Business

Dolce Owners To Open ‘Lombardi’s’ Restaurant on Elm Street

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The owners of a popular Italian café in downtown New Canaan are planning to open a new restaurant down the street. Andrea Lombardi, owner of Dolce on Elm Street, is planning to open “Lombardi’s” restaurant one block away at 32 Elm St., according to plans filed with the New Canaan Building Department. 

“Andrea’s vision for space is sleek, acoustically tuned with imaginative lighting plans,” according to a letter of intent that forms part of the filing. The space recently had been occupied by an art gallery that moved within downtown New Canaan. According to floor plans, Lombardi’s will have a bar with 12 stools and 14 two-top tables on the first floor, with six four-top tables and a service bar on the second floor. Norwalk-based Mark Demmerle Architecture & Building Services is the contractor on the fitout, according to the filings.

Who Knew? New Canaan on Ice

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. Is it too hot for opinions this week? Because I have one.  Everyone can openly adopt precisely one form of snobbery. You can be a wine aficionado, an ardent collector of vinyl, or an art-house cinephile, but combine all three into one personality, and you’d best tread lightly.

Business

Local Businesses and COVID-19: Dolce Italian Café

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For today’s Q&A with a New Canaan business owner navigating the COVID-19 emergency and related restrictions, we hear from Andrea Lombardi, owner-operator of Dolce Italian Café on Elm Street. The café is open for pickup 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: You just opened last summer, and then you got hit with this. How are you doing? Andrea Lombardi: Right now we are getting by and we are trying to survive.

Andrea Lombardi

Owner of Dolcé on Elm Street Plans To Open Coffee Stand at Train Station

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The owner of a popular café on Elm Street is planning to open a coffee stand inside the New Canaan Train Station. 

Andrea Lombardi, owner-operator of Dolce, an Italian-style café, said that if all goes forward as planned, he’ll be serving coffee and pastry out of the designated area at the train station in a few months. “I like new opportunities, it’s always fun,” Lombardi told NewCanaanite.com when asked about his plans. “Whatever the customers want., whatever they ask for, I am going to bring it in for them,” he said. The last operator of the train station coffee and newsstand, Gerald Carney, had a permit for 2019 but not this year, health records show. Lombardi on Wednesday went on a walk-through of the space with a sanitarian from the New Canaan Health Department. 

According to notes from the sanitarian’s report, Lombardi is to submit a plan to the town with the proposed location of a counter and equipment.

Business

Popular Elm Street Café Seeks Permission To Place ‘Pole’ Sign Out Front

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Saying it would help bring visibility, the owner of an Italian-style café on Elm Street is seeking permission from town officials to place a “pole sign” out front of the eatery. According to Dolce owner Andrea Lombardi, patrons have had difficulty finding the café at 98 Elm St. “due to its setback from the rest of the buildings on my side of the street.”

“Unfortunately, this has been further impacted by the large planter that was recently placed on the street (in a no parking zone) in front of my business,” Lombardi said in an Aug. 23 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission. “This sign would be upon my landlord’s property and as shown by the enclosed picture, would help ‘direct’ potential patrons to my store and inform them of what I am serving.”

The Italy native opened Dolce two months ago in the former New Canaan Olive Oil space.