[naviga:u]FOOD[/naviga:u]

Summer Nights at Stone Acres Farm, Stonington

At least one good thing came out of the pandemic: these pop-up dinners that the Oyster Club held outdoors during the summer at the bucolic Stone Acres Farm. The food and the experience were just divine. It was a $65 prix fixe meal, featuring four courses (with dishes and flavor combinations that were unexpected but wonderful) and a welcome cocktail.

— Kristina Dorsey

Crispy Tofu Salad

Water Street Café

143 Water St., Stonington

In my wildest dreams, I never imagine I’d be touting the virtues of tofu, but it’s an excellent protein in the Crispy Tofu Salad ($16) at the Water Street Café. And it’s healthy. This dish was a favorite even before COVID, and it travels nicely as a takeout. Prepared with a generous heap of flash-fried tofu bites nestled on top of a bed of mixed greens and dressed with a soy-wasabi vinaigrette, it’s a bold bite. The tofu is crispy on the exterior and soft inside, and the pungent wasabi provides a kick. As a takeout, the salad is better when the tofu is packed separately and assembled at home, and I recommend asking for extra dressing.

— Ann Baldelli  

Roasted Eggplant

Bravo Bravo

19 E Main St., Mystic

This glorious combination of perfectly roasted eggplant, sweet onion and tomato, feta cheese, arugula, and wafer crisps — I believe wontons — all layered with precision like a Napoleon and topped with a drizzle of balsamic, will make you selfish. You will not want to share a single bite. The Roasted Eggplant appetizer, $14, has been a consistent favorite of my gang on the Bravo menu, and one foodie friend even managed to knock it off perfectly. But why bother, when you can eat this in-house at the restaurant or as takeout? It’s pretty incredible, and right now, it’s essential to support our restaurants.

— Ann Baldelli 

Baked Avocado

Flanders Fish Market, East Lyme

Here is how deliciously memorable this baked avocado is: I was in the audience at a comedy show at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, and comic Carolyn Plummer from Boston talked about having been to southeastern Connecticut before – and began raving about the baked avocado at Flanders Fish Market. I can relate to her enthusiasm. Every time I dine at Flanders Fish now, I feel compelled to order the baked avocado, which is an avocado cut in half and baked, each side topped with a mix of lump crab, corn and pico cilantro crema ($11).

— Kristina Dorsey

Green Room, New London

Each part of our country has its own distinctive cooking styles, and they don't always migrate with any accuracy to other regions. From the hallowed kitchens of the South evolved a style of soulful comfort food that we don't see much of up here. Or we didn't until the Green Room opened on Bank Street. These folks absolutely know what's involved in the loving creation of a spectacular style of cooking.

— Rick Koster

Cuban sandwich

Mystic Market, Old Saybrook

The requisites of an authentic Cuban are fairly rigid for all the right reasons. What if the OS Mystic Market tweaked the formula, though, using a po' boy-style loaf of French bread and dijon mustard instead of the pressed panini and the bright yellow mustard? It's technically a blasphemy, but it's a damned good blasphemy.

— Rick Koster

Village Café, East Lyme

The breakfast-and-lunch spot opened during the pandemic, and it’s been a boon to local food fans. I particularly like the Greek veggie wrap (egg, spinach, tomato and feta all mixed, cooked and put in a wrap, $5.95).

— Kristina Dorsey

Purple Sable

Salem Valley Ice Cream, Salem

Salem Valley Ice Cream is known for its rich, delicious ice cream, but arguably one of the best flavors is Purple Sable, which consists of black raspberry ice cream with big chocolate chips. (The small cup, at $4.65, that I tend to get is plentiful.) The business is closed for the winter season, but here’s looking forward to its 2021 reopening.

— Kristina Dorsey 

Cinnamon Buns

Zest Fresh Pastries

Velvet Mill, Stonington

The grim news: Zest Fresh only makes these buns on weekends. The good news? Saturday and Sunday are never more than five days away (or something like that). I like that there's no icing to get in the way of the cloud-like buns and their caloric choreography of like cinnamon, butter and sugar. And watch for those tar bits of cinnamon-like goo have pooled into chewy greatness.

— Rick Koster

RD86 Space, New London

Boy, this place can bring it: creative, e'er changing menus and the skill and vision to pull it all off. My vegetarian wife proclaims the RD86 Smoked Apple Sage-Smoked Vegan Sausage ($15) brunch entree is one of the best breakfasts she's ever had.several times a day. She's STILL talking about it and is consistent in her proclamation it's "one of the best breakfasts" she's ever had. And I had an image of the RD86 Cast Iron Apple Pie with Salted Caramel tattooed on my forehead because it gives me comfort when I'm not actually eating a slab. Excellent and friendly staff, too.

— Rick Koster

[naviga:u]EXHIBITIONS[/naviga:u]

“Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture by Peter Anton”

July 18-Oct. 18, Lyman Allyn Art Museum

Lollipops the size of stop signs. Cakes the circumference of ottomans. Anton’s artistic recreations — amusingly oversized confections, realistically rendered, down to the sweat beads on an ice cream bar — were not only artistically rendered but a whole lot of fun to see.

— Kristina Dorsey  

“Fresh Fields: American Impressionist Landscapes from the Florence Griswold Museum”

July 7-Nov. 1

When the Florence Griswold Museum reopened in July after the COVID lockdown, it did so with this exhibition, which felt like the artistic version of a breath of fresh air. It focused on a fascinating array of landscapes, and the show put them in a new context.

— Kristina Dorsey  

“Stains Remain: Works by Michael Harvey”

Aug. 29-Nov. 1, Lyman Allyn Art Museum

When I brought a friend to the Lyman Allyn who had never been, I wandered into the gallery with Harvey’s work by happenstance and was dazzled. The large canvases were captivating — full of exuberant energy, crackling color, and fascinating ideas and forms. Oh, and locals can be particularly proud: Harvey lives in Lyme.

— Kristina Dorsey  

Mystic Museum of Art renovation

This isn't an exhibition but is well worth noting: The Mystic Museum of Art was closed in January to undergo some significant renovations, and the results were, well, a work of art. Among the changes: carpeting was taken off the walls, the ceilings were repainted after disused items like old light and sound systems were removed, and an adopt-a-painting gallery was created.

— Kristina Dorsey

“Stories of Resilience: Encountering Racism”

Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Feb. 14-Aug. 2

La Grua Center, Stonington, Oct. 7-Dec. 19

This exhibit was gut-wrenching, inspiring and timely. It focused on the lives of five people who are Black and faced prejudice yet achieved great things. Featured in “Stories of Resilience” are the histories of Lonnie Braxton, Florence Clarke, Donetta Hodge, Merle Smith and Ichabod Pease. The exhibit was developed from the Jewish Federation of Eastern CT’s Encountering Differences Program.

— Kristina Dorsey