News

Building Permits Sought for Forest Street Residential-and-Retail Complex

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The owners of 21 Forest St. have put in for building permits that will see a widely anticipated mixed residential-and-retail complex come to a commercial block long known as a restaurant hub. Plans call for a three-story structure on what are really three separate lots that total about .72 acres, according to the building permit application made April 16 by Forest Street Properties LLC and plans on file at Planning & Zoning. (See the slideshow at the end of this article for a full look at artistic rendering and plans.)

The complex would include two commercial spaces—at 3,700- and 1,057-square feet, with the larger one on the north side (toward Locust)—as well as seven residential units (five on the second floor and then two larger ones on the third floor), a pocket park and 48-space parking lot. The residential units’ courtyard would include skylights to the commercial plaza below, a stone fireplace and stone-and-wood deck.

Business

Bob at Forest Street Deli on the Last Day: ‘It’s Going To Be Very Emotional’

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This weekend will mark the first time in memory that Bob Watters won’t wake up at home in Easton on a Saturday, then travel down the Merritt to Forest Street to unlock and open the popular deli that’s been feeding New Canaanites for more than 20 years. The Forest Street Deli—a throwback, owner-on-site neighborhood joint whose customers rave about the chicken salad and chat with Watters (a 1978 Stamford High School graduate) about life, baseball, the Jets, sports and family—is coming down to make way for a mixed retail-and-residential structure. “Knowing it’s the end is really strange,” Watters said Friday morning during a brief break from the grill. “I know it’s going to be very emotional. I’ve been saying goodbye to people, but now I know it’s for the final time.

Business

Looking Back: Forest Street Deli to Close Next Friday

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The single breakfast item that remains from the original Forest Street Deli menu these 22 years is the ‘Big O’: A grilled cheese with tomatoes, scallions, black pepper, roast beef and an over-easy egg. [selfie]

Asked Friday where the name came from, owner Bob Watters said in typically playful fashion: “That’s classified information.”

“I’ve got people here who used to come in when they were five years old,” Watters, an Easton resident and 1978 Stamford High School graduate, told NewCanaanite.com. “And now they’re adults, they’re out of college. I’ve got kids who are now coming in here with kids who were their age when they started coming here. And it’s really funny, a lot of them still eat the same sandwiches they ate when they were 12 years old.