There are many places you might find a sardine can — or a representation of one. That was the subject of last week’s Photo Challenge (click here to see).
There are the seafood places: Superior, Fjord Fish Market.
And other food spots: Stiles, Gold’s. Black Duck.
One reader even guessed Urban Outfitters.
The correct response though, was Westfair Fish & Chips.
Tucked in the back of Westfair Center — with just a few tables, but a very active takeout business — the spot is one of Westport’s hidden jewels.
Dan Vener and Andrew Colabella both nailed it.
I thought more readers would. But maybe — coming a few days after Christmas — they were still in ham and egg nog mode.
Still, for those who enjoy the Feast of the Seven Fishes …
Anyway — continuing our culinary theme — here is today’s Photo Challenge. If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Marina Drasnin)
(Every Sunday, “06880” hosts this Photo Challenge. We challenge you too to support your hyper-local blog. Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank you!)
Posted onJanuary 4, 2026|Comments Off on Roundup: Sandy Suarez, Mid-Term Exams, Lesley Vincent …
A popular local server needs help.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for Sandy Suarez. She’s worked at Gruel Britannia since it opened; before that she was at The Porch @ Christie’s, and spent many years as a nanny.
Sandy recently received a stage 2 cancer diagnosis. Surgery was largely successful, but she must undergo 28 rounds of chemo. The first is tomorrow.
Treatment presents a significant financial challenge.
“Sandy has served our community for years,” the GoFundMe page says. “Now it’s our turn to help her.” Click here to donate.(Hat tip: Katie Phillis)
The Westport Public Schools’ Christmas vacation is almost over.
At Staples High, that means mid-term exams loom.
As always, the Westport Library offers a warm welcome to stressed-out students.
Today and next Sunday (January 4 and 11), the library will open early, at 9:30 a.m. However, parents, teachers and adult tutors will not be allowed in until 1 p.m.
From January 5 to 15 (except January 8), from 5 p.m. on, the Komansky Room (behind the Trefz Forum stage) is available for quiet study.
The Patron Services desk is the place to go for highlighters, index cards, other supplies — and those all-important chargers.
Staples students don’t love mid-terms. But they love that the Library is there for them, every semester.
Students flock to the Westport Library at exam time. (Photo/Patricia McMahon)
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Photos of New England are on display all month at the Westport Book Shop.
The work of guest exhibitor Lesley Vincent, the images include Westport, Southport, Black Rock, Provincetown and Martha’s Vineyard. All works are available for purchase.
And finally … today is Tom Thumb Day. It honors the birthday of Bridgeport native Charles Sherwood Stratton. Born in 1838 with what is now called pituitary dwarfism, he was discovered and promoted around the world by showman (and Bridgeport mayor) PT Barnum.
Under Barnum’s management, Tom Thumb became a wealthy man. He owned a house in a fashionable part of New York, a steam yacht, and a specially adapted home in the Thimble Islands.
He died at 45, of a stroke.
He was 45 years old. Over 20,000 people attended the funeral. Barnum bought a life-sized statue of Tom Thumb for his gravestone at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport.
Everyone loves watching a giant home theater screen.
But no one loves the space it takes on a wall, during the many hours no one is watching.
Three years ago, Mark Motyl looked at that wall. He saw a beautiful opportunity.
The longtime Westporter — whose 2 previous careers were trading bonds and building spec houses — embarked on a third.
His company, Vivid-Tek, creates customized furniture: credenzas, benches, dressers. They hide a large screen.
It emerges — when needed — with the push of a 6-button remote. When not in use, it retracts back into invisibility.
Three hidden big screens — and one that’s risen up, for viewing.
Vivid-Tek — later named Vanish Media System — grew quietly but substantially. Its systems can be seen (or not seen) in homes in Greenwich, Westchester, the Hamptons and Manhattan. They’re in 10 states, and Canada.
In 2021 Motyl opened a showroom in the plaza near Fortuna’s. Customers saw the system in action.
They could also book the space for private viewings. Julia Marino’s family and friends watched the snowboarder win a silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Watching Julia Marino’s silver medal snowboard performance, at the Vanish showroom.
A few months later, I enjoyed World Cup soccer matches there. With Dolby Atmos Surround Sound and a 4k projector, it was just like being in the stadiums. Except I was much closer to the action.
(Like the host country of Qatar, Motyl did not sell beer. But he provided snacks, and was plenty of fun to watch games with.)
A few months later Vanish moved closer downtown, across the street from Design Within Reach.
Vanish showroom, downtown.
Soon, Vanish’s showroom will vanish.
But the company is not going anywhere. In fact, it’s flourishing.
The website (VanishDesigns.com) does an effective job of explaining how the video systems work, and why many people are moving away from large, wall-mounted TVs.
Between the site and word of mouth, a showroom is no longer necessary.
Vanish sells a couple of systems each week. For every one, they average 2 more sales to friends of the client, after they experience it firsthand.
Motyl also sees a broader shift away from traditional basement home theaters. Many homeowners realize they can have an immersive experience in the parts of the home they love spending time in: living rooms, family rooms, great rooms with views.
A credenza conceals a powerful sound system and 110-inch 4K screen in this Manhattan apartment, under an original Calder tapestry.
“Large TVs are increasingly at odds with good interior design,” Motyl says.
“Beyond dominating wall space, they offer a viewing experience that is less immersive that what today’s ultra-short-throw projection technology can deliver — especially when that technology is hidden inside elegant, low-profile furniture.”
Motyl has also begun selling directly to AV integrators at trade pricing. That further reduces the need for a retail presence.
Vanish will continue to be based in Westport. “We are deeply grateful to the town and its residents for making our experience here so rewarding,” Motyl says.
Congratulations, Mark Motyl, on Vanish’s next move.
But I was looking forward to watching World Cup matches this summer in the Vanish showroom. The price would have been a lot lower, for sure. A seat for the final at MetLife Stadium will go for up to $8,680.
Or I can just buy a system myself.
(“06880” often covers the business and retail communities in Westport. If you enjoy stories like these, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The first step toward becoming a Democratic candidate — or helping to influence the party locally — begins January 13 (7:30 p.m., Town Hall).
That’s the biennial Democratic Town Committee Caucus — an election to the DTC. They’re the group that endorses candidates for local elections, and helps select statewide nominees.
Speaking of politics (sort of): The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has had a collateral effect on Westporters vacationing in the Caribean.
The closure of air space in the region caused airlines to cancel hundreds of flights.
One local family was scheduled to leave today from Trinidad & Tobago — 7 miles off the Venezuelan coast, but 350 miles from Caracas.
Another is in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands — hundreds of miles from Venezuela.
Airlines are swamped with calls from stranded travelers. They’re responding with variations of “We have no idea…”
Verso Studios — the media arm of the Westport Library — has hosted headliners like Patti Smith and the Wallflowers. They’ve produced a vinyl album — the first ever by any library, anywhere.
What haven’t they done? A Battle of the Bands.
Until now.
Next Saturday (January 10, 7 p.m.), 4 high-energy local bands take the Trefz Forum stage. The crowd will decide the winner. Prizes are $500 for first place, $250 for second.
The college and teen groups are the Breakers, Clockwork, Caravan and MOSS.
Many Westporters know and love Abby LaBanca, longtime Spotted Horse bartender.
They may not know that her father Jim is terminally ill with cancer. A strong and selfless man, he continues to give back — including as chair of the Sunshine Kids Cancer Foundation, dedicating time and energy to helping children and families facing the same battle he now wages.
Along with the emotional weight of their impending loss, Jim’s family faces unexpected financial hardship.
A GoFundMe page has been organized to help the LaBancas focus on spending their final days together, without added stress. Click here to donate, and for more information.(Hat tip: Andrew Colabella)
Thant Myint-U grew up in Riverdale, New York — when his grandfather, U Thant, was the third secretary-general of the United Nations — and then in Bangkok, when his father was with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
But his mother Aye-Aye Thant — U Thant’s daughter — was a longtime Westporter.
Her son has just published a book about his grandfather.
According to PassBlue — an independent, women-led nonprofit news company that covers the US-UN relationship, women’s issues, human rights, peacekeeping and other global matters — “Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World” “reveals rich layers of history during the 1960s, taking readers back to key moments in his maternal grandfather’s role in world history, from the Congo crisis to the Cuban missile crisis, from Vietnam to the Six-Day War in the Mideast.
“The author, who worked for a while in the UN and has produced several history books, has now written a book drawing on his family’s legacy. He says it was an accident that he stumbled upon archival material about his grandfather and the UN, which led him to work on this biography.”
Aye Aye and her husband lived in Westport from 2000 to 2022 (except for 2011 through 2014, when they renovated her former home in Yongon, Myanmar, as the U Thant House Museum. It is still in operation; her son is the chairman.
Aye Aye moved from Westport to Boston in 2022, to be closer to her daugthers.
And finally … in honor of the Gray’s Creek photo above, lets hear from this musician:
(Where else but “06880” will you find U Thant and Muddy Waters together? That’s the way we roll. If you appreciate this blog — where Westport meets the world — please click here to support us. Thanks!)
Posted onJanuary 3, 2026|Comments Off on Online Art Gallery #299
Sure, it’s already the new year.
But holiday themes linger.
That’s fine. In the art world — at least, in our online gallery version of it — there are no rules.
Just submit your work — whatever it is.
No matter your age; the style or subject you choose — and whether you’re a first-timer or old-timer — we welcome your submissions. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, mixed media, digital, lithographs, collages, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage, needlepoint — we want whatever you’ve got.
Please email a JPG to 06880blog@gmail.com. And please include the medium you’re working in — art lovers want to know.
“Longshore Gazebo” (Nancy Breakstone — Available for purchase; click here)
“Holiday Candle” (John Maloney)
“Year Turns | Sun Rises” (Jerry Kuyper)
“Where Have All The Starfish Gone?” — 39 x 27 oil painted; real starfish with Compo Beach horseshoe crabs; mounted on painted plaster, covering a framed wooden panel (Eric Bosch — Available for purchase; click here)
“Some Assembly Required. Batteries Not Included” — composited digital illustration (Ken Runkel — Available for purchase; click here)
“Elijah Kellogg Church Christmas Eve” (Bonnie Scott Connolly)
“It’s Back to the Snow Globe After Christmas” (Caroline Howe)
Untitled (Tom Doran — Available for purchase; click here)
“Yellow and Pink” (Dayle Brownstein)
“Murphy” — watercolor (Patricia McMahon — Available for purchase; click here)
“Low Poly Wildlife” — digital art (Alexander Cavallo — One River Art student)
“Bow Wow! Hot Chilly Cupcakes?” (Mike Hibbard)
“Cat’s Meow” (Martin Ripchick — Available for purchase; click here)
“Riverside From Imperial Avenue” — pencil and charcoal (Steve Stein)
“Waif” (Lawrence Weisman)
“Peter” — pencil on paper (Bill Fellah)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery. But please consider a donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
At 2 years old, Sarit Lewis’ son was a picky eater.
She tried to sneak vegetables into his food.
Sarit knew she was not the only mother in that situation.
But her solution was different. She decided to start a kids’ food company.
Sarit Wertheim, in the 2001 Staples yearbook.
Sarit — a 2001 Staples High School graduate and varsity swimmer (her last name was Wertheim) — did not have an entrepreneurial background.
But she did know food.
She majore in political science and history at Indiana University, and earned a master’s from NYU in fundraising and philanthropy for non-profits.
Her husband Michael attended culinary school, then worked for Michelin restaurants, at Google and in school programs.
In 2017 and ’18, he looked into opening a restaurant in New York City. But she wanted to raise their children in Westport. In 2019, they bought the house she’d grown up in, from her father.
He rented space to next to the Army Navy store, planning an all-day eatery called 81 & Sunny. The vision was “an expansive Granola Bar.”
COVID caused a halt. But her son continued his picky-eating ways.
Sarit and Michael Lewis.
Working with a Brooklyn R&D firm, she spent a year developing a popsicle with coconut cream, fruit and vegetables. You couldn’t taste the veggies, she says. But she could not find a manufacturer. Freezing, shipping and storage were big challenges.
Sarit had grown up in an “organic, health-conscious” house. She knew the importance of high protein and fiber, along with being seed oil- and nut-free, and the issues with dyes and preservatives.
There were snacks like those for toddlers. But not a lot for her growing son.
Sarit’s next idea was a mini-muffin. But that proved difficult too, without preservatives.
So she zeroed in on protein bars. There are plenty for adults, Sarit says, but few for youngsters’ taste buds.
It took Sarit a year and a half to research and develop her product. She wanted to make sure texture and appearance of a cookie — important to appeal to kids — was just right.
The finished product.
Ingredients include wheat gluten, carrots, sweet potatoes, zucchini, organic whole wheat flour and coconut oil.
The bars have 6 grams each of protein and fiber. That makes them more filling than run-of-the-mill kids’ bars.
She worked with an R&D team in California, found a manufacturer in Chicago, and tested recipes — chocolate chip and maple cinnamon — with Westport children. The first 3,000 bars were delivered recently.
Sarit started with a soft launch, to people she knew. Major marketing came from social media, and word of mouth.
Sarit and Michael Lewis, and their protein bars.
Feedback has been great. Kids love the bars — and “think they’re getting a treat,” Sarit says. Their parents, meanwhile, order some for themselves.
Now she’s ready to roll it out more broadly, via her website. She ships the bars from her Westport home. (It’s a full-time gig for Sarit and her husband, a French Culinary Institute graduate. Their 6-year-old is at Coleytown Elementary School; the almost-4-year-old attends The Community Synagogue preschool.)
Meanwhile, she’s searching for local markets, like GG & Joe, and Old Mill Grocery, along with specialty markets, gyms, play spaces, sports complexes, and New York bodegas.
The big boys — Whole Foods, Amazon, etc. — are part of her longer-range plan.
Oh, yeah: Sarit’s bars are called “House of Yes.”
“Kids always ask if they can have a snack,” she explains.
“Parents usually say ‘no!’ This is one way to say ‘yes!'”
(“06880” covers local businesses, Staples graduates, young local families — and, like today, the intersection of all 3. If you enjoy stories like this one, please click here to support our work. Thanks!)
Every Westporter knows the William F. Cribari Bridge.
Plans to renovate or replace the historic 142-year-old swing span over the Saugatuck River ensure it will be one of the top news stories of 2026.
And — for a few more days — no matter what you think about its future, you can marvel at its festive, special holiday lights when you drive over it at night.
But who was William F. Cribari?
“Crobar” — as he was universally known in his native Saugatuck — was quite a guy.
He was a World War II vet. Serving under General George S. Patton, he took part in the invasions of Normandy, Sicily and North Africa. He also served in the Battle of the Bulge.
But that’s not why the bridge is named after him.
For more than 30 years, Cribari was a special police officer. He walked the beat on Main Street, and directed traffic at both the pre-light Riverside/Saugatuck Avenue intersection, and the Post Road by Kings Highway Elementary.
But that’s not why the bridge is named after him either.
His greatest fame came when he was shifted to Riverside Avenue, at the entrance to the Manero’s (now Rizzuto’s) parking lot.
William F. Cribari
There — with a smile, a theatrical wave and more than a few dance steps — he masterminded rush hour traffic through the heart of Saugatuck. Much of it went over the Bridge Street — now William F. Cribari — Bridge.
He was much more than a traffic cop, of course. Cribari’s full-time job was tool crib operator for Nash Engineering. He was a longtime Westport PAL volunteer, and a Knight of Columbus. He attended every Army-Navy football game from 1946 on.
At 12 years old he joined the Saugatuck Volunteer Fire Department as a snare drummer. He remained a life member.
More than 30 years later, he became drum major for both the Nash Engineering Band — marching every year in the Memorial Day parade — and the Port Chester American Legion Band.
In 2003, Cribari and his wife Olga were honored as grand marshals of Festival Italiano. That annual event was held in Luciano Park — not far from where he was born at home in 1918, and just around the corner from where generations of commuters learned to love Westport’s greatest traffic cop.
And where stands perhaps the only bridge in the world named for one.
William F. Cribari was honored with this Westport News photo feature.
Cribari died on January 30, 2007, at 88.
Nearly 2 decades later his name lives on, through his namesake bridge.
Let’s all make sure his legend does too.
(Friday Flashback is one of “06880”‘s many regular features. If you enjoy this — or anything else on our website — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)
Posted onJanuary 2, 2026|Comments Off on Roundup: Balducci’s Charlotte, Compo’s Polar Plunge, Club 203’s Party …
As Balducci’s prepares to close, it’s already said goodbye to Charlotte.
Yesterday, some of her many friends also said goodbye.
The longtime, much-loved cashier — now 94 years old, whose tenure goes to back half a century to its Hay Day days — received a surprise retirement gift: over $3,100.
Charlotte (with flowers), and grateful customers. Dan Frank is in the center.
Dan says, “Charlotte and I had a wonderful trip. It was filled with a lot of emotion from friends and especially co-workers, who are sad to see Balducci’s coming to an end.
“Charlotte put a smile on everyone’s faces. It warmed my heart to see how happy everyone was to see her. She is blown away by all the love she’s received from all of you.”
Among their many other activities, the Senior Center offers an intriguing meeting this month.
On January 12, Westport Police Detective Erin Shaw will chat informally about scams, police matters and ID theft, and address members’ questions and concerns.
Meetings are by appointment only. Call 203-341-5099 to reserve a spot.
Detective Erin Shaw
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Club203 is not wasting any time kicking off the new year.
The first social event of Westport’s organization for adults with disabilities is Tuesday (January 6, 6:30 to 8 p.m., Westport Country Playhouse barn).
It’s an interactive experience with Sensei Palardy, including face painting and mask making with friends from MoCA\CT. Calise’s Deli caters, so the food will be great.
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