Savor/Review: Millwright’s Restaurant & Tavern
By SPENCER CALDWELL, Hartford Magazine
Copyright © 2012
In recent decades, certain landmark restaurants have advanced the conversation about food in Connecticut: Jean-Louis in Greenwich with namesake Gerin’s “la nouvelle classique” for which he was named the James Beard Foundation’s 2006 Best Chef Northeast; Ibiza in New Haven with 2003 Esquire Chef of the Year Luis Bollo’s contemporary Spanish fare; Miya’s Sushi in New Haven with chef-owner Bun Lai’s pioneering work in sustainability; Polytechnic ON20 in Hartford with Noel Jones’ precision cooking, pretty plating and flirtation with molecular gastronomy; Still River Café in Eastford with Kara Brooks’ seasonal American cuisine utilizing many ingredients grown on the property; and the team at Firebox in Hartford with its “locavore” approach and commitment to community building.
Injecting itself into the conversation is Millwright’s Restaurant & Tavern in Simsbury, where chef-owner Tyler Anderson and his talented team appear to be raising the dining experience to new heights of creativity and civility. Anderson says he wanted to
create a restaurant where the customers know where the food comes from, adding that he wouldn’t have located where he did were it not for the tremendous farms in the area. As I approach Simsbury from the south via Avon’s Nod Road through the fertile farmland fronting the Farmington River, the corn exulting to NBA heights, I wonder if I’m passing any of the fields where the food that I’ll be eating was grown. Yes, it turns out.