Who Knew: You Guys, There’s a Secret Ice Cream Club

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. You don’t need to watch The Bear (although if you haven’t, let’s remedy that immediately–I’ll wait) to know that the heart of every culinary business is community, not commodity. We eat to stay alive, of course, but what makes being alive so darn enjoyable is the variety of things we get to eat and the people we get to meet along the way to find our next meal. To that end, it might behoove you to know that New Canaan has a homegrown, handmade micro-batch ice cream business that specializes in artful, adventurous flavor combinations, created by local chef and mom Karla Sorrentino. She dreams up kinds of ice cream that you’d have to travel far to find elsewhere, ones that would make Willy Wonka blush.

Who Knew: New Canaan’s DNA

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. Is it too on-the-nose to start a column about historical exploration in New Canaan with a Back to the Future reference? Because I’m about to. 

I’ve stood at the corner of Main and Elm streets and wished for a backpack full of Doc’s plutonium rods and a DeLorean whose dials I could fiddle with endlessly. It would provide the perfect front-row seat to the past nature of this place. What kinds of dinosaurs roamed these fair fields during the Mesozoic era?

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Who Knew: We’re Picking Up What ‘Blackbird’ Is Putting Down

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. Concept restaurants are older than you might think. Long before the Polo Bar traded in clubby, manufactured exclusivity, and even before Olive Garden hatched the infinite breadstick, 11th-century Chinese restaurateurs conducted an early prototype of market research. Though it’s unlikely that focus groups were convened behind one-way mirrors, and data-mining for diner insights had yet to be invented, Song dynasty restaurant visionaries noticed that many of their patrons were visitors from other regions and tailored their menus to these specific tastes. Thus, a merchant visiting Hangzhou from Kaifeng might find a familiar bowl of noodle soup, and the buzzy hotspot was born. 

Ten centuries later, a Friday night reservation for four was procured for Blackbird, Z Hospitality Group’s latest restaurant concept.

Who Knew: Time to Try the Donuts!

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. Scientists recently suggested that the universe is shaped like a donut, not the pancake shape we all believed it to be for decades. Light waves leftover from the Big Bang, once thought to run parallel, were observed converging. While we wait for further evidence to determine what carb we most closely resemble, we can’t sit idle. If the universe is but a donut, who am I not to chase that shape down a highly caloric, Homer Simpson-style rabbit hole of dough, glaze, and filling?

Who Knew: We See You, Dr. Crolla

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. It becomes evident, after enough time, that living in New Canaan is a lot like living in Richard Scarry’s Busytown. While the jobs people have in 2024 may be more deskbound and spreadsheet-y than the anthropomorphized animal metermaids Scarry’s pen brought to life, there’s still a delightfully wholesome level of personal connection in this small-ish town. 

You might have a beer with the librarian, bump into the grocer at a fundraiser, and have in-jokes with your mail carrier. That our cars aren’t apple-shaped (though I wish they were) doesn’t make our existence any less storybook; New Canaan is most assuredly a town with character. And what gives a town character?