Most Photo Challenges show a Westport scene that’s been here a while.
That’s why it’s a “challenge.” The goal is to be difficult — not impossible.
But every once in a while, you get a curveball.
Last week’s Photo Challenge showed a sign (“A Life Without Anything Good is Bad”) inside a place that serves food. (The hint: a napkin dispenser on a table. Click here to see.)
I figured since the Van Leeuwen ice cream shop opened to large crowds on Church Street last month, it would be familiar to many “06880” readers.
Then again, it’s still winter. We’re not exactly in mid-ice cream season.
Still, 3 readers — Andrew Colabella, Rachel Sara Halperin and Joelle Malec — nailed the challenge.
If I ran this a few months from now, many more would have.
Speaking of winter: It’s been 67 days since Christmas. We’re closer to May Day than to that holiday.
Yet a wreath and lights still decorate one very popular Westport institution. If you know where you’d see this week’s Photo Challenge, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Dan Woog)
(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!)
Fashionably Westport just got even more fashionable.
Alisyn Camerota — the award-winning journalist, and former CNN anchor and host — will join fellow TV personality Dave Briggs as co-emcee.
They’ll make this the liveliest “Fashionably” event ever. The Westport Downtown Association-sponsored show (February 28, 7 p.m., Westport Library) — a benefit for Homes with Hope — features the latest styles, from the town’s mot sophisticated and fashion-forward retailers. Models are local friends and celebrities.
Click here for tickets, and more information. To donate silent auctiono items, or become sponsors, email events@westportdowntown.com, or operations@westportdowntown.com.
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Startup Westport — our town’s public/private partnership for tech and entrepreneurial founders and funders — has spawned 2 intriguing special interest groups.
“Women in Tech & Innovation” is led by Tanaz Mody, an experienced venture capitalist and tech startup leader. The group welcomes all women, from experienced pros to those just getting started. Click here for more information.
The “Investor” special interest group is led by Dan Zuller, a VC investor and former entrepreneur. The group is for experienced founders and investors looking to connect, share insights, and engage in high-level discussions on emerging trends, market dynamics and the future of innovation. Click here to sign up for the first event, in March.
Meanwhile, last night’s inaugural first-Thursday-of-the-month social gathering was a smash.
Over 100 people gathered at Nômade for a high-energy night of networking, idea-sharing, drinks and fun.
Enjoying last night’s Startup Westport social event (clockwise from lower left): Jay Norris, Josh Guttman, Paige Parker, Ted Parker, Bari Schrager.
The next step for the proposed Sherwood Mill Pond project walkway project — including discussion of the gate and properties — is Tuesday (February 11, 7 p.m., Town Hall Room 201).
The Representative Town Meetingi Planning & Zoning, and Environment, Committees meet jointly to review plans.
A reminder: Tomorrow (Saturday, February 8, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Stop & Shop), is the Westport Police Department and Sunrise Rotary Club food drive.
All donations support the Homes with Hope, and Westport Department of Human Services food pantries.
Police officers and volunteers will accept non-perishable food items and cash donations.
Suggested items include breakfast bars, baking goods, BBQ sauce, macaroni & cheese, canned vegetables and fruit, coffee, canned meats, canned stew, noodles, cereals, gluten-free foods, granola and protein bars, grated Parmesan cheese, hamburger and tuna helper, hearty soups, instant mashed potatoes, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, oatmeal, cooking oil, pancake mix and syrup, pasta and sauce, peanut butter and jelly, rice, spices, salad dressing, shelf-stable milk, and snacks. (No glass jars.)
Suggested personal care and household items include body wash, Clorox wipes, deodorant, dish soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, razors, shampoo and oothpaste.
To volunteer, or offer a large pickup, call Anna Rycenga at 203-763-9656.
Volunteers, at a previous Sunrise Rotary Club and Westport Police Stop & Shop food drive.
Bonnie Bradley — the descendant of a famed Westport family, and who retained a lifelong love for this town — died Wednesday in Brentwood, Tennessee. She was 86, and lived in Roxbury, Connecticut.
Born in Bridgeport Ina Trivers Bradley and J. Kenneth Bradley, she grew up in Westport. Bonnie attended the Bolton School and Smith College.
She raised her children in Westport, and was deeply involved in the community. In 1999 she moved to Roxbury, where she continued her lifelong passion for service.
Bonnie was president of the Junior League of Greater Fairfield County, a board member of the Roxbury Senior Center and Friends of the Library, and a docent at the Glebe House in Woodbury.
She was predeceased by her sister, Deborah Donnelly. She is survived by her brother James Bradley; her children Brad Colby of Boca Raton, Florida, Stuart Weise of Brentwood, Tennesse, and Wendy Bradley of Woodstock Valley, Connecticut, and her granddaughter, Ainslie Bradley Tschamler.
A funeral service will be held on Thursday February 13 (10 a.m., Roxbury Congregational Church; click here for the livestream, and to leave online condolences). Burial will follow at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport.
And finally …Gene Barge died Sunday in Chicago. He was 98.
The New York Times calls him “one of the last surviving saxophonists of the golden age of R&B, whose career ran the gamut of 20th-century Black popular music.” Click here for a full obituary.
Among the hits he played on:
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The Post Road storefront facing Main Street is perhaps Westport’s prime location.
It’s been many things: Colgan’s and Thompson’s drug stores. Ships restaurant. Eddie Bauer.
Now it’s Tiffany.
But for how long?
Admiral Real Estate Services is marketing the property, under the headline: “The BEST Locations in Downtown Westport! Current Tiffany & Co. Site!”
The listing reads: “New for lease: Prime ground floor retail space in Westport, CT. Current Tiffany & Co. End-cap corner retail with exceptional visibility at signalized intersection.”
The 5,580-square foot location offers “ample natural light, parking directly in rear, corner building with massive frontage … various uses permitted.”
In bold letters, it adds: “Parking is free, nearby, and vast. A large municipal lot can be found adjacent to the building on Jesup Road and in the Parker Harding Plaza located across the street behind Starbucks. Street parking is also available around the building.”
Van Leeuwen — the New York-based, national made-from-scratch dairy and vegan brand — opens its Church Lane scoop shop next Thursday (February 6, noon).
Their 4th Connecticut location marks a return for co-founders Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen. The Fairfield County natives’ ice cream journey began here 20 years ago.
To celebrate, Van Leeuwen Westport will offer $1 scoops on opening day from 3 to 5 p.m., and free totes to the first 100 customers beginning at 3.
The shop will also showcase a special limited offering created by Westport cookbook author and creator Julia Dzafic. The vegan sundae features scoops of strawberry shortcake ice cream and banana pudding ice cream, topped with sprinkles, hot fudge and sugar cone.
Other flavors include honeycomb, brown sugar cookie dough brownie, Earl Gray tea, praline butter cake, marionberry cheesecake, black cherry chip, Sicilian pistachio, bigface coffe affogato and sour cherry creamsicle.
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With a month to go before Fashionably Westport kicks off, over 30 fashion retailers and hair salons have already signed on.
The entertainment list grows too. Westport’s own Drew Angus — now a national perform — will join the fun.
This year’s 5th annual event is Friday, February 28 (7 p.m., Westport Library). Sponsored by the Westport Downtown Association, it’s a benefit for Homes with Hope. The evening includes a silent auction.
Models are local friends and celebrities. The emcee and runway director are neighbors too: Dave Briggs and Carey Price, respectively.
Americans of a certain generation remember Dick Button fondly.
Some recall his illustrious. double Olympic gold-winning figure skating career. Far more known him as the sport’s foremost television commentator, honed over 6 decades of Olympics and other high level competitions.
Totney Benson has more intimate memories. Button — who died Tuesday in North Salem, New York at 95 — was her uncle.
His full name was Richard Totten Button — named in honor of his grandmother. The longtime Westporter’s name is Totney Button Benson.
Dick Button visited the Bensons’ Compo Hill home for holiday celebrations and other events over the past 45 years.
The curtain rises tonight for the 3rd show of Westport Community Theatre’s 2025-26 season.
“Pride and Prejudice” runs Saturdays (7:30 p.m.) and Sundays (2 p.m.), from January 31 through February 9, plus Thursday, February 6 at 7:30 (Town Hall; tickets are $30).
This adaptation captures the spirit of Jane Austen’s 1813 masterpiece with a lively, modern rhythm that stays true to the heart of the original.
Paul Newman would have been 100 years old this week.
To honor the actor/race car driver/philanthropist/longtime Westporter’s legacy, Newman’s Own launched “Paul Newman Generosity Day.”
As part of the celebration at Newman’s Own offices on Morningside Drive North, Andy Ortega created a 4-foot tall cake. It was decorated with a replica of the original salad dressing bottle.
Westport Police made 2 custodial arrests between January 22 and 29. Both were for failure to appear: a 56-year-old Westport man and 44-year-old Bridgeport woman.
Police also issued these citations:
Traveling unreasonably fast: 22 citations
Failure to obey stop signs: 11
Speeding: 9
Driving while texting: 6
Operating a motor vehicle while under suspension: 6
Failure to renew registration: 6
Operating a motor vehicle without a license: 5
Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 4
Improper use of markers: 3
Passing a standing school bus: 1
School zone violation: 1
Following too closely: 1
Failure to drive in proper lane: 1
Improper turns: 1
Failure to obey traffic control signals: 1
Operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance: 1
Illeal operation of motor vehicle — limited license: 1
This bus driver makes sure no one will pass. Passing a standing school bus is a definite no-no. (Photo/Bob Weingarten)
Westport resident Sophie Coquaz died peacefully on Tuesday, surrounded by family and friends. She was 52.
She was born and grew up in southeast France. She studied economics at the University of Lyon, and the University of Reading, in the UK.
In 1994 she pursued a master’s degree at the University of Delaware. She moved to New York and Connecticut to start her professional life, and met her husband Emmanuel.
They married in 2001, with weddings in France and Greece. In 2005 they relocated to London for career opportunities. They spent 5 years there, where their 4 children were born, before returning to New York.
Sophie worked for Thomson Reuters in commercial and legal operations positions for 24 years. She joined Estée Lauder in 2020, and served as vice president in the office of general counsel and legal operations.
She enjoyed travelling to France and Greece for summer holidays. Years after her classes of classic dance, she retained the grace of a ballet dancer.
Sophie is survived by her husband Emmanuel Saounatsos; children Zélie, Madeleine, Aurel and Sidonie; mother Danielle; brother Régis; nephews Mahel and Antoine, and niece Alice.
A wake will be held at Harding Funeral Home this Saturday (February 1, 2 to 6 p.m.). In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the Regional Hospice in Danbury,
Christmas is pretty far in the rear view mirror. It’s amost February, believe it or not.
But a small vestige of the holiday remains at Grace Salmon Park. Johanna Keyser Rossi captured the colorful contrast, in a fir tree, for today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature.
And finally … Marianne Faithfull, whose life included years as a singer, “muse and girlfriend of Mick Jagger,” homeless heroin addict, actor and cabaret performer, died yesterday in London. She was 78.
Her first hit, “As Tears Go By,” is often said to be the first original composition by Rolling Stones Jagger and Keith Richards (now a Weston resident). (Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham — who formerly lived in Westport — was attracted by her beauty, and asked her if she could sing.)
Click here for a full obituary. (Perhaps the most interesting line: “Her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, was a Viennese baroness, an ex-ballet dancer and a descendant of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of the erotic novel Venus in Furs,’ which spawned the term masochism.”)
(As today’s Roundup — and every day’s — shows, “06880” is truly “where Westport meets the world.” Please click here to support your hyper-local blog. Thank you!)
The Downtown Plan Implementation Committee has released the results of its most recent study.
What do 1,955 respondents, plus attendees at focus groups and a townwide charette say>
Surprise!*
Most want Jesup Green to be untouched, for parking or any other use. Some people would even like the open space expanded, toward the river.
The Imperial Avenue parking lot, while used for the Westport Farmers’ Market, Westport Woman’s Club, Levitt Pavilion and Westport Library, is not utilized for downtown shopping and dining.
Presented with 3 sites for a downtown parking deck, nearly 50% favored the Baldwin lot on Elm Street.
For details on those results, and other questions like parking limits, click here.
*Not really.
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Speaking of downtown: With Japanese, Israeli and French cuisine — plus Spotted Horse, Emmy Squared and Mrs. London’s — Church Lane is already a food mecca.
Soon, there will be an ice cream place too.
Van Leeuwen will open in the space previously home to Franny’s Farmacy.
It’s the 4th location in Connecticut for the chain, which features ice cream (including vegan), chocolate chip cookies, cookie sandwiches, sundaes and milkshakes.
The other sites are New Canaan, Darien and Greenwich.
Van Leeuwen also operates shops in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, Texas and California.
Nothing there sells for $6.2 million, however. To pay that amount for art, you need to go to Sotheyby’s, and be a Hong Kong crypto entrepreneur willing to pony up for a duct-taped banana.
But wait!
What was that, duct-taped yesterday to a utility pole, outside the Riverside Avenue gallery?
The Representative Town Meeting Environment and Health & Human Services Committees meet together on Monday (November 25, 7:30 p.m., Zoom).
They’ll continue their discussion about “concerns related to a potential artificial turf field being added to Long Lots School property, during the new school construction.”
The athletic fields at Long Lots Elementary School are now all grass.
Speaking of the environment: Next year marks the 95th anniversary of the Greens Farms Garden Club.
Members got a jump on the celebration Tuesday. The warm, sunny morning was perfect for palnting daffodils, at Machamux Park on Greens Farms Road.
The name comes from the Mohawk and Wallup Native Americans who settled in the area. They called the area overlooking Long Island Sound “Machaux” (“the beautiful land”).
In the mid-1600’s, colonists arrived. The 5 “Bankside Farmers” bought land along the shore from the Wallups.
It named Greens Farms in honor of John Green, one of the Bankside Farmers. A large memorial rock in the park will be surrounded by daffodils and grape hyacinths next spring — the Greens Farms Garden Club’s contribution to this “beautiful land.”
Second Selectwoman Andrea Moore and Westport parks superintendent Michael West helped prepare the garden bed for the volunteers.
In a few months, we’ll all enjoy their work.
Greens Farms Garden Club members, at Machamux Park.
That was the title of last night’s sold-out Westport Country Playhouse show.
Actor Alan Cumming (“Cabaret,” “The Good Wife”) and American journalist and singer Ari Shapiro (NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Pink Martini) joined forces for an evening of entertainment.
The event’s title paid homage to Cumming’s Scottish and Shapiro’s Jewish roots. It was a night of thought-provoking conversations, slightly bawdy musical numbers and personal storytelling.
Alan Cumming and Ari Shapiro: Och and oy! (Photo/Susan Garment)
And finally … Vic Flick, the delightfully named guitarist whose “driving riff in the theme for the James Bond movies captured the spy’s suave confidence and tacit danger,” says the New York Times, died November 14 in Los Angeles. He was 87. and suffered from Alzheimer’s.
(New businesses, art, gardening, sports, schools — it’s all here, just like it is every day, in our “06880” Roundup. If you rely us on for news you can use, please click here to support our work. Thanks!)
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