We Got A Sneak Peek At Martha Stewart's New Connecticut Restaurant And Yes, Of Course Snoop Dogg Is Somehow Involved - Exclusive Interview

Martha Stewart is expanding her culinary empire further with a second location of The Bedford restaurant in Foxwoods Resort and Casino, opening March 14. Nestled in the forested hills of Mashantucket, Connecticut, this new location is quite a departure from the glitz and glam of Las Vegas, where the original Bedford restaurant is housed in the Paris casino. However, it's much closer to the location of the real-life Bedford farmhouse in Katonah, New York, where Stewart spends much of her time.

Not only does the landscape of Connecticut perfectly mirror The Bedford's New England coastal vibes, but the state also holds a special place in Stewart's heart: Connecticut is where her first home, Turkey Hill, is located. It is here that Stewart nurtured her young daughter, as well as her budding new business. From the cozy Connecticut kitchen, sprawling gardens, and welcoming sitting and dining rooms, Stewart built her entertaining empire. We sat down with her, as well as Jason Guyot, the president and CEO of Foxwoods, to find out what we can expect from the new location. Of course, we couldn't help but also ask a few burning questions of our own about entertaining, the future of the Martha Stewart brand, and more.

So what, if anything, makes this iteration of The Bedford different from the other [in Las Vegas]?

Well, first of all, it's on the East Coast and not in the desert. And so, there's a good distance between the two restaurants. This [location] appeals to the whole Northeast, I think, as a destination. We've changed some of the interiors just to make it a little different. And we've added a green room, which is ... I was looking for the pictures of a green living room.

It's a very pretty room. Very few people have a room quite that color, and it's beautiful. So, that's what [the green room is] going to look like. And the restaurant here will have a lot of the same features, similar types of furniture. And, that room, the green room, is going to have about 30 seats, so it's perfect for a small, beautiful family dinner, a holiday fete, an anniversary party, whatever. I'm going to have a couple of parties there. It's going to be very nice.

Are there going to be differences between the menus?

Guyot: The Foxwoods' location menu is going to be pretty special. Because we have 38 different dining venues, we wanted to make sure it really fit in. We had a lot of fun working with Martha. She has like a hundred different cookbooks, so we went through those and found some very special recipes that are going to be introduced for the first time [in a restaurant setting] at The Bedford [Foxwoods]. I think our guests are really going to be looking forward to seeing something and experiencing something completely different from her other venue out in Las Vegas.

So it's going to be basically just a totally different menu?

Guyot: There'll be the staples on there. The pierogies will be on there, the flatbread.

But there will be variations unique to this location?

Guyot: Absolutely, yeah.

Does it feel like a little bit of a homecoming, opening something up in Connecticut?

Oh, yeah. It's so great. Finally! Finally, I'm going to have a restaurant here in my neighborhood.

Guyot: Everything aligned on this one.

Yes.

Are you going to be doing seasonal menu items? I mean, obviously being in Connecticut, you have such a bounty of produce.

Guyot: Yeah. I think the whole premise of the venue is going to be seasonal, locally sourced, fresh ingredients across the board, whether that's on the appetizers, the entrees. We have so many great farms in this area. And we're right here near the shoreline, so from a seafood perspective and [sourcing from] local purveyors, we're very excited about that.

How long has this project been in the making?

Guyot: Well, we reached out to Martha probably about four years ago, really, as we were going into this development phase here at Foxwoods and loved her venue at Paris in Las Vegas. We started to have conversations. It wasn't really specifically about a restaurant; it was about collaboration opportunities, and so for the first year and a half, we really figured out if it was a good fit with Marquee Brands, which is Martha's company. There's a lot of different brands underneath that umbrella, and as we invited the team to come out here and see the resort, I think they started to get much more excited about the potential and opportunity for doing another restaurant because she only has one.

And as amazing as she is to only have one restaurant. I mean, she's very selective; she's very specific. So for her to commit to us, we were really excited about it, but it took a while, a lot of courting with the whole team and getting them to believe that we could deliver to her standard.

You guys have been opening a lot of new higher-end restaurants. Morimoto has one, right?

Guyot: Momosan by Morimoto.

And then obviously you have Hell's Kitchen, you have the Guy's, which is not quite the same, but ...

Guyot: And David Burke Prime.

David Burke, right. Is that where you think you are heading more? Push towards fine dining, higher-end stuff, or do you think you're going to try to keep more of a mix?

Guyot: We have a great mix. When I talk about — this will be 40 different food venues that we'll have when The Bedford opens. They go across the board from quick-service to Italian to fine dining to steakhouses. We really have something for everyone.

This development that we've gone through is really finding not only great chefs, but personalities that are cross-generational, like Gordon Ramsay. I think just as much so, maybe even more so Martha, with what she's been able to do in her career. And now with Great Wolf Lodge open [to appeal to families] and we have our traditional guests that are more baby boomers, so we're attracting a wide variety of people. Attraction across generations, that's what our focus has been. So we'll have fine dining like The Bedford, and we'll have our steakhouses, but we also have a lot of casual food options here. Like I said, we really have something for everyone.

Do you have any tips for picking out different appliances for the kitchen?

I pay a lot of attention to my appliances. And, although the kitchen really is going to be just a work kitchen here, you're going to see something that looks sort of like ... my real kitchen at home. I have a very organized, beautiful kitchen, and we bring some of these features [to the restaurant]. Sometimes I hang copper, and sometimes I hang stainless steel, depending on the season, I'm renewed. And I change the whole look of the kitchen just by changing that.

Absolutely, a totally different vibe.

Yes. Totally different decor. In this restaurant, we're going to have a lot of copper hanging. It's beautiful. But we're still using the same beautiful Bedford Gray. We're using white marble for the floors.

Guyot: We use stone and marble throughout the entire restaurant.

The countertops [will be marble]. So, we're taking features from my real home at the farm and adapting them for the restaurant.

Do you have any tips or thoughts on mixing different finishes for appliances and kinds of things? Or, do you think there's not really a super tasteful way to do it, and you should just stick with one?

Well, no. I have stainless appliances so they look nice in my kitchen, but if I were doing wood cabinets instead of the veneered gray cabinets that I have in my kitchen, I might use all white appliances. I might use all appliances that are faced with something that goes in the kitchen, so it just depends. But, I don't think having a white refrigerator or a black stove and a red dishwasher would look very nice.

What's your current favorite cocktail? Do you have any tips for making it?

Oh, my favorite cocktail is a gin martini. I'm working with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg with their brand called Still G.I.N. And, so we'll have it at the restaurant here. It's so great. ... A really good gin Martha-tini would be perfect, like right now.

How do you finish them? Is it with a twist, with an olive, dirty?

In mine, I prefer a big chunk of orange. And ice. I drink all my drinks with ice.

Is that the Martha-tini that's on the menu?

Guyot: Yes! That's [The Bedford Foxwoods'] special martini.

What's your favorite non-alcoholic drink?

Iced tea. Good, fragrant, homemade iced tea. It has to be fresh; it can't be sitting around for a week in the refrigerator. And I never, never leave the tea in the liquid. Once you brew your tea, take the tea bags or the loose tea out of it.

Do you just do a classic black or ...?

Oh, no, no, no. I have ... My favorite tea is called Fortmason, and it comes from Fortnum & Mason in London. And, it's delicious. It sort of has a little lemony taste to it, but then I add to that other things, other teas. I mix a lot of teas in an iced tea.

Do you have tips for doing that at home, mixing different ones? Are there certain tasting profiles?

Just make sure you have good teas. I would buy loose tea and not bother with all those expensive tea bags because there's paper, and who made the paper, where does it come from? I don't like using tea bags, so I make loose tea, and I make maybe a cheesecloth sack if I'm making ... I serve tea when I have a garden tour, so I make a big, big pot of iced tea and take the leaves out of it and then add lots of fresh lemon and fresh slices of orange, maybe some lime if you want, and a little bit of pomegranate extract for sweetness.

Nice. No sugar or anything like that? Just the pomegranate?

No, not usually. Not usually.

You have become quite the social media darling, giving fans a really authentic glimpse into who you are as a person that you wouldn't see on television or in the magazine. Who introduced you to social media?

Oh, I had been a fan of social media ever since Twitter started. I have my original Twitter stock when they went public a long time ago. I don't use Twitter so much anymore because it's become too political for me, but I take advantage of all the different offerings.

Instagram is my favorite at present, TikTok is a close second, and then, of course, there's many other ways to reach people. And the more the better, in terms of getting across ideas and creativity and news.

Do you run the accounts yourself?

I run my account, @MarthaStewart48; the corporate one is @MarthaStewart. And then, we have The Martha Stewart Blog, which is mine. It's almost a blog Instagram that takes you step-by-step through a project that we do every single day.

So, you can see today, for example, we adopted two new horses that were found up in Vermont. Beautiful Friesians that were starving. [The herd was] rescued and I've adopted two of the Friesians, and the whole blog is about the adoption process and introducing them to a new home. But, we update that every single day. It's like a small magazine article every single day.

Speaking of magazines, I was a die-hard subscriber to Martha Stewart Living. I was devastated when it was canceled; is there any chance you'll ever do a magazine again?

Well, we do special issues. We call them the SIPs: special interest publications. We [put] one out for Halloween. We have another one for simple dinners that's very good. All the recipes are delicious. So, those are on newsstand only. But it's hard because people aren't buying magazines like they once did. They are getting all their information online. Everybody's eyes are glued to their phones, as you know.

What I miss is the interaction with all the photographers. That's what I miss, and the photographers miss working with us. It's hard.

You and José Andrés have worked together closely.

Oh, he is hysterical to work with. He has a very good sense of humor. He's kind of childlike for a big-time, very successful restaurateur. He likes to play jokes, and he loves to eat, and he loves to entertain. So, when we were working on "Yes, Chef!," we went to his house. He rented a house with a big kitchen, and he would create dinner after dinner after dinner at that kitchen counter. And we all partook of the delicious food.

I spoke to him a little bit ago; he was telling me how much he loves Trader Joe's.

He likes to shop. He likes to see what's for sale, and he buys good ingredients. Everything is of the highest quality. That's why he likes Trader Joe's; they have good stuff.

Do you have a favorite Trader Joe's snack?

Oh, no. I don't snack.