For a history of Stew Leonard's, click here: Stew Leonard's History. (Store sign photo and store photos below taken by S. Honigman).
We come here when we go to our Connecticut house. It's pretty much a routine stop for us. As I mentioned earlier, they have the best potato chips ever. What makes it so good? It's kettle style and baked fresh daily. It's crisp, not greasy and you can smell and taste the potatoes. There's not a whole lot of seasonings unless you get the flavored chips. Sometimes I get lucky and grab a bag with chips still wet, but not soggy wet, wet like it was just pulled out from the fryer and hasn't dried yet. Somehow it still maintains its crispiness. I can eat a whole bag in a matter of an hour. I usually try to save some and bring back home to NYC because our concierge, Lavada, loves them too. She gets so excited when she sees the white Stew Leonard's chip bag that she does her excited chip dance in her chair. Although, her favorite (and Mark's too) is the salt and vinegar flavor. Stew also makes sour cream and onion and BBQ, but regular flavor is the best.
Stew Leonard's fresh baked country hearth bread is really good bread. It reminds me of sourdough bread, but not quite. I love to toast and spread butter on it and have it any time of the day. I was able to find this cool video online about how Stew Leonard's makes this: country hearth bread
In the fall, I look forward to THE BEST pumpkin brownies ever! I swear, if I could eat this everyday, I would. Pumpkin brownie with cream cheese frosting sprinkled with pecans, what is not to love? I tried to make my own using a recipe I found online, but it doesn't compare. Thank God fall is next month.
Who knew watermelon juice would go so well with pear vodka? Me! One of my favorite and signature drinks that I sort of stumbled upon and invented is pomegranate juice with pear vodka. Pomegranate juice can be strong, tart and sweet and mixing it with pear vodka offsets those flavors by making it less tart and more fragrant and floral. You can barely taste the alcohol. Anyway, Stew Leonard's is the only place I know of that makes watermelon juice. It's a tad sweet, but very tasty. I usually like to mix it with sparkling soda to give it some bubbles and to cut some of the sweetness.
You all know about the cronut craze in NYC, right? A Cronut is a hybrid doughnut and croissant, and is made fresh daily from pastry chef Dominique Ansel, who sells them at his bakery in Soho. People will stand in line for hours before the shop opens up at 8AM Mon-Sat and 9AM on Sun, and after all that waiting, you can only purchase 2 cronuts per person. However, you can order 6 cronuts 2 weeks in advance if you get on the "pre-order list", and even that's not that easy. You have to call on Mondays during certain times and keep calling until you get through. I'm not sure what's more annoying? Waiting in line for a few hours or having to press redial every second, but at least if you stand in a line early enough you have a better chance. I have yet to make it down there, but I will soon. Stew Leonard's has created their own version called "CRO-DOS". Since I haven't had the "real" cronuts yet, Stew's version will have to do. It's pretty good actually, but I'm definitely looking forward to the real cronut.
We come here when we go to our Connecticut house. It's pretty much a routine stop for us. As I mentioned earlier, they have the best potato chips ever. What makes it so good? It's kettle style and baked fresh daily. It's crisp, not greasy and you can smell and taste the potatoes. There's not a whole lot of seasonings unless you get the flavored chips. Sometimes I get lucky and grab a bag with chips still wet, but not soggy wet, wet like it was just pulled out from the fryer and hasn't dried yet. Somehow it still maintains its crispiness. I can eat a whole bag in a matter of an hour. I usually try to save some and bring back home to NYC because our concierge, Lavada, loves them too. She gets so excited when she sees the white Stew Leonard's chip bag that she does her excited chip dance in her chair. Although, her favorite (and Mark's too) is the salt and vinegar flavor. Stew also makes sour cream and onion and BBQ, but regular flavor is the best.
Stew Leonard's fresh baked country hearth bread is really good bread. It reminds me of sourdough bread, but not quite. I love to toast and spread butter on it and have it any time of the day. I was able to find this cool video online about how Stew Leonard's makes this: country hearth bread
Here is the one I made. It was pretty good and I ate it all in a few days. Can you believe it? I used this simple recipe from Cooks.com: pumpkin brownies
Who knew watermelon juice would go so well with pear vodka? Me! One of my favorite and signature drinks that I sort of stumbled upon and invented is pomegranate juice with pear vodka. Pomegranate juice can be strong, tart and sweet and mixing it with pear vodka offsets those flavors by making it less tart and more fragrant and floral. You can barely taste the alcohol. Anyway, Stew Leonard's is the only place I know of that makes watermelon juice. It's a tad sweet, but very tasty. I usually like to mix it with sparkling soda to give it some bubbles and to cut some of the sweetness.
You all know about the cronut craze in NYC, right? A Cronut is a hybrid doughnut and croissant, and is made fresh daily from pastry chef Dominique Ansel, who sells them at his bakery in Soho. People will stand in line for hours before the shop opens up at 8AM Mon-Sat and 9AM on Sun, and after all that waiting, you can only purchase 2 cronuts per person. However, you can order 6 cronuts 2 weeks in advance if you get on the "pre-order list", and even that's not that easy. You have to call on Mondays during certain times and keep calling until you get through. I'm not sure what's more annoying? Waiting in line for a few hours or having to press redial every second, but at least if you stand in a line early enough you have a better chance. I have yet to make it down there, but I will soon. Stew Leonard's has created their own version called "CRO-DOS". Since I haven't had the "real" cronuts yet, Stew's version will have to do. It's pretty good actually, but I'm definitely looking forward to the real cronut.
So if you find yourself near a Stew Leonard's you should def stop in and check it out and get all the products I mentioned above. There are 3 locations in Connecticut: Danbury, Norwalk, and Newington, and 1 in New York: Yonkers. We go to the one in Danbury.
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