Tag Archives: J. McLaughlin

Roundup: Crepes Choupette, La Plage, Riko’s …

Posted on October 18, 2024 | 1 comment

Westport’s newest restaurant — Crêpes Choupette — opened Wednesday in Bedford Square, to eager crowds.

The crêperie –owner Adil Chokairy’s third, after New Haven and Darien — adds one more international cuisine to Church Lane.

It’s a couple of doors down from an Israeli restaurant (The Blondinit), and across the street from Pink Sumo (sushi) and the Spotted Horse (American).

Choupette ribbon cutting … (Photo courtesy of Sam Disraelly)

… and customers inside. (Photo/Karen Como)

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Club203 — Westport’s social group for adults with developmental differences — held a great Halloween Bingo night Wednesday at the Senior Center.

Nearly 140 guests played (many in Halloween costumes). They enjoyed subs from Planet Pizza, cookies by Big G, mac & cheese thanks to the Senior Center’s own Holly Betts, pumpkin decorating by MoCA CT, and tons of candy from an anonymous donor.

Club203 thanks Wendy Petty and the Senior Center for hosting, along with the volunteers  who give time, energy and talents — plus a special shout-out to special guests Fire Chief Nick Marsan and the Westport Fire Department’s Jennifer Petrosinelli, who shared information about the town’s Community Connect program. It provides household information to first responders — including, for example, details about people with disabilities who live there.

Club203 bingo, at the Senior Center.

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Speaking of the Fire Department: They’ve partnered once again with Bridgeport Rescue Mission, for the annual “Share the Warmth” Coat Drive.

Chief Nick Marsan notes, “This drive impacts hundreds of men, women and children from some of the area’s most distressed neighborhoods. A coat may seem simple, but it’s essential for many children and adults in nearby communities.”

 The WFD welcomes donations of new or gently used (and clean) winter coats, hats, mittens/gloves, and snow suits at these sites, through November 12:

  • Westport Fire Headquarters (515 Post Road East)
  • Senior Center: (21 Imperial Avenue)
  • Town Hall (110 Myrtle Avenue)

Collection boxes will also be placed at public schools. Once collected, Westport firefighters will sort and transport items to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission.

Deputy Fire Marshal Rob Lenois, president of the Westport Uniformed Firefighters Charitable Foundation, says, “This drive allows us to give back and ease the burdens on local families. Last year, thanks to the generosity of this community, we distributed over 1,350 coats.”

(From left): Fire Chief Nick Marsan, volunteer Anna Rycenga and Deputy Fire Marshal Rob Lenois want your winter coats, and more. 

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Want to learn more about the influence of social media on today’s youth?

Westport Together — a program of our town’s Department of Human Services — has arranged a conversation on the topic, with local psychotherapists Vince Benevento, LPC Founder and CEO of Causeway Collaborative, and Mary Dobson.

It’s this Tuesday (October 22, 6:30 p.m., Westport Library). For more information, click here.

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As the weather gets colder, Earthplace heats up.

Among the activities:

  • Plein-Air Art Along the Trails (October 19, 10 a.m. to noon)
  • Tree ID Walk (October 19, 1 to 2:30 p.m.)
  • Yoga with Alison Heisler (October 25 and November 1, 9:15 to 10:15 a.m.)
  • Forest Bathing with Merritt Juliano (October 30, 10 to 11 a.m.)
  • Fall Gardening Workshops (November 2, 1 to 3 p.m.)’Car
  • Guided Meditation with Alison Heisler (November 4, 6:30 to 7:15 p.m.)
  • Sound Bath with Abbey Chase Yoga (November 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m.)
  • Craft and Sip: Fall Wreath Making (November 2, 1 to 3 p.m. or 6 to 8 p.m.)
  • Environmental Learning Series (November 2, 7 to 8 p.m.)
  • Native Plant Propagation (November 16, 1 to 3 p.m.)
  • Saving an Endangered Butterfly (November 21, 7 to 8 p.m.).

Click here for more information, and registration.

Create your own art along the Earthplace trails.

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La Plage’s patio is closing for the season soon.

To celebrate — and to get an early start on Halloween — they’re throwing a “Costume & Closing Party” (Sunday, October 27, 5 to 7 p.m.).

The $39.19 ticket includes light bites, music, and 2 drink tickets.

“Dress to impress,” the Longshore restaurant urges. The “Best Costume” winner will receive 2 tickets to La Plage’s New Year’s Eve gala dinner — a $370 value. Click here to purchase.

Closing soon — but just for the season. (Photo/Nicole Donovan)

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Speaking (once again) of restaurants: Back in May, “06880” announced the upcoming opening of Riko’s. The pizza place — which has drawn raves at their Fairfield, Norwalk, Darien and Stamford locations — replaces Mystic Market, off I-95 Exit 17 across from the train station parking lot.

(Mystic Market replaced, in turn, Blu Parrot, Jasmine, and the granddaddy of all Italian restaurants, the Arrow.)

It’s taken nearly 5 months, but the signage has finally appeared:

(Photo/Matt Murray)

Now we wonder: Which will finish first: Renovations to Riko’s, or construction on nearby 95?

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A date has been set to celebrate the life of Tom Carey. The former Conservation Commission chair and Westport Rotary Club treasurer died Monday.

Tom’s many friends are invited to Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Saturday, October 26 (2 p.m.). A reception will follow.

Tom Carey

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Get a jump on holiday shopping — and support The Westport Library — next Thursday (October 24, 1 to 5:30 p.m.), at J.McLaughlin.

15% of all purchases made at the 382 Post Road East store will benefit the Library.

Library officials will be on hand to say thanks, and answer questions about the Library’s programs and events.

Busy that afternoon? Call 475-284-2495 that day, and order. Those purchases help the Library too!

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The weather the past couple of weeks has been spectacular. (Knock wood.)

The days are warm. The nights are crisp. The skies are blue.

Anyone who can has been outdoors, taking advantage of our wonderful New England autumn.

Jolantha — Weston’s favorite pig — is always outside, no matter the weather. She too appreciates every minute of this perfect fall.

(Photo/Hans Wilhelm)

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This determined-looking guy was stalking Hales Road yesterday, like he owned the place:

(Photo/Drew Grega)

He did slow down long enough to pose for this “Westport … Naturally” photo.

Be careful out there!

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And finally … George C. Scott was born on this date, in 1927.

This final item in the “06880” Roundup is almost always dedicated to a musical selection.

Today is different. We honor the actor, who died in 1999 at 71, with a clip that may be the single greatest monologue in the history of movies.

(Want to know the latest restaurant news — or anything else, anywhere, in Westport? Just read “06880.” And if you enjoy our coverage, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)

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Posted in Environment, Library, Restaurants

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Roundup: D-Day, Civil War, Staples Baseball …

Posted on June 2, 2024 | 6 comments

Westport’s relationship with our sister city of Marigny-le-Louzon, France was forged in the aftermath of World War II.

But it began soon after D-Day in 1944. Westporter Bob Loomis — a gun sergeant — was in the Normandy town, just 25 miles from Utah Beach.

A couple of weeks later another Westporter — heavy machine gunner Clay Chalfant — moved through Marigny with his company on their way to Belgium.

When the war ended, Charlotte MacLear — head of the French department at Staples High School, and a graduate of prestigious Sorbonne Université — sparked a campaign to “officially adopt Marigny” and help its recovery.

Our town sent clothes, money and Christmas gifts, thanks to fundraising that included selling toys and buckets with designs painted by Westport artists.

In return, Marigny created the “Westport School Canteen,” and named the town’s largest square “Place Westport.” MacLear visited our sister town 3 times. Each time, she was honored and adored.

That friendship remains strong. In 2020, Marigny officials named a room in their Town Hall for MacLear.

This week, Westporters Jeffrey Mayer and Nancy Diamond are visiting, sending our greetings, and giving gifts from our town.

This morning — 4 days, before the anniversary of D-Day — René Gautier wrote to “06880.”

As a child, he received some of those presents from Westport. He has been stalwart in maintaining our friendship ever since. René said:

As part of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the landing and the liberation of Normandy — but also for the future! — we would like to know, to honor their graves, if soldiers from Westport or the surrounding area were killed in the fighting of 1944 and buried in one of the US cemeteries in Normandy.

Our association will undertake to symbolically decorate this grave with flowers.

What a generous, beautiful offer.

If you know of any American soldiers from Fairfield County who are buried in a US cemetery in Normandy, email 06880blog@gmail.com.

We will let René, and all our friends in Marigny, know.

They will do the rest.

Marigny and Westport are united in red, white and blue.

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Here is another conflict: “Civil War.”

The film that debuted Number 1 at the box office last month follows 4 journalists on a road trip from New York to Washington, as society collapses.

Kirsten Dunst plays Lee, a photojournalist determined to interview the president in the midst of chaos.

How well — or poorly — does the movie depict wartime reporting?

Lynsey Addario knows. The 1991 Staples High School graduate, and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photojournalist, has covered the war in Ukraine, and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

This week, “On the Media”‘s Brooke Gladstone interviews her about her real-life experiences, and the fictional “Civil War.” Click here to listen.

Lynsey Addario

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Kai Nee’s 15-strikeout, 2-hit, complete game pitching performance paced the Staples baseball team to a 7-0 shutout of Newtown yesterday, in the CIAC “LL” (extra large schools) state tournament quarterfinals.

The 19th-seeded Wreckers advance to Tuesday’s semifinal, at a site and time to be determined.

Their foe is familiar: Fairfield Warde. The Mustangs are ranked second in the state tourney.

(Collage courtesy of Staples baseball)

 

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An “06880” reader was intrigued — and perhaps bored — by the name of this business in Westfair Center, across from Stop & Shop:

It is pretty generic.

Kind of like calling a place “Food Restaurant.” Or “Book Store.”

Come to think of it, “Stop & Shop” isn’t that compelling a name either.

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And hey: Music & Arts is hardly a whiz-bang moniker.

For a few years, there’s been a Compo Shopping Center site for the franchise, which (surprise!) offers lessons, and sells and rents instruments.

Now they’ve closed. They’re referring customers to their Fairfield location. (Hat tip: MaryLou Roels)

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Meanwhile, Les Dinkin checks in with this photo that could be tongue-in-cheek.

Except it isn’t:

(Photo/Dinkin Fotografix)

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The Westport Weston Family YMCA does a lot of things right.

Including making feel-good videos.

Longtime Westporters Bob and Doree Levy are featured in a recent reel, explaining how much they enjoy the Wilton Road facility.

Doree does Aquafit. Bob helps out at a class for Parkinson’s patients. Together, they donated the “alligator” that spouts water at the kids’ splash pool.

The Y epitomizes the Three Musketeers’ motto: “All for one, one for all,” Bob says.

And, Doree adds — referring to the Y’s original acronym — “I’m not young. I’m not a man. I’m not Christian.”

But, she notes, today’s Westport YMCA is all about community and inclusion.

Click below for the video:

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Printmaking and a garden tour.

Those 2 activities seldom go together. But they’re the dual focus of a July 14 event.

From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. that day, the Center for Contemporary Printmaking and Blau House & Gardens sponsors “Printmaking in the Garden.”

Suitable for all levels and ages, it’s just $10. That includes a garden tour and materials.

Guests can collect botanical materials for a Gelli plate printmaking activity. Staff and volunteers with the Center will guide participants in creating artwork using leaves, petals, twigs and more from the inspiring landscape.

Click here to register, and for more information.

Printmaking at Blau Gardens.

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Summer means shopping — and theater.

From 1 to 5:30 p.m. on June 21 — the day after this year’s solstice — J. McLaughlin and the Westport Country Playhouse collaborate on an afternoon of sips and shopping.

15% of all sales will benefit the Playhouse.

Can’t make it that day to Compo Acres Shopping Center? Call the store (475-284-2495) to place an order.

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Pippa Bell Ader offers today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo. She writes:

The Old Hill albino deer was spotted recently on Wright Street. It has grown quite a bit since I last saw it.”

(Photo/Pippa Bell Ader)

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And finally … Marvin Hamlisch was born on this date in 1944.

The composer/conductor he is one of few people ever to achieve an EGOT (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony).

He died in 2012, age 68.

In addition to the 2 memorable songs below — from “The Sting” (starring Westporter Paul Newman) and “A Chorus Line” — he wrote the score to “The Swimmer,” the movie filmed largely in Westport in 1966.

(“06880” is one singular sensation. We entertain [and inform, and educate] our readers several times a day. But we need your help. Please click here to support your hyper-local blog. Thank you!)

6 Comments

Posted in Arts, Local business, Sports, Staples HS, Westport Country Playhouse, YMCA

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J. McLaughlin Folding (Again)

Posted on June 27, 2012 | 7 comments

Once upon a time, J. McLaughlin was one of Main Street’s many clothing stores.

That space didn’t work out.

About a year and a half ago, though, the store — described by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a place “where you can get wasp cufflinks and where men’s socks are called ‘hosiery'” — returned to Westport.

The new spot was a couple of miles away on Post Road East, opposite Arcudi’s Aux Delices.

The Post Road East store. (Images/WWD)

Racked.com noted the event:

New Yorkers know J. McLaughlin for its tiny, preppy stores on the Upper East Side and in Brooklyn Heights. But in Westport, Connecticut, the chain has opened a store that’s five times the size of the typical McLaughlin space.

The 5,500-square-foot shop is organized like a bazaar, with stalls based on themes like resortwear and nautical gear. This “street of shops” concept lets merchandisers have fun with details—in one area, for example, the brightly patterned Catalina tee sits surrounded by equally busy wallpaper swathes. It also lets the brand experiment with different kinds of merchandise, including an urban line that WWD describes as “modern, clean, [and] toned-down,” words that don’t usually apply to McLaughlin’s cheerfully deranged, too-much-gin-at-the-regatta aesthetic.

Apparently though, that space didn’t work either.

A sales clerk said they’re closing July 15. She did not give any more details, and said there was no manager in the store to talk.

Perhaps the 3rd time’s the charm.

7 Comments

Posted in Local business

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