Business

New Concrete Planters To Replace White Plastic Barriers for Outdoor Dining on Elm

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New Canaan’s local traffic authority has approved this season of expanded outdoor dining in three areas along the north side of Elm Street. The Police Commission at its most recent meeting voted unanimously to allow the expanded outdoor dining—an offshoot of the COVID-19 pandemic where tables and chairs are placed in would-be parking spaces on the street and enclosed by temporary barricades—in front of Patisserie Salzburg/Rosie, Solé and Chef Luis. The white plastic barriers from past outdoor dining seasons will be re-used until, with approval from other town bodies, they’re replaced in six to eight weeks with rectangular 32-by-32-by-64-inch concrete planters, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. The 2,400-pound planters are “somewhat similar to the size of a temporary precast concrete barrier, only those are eight feet long whereas these are just over five feet long,” Mann told members of the Police Commission at their April 19 meeting, held at police headquarters and via videoconference. “We feel we can place these along the area instead of the white barricades and they will provide more safety for outdoor diners and the fact that it can be planted is kind of nice, and it’s really a different look than the white barricades,” Mann said.

Business

Dunkin’ Donuts Plans May 20 ‘Grand Opening’ in New Location at South and Elm

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Dunkin’ Donuts is planning a May 20 grand opening in its new space at South Avenue and Elm Street, officials say. The chain coffee shop plans to put a pop-up tent in a no-parking area outside the store, with “wind wavers” and a balloon arch on the sidewalk on that Saturday morning, handing out samples and swag to passersby, according to Laura Budd, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. “They’ve got a whole promotion planned for the event,” Budd told members of the Police Commission meeting, held April 19 at police headquarters and via videoconference. “And because that tent can’t go on the sidewalk, they want to put it up flush against the curb. Customers would access whatever’s happening in the tent from the sidewalk side.”

Budd referred to a photo submitted to the Commission on behalf of Dunkin’ showing where the promotional materials would be located. 

“They didn’t need the whole ‘Pop-Up Park’ space but they did want to make a splash of it,” Budd said, referring to the first block of South Avenue, between Elm Street and Morse Court, which is sometimes blocked off to motor vehicle traffic for special events.

Business

New Canaan Butcher Shop Set To Open Next Week on Burtis Avenue

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Paul Paris, a former St. Aloysius School student who graduated from Darien High School in 1996, got the idea of opening up his own butcher shop about one year ago. He’d worked for a time at a butcher shop in Darien, then helped the ownership company open another one in Old Greenwich, running it for them for the past several years. 

“I always wanted to do something like this, but for me it was always a few things, like the finances and the location,” Paris said. 

He added, “And last July, my wife and I decided we really wanted to take that next step.”

They did. Paris is on track to open the New Canaan Butcher Shop (here on Instagram) next week at 12 Burtis Ave. Located in the former Red Grape Wine & Spirits space with parking on Burtis or in the nearby Morse Court, the shop will offer prime meats, grass-fed meats, Wagyu, dry-aged, poultry, lamb, pork, a freezer with wild game such as elk, venison, buffalo and antelope, salads, prepared foods, cold cuts and sandwiches. 

“You name it,” Paris said.

Around Town

Greg Sages, Longtime Executive Director of The Glass House, To Step Down

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Greg Sages, with characteristic modesty, views the eight years that he’s led The Glass House as executive director in terms of the organization’s larger goals and history. 

When the historic Glass House building and campus on Ponus Ridge opened to the public in 2007 following the deaths of Philip Johnson and David Whitney, the then-director’s priority was “getting the place open,” Sage said. The second director was from the art community and had strong ties to Manhattan galleries and architects, and focused on those connections in raising the visibility of The Glass House. 

For Sage, “the most important thing was integrating the site into the fabric of New Canaan,” he said. “My predecessors had not focused on that effort,” Sage said. He added that he and Christa Carr, The Glass House’s director of communications, “have been pretty active in local organizations and also we set out to do a number of partnerships with other not-for-profits in town including the library, the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society, Grace Farms, S.T.A.R in this past year, and others.”

“And I think we have maintained a very positive reputation in the museum community with visitors coming from around the country and from around the world,” he said. Sage recently notified his employers at the National Trust for Historic Preservation that he’s stepping down as director.

Brian McMaster

‘The Greatest Return on Investment’: Inspire Fitness Moves to Downtown New Canaan 

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Brian McMaster started looking last summer for a new home for his 10-year-old strength training business. Inspire Fitness, which also focuses on its clients’ mobility and stability, had been based in North Stamford since its inception, and “while looking for a location I just really fell in love with the look of New Canaan,” McMaster recalled Tuesday. “I’d looked in Stamford, also in Bedford [N.Y.] and other places, but New Canaan just seemed like a really nice fit,” he told NewCanaanite.com. 

He opened in September at 100 Park St. and recently joined the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce. Since then, he’s had many of his longtime clients follow him to town and found new ones here.