Dining review of The Charles in Wethersfield: Despite opening during Covid-19 pandemic, The Charles is the most exciting new restaurant in the Greater Hartford area in years.
Four Dads Pub, which has been in Granby since 2020, has opened a location in downtown Hartford.
We polled our readers about what are the best small restaurants in the Hartford area. These are the top 11 vote-getters.
Ichiro Kitchen Express is the new Japanese restaurant in New Britain.
in case you missed it
If it seems like a new brewery opens in Connecticut every week, that's not far off.
Connecticut wine destinations: signature vintages and special releases, live entertainment, gourmet food options.
Can't Miss
Table Talkers
- Dari Delite, the East Windsor ice cream shop that has delighted residents of the town for 66 years, announced that the store would close for good at the end of the season.
- Craft beer and...math? It might not be an expected pairing, but Problem Solved of East Windsor’s unique charm shows just how well it works.
- West Hartford's GastroPark, which has been serving breakfasts and lunches for two years, now is doing weekend brunch.
- This week's Tapped In CT features a blonde ale with a New England twist, a crisp, classic pilsner, a easy-drinking Kölsch, a traditional APA, and a raspberry sour for the fruit lover in you.
- Traci Halky left her job as a lawyer in Florida and has opened a franchise bakery location of Nothing Bundt Cakes in West Hartford next to the Trader Joes.
Hartford Courant Store
Music
- A slew of '70s rockers, from Rod Stewart and Santana to Elvis Costello, The Damned, Blondie, Cheap Trick and The Fleshtones can be found on Connecticut stages this week.
More Food & Drink
- Wahlburgers, the burger joint whose only Connecticut location, in Trumbull, closed in 2020, is returning to the state.
Arts & Theater
- "Secondo," a sequel to the hit "I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti," is at TheaterWorks Hartford. Reuniting the director, playwright and star of the first show, it's now 10 years later and Giulia Melucci is still in the kitchen, only this time she's talking about marriage rather than dating.
GAMES & TRIVIA
More things to do
- This week's Courant arts picks include eclectic rocker Adrian Belew, an "Encanto" singalong at the Xfinity Theatre.
Movies
- A movie about a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan, which was shot in the New Haven area, will premiere in that city on July 7.
Hartford Magazine
- Michael Stubbs of Eskridge, Kansas, a retired film industry location manager with a love of history, painstakingly researched the story of the Connecticut Kansas Colony, as these settlers were known.
