Newtown,
Connecticut
For travel foodies Jane and Michael Stern, some
of their best finds have been in the couple's own Connecticut backyard
From the April 22, 2002 Issue of New York
 "Connecticut
is one of the great states for road food," says Michael Stern, co-author
with his wife, Jane, of Roadfood, an updated version of their
classic 1977 guide to greasy spoons. According to the Sterns, who
live just down the road, the unassuming hamlet of Newtown, perched
75 miles north of New York City, is the epicenter of Connecticut's
heartburn hot zone. "The thing about Newtown," Stern says, "is that
it's a crossroads town connecting I-84" -- which runs east-west from
the Hudson Valley to the Connecticut breadbasket -- "and Route 25,"
the main artery of hot dogs and Italian food leading up from the coast.
Stern can't say enough about the Botsford Drive-In. "It's got
just a terrific hot dog! And Carminuccio's looks like a million-and-one
Italian places, but when you walk in and the place smells of bread
and you watch a guy cut up a tomato for the pizza, you just know!"
Hot dogs and manicotti aren't your idea of Connecticut cuisine?
"The other category New England is especially blessed with is the
hash house, with a counter and a few tables around an open kitchen,"
Stern says as he launches into a paean to the Laurel Diner's meaty
homemade corned-beef hash.
"Two other things that are wonderfully Connecticut," the nearly
out-of-breath gourmand says, and they're both at Phillips Diner
in nearby Woodbury. "Chicken pie, a farm-wife specialty. It's a
sort of chicken hash piled into a pie crust and served with a pitcher
of gravy." That's one. What's the other? "Every morning, Bud Phillips,
this seventysomething marine, gets there early and makes cake doughnuts."
-- MARION MANEKER
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