By: Mark Mackert

The Food Fairy has flown nor’east to New Haven, Connecticut for a short spell while my partner’s working on a project here. The thought of New England in the fall was enticing and romantic.  Riotous color of the season, nippy weather, and astounding seafood chowders so fresh and rich that you can feel the breeze off Long Island Sound. Who wouldn’t want to tag along? The Food Fairy is queer, not crazy.

Well, not much color in the countryside in this 80-degree weather when chilled gazpacho sounds better than shellfish stews and flip flops and shorts are de rigueur on the New Haven Green. New Haven’s livable except for the occasional graduate student murder. We arrived just as Yale University convened its fall term. It’s common knowledge that the Yale requires SAT scores off the charts, sterling recommendations and an application essay worthy of Pulitzer consideration, but when did they add “hotness” to the checklist? Mary, the eye candy of Yale men around the city is incredible! So many gorgeous men, so little time.

Cooking on this Food Fairy adventure has made me treasure Cleveland more each day. When we return, I vow to genuflect at the West Side Market; pay homage reverentially at Gallucci’s (we did find two small Italian stores, between them we’ll muddle through); and be ever-so-grateful to shop at Heinen’s (though I won’t stop bitching that its customer service is not what it used to be). Since we’re playing house here temporarily (two crates of kitchen essentials were schlepped from Cleveland), the FF has searched hither and yon to find the necessities of life. When did piave cheese, smoked sea salt and truffle butter become exotic?  

New Haven is a college town where the streets are paved with Thai restaurants and ubiquitous pizza joints. The hometown pie is the thin crusted apizza (pronounced “ah-beets”) which is baked in a wood or coal-fired oven and topped with smoked mozzarella (“sko-matz”). The Thai spots run the gamut from Zagat good to that queasy need to check the date on the posted Health Department permit.

Not that there isn’t some faboo food here. Last week we tried an uber cool spot called Scoozzi. From street level, you take a cozy private red elevator down (what is it with going down that really gets The Food Fairy moist?) to this sexy sophisticated space done in soft grays, black and mirrors.  Among the Food Fairy fabulous items we relished were organic farm corn and spinach risotto (OMG-inspiring), mezze rigatoni with perfect sea scallops, English peas and sun-dried tomatoes  (sheer bliss!) and a dessert of hazelnut and chocolate gelati encased in a chocolate shell and rolled in crushed amaretti cookies garnished with amarene cherries (A certified G.O. – gastronomic orgasm). 

Gourmet Heaven is right on the edge of the Yale campus. The students complain bitterly (so what else is new?) about the prices, but this dynamite 24/7 deli/grocery offers sandwiches-to-order ($4.50- 6), paninis ($6.95), sushi ($5.99) and a salad bar that is dizzying in its diversity. The hot food bar is a more glamorous and artful version (and infinitely more attractive) than Cedar Center’s Whole Foods take on take-out. Oh, and a stunning selection of fresh flowers. Don’t know about you, but The Food Fairy’s pastrami on marble rye always tastes better with a vase of calla lilies on the table.

Tried a lobster roll on a day trip to Mystic, Connecticut (Yes, Virginia, there’s more to Mystic than pizza). Served dockside, it should have been perfect, but at $18.00 it didn’t compare with the ones I remember from an open-air stand in Provincetown back in the day. Oh how grand it was to be young and pretty (and ever-so-popular) in P-town!

Yale hotties aside, The Food Fairy looks forward to gratefully returning to Cleveland’s limitless food shopping choices, mind-boggling bonanza of great restaurants and a growing cadre of cutting-edge chefs. Amen and hallelujah!