Business

French Café ‘Saisons Sucrées’ Coming to Main Street

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A new café is set to open in the heart of downtown New Canaan. Saisons Sucrées, or “Sweet Seasons”—a “pâtisserie and café serving refined and innovative French sweet and savory pastries, bread, sandwiches, chocolates, coffee, and tea—is to open this spring at 84 Main St. The commercial space most recently was an art gallery. “With attentive service in our elegant café setting we aim to give you an experience that feels luxurious and authentically Parisian,” according to the Saisons Sucrées website (here on Instagram and Facebook). It continues: “We are passionate about serving you products made from the highest quality ingredients, including imported French flour and butter, and using the freshest local in-season produce to bring out the brightest flavors.”

The café will soft-open April 21, a company representative said.

Business

‘Crafty Kids’ Planned for Former ‘Against the Grain’ Space on Main Street

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Another vacant commercial space on Main Street is in line to get a new tenant. 

Weeks after Carpet Trends announced that it was moving into the former Garelick & Herbs building, a Westport-based company that provides hands-on craft space for kids is looking to open a New Canaan location just a few doors away. Established two years ago, Crafty Kids seeks to “provide a fun space for children to grow their creative and social confidence through process art, hands-on DIY crafts and sensory play” in a “creative, fun and nurturing environment,” according to the company’s website. It’s seeking to open a location in the former Against the Grain space at 91 Main St. (also known to locals as the old Varnum’s Pharmacy location). According to a letter filed with the town as part of an application for site plan approval from the Planning & Zoning Commission, Crafty Kids “is an art business with retail and art studio components that provide a creative and interactive environment for children and adults.”

“We believe Crafty Kids shares many of the same positive attributes of other ‘personal service establishments’ that occupy space on the first floor in New Canaan’s Retail A Zone,” according to the letter, filed by Brock Saxe of Compass.

Business

‘BA Skin Lab’ Marks 10 Years in Business

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BA Skin Lab on Grove Street in March marked its tenth year in business, a major milestone for the skin care clinic. Founded by Barbara Aquino in March of 2015, BA Skin Lab’s main focus is tailoring their treatment for each individual client, a strategy which has attracted customers from all over the state, she said. “Everything we do is very different. It’s not a typical fashion place that does cookie cutter treatment,” Aquino told the New Canaanite. “We don’t even have a menu of treatments, because we are going to tailor the treatment, boosters and products based on the skin that we see, whoever comes in.

Business

‘Carpet Trends’ Seeks P&Z Approval Ahead of Spring Opening on Main Street

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A family-owned business moving into a long-vacant commercial space in downtown New Canaan is seeking formal permission from the Planning & Zoning Commission to provide its residential and commercial flooring and related services. Carpet Trends is planning to open a satellite showroom at 97 Main St. next month. The former Garelick & Herbs space has been vacant for about eight years. Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, P&Z site plan approval is required for retail businesses with a gross first-floor area of less than 5,000 square feet operating in the Retail A Zone (page 77).

Business

‘Exceeded All of My Expectations’: Look New Canaan Marks One Year in Business

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Look New Canaan, an eyewear vendor and optometry practice located on 21 Forest St., has reached its one-year milestone. Owned and operated by Dr. Jennifer Stewart, a Rowayton resident with more than 15 years of optometry experience, the retail shop and practice provides patients of all ages with eye exams, custom lens fitting, ocular disease management and more. Stewart said that her first year has been “more than she could have ever expected or planned on.”
“It’s been an unbelievable first year,” she told New Canaanite. “Patients have been really great, and the town has been so supportive of us. It really exceeded all of my expectations.”
In addition to the wide range of services offered at Look New Canaan, Stewart said she believes that the location has been a major factor in her success.