Business

‘We’re Growing and Expanding’: Sama Yoga Finds Larger Space in New Canaan

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A beloved New Canaan business is moving within town this week. 

Sama Yoga Center, located on Grove Street since Rebekah Jacobs founded the studio in 2015, is relocating Thursday to 215 Elm St., the glass enclosed second-floor space above Stewart’s Wine & Spirits. “I’m feeling excited—I’m feeling really excited,” Jacobs said last week from the airy main floor at the newly renamed Sama Center, a naturally well-lit space that includes a private changing area and two additional rooms for small classes and private training. Asked for her message to the community on the move, Jacobs said: “We’re growing and expanding because we care about your health, your wellbeing, and we’re growing and expanding because we care about you and because of your support—you bringing a friend, you bringing a family member. We are able to take this next step in our development so that we can offer you and the community beyond yoga: infrared, Pilates reformer, alongside the private sessions, trainings, retreats, special events and classes that you’ve come to know and love from us.”

A grand opening and ribbon-cutting is planned for 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22.

Alex Stewart

Fork-Cleaning Sponge Invented by Former New Canaan Resident Debuts at Walter Stewart’s

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Germaphobes rejoice: Forks have finally met their match with a sponge that cleans between the tines. Former New Canaan resident Philip Bambino, 80, has turned his obsession with cleanliness into a patented product that is making its debut at Walter Stewart’s Market. The “Tine Out Scrubbing Pad” looks like a regular scrubbing pad but with a cutout in the center that has flexible comb-like teeth for catching food caught  between fork tines. Folks who typically resort to using a knife to clean between tines of a fork, soaking them, or hoping the dishwasher will do the dirty work can now slide forks through the unique cleaning mechanism to reach stuck-on food. On the Tine Out website, a video of the scrubbing pad in action shows it tackling a fork with crusted-on food—four-day-old egg, cheese, and oatmeal, according to Bambino.

Business

‘Kset’ Women’s Clothing Pops Up on South Avenue

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Kristen Setter, a 2016 Wilton High School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in photography from the University of Connecticut, was working as a temporary staffer for clothing manufacturers, flying out to trade shows, when she decided she’d “rather be on the other side” of the business, meaning retail. “I was doing pop-ups at colleges for the past couple years,” Setter said Monday afternoon from inside her brick-and-mortar business, Kset, which had opened earlier this year on Elm Street and has since moved into the former The Agency space at South Avenue and Morse Court. “So I’d bring everything in my car to Sacred Heart, UConn, Quinnipiac—everywhere really. I did that for a while, and then I wanted to try the brick-and-mortar… I wanted the flexibility of doing the pop-up shop. And I wanted to do an online business, and I discovered through doing the in-person that I really liked this, too.”

Setter travels to trade shows in New York and Las Vegas, picking everything out so that what’s on offer at Kset is “fully curated by me,” she said.

Business

‘It’s Been Really Exciting’: Calibrate Physical Therapy Opens on Park Street

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Jonathan Filipe, a physical therapist and athletic trainer, was working in concierge medicine for a health and research institute when the idea for a new type of business came to him. It was late-2024, and Filipe—a Fairfield resident and graduate of New York Medical College’s physical therapy school, where he earned a doctorate degree—had already started transitioning out of working in professional sports, including managing the sports medicine staff for the United States Olympic Committee, Brooklyn Nets as head athletic trainer and physical therapist and New York City Football Club. “My goal was to try to bring that model and high-level quality care to Connecticut, but also bring that really high-level quality care that you see in professional sports that’s not out there for the general public,” Filipe said. “I wanted to deliver that at a really high level, both from a clinical acumen standpoint, like being able to solve really hard problems, but also being able to deliver on the hospitality front and quality of care side.”

Together with his wife—physical therapist Amanda Paquin, a former competitive high-level dancer who specializes in pelvic floor and women’s health and holds a doctorate degree in physical therapy from Sacred Heart University—opened Calibrate Physical Therapy and Fitness. Located at 98 Park St., the company offers personalized sports rehabilitation, performance training, concussion management and pain management through a science-driven, one-on-one approach.

Business

‘Sticks’ Members-Only Golf Simulator Coming to Vitti Street

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A Westport-based golf simulator company is preparing to open a new location in New Canaan. Sticks, which offers members a Trackman iO golf simulator with radar, infrared and high-speed imaging, is on track to open in November at 28 Vitti St., according to owner Ali Loyd. The company is a “passion project” that’s “small and still very new,” Loyd told NewCanaanite.com. “This is our second location, and we’re thrilled to be expanding to New Canaan.”

Asked why New Canaan is a good town for Sticks, Loyd said: “We’ve always loved New Canaan—one of my best friends in college was from New Canaan, and it sounded like a storybook whenever she would talk about it. When we moved to Fairfield County we were thrilled to land close by, and as we thought about opening a business we always kept it top of mind, as we know there are plenty of golf lovers there.”

Sticks operates on a members-only model, and the company limits membership at about 50 people with no drop-ins, ensuring there’s availability for members, she said.