At the risk of making visitors to our website think they are watching the All-Restaurant Week Channel, let me announce that another town has entered the fray. West Haven is holding its first Restaurant Week from Sunday, October 17th to Saturday, October 23rd. Some have wryly observed that at this rate, it will soon be Restaurant Week somewhere in Connecticut every day of the year.
Some Restaurant Weeks offer better value than others. West Haven is obviously making every effort to be competitive with $19.21 dinners and $7.95 lunches. Scanning the menus that have posted so far, some are offering good value, some terrific. Check out WestHavenRestaurantWeek.com and make up your own mind!
Also, although West Haven is no dining Mecca, it does have some compelling restaurants and most (not Zuppardi’s Apizza or Swagat Indian Restaurant) are participating, including three steakhouses (American Steakhouse, Chuck’s Steakhouse and Texas Roadhouse), two terrific Turkish eateries (Saray and Turkish Kebab), good Southern/BBQ (Uncle Willie’s BBQ), and many more.
On the afternoon of Monday, October 18th, organizers held a kickoff event at Duffy’s Tavern,
inviting a few press members, including yours truly. Parking across the street, I knew I had good cupcakes to look forward to.
And I saw that organizers had paid attention to putting up good signage (even if it looked eerily familiar).
Having arrived a few minutes late, I caught the end of the announcements (even if they were just a blur).
A pretty good crowd had squeezed into the bar area,
leaving empty the main dining room
and patio.
I got a drink from the attractive young lady on the left,
and then helped myself to some of the grub, including some Mexican food,
some Turkish appetizers by Saray,
some pulled pork from Uncle Willie’s,
and some ribs from American Steakhouse.
Everything was good, but the one thing I couldn’t resist seconds of was the cupcakes,
which were lovingly set out by this nice lady.
I’ve got a weakness for cupcakes. My name is Frank—and I haven’t had a cupcake in twenty-four hours.
I will conclude by showing photos of just a few of the good people responsible for putting this event together,
especially Isabel Tartaglia of American Steakhouse, Hilda Salerno of Chase Manhattan, and West Haven Mayor John Picard.
Duffy’s Tavern, 241 Campbell Avenue, West Haven, 203-933-9721
www.duffystavern.net