Eat Your Art Out

Oddfellows Playhouse's 2nd Food Improv Fundraiser takes place tonight at the Wadsworth Mansion from 6-9pm.  Tickets are available at the door.  $75 per person, and $125 for a couple (two people is a couple.)

A tasting style event, Food Improv will showcase a variety of dishes created by some of the best chefs and restaurants throughout Connecticut.   Returning restaurants include: Riverhouse Catering, The New England Emporium, Eli Cannon’s Tap Room, NoRA Cupcake Company, Tschudin Chocolates & Confections, and Cold Stone Creamery of Middletown.  New participants include Lan Chi Restaurant and The Lace Factory.  The event will also feature a signature cocktail mixed and created by RIPE Craft Bar Juice and Onyx Moonshine.

SPONSORED BY

Producer Sponsors
Citizen’s Bank

Connecticut Rental Center 

The law offices of Farrell, Geenty, Sheeley, Boccalatte & Guarino, PC, 

Patron Sponsor

Updike, Kelley and Spellacy, PC

Who Doesn't Like to Eat and See a Broadway show?

If you like to munch, mingle, and make donations that support the best youth theater in Connecticut, we’ve got the event for you! If you missed it last year—Oddfellows is willing to forgive you for that— or came and hoped we would do it again, you are in luck. On Thursday, June 6 from 6-9 pm, Oddfellows Playhouse will be hosting Food Improv: Where the Performing Arts Meets the Culinary Arts- Take 2!, at the Wadsworth Mansion.

New England Emporium Features Landscape Photographs by Jason Neely

The New England Emporium (386 Main Street) is displaying work by Jason Neely, a Middletown photographer. Neely's "New England Landscapes" series is made up of twenty photographs taken in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut--including many from Middlesex County such as Wadsworth Falls in Middlefield and Herzig Farm in Durham.

As faithful readers of The Eye will remember, Neely's work was featured in the August 2009 issue of "National Geographic" and is also the cover of "Raditude," the 2009 release by rock band, Weezer.

Neely moved to Connecticut four years ago, he says the beautiful scenery in New England has inspired him to put together this particular series of photos. Many of them will provide an antidote to the cold and snow currently washing over us.

Neely's father was an amateur photographer who lost a long battle with melanoma in the summer of 2009, shortly after the National Geographic photo was published. A portion of all sales will go to the Middlesex Cancer Center in his memory.

More of Neely's photographs are available for viewing on his Flickr site.

More photos after the page break below.

Not quite the Weekly Eater....

I'm certainly no food critic but here's my attempt at it. A couple of friends and I just ate at the recently opened New England Emporium in the Main Street Market. The atmosphere inside is beautiful yet casual, comfortable and relaxing. The food was delicious. We each picked a different crepe and a drink and this little snack shared among friends was about $22. The crepes were all very fresh and light, not salty or heavy, and with very good flavor and seasoning to the filling. The fresh buckwheat flavor of the crepe itself shined through. The crepes are a good size with plenty of extra folded over edges. The sweet and sour crepe was a simple lemon and honey crepe that was not too sweet and not too sour but just the right amount of each, and the lemon piece that garnished it was cooked to a candied perfection and I even ate the peel. The breakfast crepe had a lot of light and fluffy fresh scrambled eggs with a nice bit of sweet red pepper, and the chicken and havarti crepe was exquisitely creamy without being greasy or heavy. The market area has tons of items made locally (around New England) that I have not seen sold anywhere else around Middletown and environs so its a nice place to find some unique things. I will definitely be back to explore more of the menu again later.

I can't resist adding a plug for another gem here. It is important to note that when you enter the Main Street Market and you smell an intoxicating aroma of butter and sugar wafting through the air, it is coming from Fusion Bakery down the hall. Their pastries are indescribably delicious. You may never settle for Dunkin Donuts again after tasting Fusion's cinnamon rolls, "honey snails", custard pastries, danishes or scones. I highly recommend trying out both of these little eateries.