Business

Apple Cart Food Co. Marks 20th Anniversary

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Apple Cart Food Company, happily serving New Canaan families at Mead Park Lodge, Waveny Pool and Dunning Stadium, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The business started out with some small local catering gigs alongside operations at The Lake Club and The Field Club, according to co-owners Emad Aziz and Marianne Perry. When the opportunity arose to bid operating out of the Mead Park building 12 years ago, they seized it, and have been making their house specialty, the falafel wrap, with a signature “mom-and-pop” style ever since. “I believe there’s big value in business done old-fashioned way,” Aziz said. “We’re not getting caught up in all of the Uber Eats trend.”

The pair did not even realize their company had reached the 20-year milestone until they went to local business Nurenu to develop a new logo.

Business

‘I Am Excited, I Am Happy’: Emad Aziz Opens Mead Park Lodge for 2018 Season

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As New Canaan thaws from the latest in a series of snowstorms, one sure harbinger of spring is stirring in Mead Park. Emad Aziz of the Apple Cart Food Co. has opened the Mead Park Lodge for the 2018 season, with several new items on the popular menu. “I am excited, I am happy,” Aziz said Tuesday from his pristine kitchen in the gourmet food hut. “I cannot wait until it warms up.”

The town resident is in the final year of a 5-year lease with the town.

Business

‘I’m Feeling Refreshed’: Emad Aziz Opens Mead Park Lodge for 2017 Season

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A layer of snow from last week’s winter storm still covers the ball fields and tennis courts at Mead Park. Yet with spring officially arrived and temperatures expected to soar into the high-50s on Saturday, Apple Cart Food Co. owner Emad Aziz is prepared for a rush of activity at Mead Park Lodge. “I’m feeling great, feeling wonderful,” Aziz said Tuesday afternoon from his pristine kitchen in the gourmet food hut. “I’m feeling refreshed and ready to go after a huge, long vacation.”

That would be winter, the town resident’s “off-season.”

He appears to have spent part of it coming up with new offerings for his customers.

Business

New Canaan’s ‘Mead Park Lodge’ Earns Consistently High Marks on Surprise Health Inspections

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The Mead Park Lodge (or ‘Apple Cart Food Co.’) the popular breakfast and lunch destination owned and operated by New Canaan’s Emad Aziz, has earned perfect or near-perfect marks from health inspectors for several years, records show. Out of a possible 100 points, the seasonal food counter for nearly one decade has earned an average of 97 during unannounced biennial inspections by sanitarians with the New Canaan Health Department, according to a review of the establishment’s files. Officials in the health department declined to provide a general characterization for such a score, not specific to Mead Park Lodge, or to offer a general comment about how all New Canaan food establishments, taken together, fare on inspections. Sanitarians use a state Department of Public Health standard, citing eateries for violations that range in seriousness and corresponding weight from 1 to 4 points. A “failed” inspection is triggered either by one or more 4-point violations or a total score of less than 80 points.