Entertainment & Stuff Pomfret, Connecticut ® “To Bean or not to Bean...?” Volume 15 Number 2 April - June 2011 Free* ~ Quality Since 1989 ~ 85 Main’s he Vanilla Bean Café has focused on quality 3rd Annual Shuck-Off for over 20 years. We strive for quality on his year, 85 Main - our sister restaurant in Put- every level which means that our menu items T nam - will host their 3rd Annual Oyster Shuck- are carefully prepared with real, whole, minimally ing Competition and Shellfish Celebration on processed ingredients including fresh (locally T st sourced) produce. Our emphasis on quality reflects Sunday, May 1 , from 12:00-6:00 PM. The new loca- our philosophy of caring about the health of our tion for this popular event is by the Quinebaug river families in the communities we serve. We are a fam- in Putnams’s Rotary Park. Free admission. Entertain- ily owned and operated restaurant; not a chain. All ment throughout the day. Food, including oysters, menu items are prepared when your order, right here and beverages available for purchase. For additional on the premises. information, visit www.85main.com. c We serve fresh, Real delicious, healthy food to you and Good your family every Whole day. Enjoy. c FOOD Pomfret Proprietors www.VisitPomfret.com omfret Proprietors’ website notes, “Pomfret’s quiet country roads lead you to pastoral Pbyways, historic landmarks, unique shops and exceptional restaurants.” A trip up Scenic Route 169 is lovely but won’t show you all that Pomfret has to offer. The Pomfret Proprietors’ website states, “It is the mission of the Pomfret Proprietors’ Association to share our beautiful town with others by promoting the excitement and fun of local businesses.” So, while you are here, visit the Pomfret Proprietors’ website. Make a plan for this trip or the next one you are planning - about how to fully enjoy visiting this quintessential New England town. c Pomfret - Close to Home... Far From Ordinary Sign up on our mailing list at www.TheVanillaBeanCafe.com The Vanilla Bean Café Things we would like you to know... The Vanilla Bean Café opened in 1989 with 16 seats. The Café is owned by the Jessurun Family. The Café is open 361 days each year - we close on: Easter Sunday, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day Business Hours: Mon - Tue - 7:00 am - 3:00 pm Wed - Thur - 7:00 am - 8:00 pm Friday - 7:00 am - 9:00 pm* Saturday - 8:00 am - 9:00 pm*† Sunday - 8:00 am - 8:00 pm *We may close early during colder months. †Entertainment night - serving dessert, beer & wine until 10:00 pm. Stella, the English Mastiff you may have seen around the Café, passed away in Nov. 2009. Web site: www.TheVanillaBeanCafe.com E-mail: [email protected] Address: Corner of Routes 44, 169 & 97 “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I Pomfret, Connecticut have ended up where I intended to be.” - Douglas Adams Phone: 860-928-1562 Music booking: Maria Sangiolo [email protected] Art booking: Kayla Murphy [email protected] Bean Soup ads: Barry Jessurun [email protected] “The only place where is an information and your dream entertainment newsletter published by The Vanilla Bean Café. becomes impossible is Compiled and written by: Barry Jessurun in your own * Mary Murtha Dudley ? thinking.” + Layout & Design - Barry Jessurun + - Robert © COPYRIGHT 2011 by Barry Jessurun, All rights reserved Schuller The Vanilla Bean Café Pomfret Connecticut 06258 Accolades and Awards Our Sister Restaurant Award-Winning Downtown DiningDining in a Warm, Contemporary AtmosphereAtmoosphere The New York Times .................................... “The food...is freshly made, well seasoned and extremely tasty.” 85 main .................................... mainmain American Fusion Cuisine withw The Boston Globe Fresh, Local, Organic IngredientsIngreddients “...great food - homemade soups, sandwiches, burgers, and the best fish cakes around - in a now serving... relaxed atmosphere.” Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England SushiSushi LunchLunch & DinnerDinner “Editors’ Pick” 1997, 2003 & 2004 availablevailable 7 daysdays a weekweek “One of the outstanding reasons to visit New England.” dinedine inin ~ taketake out Connecticut Magazine Readers’ Poll Private Dining Room Available for up to 30 Guests Windham County - Various years “PlatedPllated PPerfection”erfection Best Family Dining - Best Sandwiches enjoy our Worcesterrcrcester TTeTelegramelegrraam & Gazette,Gazzeettee,, 201020 Best Desserts - Best Business Lunch raw bar, sushi, lunch, dinner,dinner, or “Best“Best MacMac n’n’ CheeseCheese in CT”CT” Best Vegetarian - Best Outdoor Dining late nightnight bar menu CT Magazine 2010 served daily Norwich Bulletin - Dining Guide 11:30am to Winnerininner of 6 BestBest of CTCTA AwardsAwwards Food: «««« 11:00pm CT Magazine Reader’sReader’’ss ChoiceChoice “Bestesest Bar”Bar” StatewideStatewide Runner-Up Atmosphere: «««« Gift Cards Available in any Denomination The Hartford Courant 85 Main St. Putnam CT www.85main.comwwww.85main.com 86860.928.16600.928.11660 “This is a place that serves excellent food and brings in some of the better performers on the “Carrying a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.” New England coffee house circuit...” - William Walton Festive Tea Events #1 Art “The Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret is one of those Gallery rare places that truly has something for everyone... Gifts that WOW YankeeMag. Oh, yes - the food is truly delicious, too.” READER’S CHOICE 2010 Gallery The New London Day & ««« Shoppes 330 Pomfret St. (Rt. 169) “The soups are homemade and delicious, the Pomfret Center, Connecticut sandwiches unusual and served on breads that (one mile south of the Vanilla Bean) WED - SAT 11-5•SUN11-4 are positively delicious...” 860-928-5492 • CelebrationsShoppes.com www.VisitingNewEngland.com “Only the shallow know themselves.” - Oscar Wilde “the Vanilla Bean Café is one of those places you William M. Maykel, D.C., D.I.B.A.K. simply don’t want to leave.” Diplomate www.HiddenBoston.com International Board of Applied Kinesiology “This impossibly funky Connecticut restaurant Painless whole body chiropractic care - given with low is full of character (and characters), and is truly force respiratory adjustments to maximize patient comfort in a class by itself.” and response, for both acute injuries and chronic problems Recipient University of Connecticut’s www.drbill.meta-ehealth. com Nozko Family Business Leadership Award Nutritional diagnostic testing, and detoxification programs, 31 Auburn Street 1 Washington Street; Suite 206 Check the hallway by the restrooms - our Hall of Auburn, MA 01501 Wellesley, MA 02481 Fame - for more articles, letters and awards. 508-832-0768 781-239-1115 April Entertainment Friday - 1 - Open Mic Hosts - Faith Montaperto & Eric Paradine - Feature - Michelle Lewis - Folk/Americana artist from Boston. Saturday - 2 - Don White If you laugh and cry within the same ten minutes, you either need a vacation or you are sitting in the audience at a Don White show. This working class family man from Lynn, MA has emerged as the thoughtful songwriter of the decade whose relevance to our lives is evidenced by the power- ful reaction he evokes at every concert. Radio audiences, too, are not safe from the Don White experience. Valerie Adams of WNCS Radio, VT said, “I’ve never seen any- thing like it. Every time I play ‘I Know What Love Is’ the phones light up like a Christmastree. Stereo Review Mag- azine called it “...A candidate for song of the year.” “...there is an honesty and self-deprecating wit in his material that is an immediate tonic.” - The Boston Herald “In the old days when things got rough, what you did was Friday - 8 - Sheesham and Lotus without.” - Bill Copeland Dubbed the “New Kings of Old-time”, Sheesham and Lotus bring hokum, high-stepping music back to the people. In 2010, they hosted two major Canadian Festivals and headlined the Champlain Valley Folk Festival, VT. Witness the multi-instrumental spectacle that is Sheesham and Lotus. Saturday - 9 - Ninesixteen Ninesixteen is a Pomfret-based band that features music ranging from bluegrass to Badfinger, from Van Morrison to James Taylor, plus original works. Led by keyboardist/vocalist Donna Bessette and drummer/vocalist Andre Bessette, the band also features David Carter on lead guitar, flute and vocals, Putnam native Greg Nichols on rhythm guitar and vocals, Brian Bastow on bass, and Patrick McCarthy on lead and backing vocals. The band blends solid musicianship with tight vocal har- monies to create a unique sound among local bands. Sunday - 10 - Jeffrey Focault Longtime disciple of the rich, strange music that sings behind the American veil, Jeffrey Foucault has spent the last decade mining the darker seams of country and blues, producing a string of spare and elemental albums of rare power while garnering acco- lades across the US and overseas for a tersely elegant brand of songwriting set apart by its haunting imagery and weath- er-beaten cool. The new album Horse Lattitudes, slated for release May 2011 on Signature Sounds records, featuring Eric Heywood (Pretenders, Ray Lamontagne) on pedal steel and electric guitars, Jennifer Condos (Ray Lamontagne, Sam Phillips) on electric bass, Billy Conway (Morphine, Twine- men) on drums, and Van Dyke Parks (Ry Cooder, Lowell George, Brian Wilson) on keys. April Entertainment Friday - 15 - Songwriter Sessions Saturday - 16 - Paul Geremia For more than forty years, Paul Geremia has survived solely by the fruit of his musical labors, hav- ing abandoned all other means of support in 1966. He has been travelling and performing throughout the US, Canada and Europe while earning a reputation as a first rate bluesman, songwriter, scholar of early jazz and blues, and one of “Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Noth- the best country blues fingerpickers. With his six and twelve-string guitars, harmonica, piano and husky soul- ing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve ful voice and with an innate sense of the humor, he keeps with age.