This particular trip to New England was not intended to be about finding strange food stories, but it ended up that way.
Starting in New Haven, CT, we discovered four things:
- Louis' Lunch, established 1895, claims to be the first restaurant to serve hamburgers, and the oldest hamburger restaurant in the US.
- People in New Haven like to have their hamburgers steamed, rather than grilled.
- There's a lot of pizza restaurants in New Haven.
- People in New Haven like weird things on their pizzas, like Mashed Potato (see above picture if you don't believe me).
In Simsbury, CT, we visited the Heublein tower:
The tower was built by Gilbert Heublein after promising his fiancé Louise Gundlach that one day he would build her a castle on their favorite hiking spot, Talcott Mountain. It is the site of the first home elevator in Connecticut.
Anyway, the tower was interesting but Heublein himself was even more interesting. He made his money in food and beverage. He established himself in the late 1800s/early 1900s by distributing foreign brands such as A-1 sauce (from England) and Smirnoff Vodka (from Russia). Through the years, the company owned hotels, and also bought other household brands such as Grey Poupon and Kentucky Fried Chicken. By 1982 the company was worth $1.4B and was sold to R J Reynolds. The parts of the original Heublein can now be found in Kraft, Pepsico, and Grand Metropolitan.
Finally (for this trip), in Newport, RI, we visited the oldest tavern in the US. The tavern distinction refers to the fact that it had accomodation and food and drink:
The original building dates back to 1673, about the same age as the Shipwrights in Sunderland, better known as Swannies:
