Norwalk, CT, specifically South Norwalk, has developed a reputation as a restaurant hotbed.  The area even has its own hip nickname: SoNo.  And yet, despite being only about a 20 minute drive, I’d never eaten there.

Got my first look and taste of SoNo at a recent lunch meeting at Strada 18 on Washington St.  I arrived early and walked around to see what was doing. Many interesting looking restaurants: Mexican, tapas, a Wasabi (sister of the Nyack location), and a Ginger Man, among others.

Strada 18, a pizza and wine bar, had a buzzing lunch scene going on.  We shared a hot appetizer of arancini — fried rice balls.

And I ordered the gorgonzola and caramelized onion pizza.

A crisp thin crust, and a nice contrast of flavors between the salty gorgonzola and the sweet caramelized onions. Those onions were great; I wish there’d been more of them.

We Westchesterians can sometimes be a provincial bunch. We’re willing to venture south to Manhattan, but Connecticut… what’s that?  From all appearances, there seems to be a lot going on there — maybe instead of south, we should be going north.

Strada 18
122 Washington St.
Norwalk, CT
203-853-4546