This wasn’t a week built around restaurants or recipes. It was built around family — a rainy airport run, a garage and basement that finally got some attention, a beach afternoon in Fairfield, and then a long drive south to help my youngest daughter start something new in Tampa. The food was sometimes fuel and sometimes a real meal, and occasionally both at once. Some weeks document what you ate. This one documents where life took you.
Monday: Newark Run & Shaggy Coos Burgers in the Rain
Monday had that overcast, low-energy feel that a rainy day tends to bring — except it came with a mission.
My daughter’s flight back from Miami had been pushed from Sunday to Monday, which meant a drive down to Newark in the rain and traffic to pick her up. Not the most glamorous start to a week off, but that’s family. You show up.
Dinner was Shaggy Coos burgers — straightforward, satisfying, and exactly what a long, damp driving day calls for. More fuel than feast, but good fuel. There’s comfort in knowing that even the most utilitarian meal of the week came from somewhere worth trusting.
📍 Shaggy Coos Farm | 53 Center Rd, Easton, CT ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tuesday: Garage Paint, Grilled Chicken & Zucchini Whipped Feta Again
Tuesday was a proper day off — the kind where you actually get things done and feel good about it.
The garage got cleaned out and a coat of paint went on the walls. Lunch was whatever it was — honestly I couldn’t tell you, but it held me over, which is all lunch needs to do on a project day.
Dinner was a reprise of the Fourth of July spread that had worked so well: grilled zucchini with whipped rosemary feta, this time alongside grilled chicken. Some meals earn a second appearance, and this one had. The combination of that charred zucchini and the creamy, herb-forward feta is one of those things that tastes like more effort than it takes. I’ll keep making it all summer.
Wednesday: Trumbull Breakfast Cafe, Tacos & a Skirt Steak Dinner
Wednesday had a little bit of everything, which is exactly what a midweek day off should feel like.
Breakfast was at Trumbull Breakfast Cafe — a Belgian waffle, scrambled eggs, bacon, and home fries. The kind of breakfast that sets the pace for the whole day. It worked.
Lunch was tacos — a pickup stop that hit the spot without requiring much thought. Then back to the house, where the basement got the same organizing treatment the garage had received the day before. The shop area is finally starting to look like a place where things actually happen.
Dinner was a Shaggy Coos skirt steak off the grill, sautéed onions and peppers alongside, and roasted potatoes. A simple, complete meal that felt like a reward for a productive day. Skirt steak is underrated — the right cut for a weeknight grill, full of flavor and forgiving if you’re not hovering over it.
📍 Trumbull Breakfast Cafe | Trumbull, CT ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thursday: Penfield Beach, Firehouse Deli & Chicken Francese at The Chelsea
Thursday was the best kind of day off — unhurried, local, and well fed.
We headed to Penfield Beach in Fairfield for a relaxed morning by the water. There’s something about a beach day mid-week in early July that feels like you’ve gotten away with something. No crowds, no agenda, just salt air and sun.
Lunch was at Firehouse Deli — a Fairfield institution for good reason. I ordered the Fairfield U Chicken Panini: grilled chicken, avocado, bacon, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle mayo. It’s the kind of sandwich that covers every base — heat, creaminess, crunch, substance. Exactly right after a beach morning.
Dinner that evening was at The Chelsea in Fairfield, where the special was Chicken Francese. Light, lemony, pan-sauced in that classic way — it’s a dish that rewards a kitchen that knows what it’s doing. The Chelsea did it well. A Thursday dinner that felt like a Friday one.
📍 Firehouse Deli | 22 Reef Rd, Fairfield, CT ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📍 The Chelsea | 12 Unquowa Pl, Fairfield, CT ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Friday: Tampa Bound & Food as Fuel
Friday was the start of something bigger than dinner.
My youngest daughter — after a few interviews that didn’t pan out in New York — is heading to Tampa to start full time at her current company. We’re driving her down, moving her into her apartment, and sending her into the next chapter. It’s exciting and bittersweet in equal measure, the way those milestones always are.
The drive south meant Chick-fil-A and Moe’s along the way — food as pure fuel, no apologies. When you’re putting miles on the car and trying to make time, you eat what’s there. The meal that matters on a day like this isn’t what you ordered. It’s where you’re headed.
Saturday: North Carolina Overnight, Buc-ee’s & a Tango in Tampa
We stayed overnight in North Carolina and made the final push to Tampa on Saturday, aiming to pull in by 4pm.
Buc-ee’s and Wawa handled the road stops — and if you’ve never done a Buc-ee’s run on a long drive, you’re missing something. It’s part convenience store, part roadside experience, and it held us over for the final stretch.
In Tampa, Santoro’s Pizzeria on W. Cass Street was at the top of the short list for dinner. But a 60-minute wait after a long two-day drive wasn’t in the cards. We ducked across the way into Tango Brew Bar for a cocktail instead — a quick, necessary decompression stop after a lot of hours in the car. Sometimes the plan changes and the alternate plan is exactly right.
Sunday: Move-In Day, Hyde Park Italian & the Flight Home
Sunday was the day it all came together.
We finalized the move-in, made the essential runs to Whole Foods and Target to stock her new place, and then sat down for a proper meal before heading to the airport — because no send-off is complete without a good table.
Forbici Modern Italian in Hyde Park was the call, and it delivered. Limoncello cocktails to start — the right drink for a Tampa afternoon — followed by pizza that was worth every minute of the wait we’d avoided the night before. It was a meal that managed to feel both celebratory and bittersweet, the way the best send-off dinners do.
Then the airport, the flight home, and back to Connecticut — just the two of us now, with a daughter building something new a thousand miles south.
📍 Forbici Modern Italian | 2101 W Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Closing Reflection
This wasn’t a week about finding the best slice or cooking the most interesting pasta. It was about something harder to quantify — a rainy airport pickup, a productive couple of days at home, a beach morning in Fairfield, and then a long drive south with a daughter who’s ready for what’s next.
The food was sometimes exceptional and sometimes just necessary. But every meal, from the Shaggy Coos burgers on Monday to the limoncello cocktails in Hyde Park on Sunday, belonged exactly to the day it was eaten.
Some weeks you cook. Some weeks you drive. This one asked for both.