New Haven, Connecticut

Culture and Notable Features

Cuisine

Although credit for creation of the hamburger sandwich is disputed, New Haven boosters accept the claim that it was first served in the United States in 1895 by Louis Lassen, operator of Louis' Lunch, which is still in operation. Burgers are cooked in the original 1895 setup, which holds them vertically instead of flat, between two grills; they are served between two slices of white bread, and the only condiments available are slices of tomato and onions. The restaurant is one of eight featured in "Hamburger America"http://www.hamburgeramerica.com/, a documentary film which premiered on Sundance cable television network on the Fourth of July, 2005.

Related Topics:
Hamburger - 1895 - Tomato - Hamburger America - Documentary film - Sundance - Fourth of July - 2005

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New Haven's culinary tradition also includes a claim of being the birthplace of pizza in the United States. Dubious as that claim may be (see Gennaro_Lombardi), New-Haven-style pizza, called apizza (pronounced ah-BEETS in the local Italian dialect), is made in a coal- or wood-fired brick oven, and is notable for its paper-thin crust. Apizza may be Red (with a tomato-based sauce) or White (garlic and olive oil), and pies ordered "plain" are made without the otherwise customary mozzarella cheese (pronounced sca-MOTZ). Locally, the White Clam Pie is favored. Pizzerias of distinction include Sally's Apizza and Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, both located on the same block in the Italian-American neighborhood of Wooster Square, Modern Apizza not far away on State Street, and upstart newcomer Bar, a Microbrewery located across Crown Street from Louis' Lunch in New Haven's "entertainment district" downtown.

Related Topics:
Pizza - Gennaro_Lombardi - Apizza - Tomato - Garlic - Olive oil - Mozzarella cheese - Clam - Sally's Apizza - Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana - Italian-American - Wooster Square - Microbrew

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Some exceptionally highly regarded restaurants in New Haven include the Union League Café on Chapel St., owned in part by local (Madison, CT) resident Jacques Pepin and serving classical haute cuisine, Claire's Cornercopia at Chapel and College Streets, serving vegetarian food and is the oldest exclusively vegetarian menu restaurant in the country, Ibiza on High St. (once credited by the food critic in the New York Times with the best meal he had had in the previous year), which was formerly a highly regarded tapas restaurant named Pika Tapas but has turned to a fusion of nouvelle cuisine with Spanish food, and Roomba, serving an innovative nouvelle cuisine interpretation of Cuban food. Remarkably, all of these world-class restaurants are on the same block downtown.

Related Topics:
Madison, CT - Pepin - Haute cuisine - Vegetarian - Tapas - Nouvelle cuisine

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Also of note:

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• The Yankee Doodle Sandwich Shop, near the Yale campus on Elm St., the sometimes setting of Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead, and the inspiration for a famous work of Robert Crumb's. You know the one. Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke are still made the old fashioned way, with cola syrup and seltzer, and hamburgers come with an extravagant dab of butter.
• Mamoun's Falafel Restaurant, an important resource in this student-filled city due to its being open until 3 AM 365 days a year to provide reasonably priced food, including many Middle Eastern and/or vegetarian and vegan selections.

New Haven is also famous for its Thai Cuisine with restaraunts including Thai Taste, Bangkok Garden, Pad Thai, etc.

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Popular Culture

On March 20, 1914 the first United States figure skating championship was held here.

Related Topics:
March 20 - 1914 - Figure skating

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New Haven was also the location in 1967 of one of Jim Morrison's infamous arrests while he fronted the rock group The Doors. The resultant near-riotous concert and arrest was commemorated by Morrison in the lyrics to "Peace Frog" which include the missive "...blood in the streets in the town of New Haven..."

Related Topics:
Jim Morrison - The Doors

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New Haven currently serves as the home city of the annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

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New Haven is also home to the famous concert and dance hall Toad's Place which brings in many big name acts to the city.

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Garry Trudeau, the creator and current author of the comic strip "Doonesbury" attended Yale University, in New Haven, where he met the namesake of said comic strip. Longtime New Haven resident Charlie Pillsbury, once Green Party candidate for senator, attended Yale with Trudeau, and went by the nickname "the doones" at the time.

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Sports Teams and Athletic Entertainment

New Haven, being a significantly large urban area, served as a home city to many sports teams, all of which have since gone defunct or left town. Most notably, it was home to the New Haven Ravens, an Eastern League AA team from 1994-2003. The Ravens have since moved to Manchester, New Hampshire and became the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The New Haven Cutters baseball team began play in 2004 in the independent Northeast (now Can-Am) League, and call a renovated Yale Field its home park.

Related Topics:
New Haven Ravens - Eastern League - Manchester, New Hampshire - New Hampshire Fisher Cats

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The New Haven Coliseum was built in 1972 to accommodate a variety of entertainment functions for greater New Haven. It has since been slated to be destroyed by the city due to its disfunctional design and financial drain on the City. Many groups, including the Coalition to Save Our Coliseum (www.newhavencoliseum.com), argue that if the city opens its books on the Coliseum, numbers such as 325,000 annual visitors, 2,400 needed parking spaces, and the upswing in major events booked by its first private management company, then the public will change its mind and support the City of New Haven's stance that the Coliseum must be demolished. Many others understand that the facility is hopelessly outdated; that the parking garage, accessed via a quarter-mile double circular ramp, has failed to attract usage; and that the City and state Hotel-Motel Tax subsidies devoted to the facility would better be applied to other priorities.

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The New York Giants of the NFL played an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions in 1960, a first for the city. A number of exhibition games were played against the New York Jets through the 1970s, and in the 1973 and 1974 NFL seasons, the Giants made the Yale Bowl their home field while Yankee Stadium was being renovated.

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From July 1st through 9th, 1995, the city hosted the Ninth Special Olympics World Summer Games.

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The Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University hosts the Pilot Pen International, a professional men's and women's tennis event, every August. The stadium at the Connecticut Tennis Center is the second largest tennis venue in the world, second only to Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in New York City.

Related Topics:
Connecticut Tennis Center - Pilot Pen International - Arthur Ashe Stadium - Flushing Meadows - New York City

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Theatre

The city is very active in the world of theatre, and host numerous theatres and production houses including: the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Long Wharf Theatre, and the Shubert Performing Arts Center. There is also theatre activity from the drama department at Yale which works through the Yale University Theatre and the student run Yale Cabaret. Southern Connecticut State University hosts the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts.

Related Topics:
Yale Repertory Theatre - Long Wharf Theatre - Shubert Performing Arts Center - Yale University Theatre - Yale Cabaret - Lyman Center for the Performing Arts

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The New Haven theatres historically served as staging grounds for test runs of major productions before their Broadway debuts.

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Museums

New Haven offers its residents and visitors a wide variety of world-class museums, many of them associated with Yale. Some of the more notable museums are the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library which features an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the Connecticut Children's Museum, the new Knights of Columbus museum near its world headquarters, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Eli Whitney museum (actually just across the border in Hamden, on Whitney Avenue), the Yale Center for British Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery, the nation's oldest college art museum. New Haven is also the home port of a life-size replica of the historical Amistad slaveship which is open for tours at Long Wharf pier at certain times during the summer. Also at Long Wharf pier is the Quinnipiack schooner, offering sailing cruises of the harbor area throughout the summer.

Related Topics:
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Gutenberg Bible - Connecticut Children's Museum - Knights of Columbus - Peabody Museum of Natural History - Eli Whitney - Hamden - Whitney Avenue - Yale Center for British Art - Yale University Art Gallery - Amistad

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Music

The New Haven Green is the site of many free music concerts held by the city, especially during the summer months. Some of the more notable music events are the free summer shows by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the July series of jazz concerts.

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New Haven is also home to the famous concert venue Toad's Place, which hosted many big name acts fairly regularly until the venues of the Indian casinos, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino, became the major stopping place of national acts passing through Southern Connecticut. Rudy's Bar, BAR and Cafe Nine are also popular venues. Other world renowned underground clubs, such as The Tune Inn and Ron's Place, were once located in the Elm City.

Related Topics:
Indian casino - Foxwoods Resort Casino

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Production-wise, many staples of the emerging punk movement in the late 1970s had influences from the New Haven music scene, and the city has retained an alternative art and music underground that has gone on to influence post-punk era music movements such as indie/college rock and underground hip-hop.

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