Business

‘It’s Bittersweet’: Mackenzie’s Is Sold

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Phyllis Weinstein and Jim Berry, owners of Mackenzie’s on South Avenue for 13 years, said Wednesday that they’ve sold the business to a young couple in the area. 

Though Berry will continue to work part-time at the iconic downtown New Canaan candy, party goods and specialty gift shop, golden retriever Tahoe and Weinstein herself will be out after this week, she said. “It’s bittersweet, but it’s time,” Weinstein told NewCanaanite.com. 

To the loyal and regular customers of Mackenzie’s, Weinstein said “thank you for making this 13 of the happiest years that I have had.”

“It was a real happy time to come here every day. I was a nurse and director of the Red Cross, so I worked in sad and serious situations my whole life, and to come here and be with happy, upbeat people, it was a thrill.”

A Stamford resident, Weinstein added that what she’s enjoyed most during her stewardship of Mackenzie’s has been “watching the kids grow up and blossom and see the parents.” Through 13 years, the owners have seen New Canaan kids rise from kindergarteners to high school seniors and beyond. “It’s been a relationship,” she said. “It’s like watching your own kids grow up and it’s really special.”

Known during the school year as the primary Friday afternoon destination of Saxe Middle School kids who pile their backpacks outside the door, Mackenzie’s came to Weinstein and Berry when their son purchased more than a decade ago, and they kept operating it even after he took a different job some years ago.

Around Town

Officials Approve Road Closure Downtown for ‘Fall Into New Canaan’ in September

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Town officials voted this month to allow a prominent nonprofit organization to repeat a successful charity event downtown in September. The Young Women League of New Canaan’s “Fall Into New Canaan” will be held on Sept. 8 in the area occupied in past summers by the Pop Up Park, following the Police Commission’s 3-0 vote approving a street closure for part of that Saturday. During its inaugural event last year, Fall Into New Canaan saw 50 stores participate by donating 10 to 15 percent of profits for the day to a chosen beneficiary organization (Meals-On-Wheels), according to Marley Thackray, president of the Young Women’s League. “We had a wonderful day in town,” she told members of the Commission at their regular meeting, held July 18 at the New Canaan Police Department.

Around Town

‘A Really Fun Community Day’: Sidewalk Sale Coming Saturday

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The 53rd Annual Village Fair & Sidewalk Sale this weekend will feature vendor booths, food trucks, child-friendly activities, live music and, as of the latest forecasts, clear sunny skies. The Sidewalk Sale, to be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday after local merchants with street-level shops put out their discount racks at 10 a.m. Friday until 4 p.m. that afternoon, promises to be “a really fun community day,” said the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s Laura Budd. The Friday headstart for local businesses is designed to give shoppers a “preview” of the day-long event, Budd said. Parking in all legal spaces will be free starting at 12 p.m. Friday. The real excitement of the Village Fair portion will begin Saturday, Budd said, when portions of Elm Street, Main Street, Forest Street and South Avenue are closed to motor vehicle traffic to create the quintessential “safe and family friendly pedestrian mall.”

In all, 110 vendors are scheduled to set up shop outdoors, with exclusive deals and bargains.

Business

Selectmen Move Toward Nixing Planned Summer Season of ‘Pop Up Park’

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Officials on Tuesday urged the Pop Up Park’s organizers to realign with the local organization that’s supported the downtown gathering space in past summers—a relationship that appears to have broken down over moving a kiosk three feet. Ostensibly the municipal body that would grant a Special Events Permit for the Pop Up Park, the Board of Selectmen stopped short of saying it would definitely nix it. Yet First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams each signaled that the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s involvement—which the organization itself has essentially ruled out for a proposed July 21 to Sept. 3 season—was a make-or-break consideration. “Given where we are, I don’t think there is any way we are going to proceed with the Pop Up Park on the terms that we’d had last year,” Moynihan said during a special meeting of the board, held at Town Hall.

Business

‘Gingerbitz’ on Elm Street To Close Friday

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Gingerbitz, an eat-in bakery launched on Elm Street more than four years ago by a New Canaan couple, is to close Friday. Karen Zuckert said she and her husband, Andrew, have forged many new friendships through the business and “are very sorry to leave.”

“We really wanted to create something very special for the town,” she saId. “We live in town, we care about it. It’s disappointing. There is just not enough business in town to keep going and to the standard that we would like to keep it.”

Named after a sobriquet that had been bestowed on Karen by her late father-in-law, Donald Zuckert, the cozy shop offered her signature baked goods—including custom cakes, cupcakes and cookies—as well as an eclectic menu of sandwiches, salads, coffees and more.