Small and intimate but full of bonhomie, Le Penguin is a classic French bistro on the Gold Coast.
Le Penguin
Greenwich, Connecticut, has in the current century earned a reputation for having a few very good restaurants, which draw people from beyond its Gold Coast. One of the best was for years a tiny, quite serious French restaurant named Jean-Louis on Lewis Street whose owner, Jean-Louis Gerin, retired in 2012 to teach and consult. The premises were replaced in 2013 by a bistro named Le Penguin (does anyone remember a(unrelated) long-gone restaurant in Bronxville named Le Gai Penguin?) run by Anshu Vidyarthi and Antoine Blech, who also run the excellent Asian restaurant Orientale next door, as well as Le Fat Poodle, Siren RestoBar and JuJu in Old Greenwich.
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Le Penguin’s owners, Anshu Vidyarthi and Antoine Blech, run several restaurants around Greenwich.
Le Penguin
Vidyarthi has a long career in hospitality, including at some of Los Angeles’s notable restautrants like The Ivy at the Shore, as well as the opener of Le Colonial in Manhattan and L’Escale in Greenwich. Blech, too, has his bonafides with stints at Spago and L’Orangerie in L.A. and Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia, as well as Le Bilboquet, Le Comptoir and Le Colonial in New York. Clearly they know what they’re doing for all their restaurants have a faithful crowd who go from one establishment to the other.
Small but not cramped, le Penguin can be noisy until 9 PM.
le Penguin
Le Penguin is full of bonhomie (though from six till nine the crowd gets loud), with French blue accents and banquettes against a pumpkin-colored wall hung with sconces and mirrors, with well-set tables and good lighting. The women dress with a welcome casual chic. The waitstaff knows the menu and acts with dispatch (though after nine they tend to linger at the bar, ignoring the dining area).
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The menu toes the line of traditional Parisian bistros’ offerings.
le Penguin
The menu, appended with specials, is solidly French bistro in style, listed in French with English subtitles. Careful seasoning and spicing is key to the success of dishes like escargots ($17) with plenty of garlic butter and buttery puff pastry and ravioli ($17) with wild mushrooms, pea shoots, a touch of sage and parmigiano. Tender calamari cooked on the plancha griddle ($18) take on welcome flavors from a salad of arugula and cherry tomatoes. A tomato tart ($17) with puff pastry, arugula sand spicy tomato sauce should have started off with better, sweeter tomatoes.
TUna tartare with chips is a popular starter.
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le Penguin
Among the main courses, I thoroughly enjoyed the fat scallops ($40), pan seared and served with celery root puree and the smart idea of peppery, crumbled chorizo. I always order trout when I see it on a menu, and Le Penguin’s is a classic rendition à l’amandine ($ 35), roasted with plenty of brown butter that add crispness to the almonds, along with haricots verts and fingerling potatoes. The fish of the day ($46) was a nice slab of swordfish, somewhat overcooked that night. Lamb chops ($52) were a good choice, both generously proportioned, juicy and medium rare, and priced sensibly.
le Penguin uses filet mignon for its au poivre rendition.
le Penguin
The desserts are all those favorites no one can turn down, from a rich chocolate mousse ($15) to tangy-sweet lemon tart ($15). A tarte Tatin ($15.50) needed more caramelization, and the floating island ($15) looked more like a floating lily pad.
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The wine list by the glass and bottle is printed on one page, and I’m perfectly happy with its brevity for a good bistro, its choices and its prices— plenty by the glass at $14—though not with its lack of vintage dates.
Good French bistros are not as numerous as they should be in the Connecticut/Westchester area, so Le Penguin is one to be treasured by locals proud of its existence as well as by those driving out of the city in search of a good meal far from the Manhattan crowd.
National trust in the federal government is at some of its lowest levels in nearly seven decades, and many Connecticut residents fall in line with that belief, a survey found.
New data from the Pew Research Center found only 17% of Americans believe that what the government does is right either “just about always” or “most of the time,” hitting one of the lowest points Pew has seen since first asking this question in 1958. And according to a DataHaven survey, Connecticut residents trust the federal government less than state or local institutions.
While these are some of the lowest polling numbers seen in American history, national trust in the federal government has been on the decline for decades. Public trust initially dropped in the 1960s and ’70s during the Vietnam War from a near 80% but began rising again in the 1980s into the early ’90s. Trust peaked again after 9/11 before falling.
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The DataHaven survey found that of all Connecticut residents surveyed, only 9% trust the federal government “a great deal” to look out for the best interests of them and their family. About 28% trust the federal government “a fair amount.”
Federal government trust among Connecticut residents was at its highest in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the federal stimulus programs and child tax credit were active.
The DataHaven survey also asked about trust in local and state government. Connecticut residents generally trust these institutions more than they trust the federal government, the survey found.
Trust in the local governments was higher than trust in both state and federal, with 67% of residents surveyed trusting their local government “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
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And when it came to state government, 61% of residents trust the state “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
However, across the board, white residents are more likely to trust local and state government than are residents of color. Black residents had higher levels of trust in government than Latino and Puerto Rican residents, but less than white residents.
As of early 2025, the Connecticut State Police was facing a staffing shortage of roughly 300 troopers compared to the more than 1,200 troopers the department had in its ranks over a decade ago. This is due largely to retirements, resignations and a shrinking applicant pool.
Recent academy classes are helping slowly rebuild staffing, but Gov. Ned Lamont and police leadership say Connecticut still needs substantially more troopers to meet public safety demands. More recently, news outlets reported the department had 938 troopers.
This spring, troopers negotiated a 4.5% wage hike with state officials. Troopers’ base pay is on average about $116,000 per year, but that rises to $175,000 per year once overtime is included.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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CT Mirror partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.
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Reginald David is the Community Engagement Reporter for CT Mirror. He builds relationships across Connecticut to elevate community voices and deepen public dialogue around local issues. Previously, he was a producer at KCUR 89.3, Kansas City’s NPR station, where he created community-centered programming, led live event coverage for major events like the NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Parade, and Royals Opening Day, and launched KC Soundcheck, a music series spotlighting local and national artists. Reginald has also hosted special segments, including an in-depth interview with civil rights leader Alvin Brooks and live community coverage on issues like racial segregation and neighborhood development. He began his public media career as an ‘Integrity in News’ intern at WNPR in Hartford.
Meteorologists are predicting the next storm system in Connecticut could bring a couple inches of snow this weekend.
WTNH reports snow will start late Saturday night and continue into Sunday morning.
“There is pretty good agreement with light snow amounts statewide with up to around 2″ expected,” WTNH says.
Find out what’s happening in Across Connecticutfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
WFSB reports long-range models have been “all over the place with the development of a coastal storm.”
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According to WFSB, some show the system moving to the south of Connecticut, which would make the impact on weekend plans “minimal.” Another model, however, shows a greater impact on Connecticut, which could mean a “coating to an inch” of snow, WFSB reports.
Find out what’s happening in Across Connecticutfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
WFSB as of Thursday also predicts the timing would be late Saturday night through Sunday morning.
The National Weather Service as of Thursday has increased the odds of snow in this weekend timeframe to 50 percent, up from 30 percent.
In the short term, it is going to be very windy today.
The National Weather Service has advisories for northern and southern parts of Connecticut due to high winds, with possible gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.
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Today, Friday and daytime Saturday will be clear and dry, according to the National Weather Service, with high temperatures starting in the low to mid-30s and gradually warming.
“Saturday is the pick of the weekend, as it will be dry and relatively milder,” WFSB reports. “While we could start bright, cloud cover will be on the increase with temps that peak between 35 and 40. Sunday will be colder as temps only reach the upper 20s and lower 30s.”
The National Weather Service indicates the chance for snow begins around midnight Saturday.
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Here are the forecast details for northern Connecticut via the National Weather Service:
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Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 31. Breezy, with a west wind 18 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 20. West wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 32. West wind 13 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 16. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light southwest in the evening.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 36. Calm wind becoming southwest 5 to 8 mph in the morning.
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Saturday Night: A chance of snow, mainly after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Sunday: A chance of snow before 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 29. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Here are the forecast details for southern Connecticut via the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values between 20 and 25. West wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 22. Wind chill values between 10 and 15. West wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph.
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Friday: Sunny, with a high near 34. Wind chill values between 10 and 20. West wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 22. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 39. Light west wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Saturday Night: Snow likely after 1 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 26. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Sunday: A 50 percent chance of snow before 1 p.m. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 33.
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