Scores of foodies and shoppers descended on downtown New Canaan on Thursday night for the seventh annual Taste of the Town Stroll. Organized by the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, the event serves as a “food-raiser” for the local food pantry and this year also doubled as an eyeglasses and hearing aid donation drive for the venerable Lions Club. The event was a “big success,” according to the Chamber’s executive director, Tucker Murphy. “The food pantry will be overflowing,” Murphy said of the hundreds of donated food bags and items. “It was a beautiful night and how wonderful to see so much support for the Chamber, food pantry and town of New Canaan.” —Michael Dinan
3 thoughts on “PHOTOS: ‘Taste of the Town Stroll’ Draws Crowds To Downtown New Canaan”
The New Canaan Taste of the Town was an interesting evening. The weather could not have been better and many people turned out to enjoy the night. Normally, a ‘Taste of the…” implies food and food vendors—restaurants to be precise but restaurants were in short supply. The overwhelming majority of participants were local retailers, some of whom participated with great enthusiasm, others not so much.
We followed our map to each and every participating location, many of whom we had not been to before. Some had food or snacks, some drinks or candy, some wine and cheese. The effort to bring in new customers was successful on us as we made a strong showing in stimulating the local economy with plans to return to several of the stores soon.
On the food tasting side, two local restaurants, the New Canaan Diner and Gates, both had delicious samples of their wares. While we have been a regular enjoyer of the diner, this was our first stop at Gates since their re-opening and we were not disappointed. We will be coming back to try a full dinner at Gates soon. There was a third restaurant on the sheet but they ran out of tastes early and seemed a bit bothered that people kept coming by anyway.
It seems that all the local restaurants were benefiting from the event even though most were not participants. Lots of people were quite hungry as they wandered the streets and eventually fell into on or another of the eateries there. It is a shame that so many turned their back on the ‘Taste’. While we were very happy to try the stores and other vendors it was the downtown restaurants we were really looking forward to.
Unless you live downtown, there are many other nearby towns that offer their own collections of places to eat just about as close by, often with better parking options. The result is that we have a few New Canaan favorites but have also missed many of the restaurants in town. This looked like it would be a chance to finally see which of them we might want to try. Instead, the restaurants seem to feel they have no need to show their wares or bring people downtown, thank you very much. So be it.
To all who worked hard to make Thursday evening a success for the town and the food pantry, thank you and congratulations.
The “Taste of the Town Stroll” last night was another example of what makes New Canaan such a special place to live! Merchants staying open late and serving food/drinks, dedicated volunteers, residents of all ages strolling through town and catching up with friends and neighbors, music that flowed down the street (thank you Elm Restaurant!), support for local charities, and a wonderful Pop-Up Park setting for everyone to use! Our community is so blessed to have events like this, and there are so many opportunities this time of the year…Movie Night for the kids at Waveny this Friday night, free yoga class and the Young Entrepreneur Fair on Sunday, the last Waveny Summer Concert next Wednesday, Overdose Awareness Day & Vigil next Thursday, a robust September schedule of author talks and classes at the Library and Lapham, fall sports games starting up at the schools…go RAMS!
The New Canaan Taste of the Town was an interesting evening. The weather could not have been better and many people turned out to enjoy the night. Normally, a ‘Taste of the…” implies food and food vendors—restaurants to be precise but restaurants were in short supply. The overwhelming majority of participants were local retailers, some of whom participated with great enthusiasm, others not so much.
We followed our map to each and every participating location, many of whom we had not been to before. Some had food or snacks, some drinks or candy, some wine and cheese. The effort to bring in new customers was successful on us as we made a strong showing in stimulating the local economy with plans to return to several of the stores soon.
On the food tasting side, two local restaurants, the New Canaan Diner and Gates, both had delicious samples of their wares. While we have been a regular enjoyer of the diner, this was our first stop at Gates since their re-opening and we were not disappointed. We will be coming back to try a full dinner at Gates soon. There was a third restaurant on the sheet but they ran out of tastes early and seemed a bit bothered that people kept coming by anyway.
It seems that all the local restaurants were benefiting from the event even though most were not participants. Lots of people were quite hungry as they wandered the streets and eventually fell into on or another of the eateries there. It is a shame that so many turned their back on the ‘Taste’. While we were very happy to try the stores and other vendors it was the downtown restaurants we were really looking forward to.
Unless you live downtown, there are many other nearby towns that offer their own collections of places to eat just about as close by, often with better parking options. The result is that we have a few New Canaan favorites but have also missed many of the restaurants in town. This looked like it would be a chance to finally see which of them we might want to try. Instead, the restaurants seem to feel they have no need to show their wares or bring people downtown, thank you very much. So be it.
To all who worked hard to make Thursday evening a success for the town and the food pantry, thank you and congratulations.
The “Taste of the Town Stroll” last night was another example of what makes New Canaan such a special place to live! Merchants staying open late and serving food/drinks, dedicated volunteers, residents of all ages strolling through town and catching up with friends and neighbors, music that flowed down the street (thank you Elm Restaurant!), support for local charities, and a wonderful Pop-Up Park setting for everyone to use! Our community is so blessed to have events like this, and there are so many opportunities this time of the year…Movie Night for the kids at Waveny this Friday night, free yoga class and the Young Entrepreneur Fair on Sunday, the last Waveny Summer Concert next Wednesday, Overdose Awareness Day & Vigil next Thursday, a robust September schedule of author talks and classes at the Library and Lapham, fall sports games starting up at the schools…go RAMS!
Great work and thank you, Tucker Murphy and Chamber of Commerce.