Alicia Brandfellner

Local Businesses and COVID-19: Ciel Eau

By |

For today’s Q&A with a local business owner, we hear from Alicia Brandfellner of Ciel Eau. Opened five years ago on East Avenue, the day spa starting this week is offering body and eyebrow waxing, and massage therapy, among other services, by appointment. Here’s our exchange. 

New Canaanite: You got the green light to open recently [on June 17] after weeks of forced closure, as per the governor’s order. How are you doing? Alicia Brandfellner: Since the forced closure nearly three months ago, we are excited to start back on June 17.

Business

‘We Need To Find a Compromise’: ‘No Parking’ Signs To Go Up on East Avenue

By |

Officials say they’re going to post “No Parking” signs outside of an East Avenue business that’s been plagued by truck drivers idling outside the door to make deliveries around New Canaan. Though the truckers cannot park their vehicles outside day spa Ciel Eau at 1 East Ave.—because it’s illegal, bad for business owner Alicia Brandfellner and unsafe for motorists and pedestrians—still, those delivery drivers must be accommodated somewhere so that New Canaan restaurants get deliveries, Police Commission Chairman Stuart Sawabini said. “We clearly need to protect her [Brandfellner’s] business but we also cannot damage their [restaurants’] business,” Sawabini said during the commission’s regular monthly meeting, held Nov. 18 in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “We need to find a compromise as we go through all this.”

Though there’s a designated 7 to 10 a.m. loading zone in front of Sleepy’s across East Avenue at the start of Forest Street, it’s rarely used because Forest is still in disarray with the mixed-use project going up by Locust Avenue, commissioners said.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

By |

New Canaan’s annual ceremony honoring and remembering those lost in the Sept, 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will return to the front steps of Town Hall this Friday, Sept. 11 at 9:55 a.m. Attendees are welcome to join town officials for refreshments following the ceremony, at the New Canaan Firehouse across Main Street, Fire Marshal Fred Baker tells us. ***

Congratulations to 2002 NCHS grad Katherine Pembrook Avgerinos, looking beautiful in these photos on occasion of her July 5 marriage to Ivan Jose Docampo Esmoris in Glyfada, Greece. Here are excerpts from the wedding notice, supplied by her mom:

The Rev. Harold E. Masback, III, former senior minister of the Congregational Church of New Canaan, officiated at the service.        

The bride is the daughter of Michael and Linda Avgerinos, formerly of New Canaan and now residing in Norwalk. The bridegroom is the son of Hilario and Maria Jesus Docampo of Carballo, Spain, in the northeast region of Galicia.

Business

‘Ciel Eau’: A New Day Spa Opens Its Doors On East Avenue

By |

Ciel Eau—a new day spa offering facials, waxing treatments and massages, soon to add spray-tans, manicures and pedicures—has opened its doors at 1 East Ave. (just down from the corner of Main Street). Owned by Alicia Brandfellner and John Radzin, the spa has been named ‘Ciel Eau,’ which is French for “Sky Water,” is reflect its soothing and flowing atmosphere, Brandfellner said. An employee in New Canaan for 28 years at other spa locations, Brandfellner said she felt that the town was in real need for a peaceful and calm spa. “It’s like a secluded oasis in the downtown area,” Brandfellner said.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

By |

The weekend before last was so windy that, despite the vents in them, the windscreens on the new tennis courts at New Canaan High School actually bent the fence, parks officials say. (The company that installed the windscreens was scheduled to come back early this week to fix the fence at no cost to the town.)

***

This week’s warmer daytime temps will have New Canaanites thinking about spending summer in the sun. One of the best deals—and best-kept secrets—in town will be had at Kiwanis Park, where daily passes for adults are just $2, and $1 for kids. ***

There’s no truth to the rumor that New Canaan’s iconic Gates Restaurant is going to be sold, the Forest Street fixture’s owner tells us. ***

The former New Canaan Public Schools lunch lady who has brought a lawsuit saying that her ex-boss created a hostile work environment is upping the number of witness depositions in the case from nine to 15, according to a filing Friday.