New Canaan Woman Launches ‘Intentional Self Aesthetics’ on Vitti Street

New Canaan resident Dr. Teresa Alasio had already worked in a wide range of positions within the medical field when the pandemic hit in 2020, prompting her to take on a new professional challenge. A New Jersey native who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in anthropology from Rutgers, Alasio finished her post-bacc pre-med work at Columbia and then entered the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, taking her medical degree in 1999. 

She started an internship in general surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, then returned to Mount Sinai when she switched to anatomic and clinical pathology, finishing in 2004. Over the next two decades, she worked in fine needle aspiration biopsy during a fellowship in cytopathology at New York University, as an academic assistant professor and assistant program director of the residency program at SUNY Downstate Health Services University, at a reference laboratory in Westchester County, N.Y., then set up a biopsy clinic and, finally, was hired as medical director and chair of pathology for CareMount Medical. “After the pandemic, I left my position at CareMount for lots of different reasons, one of which was that I wanted to stay closer to home and I wanted to do something that was more locally based,” Alasio recalled Monday afternoon from the office of her own newly established business, Intentional Self Aesthetics on Vitti Street. A mom of two boys—a sophomore at New Canaan High School and a seventh-grader at Saxe Middle School (each of them formerly at the Rainbow Station preschool at the New Canaan YMCA and then St.

Gofer Ice Cream Closed for Renovations through January

Gofer Ice Cream downtown is closed for the month of January for renovations, officials say. The shop at 103 Main St. will reopen in February, according to the business’s website. 

Opened just after the pandemic took hold in 2020, Gofer took over the commercial space long occupied by Baskin Robbins. It isn’t clear what renovations are coming, why Gofer is taking on the project now or just when in February it expects to reopen. Emails sent to Gofer’s owner were not immediately returned.

Holiday Shopping 2023: Against the Grain

In this installment of our holiday shopping series, we talk to Chris Meier, owner of Against the Grain on Main Street. 

Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: For our readers who may not know your store, please give us some background about Against the Grain and an overview of what you have here, how it all ties together. 

Chris Meier: Been here eight years. What we do is we rotate. We do a lot of outdoor furniture in the spring and summer. We work with Amish craftsmen, we sell teak line concrete tables, but the poly lumber Adirondack chairs—the recycled plastic—that’s probably our best seller in the summer.

‘Spice & Tea Exchange’ Coming to Main Street

A provider of spices, seasonings, teas and gifts is coming to downtown New Canaan. 

The Spice & Tea Exchange is “coming soon” to 118 Main St., according to information in the window of the vacant commercial space (formerly Greenwich Pharmacy) and the company’s website. The shop will offer “a variety of fine spices, handcrafted seasonings, loose-leaf teas, salts, sugars, gifts, and more,” according to its website. “Explore some of the best New Canaan gifts and accessories in town,” it says. “Whether you’re new to the culinary scene, own your own food service business, or are simply looking to add a bit of spice to your life, our friendly and knowledgeable staff can help you find the perfect menu additions. We’re known for our over 85 handcrafted seasonings, which we hand-mix in store daily.”

The Spice & Tea Exchange’s Facebook page also says the shop is “coming soon.”

The business carries peppers, chiles, paprika, whole spices, dried herbs, grains and powders such as beetroot, turmeric and arrowroot, the website says, as well as matcha and green and black teas, monk fruit sweetener and flavored sugars, among other items.

It isn’t clear just when the shop is expected to open.

Holiday Shopping 2023: Earth Garden

For today’s installment of our holiday shopping series, we talk to Nancy Kline Gorkin, owner of Earth Garden on South Avenue. Here’s our conversation. ***

New Canaanite: Please give our readers a little background on Earth Garden—how long you’ve been in town and an overview of what you offer. Nancy Kline Gorkin: We’ve been around New Canaan for 32 years. And we’ve been downtown for the past 10 years.