Business

Shopping Local and the Health of Downtown New Canaan [Q&A]

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With happenings in downtown New Canaan top of mind for many these days, we decided to put some questions about the local business community to Laura Budd, executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce. 

Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: We’ve reported on one Main Street business closing in the past month, as well as another Main Street business opening across the street, and the launch of a new business on Vitti Street. What is the Chamber’s take on the state/health of downtown New Canaan today? Laura Budd: Downtown New Canaan is healthy — and the activity you’re describing is actually proof of that. Openings and closings are a normal part of any living, breathing commercial district.

Business

‘It’s Been a Long Winter’: Outdoor Dining Season Launches in Downtown New Canaan

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New Canaan’s restaurant owners say they’re excited about the formal start of the outdoor dining season downtown, as an unpredictable and unseasonable early spring begins to show signs of sustained warm weather. Temperatures are expected to soar into the mid-70s Tuesday, just four days into the 2026 outdoor dining season in New Canaan, which runs through October. 

“We are very excited,” said Daniel Lombardi, co-owner with his brother Andrea of both Dolce and Lombardi’s on Elm Street. “It’s been a long winter and we’re very happy that finally the weather has started to get better.”

Noting that this year’s outdoor dining is confined to sidewalks—in some cases, recently widened sidewalks—with no in-street tables, as allowed immediately after the pandemic, Lombardi added that “it probably won’t be as big as in previous years.”

Even so, he said that Lombardi’s—which doesn’t have a widened sidewalk outside—has reached a town-approved agreement with J. Crew next door that will see the high-end Italian restaurant offer about 30 seats of outdoor dining starting at 6 p.m. daily. Another restaurant making new use of its sidewalk outside with the disappearance of in-street tables hemmed in by plastic barriers is Chef Luis up the street. Owner and chef Luis Lopez said he’s making the best use of the space by offering two long tables and communal seating.

Business

New Canaan Women Launch ‘On Brookside’ Tabletop Rentals

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It all started with a book club. The origin story of Ella Barnette and Jessica Merrill’s tabletop rental service is the stuff of small business dreams. 

When Barnette and Merrill, co-founders of On Brookside, started a book club in 2023, their aptitude for creativity and aesthetics found a natural home in creating table settings and decorations for book club nights. Barnette has 20 years of experience in fashion and styling, and Merrill is a former wedding planner turned graphic designer. 

“We were just putting together these really beautiful tablescapes and that led to conversations around, ‘I would love to own more plates and flatware and glasses, I either don’t have anywhere to store or all of it, or I don’t necessarily want to spend the funds to collect all of it, or I don’t really have the eye,’ ” said Merrill, who also used to run the social component of the New Canaan Newcomers Club. “It was just kind of a fun, creative expression for us… and we kind of had our own moment of being like, ‘Should we do this?’ ” Barnette added. “Because everyone’s reacting to it and giving us such a positive response.

Business

Greenology on Main Street Closes

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A plant-based restaurant that opened five years ago in downtown New Canaan closed this past weekend. Located at Main Street and East Avenue in what locals remember as the former “Wire Whisk” space, Greenology closed Sunday. Clean and comfortable, the eatery emerged as a popular local spot for healthy smoothies, juices, soups, acai and protein bowls, sandwiches, salads and Jack’s Stir Brew coffee. 

Reached by NewCanaanite.com, the business’s owner, James Marks, noted that he’s open to hearing from investors for a possible future iteration of Greenology in New Canaan. “We also really want to thank the community for the tremendous outpouring of love and support for us,” Marks said. “I have received so many sad and very kind messages from our customers and the community.”

Opened at 96 Main St.

Business

‘I Love This Place’: The Strength Collective Opens Friday on Vitti Street

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Fanni Loosz, a native of Hungary who launched her career as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor about 10 years ago in New York City, had long envisioned having her own dedicated space for a strength training studio. Loosz, a competitive powerlifter who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and criminology from St. Joseph’s College and two master’s degrees from the CUNY Graduate Center—in international migration studies and public health nutrition—had been renting out and sharing space with other trainers in the city, and then starting two years ago, in Stamford. “I was bringing my clients into someone else’s space,” Loosz recalled on Wednesday morning. “And I wanted to have space, not necessarily only to train people, but to educate.