City: Hartford, CT

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (860) 296-9646

Address: 588 Franklin Ave.

Description: An icon on Franklin Avenue since 1938, this is an Italian restaurant that makes all the others look like imitators. Three generations of Carbones have run it right in the heart of Hartford’s Little Italy. The dining room is large, and you’ll find happy families dining on linguini with clam sauce, veal Bergamo, and ravioli in pomodoro sauce. Along with the families you’ll find the politicos of Hartford chowing down here on a regular basis, maybe on one of the specials, which are always good bargains. Get a flambé for dessert and they’ll do it right at your table, the way they used to in the movies, right? Carbone’s was actually started as a fried chicken joint back in the 1930s, but they’ve been doing classic Italian American recipes since the 1960s. Let’s all raise a glass of Chianti in celebration of that change.