Category: Business - Page 179

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Saying Goodbye to Bogey’s

By James Lomuscio

Bogey’s Grille and Tap room owner Jim Stablein says the confluence of hurricane floodwaters and no flood insurance, a tough economy and new restaurants poised to dilute his customer base led him to shut down his 17-year Westport restaurant institution.

James Stablein: “time to move on.” File photo

The restaurant at 323 Main St. and the corner of Canal Street officially shut its doors Aug. 28, the day Hurricane Irene slammed the town, overflowing streams that poured into Bogey’s basement. (See WestportNow Aug. 31, 2011)

“The floodwaters crested in the parking lot and went right into the basement, and we lost a tremendous amount of food, equipment, refrigerators and ice makers,” Stablein said.

“Typically, restaurants, unless they’re near the shoreline, don’t have flood insurance,” he added, noting that he did not. “I haven’t taken on water in 17 years here.”

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

B.V. Brooks Dies at 84: ‘He Loved Life’

By James Lomuscio

UPDATE (adds memorial service details) From world travel to investing in Broadway shows to boating to tooling around on his motor scooter to creating crossword puzzles to taking weekly Latin dance lessons, B.V. Brooks, Westport’s iconic publisher and real estate magnate, was described by family members today as a man who loved life.

B.V. Brooks: publisher and real estate investor Contributed photo

Brooks, known as Dexter to family and friends, died Wednesday, two days shy of his 85th birthday, in a Mexican hospital following a heart attack, his family said. He was stricken with another heart attack three days earlier while on a cruise ship which had left San Francisco bound for the Panama Canal. (See family-provided obituary here.)

“He was taken to a hospital in Cabo San Lucas (a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula), and he was in and out of consciousness,” said Torrey D. Brooks of Weston, his son.

“He was in the hospital for several days, and he had rallied,” said Kay Brooks, B.V. Brooks’s wife of 25 years. “But on August 31st he had another heart attack, and he did not rally, and he died that afternoon.”

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Comings and Goings: Bogey’s Closes

Bogey’s Grille & Tap Room, 323 Main St., has closed its doors after 17 years. A sign on the door says: “After 17 years of being in business, we regret to inform you that we have officially closed our doors. We had a great run and will miss serving all of you. Thank you very much for your patronage and loyalty over the years.” A Westport institution, Bogey’s was the last of a succession of restaurants on that corner starting with Crossroads, Oliver’s and A Stone’s Throw. It was under the ownership of Jim and John Stablein. Westporter Brendan Donahoe, who once was a bartender at Stone’s Throw, said, “No one knew about this. No one knew it would close.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

Comings and Goings: Theory Opens on Main Street

Theory, a women’s contemporary fashion apparel shop, has officially opened at Westport’s 89 Main St., the former site of Gap Body. According to Theory’s area manager, Shauna Leek, the New York-based organization has 20 shops throughout the United States located mainly on the east and west coasts. There is one other Theory shop in Connecticut located in Greenwich since 2002. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Comings and Goings: SoNo Bakery Joins A&J’s Farm Market

The popular SoNo Bakery of Norwalk will open in Westport in mid-Septermber in a section of the A&J’s Farm Market, 1680 Post Road East according to A&J’s owners Melissa and Albert Cuseo (above). Cuseo said the new SoNo Bakery will “mimic everything they sell at their Norwalk location at 101 Water St. but will not do any baking here. We’re excited about partnering with SoNo Bakery.” He said that A&J’s has been stocking SoNo Bakery breads, pies, pastries and more for the past four years. “They have a great following here,” Cuseo said. He said that the new SoNo shop will have a few tables and seating for 10 but they expect that most of the purchases will be for takeout. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Massive Soil Cleanup Planned at Bridgewater

By James Lomuscio

Westport hedge fund Bridgewater Associates has applied to the state and the town to begin a massive clean up of contaminated soil left by a previous occupant at its 25 Ford Road headquarters site straddling both sides of the Saugatuck River.

Town officials said Bridgewater’s cleanup application will be reviewed beginning next month. A sign notifies passersby of the work. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Much of the heavy metal soil contamination was caused by coal ash used to fill in wetlands years ago and by waste products left behind by Dorr-Oliver, Inc. of Milford, state officials said. Town officials estimated the clean up could cost several million dollars.

Dorr-Oliver had occupied the 5.89-acre site for 18 years, according to Maurice Hammel, remediation director of the Bureau of Water Protection and Land Resources for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

Bridgewater Associates did not respond to requests for an interview. But David Fiereck of Loureiro Engineering Associates of Plainville, who submitted the application for Bridgewater, stressed the chemicals left behind pose “no immediate danger, but do not meet the state threshold.”

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

State Labor Dept. Targets Westport Construction Sites

By James Lomuscio

From carpentry to masonry to electrical and general contracting, 19 companies at six construction sites in Westport were ordered to stop work in late July, the state Department of Labor’s (DOL) Division of Labor and Workplace Standards announced today.

A new cosmetics store at 22 Main St., former site of Katzenberg Cafe, was among Westport construction sites targeted. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The reason: the companies had listed their workers as independent contractors to avoid taxes, workers compensation, unemployment taxes and other expenses, according to the DOL.

The Westport crackdown was among 103 stop-work orders issued statewide over the past six months as the DOL has been performing spot checks in communities with construction activity, said Gary Pechie, director of the DOL’s Division of Labor and Workplace Standards. The DOL commissioner, Glenn Marshall, is former head of the Fairfield County carpenters’ union.

Resa Spaziani, DOL supervisor who works for Pechie, said the spot checks were made via contacting municipal building departments. Most were random visits, she said, and others were in response to complaints from workers and unions.

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Comings and Goings: Pierre Deux Closing

Westport’s Pierre Deux, the french country interior design and home furnishings store at 275 Post Road East in Playhouse Square, is going out of business. The firm filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June and a judge ordered all stores closed by the end of October. The store, which has been at its present location for seven or eight years, had been closed for several weeks but reopened last week to conduct the sale, according to an official of a liquidation firm overseeing the closings. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Westport Firm Uses Old-Style Lobbying to Sell Cutting-Edge Product

By Deirdre Shesgreen

www.ctmirror.org

WASHINGTON—A Westport-based bio-medical company is immersed in an unusual lobbying campaign, trying to sell a high-tech burn remedy to counter-terrorism experts in Washington who decide what to buy for the government’s public-health-emergency stockpile.

But while the product and the company, Advanced BioHealing, with headquarters at 36 Church Lane, may be cutting edge, its Washington strategy is old-school.

To press the company’s case, it has hired a sophisticated public relations firm and a cadre of politically-connected lobbyists—including Matthew Hennessy, a former aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is among several Connecticut legislators urging the government to stockpile the company’s medical cure.

[While its corporate headquarters is in Westport, the company has manufacturing and laboratory space in La Jolla, Calif., and office and laboratory space in Brentwood, Tenn.]

Click here for more of story

Comings and Goings: Butcher Shop to Saugatuck

The Saugatuck Craft Butcher shop will open at 575 Riverside Ave. at the new Saugatuck Center in mid- September, according to owner, Ryan Fibiger, a resident of Bridgeport’s Black Rock section. Fibiger said that the 900 square feet shop – located next to Downunder, the new kayak, surf and paddle board shop – will sell meats from animals raised on local farms located within 100 miles of Westport and the slaughter houses are located in nearby Pine Plains, N.Y., Bristol and New Milford, Conn. Fibiger said he spent the past year working at Fleisher’s Grass and Organic Meats shop in Kingston, N.Y. and that its owner will serve as a consultant. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com