Neil Sedaka — who, the New York Times said, “went from classical music prodigy to precocious songwriter to teenage idol to pop music fixture in a celebrated career that spanned seven decades” — died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 86.
Obituaries and tributes mention his Brooklyn upbringing (he dated Carole King in high school, and Neil Diamond lived across the street).
But after achieving stardom with hits like “Calendar Girl” — and, more than a decade later, “Laughter in the Rain” — he moved to Westport, in the 1970s.
Sedaka lived in the Old Hill neighborhood for about 20 years. In 1982, he headlined one of the first benefit concerts at the Levitt Pavilion.
Click here for a full obituary. If you’ve got a Neil Sedaka memory from his time here, click “Comments” below.
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Several Westporters have wondered what’s going on at Gray’s Creek. A dozen or so trees have been removed just west of the Minute Man Monument, near the small burial ground of patriots killed in the Battle of Compo Hill.
“06880” reached out to the Parks & Recreation Department, which oversees the site. (It’s not in the right of way, so it’s out of the tree warden’s jurisdiction.)
Parks superintendent Nick Quatrano says that he contracted Knapp Tree, due to concerns for public safety.
The trees include black locust (invasive), black cherry, Norway maple (invasive), and a few too dead for him to identify.
Once all are removed, he’ll replant trees that can better tolerate the salty environment. Among the contenders: black pine, red cedar, thornless honey locust, and white oak.
Gray’s Creek cemetery.
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The Board of Finance will hold its formal budget reviews next month, in the Town Hall auditorium.
They’re set for March 9 (Board of Education) and March 10 (1st Selectman’s town budget).
The meetings will also be broadcast on Optimum Channel 79, and/or livestreamed at www.westportct.gov.
Click here to see 1st Selectman Kevin Christie’s full proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27.
Click here to see the Board of Education’s full proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27.
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Westport has voted on its favorite pizzas, burgers, soups and salads.
On this year’s menu: sandwiches.
The Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce’s 9th annual event runs throughout March. Over 20 restaurants, delis and markets will compete in 10 categories.
Judging is done by residents, online. Each voter is also entered into a drawing to win a free sandwich, from one of the 10 winners.
The 21 competitors are: A & S Fine Foods, Calise’s, Clubhouse, Dunkin, Emmy Squared, Garelick & Herbs, Kabab & Hummus House, Kawa Ni, Lyfe Café, Match Burger Lobster, Nomade, Old Mill Grocery, Organic Market, Outpost Pizza, Pizza Lyfe, Rizzuto’s Lobster Shack, Romanacci, Saugatuck Provisions, Saugatuck Rive Café, The Granola Bar and Zucca Gastrobar.
The 10 categories are: Best Chicken Sandwich, Best Steak Sandwich, Best Vegetarian Sandwich, Best Combo Sandwich, Best Club, Best NY Deli, Best Pressed Sandwich, Best Breakfast Sandwich, Best Wrap Sandwich, and Best Fish/Seafood Sandwich. Each restaurant, deli or market may enter up to 4 categories, but can only win 2 at most.
Starting March 1, residents can visit the venues, enjoy the offerings, then vote here.
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Speaking of food: Ordering delivery is fast and easy.
Unless people at one place want different restaurants.
Starting Thursday, there’s an app for that.
Wonder comes to Westport. It’s at 1300 Post Road East, just east of Turkey Hill Road.
A press release says, “With free delivery, pickup or dine-in options at over 100 locations, Wonder features world-renowned chefs including Bobby Flay, José Andrés, and Marcus Samuelsson, alongside award-winning restaurants like Tejas Barbecue and Di Fara Pizza.”
Customers can combine dishes from a variety of Wonder restaurants in a single order. Menus are developed by Wonder’s culinary team, in collaboration with chefs and restaurant partners. Every dish is “made to order” in local Wonder kitchens.
Westport’s Wonder joins over 100 locations in the Eastern US.
The grand opening on Thursday includes a ribbon-cutting. The first 100 guests enjoy giveaways and food samples.
Click here to learn more about Wonder.
A variety of Wonder cuisines.
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The Thing — the hot Brooklyn-based rock band, featuring Weston native Jack Bradley on guitar — kicked off VersoFest 2026 last night. A large, enthusiastic and multi-age crowd packed the Trefz Forum for the show.
The bulk of the 5th annual music-media-and-more festival takes place at the end of next month. But the dates did not work, so The Thing kicked off their new tour in late February, at a venue that audiences in the tri-state area have come to know is a bit out of the mainstream, but where loud music thrives: the Westport Library.
Click here for a full schedule of this year’s VersoFest.
The Thing do their thing …
… after local band Fever Dream opens up. (Photos/Susan Garment)
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Congratulations to the Staples High School boys and girls ski teams!
The boys finished 1st in the Connecticut Interscholastic Ski League season for large schools, then placed 3rd in Thursday’s state meet.
The girls took 2nd for both the season, and at the state meet.
It’s not Cortina — but pretty great for Connecticut!
Staples High School boys and girls ski teams.
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TAP Strength’s next “Effortless Effort” talk covers “Effortless Eating.” It’s March 11 (180 Post Road East, 6 p.m.
Nutrition specialist Kevin Knight will offer “a mindful approach to eating your way to your best life.”
TAP founder EJ Zebro will add practical cools to incorporate new habits of movement and mindfulness into your daily life. It’s free, but RSVPs are requested: info@tapstrength.com.
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What do you call a group of hooded mergansers?
A bunch, flock, badelunge, brace, paddling or raft.
Whatever it is: There they were — hanging out at Old Mill, waiting for someone to take their picture for our “Westport … Naturally” feature.
Tracy Porosoff did the honors.
(Photo/Tracy Porosoff)
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And finally … in honor of Westport’s new “Wonder” restaurant (story above):
We wonder if you know how much work it takes to provide daily Roundups — and everything else on “06880.” We wonder too if you’ll click here, to support our work. It’s no wonder we thank you!)
One Long-ago nice memory: a Friday night,(1980’s), Neal Sedaka and his wife,Leba then having dinner at Seascape Restaurant where I was then playing solo piano (-this just across from DeRosa’s,Riverrside Ave. near Westport train station.)I then recognized Neal..I then took a break,& introduced myself to them. He then told me his music background in Brooklyn, he then smiling,’he’d studied at Juilliard;he could have been a Successful Classical Pianist!’ , he then paused, I then smiling ‘Well..you did Pretty Well,Just Saying!’ (I then asked him to play, he then sat down & played ,sang ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’-the diners there, everyone listening,, then they applauded Neal,afterwards.:-)
The Wonder concept sounds interesting but the website gives no answers to how it actually works. Do they have the food from all those restaurants in each of their locations? If so, is it frozen? Or do they only sell food that is made in local restaurants; how does that work? If Wonder isn’t making it on site, do their employees pick up the food from each participating restaurant location and then deliver it to the customer? The website could use some FAQs.
It’s essentially a ghost kitchen, incredibly mediocre, and hurts local businesses. Think PE backed, Billionaire owned, microwaved classics. If you care about the locals, ignore this place.
It’s actually not even a ghost kitchen, as they at least cook in those! It’s a take-out meal kit service.
Wonder meals are prepared at a commissary kitchen in New Jersey. The local outlets reheat – either sous vide, high speed ovens, or fryers. They need next to no kitchen space and don’t need to hire trained cooks locally.
Wonder serves food from celebrity branded “restaurants” which, in some cases, don’t seem to have brick-and-mortar locations.
Most importantly, if you order from Wonder you are basically putting a nail in the coffin of locally owned restaurants.
I think it’s frozen food that gets cooked/heated and last I checked I could not find any nutritional facts…
Great memory, Linda! Neil Sedaka came from humble beginnings. Brooklyn was fantastic in the 1940s and early 1950s . Brooklyn, as the sign said, The 4th largest city in America. He was so talented too. His roots were in Brooklyn!
Back in the early 80’s one summer when I was off from college I worked Parks & Rec security, mostly at Compo or Old Mill. One day I stopped a gold Rolls Royce convertible going the wrong way down Soundview and it was Neil Sedaka. He was polite and apologetic and pulled off on the next side street; just another day in Westport. RIP to a talented artist and nice guy.
Jack Backiel, ,Agree!.(My dear old dad ,Frank Pomerantz,originally from Bensonhurst, during the Depression; loved the Dodgers,egg creams, etc. Many,many years later (early 1980’s) I then played weekend solo piano brunches at Buzzy O’Keeffe’s River Cafe. (A Long drive from Westport to Brooklyn ,but worth seeing that NYC skyline from Brooklyn Bridge 🙂
Most people under age 65 or 70 don’t realize how great Brooklyn was in the 1950s I met Jackie Robinson and went to Brooklyn in 2005 for the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers’ World Series win when Brooklyn went ballistic all night!!!! In December 1956, the Dodgers wanted to trade Robinson. Robinson quit baseball and and went to work for a coffee company.
Umm.. let’s make that age 75 to 80
One of my favorite Westport memories is Neil Sedaka, but I hasten to add that I never met him. I learned only today that Mr. Sedaka lived in Westport while I did. Until 1975, I had no idea who Neil Sedaka was. As my dad was not exactly a fan of rock and roll — not even bubble-gum music — I learned much of my known catalog of sixties and seventies AM music riding in the way-back third seat of a Chevrolet Impala station wagon (whose owner I cannot recall) driving from Westport to summer camp in Weston Woods. The mom who drove played Cousin Brucie loud on WABC-AM as she picked up all the campers on the way to Weston. When “Love Will Keep Us Together” was released by Captain and Tennille in 1975, she taught us to wait for the refrain at the end of the song where they snuck in “Sedaka is Back.” To this day, I wait for that line. And I play my Neil Sedaka song list often while driving. Until reported in his NYT obituary, I had no idea of the meaning of his family name, though I long ago came to know about Carole King and Neil Diamond. Boy — them and also Barbra Streisand. I need a new and updated Brooklyn playlist.
No Fortunas? That doesn’t seem right. Do the restaurants have to pay a “vig” to the Chamber to be included?
And Dunkin? They don’t have “sandwiches.” Which Dunkin? Or if they do, include why not include Starbucks? They offer sandwiches.
Or the deli where Art’s Deli was (Saugatuck River Caffe)?
The removal of those trees by Gray’s Creek with the excuse of “public safety” is total bullshit…not one of the removed trees, or any Tree in the vicinity, is or could be the slightest risk to public safety unless one took a chain saw and stood deliberately under the damned thing as it fell. What a crock of woodchuck turd to perpetrate on an innocent tax paying public!
Although not reported, it’s likely that Parks and Recreation was ALSO concerned about the welfare of the historic Gray’s Creek cemetery itself. Grave markers are important cultural resources – and they’re non-newable. If one wishes to see the damage that hazard trees can do to a historic burying ground, the town-owned King Street Cemetery is exhibit A. The destruction there is epic – and it was almost all preventable. To his great credit, the new Parks Superintendent is on the case and actively working to mitigate the consequences of decades of, well, we’ll call it deferred maintenance. At it happens, the new Parks and Recreation Director was previously responsible for the maintenance of a100 acre historic cemetery, so I have confidence that Westport’s appalling record when it comes to the historic burying grounds in its care is beginning to change for the better.
Without Gaetanos this is not a valid contest