CONNECTICUT

Country fried steak covered in homemade gravy is not trying to impress anyone with subtlety. Good. Some meals…

Someone looked at an empanada and apparently decided it needed a second job. The result is the sort…

Halloween creates a rare situation where leaving a candy shop with an unreasonable amount of sugar feels completely…

Showing up hungry is usually good advice at a steakhouse. At this place, it feels more like basic…

Loving animals is easy. Getting involved in their care makes that affection feel considerably more useful. Plenty of…

Choosing between jerk chicken and curry goat would already be difficult enough. Seeing everything else available does not…

Wear comfortable shoes. That becomes obvious fairly quickly once a casual browse turns into an afternoon of wandering…

The shops you nearly drive past can sometimes produce the finds you talk about longest. No polished display…

Soup season has officially begun when a bowl sounds more appealing than whatever you originally planned for lunch….

Pumpkin pie season arrives with plenty of shortcuts available. Cans line supermarket shelves, spices come pre-mixed and nobody…

Breakfast has a way of feeling more personal when the people behind the counter have put their own…

Sometimes the most interesting shop is hiding somewhere you would never think to look for craft supplies. That…

What happens when the exact fabric in your head refuses to exist in every ordinary craft aisle you…

You should not need a train ticket south just because the craving involves a big New York-style slice….

A table can get crowded remarkably quickly when Puerto Rican comfort food starts arriving. Nobody seems particularly bothered…

For a rescued cat, the time between losing one home and finding another can be a huge part…

Smoke rising behind an unassuming roadside building can ruin your original lunch plans in seconds. Suddenly, wherever you…

Breakfast somehow tastes more appropriate when you are eating inside a diner that has welcomed generations of customers….

Spending time with a horse feels completely different when nobody is rushing you toward the next activity. Give…

How did breakfast become one of those meals where the check can occasionally make you miss the price…

Fall always looks generous at the beginning. So many weekends! Then the leaves start changing and suddenly the…

Heritage has a way of showing up in the most delicious places. A bakery counter or restaurant menu…

A museum devoted entirely to tort law sounds like the setup for a joke. Somehow, the real thing…

Owning a sewing machine and knowing what to do with it can be two very different stages of…

Fifty dollars can disappear alarmingly fast once a shopping cart gets involved. A few everyday essentials go in,…

Look up. That might be the best advice when exploring the churches on this list. Unexpected shapes and…

October evenings have a habit of starting pleasantly cool and ending with everyone wishing they had brought another…

Not every waterfall outing needs to begin with sore legs and a backpack packed for an expedition. Sometimes…

A peaceful walk through the woods sounds lovely until darkness falls and something starts moving where you definitely…

The green is beginning to lose its grip. A flash of orange appears on one hillside, another tree…

Some breakfasts are sensible. Others arrive with enough chocolate chips to make you forget you were trying to…

Ravioli decisions should be simple. Pick a filling, grab a package and start thinking about dinner. Then you…

Ever pick up something at a thrift store and immediately wonder how nobody else spotted it first? That…

Buying fabric for a tiny project is one thing. Trying to cover something enormous can make the total…

Anyone who enjoys making jewelry knows the danger of walking into a shop where every tiny compartment contains…

Everyone seems to have that Chinese restaurant order they could recite without opening the menu. The real loyalty…

A grocery run feels completely different when somebody behind the counter is making the food instead of opening…

Connecticut can surprise you with a place that suddenly makes the ordinary world outside feel very far away….

Designer labels are a lot more fun when the price tag does not immediately ruin the mood. This…

Connecticut has a seafood restaurant where the person leading the kitchen brings serious national recognition to the table….

Remember when picking a new game meant staring at colorful boxes instead of scrolling through a digital store?…

Connecticut still has places that can make longtime residents wonder how they somehow missed them for years. That…

Fabric shopping feels different when the store has been part of people’s creative routines for more than half…

Old buildings have a habit of leaving behind pieces that feel far too beautiful to disappear. That is…

Gluten-free menus used to come with lowered expectations. Thankfully, those days are looking pretty outdated. The restaurants on…

Old cemeteries are already quiet, but this one carries the sort of silence that makes every cracked stone…

Most shopping trips do not begin by wondering what might be hiding several floors above your head. This…

Making something beautiful out of sharp pieces of glass sounds like a hobby that should require equal parts…

Would you sleep comfortably knowing an old legend says a mysterious bride may still be wandering somewhere beyond…

One plate sounds perfectly reasonable until you see how many directions dinner can take. Seafood is only the…

Halloween decorations become much more interesting when they have already survived a few Halloweens of their own. Forget…

You know a butcher shop has earned its regulars when people walk in already discussing dinner with the…

College searches can become an exhausting parade of impressive campuses followed by tuition figures that quickly dampen the…

Cold evenings have an impressive ability to turn second helpings into a completely reasonable idea. Once jackets come…

A tiny island sitting offshore can make an ordinary lake view considerably more intriguing. You immediately want to…

October weekends fill up ridiculously fast. One minute the month has barely started, and the next you are…

Lumberjacks are not usually part of the weekend entertainment lineup. That alone gives this old-fashioned fall fair a…

Population changes rarely happen with a dramatic announcement. Families relocate, younger residents settle elsewhere and the numbers gradually…

Daylight can make a farm seem perfectly innocent. October darkness has other ideas. Once evening settles in, familiar…

A pastry case becomes dangerous the moment dulce de leche enters the situation. Add freshly baked Argentine favorites…

Unlimited food gets considerably more interesting when the restaurant serving it is not the place everybody already knows….

Numbers can reveal a side of a familiar city that visitors may never notice while driving through downtown…

Apple pie inspires stronger opinions than such a friendly dessert probably deserves. Crust thickness matters. Filling texture matters….

Cravings for pierogi rarely arrive politely. Once the thought of tender dough wrapped around a comforting filling takes…

Nobody orders an overstuffed deli sandwich because they want lunch to behave politely. The whole point is seeing…

Can you still walk into an antique shop with a modest budget and leave carrying something genuinely interesting?…

Normal shopping rules seem slightly less useful when the shelves look like they belong in a wonderfully strange…

Being gluten-free should not turn a bakery case into a window-shopping experience. Dessert is much more enjoyable when…

Your shopping list may survive the first few minutes. After that, wandering around becomes increasingly dangerous for anyone…