Pic Of The Day #1012

Posted on January 24, 2020 | 3 comments

Fire truck on the Cribari Bridge (Photo/Patricia McMahon)

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Police Awards Ceremony Set For Wednesday

Posted on January 24, 2020 | 1 comment

Traditionally, the Westport Police Department presents awards and honors to members of the force at private ceremonies.

But great work deserves greater attention.

So — for the first time ever — a big event is planned. It’s set for Wednesday, January 29 (6 p.m., Town Hall auditorium). Everyone is invited.

“We are excited to welcome the public we serve to join us in giving the recipients some much deserved recognition for their great work in the field,” says Lieutenant Anthony Prezioso.

Numerous officers will be feted in the short ceremony, which includes remarks from Police Chief Foti Koskinas and 1st Selectman Jim Marpe.

Mark it on your calendar. Head on over. But don’t speed!

 

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Friday Flashback #177

Posted on January 24, 2020 | 10 comments

It’s been (knock wood) a very snow-free winter.

That was not the case back in the day.

I’m not sure what year the photo above was taken. Carriages had already been replaced by automobiles. But on a day like that one, it was nice to have a horse on hand.

I don’t know the year of this one one either. But believe it or not, Greenberg’s was luckier this day than a few decades later.

In the 1960s, heavy snow collapsed the roof of the Main Street “department store.”

It never recovered, and closed shortly thereafter.

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Little Beet Grows In Westport

Posted on January 24, 2020 | 4 comments

Ongoing construction has made the Fresh Market shopping center a bit grotty.

But it won’t last forever. And when the work is done, a new fast-casual eatery will join current tenants like Colonial Druggists, Dan’s Liquors and Orangetheory Fitness.

The Little Beet opens this summer.

According to its website, the 5-year-old chain offers “wholesome, healthy food that not only tastes great, but makes you feel great.” Food is “carefully sourced … from farmers and purveyors we trust, guaranteeing all of our food is gluten-free and better for you.”

There are a dozen Little Beets already, in New York, Westchester, Long Island, Washington DC, Virginia and Florida.

The menu includes make-your-own rice and quinoa-based meals, poké and other bowls, vegetable sides, and breakfast sandwiches, parfaits and oatmeal.

The Little Beet Grain Bowls

A little bit of the Little Beet menu.

And if you don’t like it, there’s Dunkin’ Donuts across the street.

FUN FACT: The Fresh Market shopping center is actually called The Village Center. That’s as little known as the official name of the Sherwood Island Connector: State Route 476.

(Hat tip: Neil Markman)

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Posted in Local business, Restaurants

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Fairway’s Woes Began In Westport

Posted on January 24, 2020 | 4 comments

Fairway is a beloved institution in New York.

But yesterday the 14-store supermarket chain filed for bankruptcy. According to the New York Times, a Westport company is to blame. The newspaper says: 

The origins of Fairway’s struggles date to 2007, when the company sold an 80 percent stake to Sterling Investment Partners, a private equity firm based in Westport, Conn., for $150 million, including $71 million in debt on the company’s balance sheet. Under Sterling, the company expanded into new markets, opening stores in New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island.

Sterling Investment Partners’ office is in this Riverside Avenue building.

That expansion plan became more aggressive after 2013, when the company had an initial public offering of stock at $13 per share. At the time, Fairway executives extolled the company’s unmatched sales of $1,754 per square foot.

But Fairway’s success in New York — which was largely driven by its two stores on the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, both high-income locations — could not be replicated elsewhere.

“This is another insidious example of private equity killing a business,” said (Mark) Cohen, the (director of retail studies at Columbia Business School). “These guys caused them to open stores that maybe were completely ill-advised.”

The rapid growth brought new challenges for a company that had never managed a regional chain, which required a reliable roster of suppliers and complicated logistics to stock stores with perishables, the main revenue driver at Fairway, before they spoiled….

The expansion failed to generate enough sales to pay down Fairway’s debt. Searching for new revenue, it slowly implemented a new pricing model: Long known for value, Fairway raised prices.

Despite filing for bankruptcy in 2016, there were no real changes — no renogotiated store leases or union contracts, no evaluation of stores. In addition, legal fees at more than $1,000 per hour mounted. Sterling then “walked away from Fairway,” The Times said, adding:

M. William Macey Jr., managing partner and founder of Sterling Investment Partners, said in a statement that the private equity group invested in Fairway “to provide liquidity sought by the family owners, and to support their and management’s objective to expand Fairway’s platform.”

Sterling, he said, assisted Fairway “through a consensual reorganization supported by the company’s management, owners and creditors in which all employees, including union employees, were retained, all vendors were fully paid, all stores remained open and the company was left well capitalized under its new owners.”

Sterling “had no involvement” with Fairway after its 2016 reorganization, Mr. Macey said.

(For the full New York Times story, click here.)

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Posted in Economy, Local business, Media

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Cold Fusion Comes To Westport

Posted on January 24, 2020 | 6 comments

About 3 years ago, Eric Emmert and his wife Kelly got the entrepreneurial itch.

He was commuting from Westport to New York, where he traded high-yield bonds. She worked in sales and marketing.

They looked at various options, including a medical supply company. Meh.

Then they found a gelato business. Bingo!

“Everyone loves the ice cream guy,” Eric notes.

Eric and Kelly Emmert, and their gelato.

At the end of 2016, the couple bought Cold Fusion. The Massachusetts-based firm makes and distributes gelato and sorbet — all by hand, using all-natural, locally sourced ingredients. There’s a line of vegan sorbets, and every item is kosher-certified.

The website explains: “The result of all of this love and dedication is a silky, cool, uplifting fusion of flavor.” (Eric’s favorite: salted caramel chunk.)

A Cold Fusion sampling.

“Gelato is healthier than ice cream,” Eric says. “There’s less fat and fewer calories. And the taste lingers more.”

Sure, it’s a great, fun product. But the couple did not sit around smacking their lips. They restructured Cold Fusion, and grew it.

Working with a new distributor, they’re marketing Cold Fusion up and down the East Coast. You can find it here at Mystic Market and Rizzuto’s; it’s also sold at Walrus + Carpenter restaurant in Bridgeport, and other restaurants around Hartford and Providence. There’s a retail store in Newport, Rhode Island.

The factory is in Massachusetts. Eric and Kelly hope to move the facility closer to home. “I’ve looked at half the vacant spaces in town,” he says.

In their 13 years in Westport, raising 2 daughters here, both have sunk roots into the community. Eric has coached basketball and softball, and been an age-group commissioner. Kelly has coached basketball and volleyball, been a Girl Scout leader, and a member of the Westport Young Woman’s League.

The owners donate Cold Fusion products to local functions, like Homes with Hope’s White Party, the Staples High School PTA holiday lunch and Kings Highway Elementary School’s 5th grade moving-up ceremony.

Gelato is now Eric’s full-time business. Kelly continues in her corporate job, but adds her marketing acumen to Cold Fusion.

The Emmerts are so excited for future growth, they can almost taste it.

Something they might not be able to say if they’d bought that medical supply company, instead of this one 3 years ago.

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Posted in Environment, Local business, People, Staples HS

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Pic Of The Day #1011

Posted on January 23, 2020 | Comments Off on Pic Of The Day #1011

Removing snow from the YMCA addition (Photo/Ed Simek)

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RTM Committee To Discuss Museum, Arts Funding

Posted on January 23, 2020 | 11 comments

In light of the current debate over the role of town funding of the Westport Museum of History & Culture, it’s fortuitous that a public discussion of that very topic is planned.

The Representative Town Meeting’s Library, Museum and Arts Committee meets next Wednesday (January 29, 11 a.m., Town Hall Room 309).

Among the agenda items: “the appropriation of town funds to various arts and museum councils and arts programs, as proposed in the
Selectman’s proposed budget.”

The Westport Museum for History & Culture — previously known as the Westport Historical Society — has received town funds for years.

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Titanic Discoverer, Undersea Explorer Surfaces At Library

Posted on January 23, 2020 | 5 comments

The 2nd “Andrew Wilk Presents…” will be fascinating.

On Thursday, February 13 (7 p.m.), Dr. Robert Ballard speaks at the Westport Library.

I was excited to interview him, for a sneak peak. In 1985 he discovered the wreck of Titanic. He’s also found the Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the Battle of Midway), and John F. Kennedy’s PT-109.

Dr. Robert Ballard

But when I started talking about those titanic discoveries, he basically said, “Who cares?”

Ballard has bigger fish to fry.

The National Geographic Society Explorer-at-Large says his most important discoveries were of hydrothermal vents — and the exotic life forms living miles below the surface.

Basically, Ballard found the origins of life on earth. These creatures have found ways to duplicate photosynthesis without sunlight. Thanks to Ballard, we now know that life can flourish all over the universe.

He’ll talk about all that in Westport. (And Titanic too. “It’s part of the story of human history,” he realizes.)

But wait! There’s more!

Ballard is also about to embark on “the 2nd Lewis & Clark Expedition.” Of course, there are a couple of differences between this, and the one 2 centuries ago that uncovered the wonders of our still-unexplored continent.

Dr. Robert Ballard, ready to explore

For one, Ballard is going underwater. The US owns waters 200 miles from our coastline — and we’ve got a lot of coast. Including Alaska, Hawaii and all our Pacific islands like Guam, Ballard says there is as much undersea as the entire surface of the United States.

And we have no idea what minerals and species are down there.

“I’ll tell you when I find it,” Ballard says confidently.

A second difference between the 1800s and 2000s: Half of the explorers this time will be female.

“I’m calling it the Lois and Clark Expedition,” Ballard says.

So he’s not only astonishingly smart, and superbly adventurous. Ballard is also quite funny.

“Andrew Wilk Presents…” — hosted by Westport’s Emmy-winning television executive producer and director/playwright/symphony conductor — brings remarkable men and women to the library. The series kicked off last month with Michael Davie, a filmmaker who has worked on major projects for Oprah Winfrey, National Geographic, Discovery and more.

Ballard will be a compelling guest. His sense of adventure is — clearly — profound.

So I wanted to know more about what he will discover, in his upcoming exploration of our planet’s vast oceans.

“What did Lewis and Clark expect when they got in their canoes?” Ballard asked rhetorically.

“I’ll tell you when I find it.”

(Tickets for Dr. Robert Ballard’s talk with Andrew Wilk are $50 for reserved seating; $150 for VIP reception and reserved seating. Click here for tickets and more information.)

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Pic Of The Day #1010

Posted on January 22, 2020 | 5 comments

Frigid sunrise this morning, at Compo Beach (Photo/Amy Schneider)

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