Around Town

Park & Rec Hears Proposal for Two Caffeine & Carburetors Events at Waveny

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If approved, twice-yearly Caffeine & Carburetors gatherings at Waveny could require advance registration from participating antique and specialty car owners, as well as a donation of non-perishables to the New Canaan Food Pantry by exhibitors and attendees—a voluntary option last fall. Park & Recreation Commissioner Rick Kilbride said during the group’s regular meeting Wednesday night that making charitable giving a part of Caffeine & Carburetors would be “directionally an extremely appropriate balance for a community like this.”

“I think it could go a really, really long way if everybody participated in that way—in terms of being aware and supporting some of these or one of these specific charitable efforts,” Kilbride said at the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “I don’t know how to make that mandatory, but I think there is an implied obligation for every exhibitor and attendee.”

Caffeine & Carburetors founder Doug Zumbach is seeking approval for four events this year—April 19 and Sept. 13 on Pine and Elm Streets, and May 10 and Oct. 18 at Waveny.

Around Town

Caffeine & Carburetors To Propose Four 2015 Dates, Downtown and at Waveny

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Calling Caffeine & Carburetors a safe, responsibly run gathering that benefits the community, aligns with New Canaan’s recreational principles and has earned support from town government, public safety, arts and business leaders, the event’s creators are proposing four dates for a 2015 season. New Canaanites Doug Zumbach, owner of the eponymous Pine Street coffee shop where the grassroots event was born, and Peter Bush, as well as Ridgefield’s Todd Brown, are seeking the following Sunday dates and places for this year’s Caffeine & Carburetors:

April 19—Pine and Elm Streets
May 17—Waveny Park (in conjunction with the Carriage Barn Art Center’s exhibition “Va Va Vroom! The Art of the Vehicle”)
Sept. 13—Pine and Elm Streets
Oct. 18—Waveny Park

Noting that Zumbach covers all costs for the event, the proposal says Caffeine & Carburetors “attracts New Canaan families and visitors from neighboring towns who attend to enjoy cars as well as the charm of the town and its restaurants and shops.”

“Caffeine & Carburetors proved itself to be a responsible and caring steward of Waveny Park by all accounts, with officials observing the event as being a ‘success,’ with ‘people enjoying themselves,’ going ‘very well,’ with ‘no issues or problems,’ being ‘orderly,’ and garnering a ‘tremendous donation for the Food Pantry,’ ” the proposal said.

Government

Rec Director on Waveny Caffeine & Carburetors: ‘It Went Very Well’

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The first New Canaan gathering of classic and specialty auto enthusiasts to be held somewhere other than the downtown—the Oct. 19 event at Waveny—went “very well” and “people seemed to enjoy themselves,” the head of the Recreation Department said Wednesday night. Caffeine & Carburetors’ debut at New Canaan’s treasured park saw cars “in a nice orderly manner on the roads, the parking lot, around the front circle of the house,” Steve Benko said at the regular meeting of the Park & Recreation Commission meeting, during the first public postmortem of the 3.5-hour event. “I didn’t see any issues or problems,” he said at the meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “Doug [Zumbach] and his crew stayed after to pick up signs and pick up garbage.

Around Town

PHOTOS: Caffeine & Carburetors Makes Waveny Debut

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Hundreds of auto enthusiasts gathered at a windswept Waveny Park Sunday afternoon for a special installment of the grassroots car show that grew out of a more intimate event that started just four years ago at New Canaan resident Doug Zumbach’s eponymous gourmet coffee shop on Pine Street. The Waveny debut of Caffeine & Carburetors took the show that in April, for the first time ever, expanded from Pine to Elm Street downtown, and placed it in the heart of what most New Canaanites would call the town’s great treasure. Parked in the Orchard Field lot, alongside the Carriage Barn Arts Center, around the loop in front of Waveny House and on both sides of the access road toward Lapham, classic and specialty cars lined up against the picturesque backdrop of the mansion, fields and trees in autumn. Visitors, many gripping dog leashes or pushing baby strollers, moved in and out of each area, directed by Zumbach’s volunteers and often sipping his brew, purchased at a stand in the Orchard lot. “I think it looks great,” New Canaan’s Tucker Murphy, executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce said near the stone wall near the entrance to the circle in front of Waveny House, where Peter Bush of FM 9.59 The Fox emceed.

Caffeine & Carburetors

Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny; Children’s Workshops at Carriage Barn Arts Center

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Auto enthusiasts and grassroots New Canaan event Caffeine & Carburetors makes its Waveny debut from 8 to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 19. Caffeine & Carburetors is the brainchild of town resident Doug Zumbach, owner of Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee on Pine Street. In conjunction with Caffeine & Carburetors, the Carriage Barn Arts Center will be hosting a children’s art workshop, featuring fun car-related crafts and refreshments. Sponsored by Gen Re, Kiwanis Club of New Canaan, Newcomer’s Club of New Canaan, and the Rotary Club of New Canaan.