Tag Archives: Peter’s Bridge Market

Roundup: Custodial Thanks, Peter’s Market, Westport Book Shop, More

Posted on January 28, 2021 | 6 comments

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As Westport students prepare to return to full-time learning, “06880” reader Erin Loranger writes:

“While there are countless unsung heroes in our schools, I would love to recognize the custodial crews.

“I can’t imagine how hard they have worked with tasks such as reconfiguring classrooms and cafeterias, loading in new desks, and constructing Plexiglas barriers so that students and staff can have a safe environment.

“Without their commitment to excellence in taking care of our buildings and cleaning, our young learners would not have the opportunity to have been in school at all this year, let alone being in the position now to transition to full-time, in-person learning.”

Will Herrera — one of Westport’s many unsung, invaluable custodians and maintenance staff.

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Yesterday’s news that Peter’s Weston Market will close on Sunday evoked many memories of the role the store played in the community.

Ashton Robinson wrote:

“I left Weston in 1967, and Peter’s Weston Market was there. If my memory is correct, I think that ‘Peter; was Peter Robinson. I went through Weston schools with his son Guy in my class.

“The photo below was taken at a political rally in 1956, when Adlai Stevenson ran against Eisenhower. My father was the first Democratic Town Committee chairman. He organized this rally in Weston, representing both Republicans and Democrats. My mother and a friend’s mother are the two women on the left side of the photo.”

The cars, the styles and the politicians have changed since 1956. But Peter’s Weston Market still looks much as it did, 65 years ago.

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The Westport Book Shop — downtown’s new nonprofit used book store — opens today at 3 p.m.

Honoring the year it begins, they’re rolling out a “2021 Welcome Program.” In keeping with COVID restrictions, guests are invited to browse for up to 20 minutes. To allow everyone to enjoy the store, they can purchase up to 21 items per visit.

See you there!

The new home of the Westport Book Shop, across from Jesup Green.

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Seth Schachter is an avid collector of Westport postcards and memorabilia.

He saw this 8×10 image on eBay. It came from a Westport estate. It depicts an old factory here — but there are no other details.

Seth hopes our “06880” readers can crowdsource its background. If you know the name of the factory, or where it was, click “Comments” below. Click on or hover over to enlarge.

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Westport Sunrise Rotary’s Super Bowl raffle is off to a great start. Not many tickets remain.

They’re $50 each. Numbers are randomly assigned. Winners will be determined by the scores at the end of each quarter. Winner of the final score snags a $1,000 Visa card. 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarter winners each get a $500 card.

The raffle funds important charities like Mercy Learning Center literacy training, the Susan Fund for students with cancer, Earthplace and Elderhouse.

Click here for tickets.

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Mary Satta Lane — better known as “MaryLane,” a beloved waitress at Mario’s for nearly 40 years — died Monday. She was 89 years old, though she described her age as “36 and holding.”

Her obituary calls her ‘a strong woman with a wicked sense of humor….She leaves behind a legacy of laughs, as well as a lot of people who love her.”

A memorial service — “the celebration she deserves” — will be held when the weather warms. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to United Methodist Homes, 58 Long Hill Avenue, Shelton, CT 06484.

For MaryLane’s full obituary, click here.

Mary Satta Lane

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Kevin Carroll and his wife headed to Compo Beach this morning, to watch the sunrise. Instead they were treated to a great view of the moonset.

PS: Tonight, Kevin notes, is the full wolf moon.

(Photo/Kevin Carroll)

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William “Liam” Bohonnon has received the Connecticut Bar Association’s Anthony V. DeMayo Pro Bono Award. The 2008 Staples High School graduate was honored for his pro bono work for the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center.

Liam Bohonnon

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And finally … the Eisenhower-Stevenson presidential election (see Peter’s Market story above) was not the only momentous event in 1956.

On this day — January 28 — that year, Elvis Presley made his national television debut. It was not on the now-legendary, hip-thrusting “Ed Sullivan Show,” but — also on CBS — “Stage Show.”

The program, produced in New York, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. This appearance came the day after the release of “Heartbreak Hotel.”

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Posted in Downtown, Education, Local business, Organizations, People, Restaurants, Sports

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Mystic Market Ends Saugatuck Blight

Posted on November 7, 2017 | 12 comments

For too long, the building at 60 Charles Street — most recently the Blu Parrot, before that Jasmine, and for decades the beloved Arrow restaurant — has sat empty.

The vacant building and overgrown lot have served as a shabby welcome to everyone coming into Westport off I-95 Exit 17.

Also for too long — ever since Peter’s Bridge Market closed — Saugatuck residents have lacked a moderately-priced place to pick up food.

Both issues are now solved. The building — owned by Felix Charney and Jake Grossman — has been leased to Mystic Market.

(Photo/Russell Sherman)

This will be the 4th location. Three others — 2 in Mystic, 1 in Old Saybrook — tout “gourmet quality products, at marketplace prices.”

Mystic Market will offer groceries, soups, salads, wraps, sandwiches, grinders, a coffee bar, and a bakery serving breakfast goods, breads and desserts. Catering is also available.

“It’s moderately priced — sort of a contemporary Peter’s Bridge,” says Tommy Febbraio, the Coldwell Banker Commercial realtor who brokered the deal.

A spring opening is planned.

 

 

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Posted in Local business, Real estate, Restaurants, Saugatuck

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What’s Up With Doc’s

Posted on October 10, 2011 | 8 comments

In the winter of 1997, Yvonne Dougherty rose early every morning to drive her son Peyton to Staples swim team practice.

On the way back she’d stop by Juba’s — the coffee shop in Peter’s Bridge Market, near her home — for a jolt of caffeine to start the day.

Then she got a job there.  It paid $7.50 an hour — but she quickly fell in love with the coffee business.

On September 11, 2000 she took over Juba’s lease.  For an investment of just a few thousand dollars, she had a steady business.  She took in $900 a day, with virtually no overhead.

Three and a half years later, the new owners of Peter’s Bridge “threw me out,” she says.

In less than a month, she opened a new place in a former boating just across Riverside Avenue.

Yvonne called it Doc’s, in honor of her last name — pronounced “Dockerty.”

Yvonne Dougherty, outside Doc's.

Her landlord — Sam Gault — was “phenomenal,” she says.  He kept her rent low, and helped any way he could.  He told her she could probably stay for 2 or 3 years.

Yvonne spent plenty of money — $250,000, she estimates — complying with town regulations.  She had to change the parking lot, and put in a sidewalk.

But customers — including, importantly, many commuters — loved Doc’s.  For much of the decade, she averaged $1,500 a day.

Then the economy tanked.  Starting in the fall of 2008, business tailed off precipitously.  The opening of a similar place — Cocoa Michelle — closer to the train station may also have hurt.

A year ago, construction began on the Saugatuck redevelopment project.  Winter — always slow — was particularly harsh.  Between road closures on Riverside Avenue, bad weather that kept people home, and uncertainty about whether Doc’s would stay open, business dropped 30 to 40 percent.

(Interestingly, Yvonne says, the new Dunkin’ Donuts at the site of the old Juba’s had no effect.)

Doc’s owner second-guesses herself for many of her problems.

“Even though I have an MBA from the University of Virgina — back in the Stone Age — I didn’t have a clue to market Doc’s.  Or even brand it,” she says.

“I missed the opportunity to be on the web.  And I could have rented out this place for parties more than I did.”

Yvonne adds, “When someone walks in your shop, they have to know what you’re selling.  I’ve got lots of tchotchkes here, but I think they distract people.  Some of my charm came back to bite me in the butt.”

Starbucks, she says, “may be sterile and boring.  But you know what they’re selling.”

Doc’s “would have been far more successful if I’d known I was going to be here for 8 years,” Yvonne says.  “I would have put in a kitchen.  I would have designed everything much better.”

With close to 2,000 square feet — 10 times her space at Juba’s — she says, “It was probably too much.”

Yvonne adds, “I was a one-woman show.  I learned you have to work on your business, not in it.”

The 2nd phase of Saugatuck’s redevelopment starts soon.  A retail/residential/office mix will replace the buildings in and around Ketchum Street — including Yvonne’s.

Doc’s last day is November 12.

“I wish I had a plan for what’s next,” Yvonne says.  She’s found a potential location in Southport — but she needs a partner.

Perhaps, she says, she can open Doc’s as a smaller space inside existing stores — the way she started, with Juba’s inside Peter’s Bridge.

But Peter’s Bridge is gone, and Yvonne can’t think of any other place in town that make sense.  “That’s my challenge — to find something that works,” she says.

She will miss her customers.  Many have been very loyal.

“I see people in town, and I think, ‘that’s a medium latte,” she says.  “That’s a pretty bizarre skill.”

Meanwhile, the clock ticks for Doc’s.

“I’ve got to figure out something soon,” Yvonne says.

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Posted in Economy, Local business, People, Saugatuck

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A Bridge Not Taken

Posted on May 1, 2009 | 4 comments

The rumor was enticing:  Jim Magee was coming back to run Peter’s Bridge Market.

Residents of the Saugatuck/Compo area — whose nearest reasonably-priced grocery store options are Super Stop & Shop and Stew Leonard’s — salivated at the news.  Jim’s family owned the Bridge Square market — located across from Mansion Clam House, on the corner of Riverside Avenue and Bridge Street — from 1972 to 2004.  Jim ran it himself until 1995, when he bought Peter’s Weston Market from his dad.

After the Magees sold it, the “Peter”-less Bridge Market lost favor (and raised prices).  Now it’s almost all gone — what remains is a salad bar one flight down in the nearby fish store.

Peter's Bridge Market - Westport

I reached Jim at his Weston home, and relayed the rumor.

“Not true,” he said.  That sound you hear is the dashing of neighborhood hopes.

“I’d love to go back to Westport,” he added.  “The landlord contacted me a couple of times.

“The place needs a lot of time, money and energy.  They were willing to do some things with the infrastructure.  But the rent is way too high.”

He warmed to the subject.  “If the Gaults build something down there, I might be interested.  It’s a nice spot.  But the parking is terrible.  And it’s tough to run a grocery store at $50 a square foot.”

One rumor squelched.  Here’s another:  The space might become a Subway.  Or a Wendy’s.

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Posted in Local business, Real estate

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