Holiday Shopping 2023: Stewart’s Wine & Spirits

For today’s installment of our local holiday shopping series, we met up with Larry Klem, store manager at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits. Here’s our conversation. ***

New Canaanite: Tell me about Stewart’s Wine & Spirits and its customers. Larry Klem: We have a really, I would say, vibrant customer base. Pretty wine savvy customers.

Dooney & Bourke is coming to South and Elm. Credit: Michael Dinan

Luxury Leather Goods Store ‘Dooney & Bourke’ Coming to Elm Street

A luxury leather goods store is coming to downtown New Canaan. Norwalk-based Dooney & Bourke, maker of bags and accessories, is moving into the vacant space at the corner of South Avenue and Elm Street, according to signs going up on the building. 

The company has “fostered a relationship with premier European craftsmen, refining techniques to create high performance materials with enduring quality,” according to its website. “The entrepreneurial spirit of Dooney & Bourke remains. We are privately run, independent, and dedicated to the exceptional artisanal craftsmanship that has separated our brand from its competitors.”

The space at 66 Elm St. has been vacant since Heather Gaudio Fine Art moved to Greenwich in September. 

Dooney & Bourke was founded in Norwalk in 1975 by Peter Dooney as a purveyor of belts, suspenders and small leather goods, according to its website.

NCHS Junior Launches Effort To Raise Money for Civilians Caught in Israel-Hamas Conflict

New Canaan High School junior Tahlia Scherer reached out to us the week prior to Thanksgiving, expressing concerns about civilians caught amid the armed conflict between Hamas and Israel, which declared war following a surprise attack on Oct. 7. She’s raising funds for the American Red Cross, which is providing civilian aid in the Israel-Hamas Conflict—see this GoFundMe page. (Note: Here’s a list of other ways to volunteer and donate, from the Center for International Disaster Information.)

We put some questions to Scherer about her efforts. 

Our exchange follows. ***

New Canaanite: Tell us about how you came to hear about the Israel-Hamas conflict and what was your initial reaction to it?