Norwich, CT area

In the immediate area, probably Engine Room or Jealous Monk (both in Mystic) for best draft list. There's not a ton of great pizza. Mango's (again, Mystic) or Vincitori (Niantic) are probably best but don't expect New Haven-level stuff.

 

Sorry Tox. Sounds like Tree House Wednesday.

 

We call that area "The Quiet Corner" of CT.

You won't be too far from Willimantic Brewing, one of the oldest/original brewpubs in the state, housed in an old post office. The beer isn't mind blowing but really good mostly classic styles. They usually have other CT breweries on tap too for a pretty decent selection. And the nachos are killer (it's a full restaurant).

Enjoy your visit to CT!

 

Yeah, I’ll be teaching… and 3+ hours from D96. Looks like you have a solid week planned.

 

Are there any recommendations for beer or non-beer restaurants in Mystic? I already have Engine Room and Jealous Monk down courtesy of @WoolEnthusiast. I'm going to be there for a few days with my family, so any beer related activities need food as well. TIA.

 

If you don't mind spending a little more, Oyster Club is my favorite restaurant in Mystic. Same owners as Engine Room, good draft list, and it's far enough down Water St that it doesn't see nearly as much tourist traffic as the rest of the restaurants in Mystic. Their new bar Port of Call is right next door and is pretty interesting too.

Red 36 is really popular (and actually pretty good), but I'd only bother going if you don't have to wait. They do have limited local draft but not as much as Oyster Club or especially Engine Room.

Everyone in Mystic has seafood, but the best specifically-seafood restaurant is probably S&P Oyster. Not much in the way of beer, though.

Best pizza is Nana's, but there's not a ton else down that way, so Mango's is a decent backup and right next to Jealous Monk and the rest of Old(e) Mystic(k) Village.

Rio Salado and Taquerio (same owners, hence the weird spelling on the latter) are pretty good for tacos and Tex-Mex. Taquerio is more focused on drinks, Rio on food.

 

Agreed on the Oyster Club. Usually a great small curated tap list as well. Fox Farm typically on draft. The ambiance and food can't be beat IMO.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! My wife and I love raw bars, so we'll probably check out Oyster Club.

 

Just wanted to follow-up since we got back from Mystic.

My favorite overall meal was at Jealous Monk mostly because of our son. The food was good and they had a stellar taplist.

Engine Room makes a mean burger. Really nice cocktails. They're the only place that had Fox Farm on tap, but I liked Jealous Monk's taplist overall better. They were busy even on a weeknight.

Oyster Club has a happy hour from 4-5. $1.50 oysters, $5 drinks, and a small food list that includes a really good burger. My wife and I planned to get a few oysters one night, and we ended up just getting 2 dozen and skipping dinner for the most part. The ambiance, food, and drinks here were really good. I would have liked to have done dinner here, but we had our 6 year old with us and he wanted pizza. So we got him pizza from Mystic Pizza.

I tried as many different CT breweries as I could over several days: Tribus, Tox, Beer'd, Outer Light, Barley Head, Alvarium. I wanted to stop by Bank and Bridge, but didn't have the time. Most of the beers were fine, but no brewery really wowed me. Alvarium was the one that stood out a bit based on what I tried. Fox Farm is probably still at the top of CT for me. Of course I missed Fox Farm coming and going since they are closed Monday to Wednesday.

Olde Mysticke was pretty cool. Other than Jealous Monk we really enjoyed the doughnut shop. My son really liked the potion place and the duck pond.

Some random thoughts:

Mystic itself felt really expensive. I don't know if it's because of all the touristy stuff or because it's affluent but everything felt costly. Mystic downtown had a very old money New England feel to it. I felt underdressed just walking the streets haha.

We went to Groton one day to check out the submarine museum (which was closed) and the vibe one town over was totally different. We ate our cheapest meal by far at some family restaurant.