Business

Local Restaurants and COVID-19: Joe’s Pizza

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In this installment of our daily Q&A this week with a local restaurant owner dealing with restrictions during the COVID-19 emergency, we hear from Lorenzo Colella of Joe’s Pizza on Locust Avenue. Here’s our exchange. 

New Canaanite: What has this past week been like for you? 

It’s been pretty hectic. The new system of doing everything works well when they can’t come in but it takes planning. I had to hire two new kids, a high school kid and college kid. It’s just the logistics of it all when it’s busy.

Around Town

Annual Fishing Derby Set Postponed to April 27 at Mill Pond [UPDATED]

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Update Thursday April 18

Due to expected poor weather, the Fishing Derby has been postponed to Saturday, April 27 at Mill Pond. Original Article

One of New Canaan’s most unique and beloved community events is set for Saturday morning. 

Registration for the New Canaan Annual Fishing Derby will start at 8 a.m. at Mill Pond, with the derby running 8:30 to 11 a.m., organizers say. Held in memory of George Cogswell, a former New Canaan Police officer, the free Fishing Derby has been held each year—primarily at Mill Pond—since the 1980s. “It’s been going on for so many years, people just know about it and it’s something kids do with their dad,” said Jenny Esposito, president of the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan, an event sponsor. “It brings the townies together and it’s just really sweet, with the police, the firemen, the town, the Chamber.”

The pond will be stocked with 370 pounds of rainbow trout and prizes are awarded for participants 15 and younger in categories such as first boy and first girl to catch a fish, largest fish caught and smallest fish caught.

Business

‘He Has Always Been a Kind of Mentor’: Chef Returns To Volunteer at Cherished Pizza Place

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Lorenzo Colella has known Paul Mauk since he was a kid growing up on Forest Street. 

The eatery his parents had opened in 1967, Joe’s Pizza, sat for most of its life just two doors down from Mauk’s Tequila Mockingbird, and Colella would come to see the family friend as a mentor. Colella’s mother Annunziata passed away two years ago, his father Giuseppe in May. Soon after, he lost some help at the pizzeria, now on Locust Avenue, and consulted Mauk, who had sold Tequila last summer after a successful 25-year run. Mauk volunteered to help out, and in just a few months, he’s made an indelible mark at Joe’s, primarily through encouraging Colella to trust his own talents as a chef and in tweaking a pizza recipe that’s been feeding New Canaanites for decades. “One of the main things he does is motivating me mentally, and making me realize I have a lot of capability and what I do is unique,” Colella said.

Government

Parking Officials Re-Designate Time Limit in Two Areas on Locust to 30 Minutes

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Responding to a business owner’s request, town officials are re-designating an area of Locust Avenue as 30-minute parking. The areas directly in front of the Post Office and Joe’s Pizza across the street long have been two-hour parking, as is the rest of downtown New Canaan. Yet town officials recently confirmed with parking enforcement officers “that the people that were parking on that street were not frequenting businesses like Joe’s Pizza or the Post Office—they were using that area to park and go to an office or other places of work,” Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg told members of the Police Commission during their regular meeting last week. The town long has urged employees of downtown New Canaan businesses to park in municipal lots and leave coveted on-street parking for those seeking to shop and dine here. Last year, the Parking Bureau issued a new type of permit, in Morse Court and the Park Street Lot, specifically to that end.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The town on May 11 received an application for the owner of the Huguette Clark estate on Dan’s Highway to build a tennis court on the 52-acre property. The 120-by-60-foot court will cost $98,750 to build. The contractor on the job is Oval Tennis Inc. of Somers, N.Y., architect Frangione Engineering LLC of New Canaan. ***

Congratulations to New Canaan High School senior lacrosse player Nick Crovatto, who broke a longstanding Rams record Monday in a game vs. Trumbull with his 676th faceoff win.