3. City Limits Diner
City: Stamford, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 348-7000
Address: 135 Harvard Ave.
Description: This joint right off of I-95 looks like an Art Deco 1950s diner, but its food tastes like a four-star restaurant. The prices vary from very cheap to moderate on the huge menu, so what you order can vary according to your budget. The dishes vary in origin, too. You could try the fried chicken or the crispy crab wontons, depending on your mood. But be sure to sample something from the on-site bakery, like the sweet rolls. You can also get a number of good beers here, proving once again that this isn’t really a diner, but rather a cleverly conceived restaurant that has satisfied our need for nostalgia while capturing our present taste buds.
4. Crab Shell
City: Stamford, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (203) 967-7229
Address: 46 Southfield Ave.
Description: The Crab Shell is right by the docks in Stamford, and though it is a year-round restaurant, it begins to really get going in the summer as the “Crab Shack” under blue and white canopies on a broad, clean deck. The clam and crab chowders here are both spectacular, without a surfeit of potatoes like you’ll get so often at chain restaurants. They have other things on the menu besides seafood, but don’t be silly and get them. Here is where you should taste fried belly clams, chilled lobster, and pan-fried rainbow trout. The Crab Shell’s motto is “no bad days,” and it’s hard to see how you’ll have one here. They stay open at night as long as people want to be fed. That’s an inspired, and inspiring, way of doing business.