Biz on Biz

Biz on Biz: Gelatissimo Appreciates Elm Street Books’ ‘One-to-One’ Recommendations

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On a gloomy day this week, I nipped into Gelatissimo to escape the rain. I was there to find out owner Nuccia Mazzonetto’s favorite local product or service as part of NewCanaanite.com’s “Biz on Biz” feature. 

Inside, I found Mazzonetto behind the gelato counter, serving two teenage girls with heaping cups of the frozen treat, while out the back a staff member churned fresh gelato as I watched. When asked what her favorite local product or service was, Mazzonetto struggled to decide. Eventually, she landed on Elm Street Books. “I love the book store,” she said. 

Mazzonetto said her favorite part about shopping at Elm Street Books is the excellent recommendations they give—whether she’s buying a book for herself or as a gift. 

“They help you,” she said. 

“It’s more one-to-one,” she added.

Business

‘We Felt It Immediately’: Downtown Merchants on the Loss of Parking Spaces on Elm Street

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One month after town officials preliminarily “lined out” a new parking configuration on Elm Street that loses downtown New Canaan more than a dozen spaces, some merchants say the change already is having a dramatic effect on business. Though parking woes already were aired daily by customers, the new scheme that includes a legally required 25-foot buffer zone between a crosswalk and parking space “has had an immediate impact,” according to Maxine Berg, owner of Jade, a popular luxury fashion fitness boutique at 7 Elm St. “We felt it immediately, the minute those spaces were taken,” said Berg, who purchases parking permits for the Center School Lot for herself and staff at the shop. “Especially on my part of Elm. There were four, five spaces.”

Prompted by a resident’s formal complaint about New Canaan’s non-compliance with what appears to be a seldom-observed state law, the town rather suddenly in mid-July was compelled to eliminate 13 parking spaces on Elm Street, which has five crosswalks.

Around Town

New Canaan Library, Bookstore See High Demand for Controversial ‘Fire & Fury’ Book on Trump

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Officials at New Canaan Library and the bookstore in town say they’re seeing high demand among locals for “Fire & Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” a new book at the center of a political firestorm involving the president and his circle. The library had ordered one copy of the nonfiction work before it had any buzz—even though the book wasn’t reviewed anywhere or expected to do very well—and that copy is expected to come this week, according to Lauren Phillips, head of collections. There already are 29 holds on that print book—Phillips said she since has ordered three more copies, and hopes to have them soon—and 21 holds on an e-book version out of the library. “This is an unusual situation,” Phillips said. “It’s not unusual for us to have a lot of holds on a book before its publication date.