Holy habanero! Gordon Ramsay’s in The Port this week! (Black Rock to be exact.) Will he flambeau the neighborhood?
I’ve dined at Cafe Tavolini on Fairfield Avenue on several occasions. I’ve never been poisoned. But maybe that’s what owners Lisa Hatrick Restivo and hubby Keith Restivo want to avoid? Or maybe this is a primo way to promote your restaurant.
I love Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares led by Scottish-born pyscho chef Ramsay and his surly fits of scorn on behalf of kitchen reform. He spends a week with a troubled restaurant, alternating between fury and compassion, in an attempt to add some spice and life to the food and bottom line. He pulls the place apart, powerwashes the kitchen, blowtorches the interior, urges culinary discipline and threatens to pull out a revolver and whiskey bottle if the establishment owners don’t get it. That’s my kind of chef!
So when you see the trailers, cameras and lights outside of 3074 Fairfield Avenue, give an OIB salute to Cafe Tavolini (small tables in Italian) hoping many of their small tables will be jammin’ by week’s end. Now, let me share a beef with Tavolini (because I love beef), it needs a grill!
The Oracle of Omaha Steaks!
Hell’s Kitchen Chef brings Kitchen Nightmare soap opera “The Edge of Table” to Black Rock.
Ramsey’s crew descended into town with their Trojan Horses. He’s already found a science project of a cheese. When Chef Gordo quizzed the locals about what type cheese it was, the chief cook and bottle washer replied that it must be “GordonZola!” Gordon went nuts and off the wall on this guy.
Here’s to raising a glass of absinthe, in wishing the owners ‘Chin Down,’ as Gordon Ramsey looks to pull the rabbit out of the hat trick at this nice little Black Rock Bistro.
This episodic culinary adventure always turns out with a “Happy Ending” (not at the local table-side service joint) that will turn this little table of a restaurant to “As the Tables Turn!”
Mo loves Lennie’s Prime-Aged Tenderloins
Is that the “F-bomb” in his mouth?
KUDOS to Mayor Bill Finch for his spirited defense of Bridgeport CT which was dissed in recent FOX-based mega-hit cartoon.
www .ctpost.com/local/article/Mayor-Bill-Finch-laughs-off-Family-Guy-s-shot-at-877936.php
I think “Family Guy” was being kind.
OIB Rumor Mill:
ONLY the cream of society will be attending the upcoming OIB Christmas party. That means Saints & Sinners, losers & winners, all mixed into a human gumbo. If you’ve got a pulse, you’re overqualified. It’s where the wildlife goes in Bridgeport.
If Family Guy shows up, I’m a-gonna hit that fat slob so hard that when he wakes up, TV will be a subject shown only in history books!
Your cane is no match to Stewie’s gun. You don’t understand Stewie. What really scared Stewie when he saw a place that looked like Bridgeport Connecticut was the thought that he didn’t bring his gun with him.
Tonight on “Bridgeport Now” at 8pm on Ch 88 cable:
The Executive Director of the Beardsley Zoo talks about Bioblitz, which is a Biodiversity Blitz, a rapid assessment of what lives in a particular area. They counted over 120 types of birds in Bridgeport.
Then at 8:30pm, floods couple days ago, like at Ellsworth Street, could that have been a sewage flood if we take on other cities’ sewage?
Do any of the editors at the Connecticut Post ever proofread their stories? We’re not talking National Geographic but WTF?
www .ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-Tugboat-worker-charged-with-attempted-878621.php
Really. They mention Capital Avenue three times in the article and I cannot even begin to figure out what street they may have meant to use. Capital is nowhere near Smith Street, there is no bay near Capital (unless you consider the flooding that takes place below Lindley down by Island Brook or the bridge down by Brooklawn) and can’t figure out why the Stratford police would be all the way down there either.
Unless Up On Bridgeport isn’t that up on the city after all and he was simply talking about Capital versus Capitol. Up yours Up On!!!
Bridgeport by the Bay! Smith Street runs into Seaview Avenue. Got GPS?
Timothy Herbst on Facebook
“I hope I never live to see the day where I am the leader of a community that is denigrated on the Family Guy.”
I guess Timmy Twerbst doesn’t think his Shit Stinks!!!
In defense of the indefensible, Mayor Bill says:
“It is by the way by Stewie, who we don’t particularly like if you’re a fan of Family Guy. … He comes across as a smarty-pants and a know-it-all, so consider the source.”
If you are a fan of Family Guy??? I guess we know what the mayor’s must-see TV is!!!
“A smarty-pants and know-it-all.” Is Mayor Moonbeam talking about himself?
“I’ll have you know that Bridgeport is among the world leaders in abandoned buildings, shattered glass, boarded-up windows, wild dogs and gas stations without pumps.”
The mayor does not even address those statements but chooses to respond to the image of Bridgeport as a decaying city filled with black smoke and old factories is one the city is trying to shake.
At least when we had black smoke and old factories we had something else that we don’t have today, JOBS!!! Maybe it’s the green thing.
Why is it I picture the mayor and first family sitting around the boob tube watching Family Guy the other night laughing his ass off over the Bridgeport comments until the phone starts ringing with negative feedback? Remember this is the guy who brought us “Guess who’s coming to dinner.”
And promised us $600.00 in tax relief.
FAIRFIELD — There’s been no shortage of ideas and debate about the town’s third train station — known until now as the Metro Center — but the town is expected to launch a survey today to help officials select a permanent name for the rail depot, first proposed as what was supposed to be the largest commercial development in the town’s history.
How about “Another waste of taxpayers’ dollars prompted by abusive, incompetent developers out to screw Bridgeport Station West?” At least this way it sounds as if it is actually in Bridgeport and no one from Far-a-field will use it!
Sorry Grin we have our own ideas.
allfairfield.com/community
Survey Says: Black Rock! How’s that Downtown Inter-Modal thing been working out for us? I sure hope Jeff Kohut chimes in on this issue.
The Oracle of Omaha Steaks!
Any suggestions for a leisurely lunch today?
Hey Warren,
Here’s one …
BITE ME!
Fork You Reaper!
C’mon Lennie:
Your kind of chef is a guy who you can tell the waitress to get for you out of the kitchen, special order to him in Sicilian, and then point condescendingly to the other guy (me), and say to the chef: “No diablo. Irisher!”
I hope the nice people at Tavolini survive the experience with that TV vulgarian.
Tavolini’s closed down!!!
OK, I am not the Queen of Glib, but give me a break. I love Stewie, I don’t think the Mayor gets the deep undertones of Stewie’s misanthropic, cynical views, which makes it funny. (I finished up my 2nd literature class at HCC.) So anyway, Mayor Finch keeps sticking his foot, ankle and leg into his mouth every time he opens it. Maybe he should wear one of those collars that gives electric shocks every time he starts saying something stupid and offensive. But who’s qualified to hold the button? (Perhaps he might like it too, he looks like he might be on the kinky side.) Finch’s speeches (and potty mouth) should be reserved for bars and parties where at least he could blame it on beer.
Grin, the so-called Metro Center station should be called the Black Rock Train Station, if they are looking for the best name.
By the way, I hope you tune in tonight to hear the head of the Beardsley Zoo talk about the birds in the Bridgeport area, over 120 types were found in a recent BioBlitz. It’s on “Bridgeport Now” live TV show at 8pm Ch 88. There is much to learn about Bridgeport and the environment is one. You may think this topic is for the birds, but take another look … we live in a digital device-obsessed world, from internet to Smartphone, Xbox, Facebook, AIM, text messages etc. Some say we have lost touch with the open space and environment and Bridgeport as well as CT Culture & Tourism may not highlight this enough … have you been to Pleasure Beach, Seaside Park or St. Mary’s recently?
Ask the zoo guy what the most common bird is in B-port. If he doesn’t mention that one that pops up every time someone cuts you off when driving, steals your parking space when parking or almost hits you while chatting on their cell phone then he doesn’t know bird poop about B-port.
In all fairness, let’s give Mayor Bill Finch credit where it is due. I served 5 years with Bill Finch on the City Council when we all implemented
the most aggressive plan to improve the conditions mentioned in the Family Guy script. In 1995, the description of Bridgeport in the script was absolutely accurate. By the time I left in 2001–Finch in 2000–Bridgeport was a much more beautiful place and still is.
Earth to Joel Gonzalez, Earth to Joel, Come in please …
Have you been downtown lately???
It looks like the worst tornado in the history of the northeast tore it apart. It’s downtown!!!
Have you driven by Steal Point lately???
That’s a thing of beauty. Do we owe you and Finch credit for that thing too???
I think I see that single-winged, vertical flying finger hovering around Joel. Oh that’s right he is digitally challenged and may not know what I am talking about.
The “factory?” they showed looked like the plant that sits in the harbor. If I were anywhere else in the world and saw a “factory?” like that I too would have thought of my beloved Bridgeport. WE’ve been looking at that thing for the past 50 years.
What Bird-brainage doesn’t dig is factories equal jobs – – – but he gaveth all his friends jobs in City Hell already – – – so we don’t need no factories. Oh – – – by the by – – – he is demanding give-backs from the union workers again – – – one and done Birdie – – – the BRBC has a job waitin’ fer ya – – – after all they does owe ya for funnelin’ the greenbacks to yer old bossman.
That “Family Guy” script could have been written by a Bridgeport resident, and anyone who has been around town knows it.
You might as well laugh at it.
The bigger laugh is the surprise people have when they actually see the good parts of town (Seaside, St. Mary’s, you name it). Plenty of good has always happened, happens, and will continue to happen.
There is still a lot of stuff to make better.
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging both as long as you don’t give up on trying to fix the bad.
*** Any press, good or bad is worthwhile in the end, no? Laughter is good medicine for the soul & mind so hats off to Family Guy for the holiday cheer! *** Industrial USA of Xmas past, present or future? ***