Back to its roots
By Todd Lyon
From the New Haven Register

Still standing tall, Consiglio’s remains a familiar face in the Elm City

With all the new restaurants flashing their bold cuisines and clamoring for attention, a person sometimes forgets about old favorites in town. That person would, in this case, be me, and the old favorite would be Consiglio’s on Wooster Street.

It’s been around for so long — since 1938, if you count its original incarnation — and the last time I was there was 10 years ago, when I dined with Mayor DeStefano. Last week I returned to the scene (this time, Jared from the Subway commercials was there, eating lasagna, but not at my table). And I fell in love with the place all over again.

All in the Family Business
By Miriam Devine
CT Life

Does the thought or working side-by-side with your brother, mother, sister-in-law, cousin, niece and grandson raise your blood pressure? Or does it calm, comfort and inspire you?

Not all family-owned-and-operated businesses are simply passed down from one generation to the next: some keep adding new layers of relatives, while maintaining the established ones. Given the right conditions - love, commitment, trust, flexibility - multi-generational family businesses can thrive like trees, ever growing new buds and leaves.

For diners with Consiglio's, the mere mention of the name sets taste buds quivering.

Consiglio's -- Resembling Greatness
By Keith Amoroso
Elm City Newspapers - Great Taste

I have a theory concerning restaurants and one day when I have a little extra time, I might write a book on the subject. The words might change from time to time but the basic premise remains constant. The theory simply stated is that restaurants reflect the personalities of their owners. It's a little like the correlation between a dog owner and his or her pet. The longer the two stay together the more one begins to resemble the other. The same thing is true with restaurants except not all restaurants are dogs.

Third-Generation Italian in New Haven
By Patricia Brooks
New York Times - Dining Out

In a revolving door industry, where establishments come and go with distressing frequency, any place that survives 10 years is considered a major success story. This makes the longevity of Consiglio's in New Haven's Little Italy even more astonishing. The cozy little restaurant, opened in 1938 by immigrants from Amalfi, Italy, is now managed by members of the third generation of the Consiglio family.

My Dinner with DeStefano
By Mimi Coucher
New Haven Advocate

Nobody would ever mistake Mayor John DeStefano for King Henry VIII. You'll never catch him devouring a thick steak, ordering that second bottle of wine and finishing it off with - oh, I shouldn't - a slice of cheese cake. "I'm a big appetizer guy now," explains the man who's lost 30 pounds over the last few years. "I eat meat about twice a week - if it's chicken. When I turned 40 I decided to watch what I ate. My wife thinks I'm emaciated, but I feel great."

In the Night Kitchen
By Will Georgantas
New Haven Advocate

Recipes you get from television cooking shows are always deceptively simple. In between "one teaspoon thyme" and "two bay leaves," the chef always neglects to mention the secret ingredient - five or six scrub interns who prepare and measure everything for you ahead of time and put it into cute little white dishes. It's always zip-zip-zip-boom, there's your eight-hour casserole, open the oven, ta-da, here's what it will look like six hours from now, have a taste, ma'am, delicious, see you next time, bon appetit and God bless. In the meantime, all of us poor saps are sitting in our "Kiss the Cook" aprons muttering, "He put the what in the who now?" and making mental notes to get ourselves a set, of those cute little white dishes, the ones with the pre-measured herbs in them.