When a Girl Needs to Eat, You'd Better Feed Her!

Dine at Dressing Room, Newman and chef Michel Nischan's Connecticut restaurant.

ByABC News
May 25, 2007, 9:32 AM

May 25, 2007 — -- This is the first installment of a new weekly series we're calling "Nightline's Taste of the World." Our correspondents and producers travel around the globe to report their stories, and they visit all kinds of restaurants and eat all sorts of cuisine along the way. Now you have a chance to go on the road and behind the scenes with us, and find out which restaurants tempt our palates. We'll grade the restaurants on a scale of one to five "Nightline" light bulbs We begin in Westport, Conn., at Dressing Room.

I consider myself a foodie. Actually, I LOVE to eat. And boy, were my colleagues ever jealous when I waltzed into this little gem while on the road for "Nightline's" profile of Paul Newman and chef Michel Nischan.

When I sat down to eat at Dressing Room: A Homegrown Restaurant, the Newman-Nischan project in Westport, Conn., little did I know that I would experience a sensory explosion. Surrounded by cedar and oak and nestled in a corner table, I fixed my eyes on the old Westport Country Playhouse posters that donned the walls.

Dressing Room sits quite comfortably next to the Westport Playhouse which welcomed the greatest of actors since the 1930s.

I hear the chopping and sizzling from the kitchen as well as the old Newman movies that play on the plasma television screen above the bar. I don't think I can handle this. When a girl needs to eat, you'd better feed her.

Ah, I see the first course. Oysters. How could I resist? I don't think I even saw the plate, I ate it so fast. Next, the bean salad delicately nestled in what they called a "cloud of soy." Sigh I never thought a bean could taste so spectacular -- crunchy and delicious.

Finally, the pig! Oh, the pig! Um, ahem, not kosher, but just chillin' in all its juicy glory. I shed a small tear as I devoured the succulent beast. The wait staff served me with such genuine hospitality, though with my hungry stare I'm sure I scared them.

Dressing Room is a restaurant dedicated to the local farmer. So, as I eat I'm doing good for the Earth and the community, right? Finally, something I'm good at doing, plus I'm earning huge points for doing good.

I think I hear the bubbling of a good chicken stock in the distance, or wait, I'm distracted by that huge burger at the table next to me! (I'm in the zone.) Caramelized onions! Massive steak fries! The heavens have opened! And the piece de résistance, the pineapple martini. They distill their own pineapple liquor. Hello! I'm working here, people!