Business

Sidewalk Sale: Return of Caffeine & Carburetors Announced as Throngs of Bargain-Hunters Hit Downtown New Canaan [PHOTOS]

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Scores of bargain-hunters descended on downtown New Canaan on a tolerably warm Saturday for the 52nd annual Village Fair and Sidewalk Sale. Merchant booths on Main, Elm and Forest Streets sold out well ahead of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s deadline, and shoppers moved through areas cordoned off for pedestrians to peruse racks of clothes and tables of goods, visiting the Pop Up Park for live music and food and riding on “zippy pets” where Karl Chevrolet and the New Canaan YMCA set up at Main and Elm. “The weather is going to be great—it’s not 99 degrees,” Chamber Executive Director Tucker Murphy said. “This is all good.”

Doug Zumbach, owner of Zumbach’s Gourmet Coffee on Pine Street, in the afternoon announced that Caffeine & Carburetors—originally ruled out for 2017—would make a special return to downtown New Canaan on Sunday, Sept. 17.

Business

‘Give It Everything’: Locals Gather at New Canaan Music for Session with ‘Steely Dan’ Touring Members

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New Canaan’s Will Cuoco, back home between his junior and senior years at the University of Vermont, dropped by his old workplace on Friday night to attend a night of music with two professionals currently touring with one of his favorite acts. Steely Dan, an innovative jazz rock outfit that attained global fame in the 1970’s and ‘80s, has been “very influential for me,” Cuoco, a 2014 NCHS graduate, said as he and others gathered at New Canaan Music downtown to see and play with a pair of the band’s touring members, keyboardist Jim Beard and guitarist Jon Herington. “They strike that perfect balance of complexity and accessibility,” Cuoco said. “I’m so curious as to Beard and Herington’s own process, I’ve heard them talk about having every note fit together, making everything choreographed and pre-planned. I’m personally wondering how to avoid a song becoming too structured.”

Seats at the event cost $100, and by 7:45 p.m. 16 musicians and fans sat down across from Herington and Beard as they answered questions about their careers, improvisation techniques, musical philosophies and songwriting tips.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Jeff Immelt, chairman of the board at General Electric and the company’s CEO (through next month), sold his New Canaan home for $4 million, according to a property transfer logged Wednesday at the Town Clerk’s office. He had purchased a new 10,000-square-foot Colonial on West Road in 2001. ***

A little dog who resides on Old Stamford Road got off-property when someone left a gate open and he found his way to Waveny Pool on a hot and humid day this week. The Havanese mix called ‘Pepe,’ approximately four years old, turned up at the town facility around 11:08 a.m. on Monday, June 19. The pool supervisor contacted police and an owner was located.

Business

‘Take It to the Next Level’: New Canaan Music Moving to Main Street

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New Canaan Music is poised to move this summer from its original location in “the alley” on Elm Street to a larger, more conspicuous space on Main Street, officials say—a great sign for the locally owned business as well as for a block that’s seen merchants vacate street-level storefronts in the past year. Owner Phil Williams said that after four years in the alley near Chef Luis, “we are ready to take it up to the next level” in moving to 90 Main St., most recently the temporary site of the New Canaan Post Office, near the corner of East Avenue. “We will have bigger and better lesson rooms, a bigger and better store and a more prominent location,” said Williams, a town resident with a son in public schools here and who serves on the Board of Directors of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce. “This really puts us more on the map. This [the original location] has been a good place that has really served us well for the past four years—I can’t believe it has already been that many years—but it has given us a good launching point to take it to the next level.”

New Canaan Music’s space will increase by more than half as much in the new space, from approximately 1,200 to 2,000 square feet, Williams said.

Around Town

‘Art in the Windows’ Kicks Off Downtown Thursday

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Dozens of New Canaan shops will stay open late Thursday, as live music, artist receptions, wine tastings and other special events are held throughout the business district to mark the launch of Art in the Windows. Residents are invited to stroll the streets of New Canaan from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. for the 10th annual Art in the Windows. A record-70 stores are participating in this year’s event, featuring photos, paintings, sculpture and mixed media pieces from as many artists, 31 of them New Canaanites (see gallery above), according to Hilary Witmann, executive director of the Carriage Barn Arts Center. The Waveny-based nonprofit organized the event, which is sponsored by Bankwell, New Canaan Board of Realtors and Hutchinson Tree Care Specialists, in partnership with the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce. “It’s great that we have more stores than ever and a lot of New Canaan artists, which is one of the things I really wanted to bring in this year, in addition to the great artists who are members of the Carriage Barn and exhibit in a lot of shows,” Witmann told NewCanaanite.com.