Category Archives: Restaurants

Knock ‘Em Down! (Update Added)

I apologize for posting this so late. It’s been a busy day.

The wooden house next to Terrain -- in its Curran Cadillac days, before it was spruced up.

The wooden house next to Terrain — in its Curran Cadillac days, before it was spruced up.

But not as busy as the Historic District Commission’s night will be.

Meeting at 7 this evening (Town Hall, Room 201), they’ll comment on an application from Terrain to demolish the 19th century wooden building at the corner of Crescent Road (opposite the firehouse), and replace it with 9 parking spots.

UPDATE: Apparently the request by Terrain has been withdrawn. Tonight is their 1-year anniversary dinner. Maybe it’s bad form to have a private dinner with New York media on the same night as a teardown request?

But that’s just a warm-up okay. The agenda also includes:

  • To take such action as the meeting may determine to reconsider waiving the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 44 Spicer Road
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 60 West Parish Road.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 12 Harding Lane. 
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 6 Rebel Road.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 46 Partrick Road.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application for the house and garage at 8 Compo Hill Avenue c. 1920 identified on the Historic Resources Inventory.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 35 Church Lane, identified on the Historic Resources Inventory as the Kemper-Gunn House c. 1890.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 121 Imperial Avenue.
  •  To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 28 Turkey Hill Road South.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 6 Harbor Road
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 37 Evergreen Parkway, identified on the Historic Resources Inventory c. 1915.
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 4 Jackie Lane
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at One Lantern Hill Road
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 7 Grist Mill Lane. 
  • To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 15 Appletree Trail. 
  •  To take such action … to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application at 28 Maple Avenue

That’s a lot of work. Afterward, they might want to go out for a beer to relax.

I suggest the Spotted Horse. It’s a nice old building, with lots of ambiance.

Spotted Horse, Westport CT

Times Is Tough

What does a restaurant have to do to get a “very good” review from the New York Times?

Sunday’s Metropolitan section raved about Rainbow Thai — the new place in Bridge Square, with the spectacular river view.

Pad See Ew tastes a lot better than it sounds. (Photo courtesy of CTBites.com)

Pad See Ew tastes a lot better than it sounds. (Photo courtesy of CTBites.com)

Patricia Brooks loved the surprise of “finding some dishes on the menu that are not commonly found at other Thai restaurants in Fairfield County,” like mee grob and larb.

She called the sizzling pancake “a special delight … the star of our lunch.”

She noted several other fine dishes, including tao hoo tord, kong tod and “a refreshing somtum salad of green papaya spears woven through greens and fresh tomatoes in a tangy tamarind sauce with peanuts on top.”

Brooks even described the servers — rushing food from the basement kitchen — as graceful, patient and always smiling.

So what rating did she give the place (quickly becoming a Saugatuck favorite)?

“Good.”

I’m glad she was never my classroom teacher.

Missing Parrots

Not long ago, several trees near the Compo Beach basketball courts were chopped down. Dozens of squawking monk parrots had nested there.

Last week, the Blu Parrot closed.

Westport is in grave danger of being parrot-less.

Too bad they’re not deer.

Monk parrot

Blu Parrot Grounded? (With Update At End Of Story)

Double Down — a self-described “funky rock & roll” group — was all set to play at the Blu Parrot this Saturday (May 4). The 1st show was scheduled for 9 p.m.

But an email sent at 5:30 this afternoon to fans says:

Ha … Double Down has seen a lot in our time but this is a first …

Unfortunately our show on Saturday has been canceled due to the venue going out of business.  Very sad that they couldn’t have closed next weekend!

Oh well … wish those guys the best and we’ll see you all soon.

Have a great weekend … Rock on!

I just called the Blu Parrot — the restaurant/music venue that opened last October in the building previously owned by Jasmine. (And — for decades before that — the Arrow Restaurant.)

A recorded announcement thanked me for calling the  Blu Parrot, “the fun place for dining, dancing and good music.” It described tonight’s band — but said to call back “after 11 a.m.” for reservations or more information.

It was 6:20 p.m. when I called.

Uh oh…

(UPDATE:  An email sent at 11:55 a.m. today — Wednesday, May 1 — says: 

To all of our Friends, customers and muscians  who have supported us here at The Blu Parrot: we will be closing our doors as of 5/1/13. There are parties that are interested in buying the business and we can only hope that they will continue to bring the best in live music to the Westport area.

Thank you for all of your support and making this such a great place.

blu parrot

Saturday In The ‘Port

Today was one of those days in Westport.

Everywhere you looked, something was happening. Thousands of people poured through Jesup Green and the library, awed by the creativity (and enjoying the fun) on display at the 2nd annual Mini Maker Faire.

This plane is one of 2 made last summer in the library's new maker space, under the direction of Joe Schadt. It's a permanent addition to the ceiling -- unless it decides to fly off somewhere.

This plane is one of 2 made last summer in the library’s new maker space, under the direction of Joe Schott. It’s a permanent addition to the ceiling — unless it decides to fly off somewhere.

There were tons of hands-on exhibits, for kids of all ages.

There were tons of hands-on activiites, for kids of all ages.

Staples senior Guerric Vornle von Haagenfels is a self-taught blacksmith. He forged ahead on the banks of the river.

Staples senior Guerric Vornle von Haagenfels is a self-taught blacksmith. He forged ahead on the banks of the river.

Not far away, at the Town Farm complex, Westport’s 1st Little League Challenger team — for boys and girls with physical or mental challenges, and their “buddies” — played its opening game, against Stamford. Ceremonies included balloons, music, the national anthem, and a 1st pitch thrown by Staples junior (and Challenger organizer) Jack Cody.

Challenger player Hillary Lipper and her buddy, Quincy Stein.

Westport Winner Rebecca Yormark and her buddy, Quincy Stein.

Challenger player Jack Theriault has a ball, with buddies Natalie Schenck and Luke Yokai.

Challenger player Jack Theriault has a ball, with Natalie Schenck and Luke Yokai.

Hillary Lipper shares a laugh with Coach Scott.
Hillary Lipper shares a laugh with Coach Scott.

Then it was on to the Blu Parrot, for Westport’s 1st-ever Electric Car Rally.

We think of electric cars as cutting-edge. This Columbia Electric car was built in 1907 -- in Hartford.

We think of electric cars as cutting-edge (and from Japan or Detroit). This Columbia Electric car on display today was built in 1907 — in Hartford.

Blu Parrot owner Adam Lubarsky fed everyone at the  rally sliders, wings and more. He also manned the grill.

Blu Parrot owner Adam Lubarsky fed everyone at the rally sliders, wings and more. He also manned the grill.

Still ahead: the Staples Players’ One-Act Festival, followed by a fundraising party for Staples Tuition Grants.

It all unfolds in beautiful spring weather.

So check out the photo below. Any realtor who can’t sell a home in Westport on a day like today should find another line of work.

Westport Public Library, Saugatuck River

Private Lot! Keep Out!

Sure, 36 Church Lane is a private building — with a private parking lot.

But the owners — who have posted several stern signs, warning that anyone parking there for the (Spotted Horse) restaurant next door will be towed — might take a lesson from Mitchells.

That store always offers its lot for Sakura overflow. And the nearby Conservative Synagogue, on holidays.

I understand “No Parking” during business hours. (The Mitchells lot is a lot larger than 36 Church Lane.)

But at night and weekends, when the lot is empty?

And isn’t the chain stretched across the entrance a bit much?

36 Church Lane, Westport CT

Adios, Oaxaca

Oaxaca — the Compo Acres Shopping Center restaurant featuring cuisine from Mexico’s southernmost province — has closed.

Oaxaca was in business for a bit over a year. It succeeded Thali, an Indian restaurant. For a long time before that, it was the pan-Asian TaiPan.

Compo Shopping Center -- across the Post Road -- is reflected in the glass door of Oaxaca. A simple sign announces the restaurant has closed.

Compo Shopping Center — across the Post Road — is reflected in the glass door of Oaxaca. A simple sign announces the news.

The dining scene in Westport constantly changes. 323 opened recently — after many delays — to good reviews, in the spot formerly occupied by Bogey’s.

Shake Shack has stabilized the location that for years saw an ever-changing cast of cuisines. Everything was there, from a steak chain to Mongolian.

Some places — like the corner of Post Road and Myrtle Avenue — evolve from restaurants (Glynn’s, etc.) to commercial uses (it’s now a real estate office). Others go the opposite way: 5 Guys spent years as a Western Auto, before morphing into a girls’ clothing store.

No word yet on what will take Oaxaca’s place. But its New Haven location is still open.

Mourning 2 Sycamores

Trees falling in forests may or may not make sounds.

Those chopped down on the Post Road definitely create noise.

Two alert “06880″ readers emailed me about the 2 big sycamores felled this week at the site of the former Brook Cafe, across Cedar Road from Starbucks.

Brook 2

Jo Ann Davidson — who took these pictures — wrote:

Nobody was there to ask about it. Could they have been planted by the Beautification Committee years ago? Do we have a tree warden anymore?

The Post Road landscaping distinguishes our section from neighboring towns. Big trees cool all that pavement. I am sad to see 2 of them disappear.

I’m not sure if they were part of the 1970s-era Post Road beautification project — an effort that continues to bear fruit. We do have a tree warden, but he is very part-time. And he does not live in Westport.

Brook 1

Another alert reader wrote:

Who makes a decision like this? Who paid for the cutting? Weren’t the trees within 10 feet of the road? If so, didn’t it need to be approved by the town? Don’t the Green Task Force, Tree Board or Beautification Committee get involved with a decision like this? These were extremely healthy trees and balanced the corner nicely with those in front of Starbucks.  It is outrageous that the trees were taken down to leave yet another barren landscape.

When the town put sewers on that stretch of road, they removed 2 trees from in front of Sherwood Diner. The town never replaced them.

When I asked the diner owner about the tree removal, he lamented that his electric bills for AC had sky-rocketed during the summer months.  Yet there still are no trees in front of Sherwood.

It is such a simple thing to help make Westport a beautiful place.  It starts with not removing healthy trees and greenery.

Brook 3

Oysters Float Jean Paul Vellotti’s Boat

If Jean Paul Vellotti has his way, the Black Duck won’t be the only Westport restaurant literally on the water.

The local resident has his eyes on the Laurel. He calls it “America’s oldest and most historic oyster boat.” It recently retired from active oystering, and Jean Paul hopes to turn it into a floating oyster bar.

Unlike the Duck barge, though, Jean Paul’s 72-foot restaurant will actually move.

The Laurel, today.

The Laurel.

“Believe it or not, there are spots in the Saugatuck deep enough for the Laurel,” he says. “A cocktail hour and farm-to-table dinner on deck by a talented local chef is entirely possible.”

Jean Paul discovered the Laurel 2 years ago. Working in East Norwalk as a photographer  on a Whole Foods ad campaign, he climbed aboard a derelict boat  to get a great shot of his subject.

Back at the office, Jean Paul — who spent 20 years as a photojournalist and editor, with the likes of the New York Times and Ziff Davis — decided to research the old boat.

Laurel builder A.C. Brown

Laurel builder A.C. Brown

He learned the Laurel was built in 1891. For over a century it harvested and transported bivalves, roaming as far as Providence and the Delaware Bay.

Yet, Jean Paul learned to his dismay, the Laurel would soon be demolished.

He vowed to save her.

Jean Paul — whose maritime skills, woodworking talents and love of oystering were all fostered as a youth in East Norwalk — came up with an idea. He would keep the Laurel’s legacy alive, by serving the oysters it once harvested.

That’s even more audacious than it sounds.

The century-old deck is structurally sound. But it leaks badly, and the wood underneath is seriously damaged.

“If we can replace the deck, we’ll give her a whole new life,” Jean Paul says. “We’ll make her the queen of the fleet once more.”

Jean Paul Vellotti, at the helm and with oysters.

Jean Paul Vellotti, at the helm and with oysters.

The Laurel will offer a raw bar, soups and more. It will be fun; the prices, reasonable. “We can get oysters cheap,” Jean Paul notes.

It will float up the Saugatuck as far as the Bridge Street Bridge. It will head to Southport, Norwalk, Port Jefferson, Northport, and Great Peconic Bay. It’s even been invited to Pier 19, site of South Street Seaport.

But Jean Paul hopes that Westport will be the Laurel’s home.

He’ contacted Larry Bradley. The Planning and Zoning director said his authority extends only to the mean high water line.

Jean Paul also talked to the health department, fire marshal, even the Coast Guard. All said “go ahead!”

The next logical step: head to the bank.

“It’s tough for even a regular restaurant to get a loan,” Jean Paul says. “And this is a floating restaurant.”

So to kickstart his project, Jean Paul turned to Kickstarter. The funding website offers a variety of rewards, in return for pledges.

The Laurel, at Cove Marina.

The Laurel, at Cove Marina.

Donate $5, and you’ll receive an oyster and clams on the house.

$35 gets you a 5×7 picture frame made from reclaimed deck planks. For $250, your name will be engraved on a new plank.

There are plenty of other options, including $10,000 or more. The goal is $65,000. The deadline: April 21.

If Jean Paul gets his money by May, the decks can be repaired by the end of June.

The Laurel could float up the Saugatuck in July and August.

In September, it would head to a very cool event, one town away.

That one’s a natural: the Norwalk Oyster Festival.

(Click here for more information, or to make a pledge on Kickstarter.)

(If your browser doesn’t link directly to YouTube, click here.)

Hadley Rose’s Road: From Pastrami To RTM

Some people come to Westport for the schools. Others like the beach.

For Hadley Rose, it was a good pastrami sandwich.

pastramiIn 1992, the industrial packaging and hazardous-material shipping executive and his wife had spent 8 years in Wilton. With a young child, they found they were going to Westport for movies, shopping, restaurants serving alcohol — things Wilton did not have.

Westport was also more of a “mixed” community, Rose says.

Plus, Gold’s had that pastrami sandwich.

The Roses bought a “semi-fixer-upper,” and moved in.

A few years later, Westport was enveloped in controversy. (Surprise!)

The issue was school start times. Rose presented reams of documents to the Board of Education, supporting a later opening bell for high school students.

The proposed changes did not pass. But that was Rose’s introduction to local politics.

He attended First Selectwoman Diane Farrell’s “brown bag lunches.” She and 2nd selectman Carl Leaman encouraged him to run for the RTM.

Hadley Rose (Photo by Paul Schott for Westport News)

Hadley Rose (Photo by Paul Schott for Westport News)

Rose knew more about the legislative body than many Westporters did — and still do. “Most people think it’s the “Republican Town Meeting,” he says. (The “R” stands for “Representative.”)

He was first elected in 2003. Four years later, he ran for the top spot.

Now — after a decade on the RTM, and 3 terms as moderator — Rose has resigned. He and his wife are moving to Simsbury, to be closer to their 2 children who live in Boston.

Rose first ran because he wanted to change some of the ways the RTM worked.

Committees now receive information in a more timely fashion. He rotated committee chairs. He changed meeting start times from 8 p.m. to 7:30. And he “nudged speakers along.”

Meetings are much shorter now. But everything still gets done.

RTMRose praises RTM colleagues like Velma Heller, Jack Klinge and the late John Booth for their “respected, moderate voices.” He says the first selectmen he’s worked with — Farrell and Gordon Joseloff — have done “wonderful jobs.”

But Rose reserves his highest praise for Westport’s department heads.

“They’re very underrated. But they make this an incredible town,” he says.

“You can’t run a Public Works Department better than Steve Edwards does. Stuart McCarthy is doing great things at Parks and Rec. Those kinds of people are the glue — the institutional memory. They’ve served the town really well.”

Rose believes the RTM plays a vital role in town. “We’re the final say on most important issues,” he notes.

“The Board of Finance is definitely more politically driven than we are. So we act as a great check-and-balance. There are so many different points of view on the RTM, when we coalesce around an issue, you know it’s really been vetted.”

Rose says that the RTM has helped keep taxes down. “I don’t think people appreciate how low are taxes really are,” he says. “Look at Weston or Scarsdale.” He laughs. “Or what I’ll pay in Simsbury.”

Rose says that the RTM’s relationship with the Board of Education is now better than in the past. “We help them think a bit more about things, a bit earlier on. We’ve helped them cut waste, yet keep programs.”

Hadley Rose with Eileen Flug, deputy moderator. She succeeds him as RTM moderator. (Photo by Paul Schott for Westport News)

Hadley Rose with Eileen Flug, deputy moderator. She succeeds him as RTM moderator. (Photo by Paul Schott for Westport News)

One of Rose’s only regrets is that, as moderator, at times he had to hold his tongue. “Sometimes I really wanted to respond, and I couldn’t,” he says. “I had to be neutral, so no one could say the reason I ruled in a certain way was to favor something.”

As he leaves the RTM, Rose is buoyed by its future. “We’ve got lots of new people, with great perspectives,”he says. “There’s a lot of financial folks, but with different points of view. Some are conservative, some are relatively liberal. I’m very impressed with them.”

He will miss “working with the people on the RTM, and for the town. I’ve met a lot of extraordinary people. They’ve added a lot to Westport, and to my life.”

He will not miss “some of the baldly political decisions made by some bodies in town,” he says.

He is proud that the RTM is non-partisan. “I couldn’t tell you the political party of 8 or 9 members. And I don’t want to know.”

Rose will miss much about Westport, beyond the RTM. “There’s a good mix of people who put in tons of time to make this a better town,” he says. “They want it to be a great place, and they work to make it so.”

Oh, yeah. Rose will miss one more thing.

“Gold’s still makes a great pastrami sandwich.”

Hadley Rose will miss Gold's Delicatessen.

Hadley Rose will miss Gold’s Delicatessen.