ menu combines the familiar with the creative in ways that aren’t threatening. Wood-roasted wild salmon was first rubbed with a mixture of olive and raisin, then accompanied by five-hour fennel, oven-dried tomato (so much better than commercial), preserved lemon and whipped parsnip. What an uplifting preparation!
As for me, I ordered a quite reasonably priced, 12-ounce, center-cut, sirloin steak ($28) that was one of the nicest I’d ever had under $40. It was accompanied with three tasty sauces—balsamic ketchup, salsa verde and horseradish aïoli—but I only used a touch of the first sauce because the meat was so good on its own. And it goes without saying that there were many other entrées we would have liked to try!
We were foolish not to sample one of Carl Anthony’s lovely desserts, but we were just too full, having consumed too many marinated olives and too much housemade herb focaccia and roasted garlic at the onset of our meal. We did, however, nibble a couple of housemade biscotti as we somehow resisted DeVellis’ cheese platter, bananarama, warm bread pudding, tiramisù, four crème brûlées, and other enticing sweets. When you visit Carl Anthony Trattoria, learn from our mistake and leave room for dessert.
Carl Anthony Trattoria, 477 Main St., Monroe, 203-268-8486.