Tip-A-Firefighter & 2014 Firefighter Calendar to benefit MARC

Middletown’s buffest and bravest are featured in a 2014 Middletown Fire Department calendar to benefit programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Fourteen members of Middletown Firefighters Local 1073 volunteered for the calendar-modeling job, including two sets of brothers – Salvatore and Barrett Cretella and twins James and Patrick Ehman. The images depict the men with rescue equipment including hoses, axes, Hazmat and diving gear, and the Jaws of Life.

Around Middletown in 80 Days - Day 70

Tuscany Grill
120 College Street

Phileas plans to hit up Tuscany Grill on Tuesday for some delicious, Italin cusine. Located in the heart of downtown Middletown, in the historic Middlesex Opera House building, Tuscany Grill has been serving fine Italian creations since 1995. Specialties include chef inspired modern Italian & classic Italian creations. A large selection of delicious pasta dishes, unique entrees, pizza, desserts and an excellent selection of fine wine to complement your meal. Specials are offered daily for Lunch & Dinner - so there is always something new to try! Join Phileas and eat out on November 3rd at Tuscany Grill, and 20% of the proceeds will go to Oddfellows Playhouse! Make sure you tell your server that you're there to support Oddfellows!

Middletown Food on CPTV

There's a new show on Connecticut Public Television called Eating CT.

I know, I know, not a very appetizing title (pardon me, but I think you have a bit of the Wilbur Cross Parkway stuck between your teeth), but one of the early episodes features a culinary trip down Middletown's Main Street with show host Jason Hawkins, including stops at O'Rourkes, Luce, Amici's, Tuscany Grill, Vechitto's, Forbiden City, It's Only Natural, and... the Wadsworth Mansion?

The show initially aired last Saturday, and due to CPTV amazing lack of promotion, hardly anyone I know saw it.

It airs again tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 6, at 8 p.m.

H/T to John Elmore.

Eye on Dining - A Gaslight Movie Dinner

In conjunction with the Summer Film Series honoring Ingrid Bergman, hosted by Wesleyan's Center for Film Studies, several downtown restaurants are offering "CineFare" or Pre-Fix menus before each Wednesday night showing, from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM (show time is at 8:00 PM). Though little information is provided regarding exactly what menu choices are available, as a Middletown dining scene aficionado I feel compelled to suggest a dining experience for each screening, related in someway (I may have to stretch it a bit!) to the theme, setting, or plot of the movie.

Tomorrow’s film showing is Gaslight, a mystery-thriller in which Bergman stars as a young opera singer sent to Italy to study after her world-famous aunt, also an opera singer, is murdered during a failed jewelry robbery. She marries and returns to her aunt’s vacant home in London, only to endure several strange occurrences and the eventual resolution of her aunt’s thereunto unsolved murder.

In Middletown, of course, it is not a hard feat to find Italian cuisine. This week’s featured movie menu can be found at Tuscany Grill, a CineFare participating restaurant, offering an Italian-American fusion befitting of the movie’s dual settings in both Italy and England. It’s dark, sleek atmosphere makes Tuscany Grill the perfect place to sneak in and hide out, especially if one is an undercover jewel thief. Just be sure to keep a look out for Scotland Yard.

Gaslight-Inspired Dinner Menu
Tuscany Grill

Appetizer
EGGPLANT TOWER (of London) - layered with roasted peppers, seasoned spinach, Asiago and mozzarella cheeses, in a plum tomato sauce

The sweetness of the roasted peppers and salty, gooey cheeses compliment the mild flavor of the eggplant perfectly.

Salad
TUSCAN CAESAR with GRILLED SHRIMP - with marinated tomatoes, calamata olives and garlic croutons

Though caesar salad aficionados would claim that adding tomatoes evokes this classic salad’s title, Tuscan cuisine is much more Mediterranean than its counterparts from the north, which is why the addition of the savory olives and charred grilled shrimp to this salad makes it truly a “Tuscany grill.”

Entrée
BROCCOLI “Rob” & HOUSEMADE CHICKEN SAUSAGE - sautéed in virgin olive oil, Marsala wine and garlic with white beans and plum tomatoes tossed with orecchiette.

Creamy, mild white beans and orcchiette and fresh plum tomatoes balance the spicy chicken sausage and strong broccoli flavors in this very original dish. Ok, I replaced the “rabe” in “broccoli rabe.” You didn’t think these things just fall into my lap, did you?

Tuscany Grill is located at 120 College Street, Middletown.
For reservations call: (860) 346-7096.


Stay tuned for next week's movie menu for The Bells of St. Mary's!