City: Hartford, CT

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (860) 246-1222

Address: 539 Broad St.

Insider Pick:

Description: In a vintage brick factory complex within walking distance of downtown, Firebox has made a big impression on the local food scene. Little touches like the Amish farm tables in the back dining room make this a haven for the trendy, but the celebrity chefs who stop here when in Hartford all come for the food. Like at nearby Ferme, the chefs here focus on farm-to-table, local, sustainable, and organic products. You can get Connecticut ingredients in delicious preparations, like the Four Mile River Farm rib eye with confit Red Bliss potatoes, roasted cippolinis, haricots verts, and sage butter, or the Stonington fluke with fingerling coins, pancetta, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, and English pea coulis. On Thurs and Fri you can get a prix-fixe menu that ends up being much cheaper. Along with your locally sourced food, you can have local Jonathan Edwards wines. Serving lunch on weekdays and dinner Mon through Sat, Firebox also runs a farmers’ market in the small green next to the restaurant on Thurs in the summer.