As a restaurant critic and food writer of 17 years, I have visited many of the significant restaurants in the Nutmeg State. A goodly number still manage to elude me, however. I eat out virtually every night, but there are still only 365 days in most years.
One of the great aspects of an event like Connecticut Restaurant Week is getting the opportunity to try a relatively unknown gem like Crave in Ansonia,
where two women were enjoying a surprisingly warm mid-October evening. I did hear positive things about this Latin-Caribbean fusion restaurant soon after it opened in August 2007, but it just joined a long list of eateries I hoped to get to.
Crave is owned by Libby Meissner,
a Puerto Rican gal who grew up in Isabela on the northwest corner of the island. Googling images of Isabela will be enough to make you want to move there. But Libby has lived all across America in locations as diverse as Miami, Buffalo and Dallas, where she helped open the Capital Grille located there. Libby also owns Only For Her, the boutique adjacent to her Ansonia restaurant.
When my dining companion and I arrived at Crave, it was jam packed.
A number of customers were dining at the bar.
Our friendly waitress, Samantha,
brought us nice bread
and a delicious cilantro butter.
Crave’s mojitos were potent and refreshing.
We sampled almost everything on Crave’s Restaurant Week menu. (Click on this, or any, photograph to enlarge.)
What we found is that the cooking of Ecuadorean brothers Fabian and Diego Delgado was creative but balanced. All of the food was beautifully seasoned and fresh-tasting. Flavor was maximized. Virtually everything was cooked from scratch. Chicken croquettes with a cilantro aïoli were absolutely delicious.
A spinach salad with Craisins, goat cheese and candied walnuts in a pomegranate vinaigrette couldn’t have been lovelier.
Vegetable and beef empanadas with a red pepper coulis were packed with flavor,
even if we couldn’t tell which was which until we broke them open.
The Restaurant Week entrées were also wonderful. Cajun-spiced grilled salmon was topped with mango salsa and served with rice pilaf and sautéed vegetables.
A flavorful fettuccine was loaded with chicken, spicy Italian sausage and peas in a garlic cream sauce.
And teeth-tingling hanger steak came with chimichurri sauce, rice, beans and tostones (compressed rounds of twice-cooked, unsweet plantain that I learned to cook on the Samaná Peninsula of the Dominican Republic).
Every item on each plate had the full flavor that it was supposed to.
The desserts did not disappoint, either. Laced with a little dark rum, tres leches cake came in both vanilla
and chocolate versions.
We also tried a superb flourless chocolate torte that wasn’t on the Restaurant Week menu.
A cappuccino was ideal accompaniment.
Note the nice touch of spelling out Crave’s name in cinnamon.
Is it any wonder that customers like the nice couple seated next to us were thrilled?
Visiting the aptly named Crave is sure to create a strong desire to return.
Crave, 102 Main Street, Ansonia, 203-735-3300
www.crave102.com