Business

‘An Exciting Time of Year’: New Canaan’s Outdoor Dining Season Opens Thursday

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The sidewalks of downtown New Canaan will be remade by midday Thursday as the outdoor dining launches on what is forecast to be a sunny afternoon in the upper-60s. Pushed back one month this year to May 1, the launch of the outdoor dining season is a widely anticipated amenity for restaurateurs and visitors to New Canaan’s lively village center. Adam Zakka, principal of Z Hospitality Group—owners of Solé and Blackbird and new food-and-beverage providers for The Playhouse Pub next door—said he was “super-optimistic” about the upcoming season. 

“It was a little bit of a colder winter than usual, so we’re pretty happy to see the warmer weather coming,” Zakka told NewCanaanite.com. “And I think the town embraces local businesses so it’s an exciting time of the year.”

This year’s outdoor dining will be bolstered by the addition of more sidewalk “bumpouts” on Elm Street, including in front of Dunkin, The Playhouse and Dolce. (Because they’ll exempt the town from a state law that forbids parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk, the bumpouts will allow New Canaan to gain back a handful of parking spaces on the south side of Elm Street’s one-way stretch.)

Asked about the new menu at Playhouse Pub, Zakka said “there will be some unique options for The Playhouse, exclusively, that will fit their concept as far as pub food.” Those include “five or seven revolving items that will be more ‘pubbish’ than Italian,” he added.

Business

‘Blackbird’ Restaurant Coming to Elm Street

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The owners of Solé on Elm Street are planning a new restaurant called ‘Blackbird’ for the commercial space next door. Planned for a September opening at 105 Elm St.—between The Playhouse and Solé, formerly home to Potpourri and, later, Fat Face—Blackbird will offer a wide range of cuisine that patrons will be able to share, according to Adam Zakka, principal of Z Hospitality Group. “It will be a departure from our sister restaurant next door, which is a restaurant with your typical appetizer-entree-dessert menu format,” Zakka told NewCanaanite.com. 

The new restaurant will be “more progressive” in that the menu will offer more “shareables,” he said. Blackbird also will be “beverage-driven,” featuring “progressive cocktail techniques,” he said, and is expected to offer “a little more late-night life” than Solé. The cuisine could be described as “global,” Zakka said, “not bound to Italian or French or Asian,” and will offer some American-style food in the mix.