Monthly Archives: January 2012

A Super Sweet Breakfast In SoNo @ SoNo Baking Company & Café

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The SoNo Baking Company & Café

101 Water Street, South Norwalk, CT  203.847.SONO (7666)

www.sonobaking.com

The first thing you notice when you walk intoThe SoNo Baking Company & Café are all of the awards they have won and newspaper and magazine articles that have been written about them — so you know this place is going to be good!  The other thing you will see is the open bakery because SoNo Baking is a real working bakery.

While you order your breakfast you can check out all of the AMAZING baked treats that are made there — Flourless Chocolate Cakes… Boston Cream Pies… and TONS of cupcakes!  They also make their own breads, croissants and all sorts of other tasty things.

Another fun part is you can also sit at the bar with windows that look into the bakery, and watch the bakers who today were all very busy…. WHY? Because they sold almost ALL of their baked goods yesterday and they needed to refill the cases.

Our reason for coming today was to “get down to breakfast business”!  And I can say, breakfast at SoNo Baking is Sweeeeeeeeeet!

I started with Hot Chocolate, which was very thick and rich, and really good.  For breakfast I had the Stuffed French Toast which is made with Brioche, Vanilla Pastry Cream and Mixed Berries.  For those of you who don’t know what Brioche is (I know my friend Alex Marshall who lives in Paris does), Brioche is a French Pastry that is very light and fluffy.  The Brioche makes it even more French-like than other French toasts! It was served with a fruit salad and was delicious!  I also tried their home fries and bacon which were also very good.

Matt Oricchio, The Sono Baking Company & Cafe

I spoke with Matt Oricchio, our server, who even though he was super busy helping customers was really nice.  I asked Matt, about the owner of the bakery, John Barricelli.

Matt told me, “His great-grandfather, Giuseppe Barricelli was a baker in Brooklyn, there’s a picture of him from 1904 on the wall, and his grandfather was also a baker… John was born to be a baker”. 

SoNo Bakery & Cafe also serves lunch… but make sure you save room for some cake!

The Sunday Diner Rating (out of 5)

FOOD  * * * * * (5)

SERVICE  * * * * *   (5)

LOOKS  * * * * * (5)

BATHROOM: * * * * * (5)

A Gold Medal Breakfast at the Silvermine Market!

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Silvermine Market, 1032 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT www.silverminemarket.com

The Silvermine Market is located directly across the street from The Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, CT and serves up an amazing gourmet breakfast!

The Market is in a building that dates back to 1860 – that’s over 152 years old!  Though it has not always has been the Silvermine Market, the building has for a long time been a market, which we learned about  by talking to the owners Chef Scott Kaluczky and Lou Aloupis and will tell you about that in minute.  But first about the Silvermine Market and its awesome food!

The Silvermine Market is a cozy country-style place that not only serves breakfast, it’s also great for lunch and now even serves dinner on Friday and Saturday nights.  If you’re having a big party, like for the Super Bowl, they do catering too!

A lot of what is served at the Silvermine Market is freshly made, they do all their own baking, they roast their own roast beef and turkey for lunch and make all sorts of other great things like lasagna, chicken pot pies and even chocolate cake.  But I came for breakfast… and it was VERY GOOD!

To start, I had a Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream… it was super hot and delicious, and was made with steamed milk on the cappuccino machine.  There’s many choices for breakfast, and I had a hard time choosing, but I decided to go with the Breakfast Burrito, which is a flour tortilla filled with bacon, ham or sausage, eggs, onions, peppers and cheddar cheese and was served fresh salsa!  I had mine with bacon.  It was so tasty and BIG — I couldn’t even eat the whole thing!  My dad and I also shared a side order of Home Fries — they were so good I was in Home Fry Heaven!

I spoke with the owners Chef Scott and Lou about the market and asked them about its history, Lou told me that:

Me with Lou (l.) and Chef Scott (r.) the owners of Silvermine Market

“It’s been here since 1860, and was known as Guthrie’s Market.  This building was an icehouse that sold ice to people because back then people didn’t have refrigerators and had to buy ice to keep their food cold.  They also sold produce.  It’s been The Silvermine Market for a long time, but Scott and I bought and fixed it up 6 years ago”.

I also spoke to Chef Scott about the food and asked:

“What’s most popular with kids at the Silvermine Market?”

He said that “…Kids LOVE our Chicken Fingers and Mac & Cheese for lunch and our Chocolate Chip Pancakes and French Toast for breakfast — the french toast is really thick because it’s made with challah bread  — kids also love our fresh muffins”.

I’m totally coming back here for lunch…and might even stay for dinner!

The Sunday Diner Rating (out of 5)

FOOD  * * * * * (5)

SERVICE  * * * * *   (5)

LOOKS  * * * * * (5)

BATHROOM: * * * * * (5)

Thanks Scott and Lou!

The Early Bird… Catches The Tweats!

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The Early Bird Cafe, 88 Danbury Road, Ridgefield CT

Be Sure To Visit The Early Bird Cafe on Facebook

Happy New Year! Welcome to our second year of Sunday Diners!

Let’s kick off 2012 with the Early Bird Cafe in Ridgefield, which has been open for over 20 years. The first thing I noticed when I walked in the door was the great holiday decorations and TONS of crayon drawings and art by kids. Which makes sense, because there were a TON of kids there!

The Early Bird has an open kitchen, so you can see the cooks… cook and even though it was crowded, we were seated quickly and got right down to business.

I had chocolate milk (which was freshly made) and for breakfast I had The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes – which were awesome – and tasted just like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!!! — YUM!  I also had a side of bacon, which was very smoky and reminded me of the smoky flavor of the Hibachi Grill dinner I had over the holidays at Fuji Japanese Restaurant in Darien.

I spoke with China, our server and asked her a few questions…

What is the most popular breakfast for kids?

She said, “Kids love the Mickey Mouse Pancakes, which are shaped like Mickey Mouse and are served with fruit”.

I also asked her, what her favorite breakfast “Tweat” was, and she answered, “The French Toast, which is SO good”.

Our final question, was about their great holiday decorations.  I asked her if they decorate the cafe for all of the holidays.

She told me that, “Yes we do, we decorate for all of the holidays, on Easter we even have a GIANT Easter Bunny. Our owner, Judy Cusack, loves to decorate and comes in early at around 4:30 in the morning to decorate the restaurant”!

Thanks China! I’m definitely going to come back to check that bunny out!

The Sunday Diner Rating (out of 5)

FOOD  * * * * * (5)

SERVICE  * * * * * *  (6)

LOOKS  * * * * * (5)

BATHROOM: * * * * * (5)

A Perfect Score… Plus Extra Credit! :)

PS: Here’s a picture of me at Fuji of Japan over the holidays which is also super fun for kids!

Me at Fuji of Japan!