Two months ago, “06880″ reported that America’s oldest oyster boat might become an oyster bar in the Saugatuck River.
Now, there’s a very real chance it might turn into scrap wood.
Jean Paul Vellotti — a Westporter trying to save the Laurel — just sent this email:
I’ll get right to the point: We have 48 hours to save the Laurel or she will be crushed.
I’ve lost my docking spot. There are few docks available. One is at Captain’s Cove in Bridgeport. The summer dock fee there might be about $5,000. That’s money I don’t have.
The Laurel.
I had just found a great space for the Laurel Oyster Bar in Sono, complete with a dock and parking. We had contacted the owners this morning before the bad news, and they are getting back to us.
Maybe someone who wants to invest in the business can come forward. It’s pretty hard to have an oyster bar on an oyster boat without the oyster boat.
I really hate to see her crushed, which is a real possibility. Aside from getting a huge bill that will take me years to pay, we would lose the oldest oyster boat in America. We have to try to keep her floating. Even if we can save her for the summer and donate her to Mystic, our job will be done.
If you have any ideas — or can help — email vellotti@aol.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)?
The New York Times Sunday real estate section holds a strange fascination for people in the tri-state area.
It doesn’t matter if we’re actively buying or selling, or dying in the same house our great-grandparents were born in. Like realtors drawn to obituaries — that means a potential listing! — we pore over the real estate pages. We can’t help reading about pets in co-ops, which Brooklyn neighborhood is next on the hot list, and of course who paid how much for what.
Every Sunday, the Times singles out a town or neighborhood for its “Living In” feature. This Sunday, it will be Saugatuck.
Bridge Square rocked last September, at the “Slice of Saugatuck” festival. (Photo by Terry Cosgrave)
Titled “What I-95 Hasn’t Put Asunder,” it describes the mid-1950s construction of the Connecticut Turnpike as “a battering ram.”
Houses came down; so did a church. Blacktop replaced Turtle Pond, a favorite place to ice-skate. A rumbling overpass halved Franklin Street, a residential locus for Italian-Americans (who today account for about 20 percent of the population).
“You know that progress has to happen,” said Cathy Romano, whose childhood home, a porch-wrapped wood-frame house on West Ferry Lane, became a dorm for highway builders before being razed for a parking lot. “But it was traumatic.”
Yet Saugatuck — which before the Italians arrived was the commercial center of Westport — has reinvented itself. And the Times takes notice.
Bustling and dense, with a number of restaurants and some shops, Saugatuck can feel almost urban, especially when compared with leafier, sleepier Westport areas like Coleytown, which has two-acre residential zoning. But there are plenty of people who would rather be squeezed in than spread out.
Yards away from the bustle, a serene Saugatuck scene. (Photo by Bobbi Liepolt)
The piece describes the Gault family’s “$18 million attempt to ease the effects of I-95’s divisive presence: Saugatuck Center, a mixed-use four-acre redevelopment project….In a community with hardly any housing beyond single-family homes, 27 new apartments amount to a lot.”
The Times includes Saugatuck Shores in its Saugatuck roundup, which seems a stretch. But here’s the connection:
Recovery of another kind is on the minds of some homeowners in Saugatuck Shores, a low-lying, compressed area. Hurricane Sandy dealt it a punishing blow, as have other big storms.
The houses perched atop carports seem to have come out unscathed. But more modest properties — especially along Harbor Road, which is separated from Long Island Sound by a jumble of boulders — seem hurt. On a recent visit, a few had plywood in their windows, and the storm had strewn oysters across lawns.
Hurricane Sandy devastated Saugatuck Shores.
Because this is the Times real estate section, money matters. Readers learn that the most expensive home on the market — a 5-bedroom 2000 colonial on a 2-acre waterfront lot with a tennis court — is listed at $10.99 million.
Last year, the average price for all 29 single-family homes sold in Saugatuck was $1.22 million. Hopefully, some of those sales were by families who held on — and thrived — in the decades after I-95 sliced through.
Finally — buried at the end of the story — was some intriguing news. There are 1,064 reserved parking lots at the train station, and the waiting list is 4 years. But — who knew? — the town is planning “an online effort to cull outdated names.”
(Click here to read the entire New York Times story on “Living In Saugatuck.”)
For many people, the Black Duck epitomizes Saugatuck. (Photo by John Kantor)
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.
“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
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.
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.
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.)
The situation at Luciano Park — near the railroad station — might be tougher than other spots, though.
In addition to receiving tons of plowed snow, it was also badly damaged last fall, when Sunday flea market vendors drove on the grass in a downpour. The flea market folks were going to pay for repairs, but “06880″ readers say they have not yet been done.
As 2013 begins, Westport sits on the cusp of exciting changes.
Downtown development is picking up steam. The west bank of the river may soon look very different. Saugatuck 2.0 is moving ahead (have you seen flattened-out Ketchum Street lately?). The Y at Mahackeno is a done deal, much teeth-gnashing to the contrary.
So, as a new page turns — and while people are still wishing each other “Happy New Year!” — this is a great time to look ahead.
And to amass the wisdom of the “06880″ community. When we want to, we can be a very thoughtful, creative and insightful bunch.
Here’s today’s assignment: What is your vision of the ideal Westport?
Everyone has his or her own vision of where Westport should head. What’s yours? (Photo by Sean Hughes)
Take any aspect of the town you wish. Zoning, architecture, demographics, education, recreation, transportation, culture — it’s all up for grabs.
Let us know what you think Westport should be — and how it can get there.
Important caveat: This is not a bitch session. It’s not about what hasn’t worked, or is not now working. It’s not about tearing down or mocking other people’s thoughts. It’s simply a chance to provide your input as to where you’d like to see our community be, in the months, years and decades ahead.
When the iPhone first came out, we were awed by its versatility.
A day later, we complained about all the things it couldn’t do.
Today, while we use our smartphones for everything from reading books to navigating roads, one of its core functions — it’s a phone, remember? — remains a bit clunky.
Sure, I call you. But many other important aspects of communication — organizing and syncing contacts; creating groups like “family” and “work” and “soccer team”; sharing photos, files and calendars — could be much easier.
A Deets screenshot shows a variety of custom groups.
And it doesn’t have far to go. The wildly popular app — recently featured in iTunes’ “What’s Hot” section, named one of the state’s top tech companies to watch, and the recipient of $750,000 in funding from Connecticut Innovations‘ technology fund — is a Westport company.
Founder Linda Miller is local (she was the 20th employee at Priceline, then led development of Hotwire’s hotel product). She’s teamed up with Madison/Mott, the way-cool digital marketing/media company that moved from SoNo to Saugatuck last spring.
Madison/Mott head honcho Luke Scott — a 1991 Staples grad — has teamed up with Linda to launch Deets. The idea is to easily connect people based on group functions, then enable private messages, photos, whatever, to be sent easily. Groups can be permanent (family), somewhat fluid (clients) or short-term (bachelorette party, ski trip, Christmas gift-giving).
Luke Scott with his girlfriend, Marcella Kovac. She helped organize his surprise 40th birthday party, thanks to Deets.
(For Luke’s 40th birthday, Deets helped organize a surprise party. Over 40 people constantly communicated about location, the band’s set, food, and of course how to get Luke there. When Hurricane Sandy caused a last-minute venue change, everyone got a push notification — plus a link with new driving directions.)
Groups are easy to create and manage. Messages can be easily threaded — impossible with most iPhone communication apps. Contact info (once shared with a group) is updated automatically whenever it changes.
The Deets homescreen dashboard makes it easy to see which groups have new activity.
An Android version will be out soon. Because iPhones are not the only smartphones with clunky communication tools.
(Luke Scott is the featured speaker at the next Stamford Innovation Center “Startup Success Series” — Wednesday, December 19, 7 p.m. Click here for details.)
