January/February Issue

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2024

“good bones” Photography Rhonda Spevak

WE BUILD HEALTHY, SMART, ENERGY EFFICIENT HOMES.

Real estate has a language all its own.

You need an agent who speaks yours.

www.wearecarbon.com info@wearecarbon.com

6 3 4 OLD POS T ROA D | B EDF ORD NY | 9 1 4 .2 3 4 .9 2 6 1 | C ORC ORA N.COM

JUST COMPLETED IN POUND RIDGE

©2023 Corcoran Group LLC. All rights reserved. Corcoran® and the Corcoran Logo are registered service marks owned by Corcoran Group LLC. Both Corcoran Group LLC and Corcoran Legends Realty fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each franchise is independently owned and operated.

No.

List Your Home With Confidence

1

Brokerage North of NYC

NORTH SA LEM , NY

B EDFOR D COR N ER S, NY

B EDFOR D COR N ER S, NY

DA RIEN , C T

Offered at $3,695,000

WACC A B UC , NY

A R MON K , NY

Offered at $4,750,000

6 BEDS · 8 BATHS · 7,447 SF · 22.76 ACRES

5 BEDS · 4 . 3 BATHS · 7,500 SF · 4.07 ACRES

5 BEDS · 5 . 1 BATHS · 6,258 SF · 4.70 ACRES

6 BEDS · 5 . 1 BATHS · 7,129 SF · 0.46 ACRES

5 BEDS · 5 . 2 BATHS · 6,592 SF · 4.04 ACRES

5 BEDS · 5 . 1 BATHS · 4,608 SF · 2.16 ACRES

Angela Kessel | M 914.841.1919

Angela Kessel | M 914.841.1919

Michael Winter | M 914.525.3378

Kyle Neumann | M 203.240.3912

Susan Stillman | M 914.589.4477

Amy Singer | M 914.772.3526

A R MON K , NY

A R MON K , NY

B EDFOR D HILL S, NY

NEW CANA AN, CT Offered at $1,995,000

W ES TPORT, C T

NEW CANA AN, CT

Offered at $2,250,000

5 BEDS · 4 . 1 BATHS · 5,138 SF · 2.33 ACRES

3 BEDS · 4 BATHS · 4,066 SF · 5.77 ACRES

5 BEDS · 6 BATHS · 10,000 SF · 4.2 ACRES

7 BEDS · 5 . 1 BATHS · 4,490 SF · 4.46 ACRES

4 BEDS · 4 . 1 BATHS · 4,476 SF · 0.81 ACRES

3 BEDS · 2 . 1 BATHS · 2,232 SF · ACRES

Jaimme B. Pudalov | M 914.844.7259

Katherine Cresci | M 914.755.0130

Jody Rosen/Mary Palmerton | M 914.907.3300

Nez Swanberg | M 203.984.5009

Frederic Bernard & Ayesha Qureshi-Amin | M 203.892.2269

Lisa Ferrante & Melissa Jones | M 203.722.3878

POU N D RIDG E , NY

SOUTH SA LEM , NY

RIDG EFIELD, C T

SOUTH SA LEM , NY Offered at $1,495,000

NORTH SA LEM , NY

RIDG EFIELD, C T

Offered at $1,592,000

2 BEDS · 3 BATHS · 2,370 SF · 7.57 ACRES

3 BEDS · 3 BATHS · 1,918 SF · 0.31 ACRES

4 BEDS · 3 . 1 BATHS · 3,254 SF · 2.32 ACRES

3 BEDS · 2 . 1 BATHS · 4,275 SF · 10.49 ACRES

3 BEDS · 3 . 1 BATHS · 4,814 SF · 6.30 ACRES

3 BEDS · 3 BATHS · 2,866 SF · 3.77 ACRES

Caroline Shepherd | M 914.393.2795

Susan Stillman | M 914.589.4477

Bob Neumann & Nancy Ollinger | M 203.313.2600

Nancy Musich & Tracy M. Cunniff | M 914.299.3068

Eugenio (Gino) Sermoneta | M 914.450.5356

Linda Anderson | M 203.300.7972

Offered at $6,250,000

Offered at $4,950,000

Offered at $2,449,000

Offered at $2,295,000

Offered at $1,695,000

Offered at $1,649,000

Offered at $2,795,000

Offered at $1,890,000

Offered at $1,349,000

Offered at $2,645,000

Offered at $1,750,000

Offered at $1,095,000

Source: OKMLS, MHMLS, CGNDMLS, SMARTMLS, 1/1/2022 – 12/31/2022, total dollar volume of single family homes sold by company, Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia and Fairfield Counties combined.

/H O U L I H A N L AW R E N C E

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@ H O U L I H A N L AW R E N C E

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Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.Lifestyle Advisory Service Providers are not affiliates of Rockefeller Capital Management. Rockefeller Capital Management makes no representations regarding the appropriateness of the products or services provided by the Lifestyle Advisory Service Providers. There may be additional service providers who offer such services that you may want to consider for comparative purposes. This material should not be construed as a solicitation by Rockefeller Capital Management for business on behalf of the Lifestyle Advisory Service Providers, or an endorsement of the Lifestyle Advisory Service Providers by Rockefeller Capital Management.Rockefeller Capital Management will not be compensated for business introduced to the Lifestyle Advisory Service Providers. The information contained herein is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended, and should not be construed, as investment, accounting, tax or legal advice. Please consult your legal and tax advisors when considering this information. These materials may not be reproduced or distributed without Rockefeller Capital Management Inc.’s prior written consent. Rockefeller Capital Management is the marketing name of Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. and its affiliates. Investment advisory, asset management and fiduciary activities are performed by the following affiliates of Rockefeller Capital Management: Rockefeller & Co. LLC, Rockefeller Trust Company, N.A., The Rockefeller Trust Company (Delaware) and Rockefeller Financial LLC, as the case may be. Rockefeller Financial LLC is a broker-dealer and investment adviser dually registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Member Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). These registrations and memberships in no way imply that the SEC has endorsed the entities, products or services discussed herein. Additional information is available upon request. ©2023 Rockefeller Capital Management. All rights reserved. RCMID-1428079438-3693

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The details that matter to you, matter to us.

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nicole

JAN/FEB 24

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

me

NICOLE BLOOM is our Cover Feature for this January/ February 2024 issue of B&NC MAG, and her story eerily similar to Will Reeve’s - also involves losing a

When a local kid hits it big, we like to give it some

famous Dad, TV Correspondent David Bloom, when

of our ‘Always Local / Always Positive’ focus and

she was only 9…and she’s now ascending as a TV

attention. Everyone wants to read about a real life

star!

hometown hero! …I was surprised to see Nicole appear - on my TV Like the Cover Feature we did in our Jan/Feb 2022

screen! - as Maude Beaton in the Second Season of

issue on Zach Allen; who grew up in New Canaan,

the hit HBO TV series I’d been watching called The

and; who’s now in the first year of a $45.75M three-

Gilded Age! …I went to First Grade at Pound Ridge

year contract playing Defensive End #99 for the NFL

Elementary School with Nicole! …I knew right away

Denver Broncos.

we had to have Nicole on our Cover, and that this was one I’d write myself!

And when the story involves the local kid overcoming great adversity on the path to success, we know

I’d lost touch with Nicole, but had a great time

everyone in the community shares a great interest!

catching-up with her at her Mom’s house in Darien.

She certainly fits the bill for being a local kid who

Like the Cover Feature we did in our Jan/Feb 2021

has overcome great adversity on the path to success

issue on Will Reeve; who grew up on the Pound Ridge

- and I hope you enjoy the Cover Feature on this real

/ Bedford border; whose famous Dad, Christopher

life hometown hero on page 94. And, by the way,

Reeve, a.k.a Superman, died when Will was only 11,

if you missed the Cover Features on Zach Allen or

and whose Mom passed from cancer less than two

Will Reeve, or want to go back and look at any of our

years later, and; who is now a big TV personality and

past features, a library of our past issues is available

broadcast journalist with Good Morning America.

at bedfordnewcanaanmag.com

H APPY NEW Y EAR,

Casey Kaplan PRESIDENT

PHOTO: ANDREA CERASO | HAIR AND MAKEUP: RINA CERKA @ EVA SCRIVO SALON

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TABLE CONTENTS

ANDERSON KENNY ARCHITECTURE

OF

JA N UA R Y / F E B R UA R Y 2 0 2 4

P.94

P.54

P.42

P.47

P.65

P.75

P.42 PET PORTRAIT PALOOZA After receiving hundreds of entries, B&NC MAG has awarded a Kathy Hoets pet portrait in oil on canvas to MAVERICK, a BluePath service dog who has just completed service with the Bedford Police Department. …Find out how to enter your pet in our next Pet Portrait Giveaway…

P.47 WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT MR. & MRS. DOMO were married at St. Aloyisus, had a dinner that evening on the beach at Woodway in Darien, got ready for the big party the next day at Sara’s childhood home in New Canaan, and hosted the main event at Blue Hill Stone Barns in nearby Pocantico Hills.

P.54 IMPRESARIO PETE SHAPIRO AND THE CAPITOL THEATRE ‘The Original Rock Palace’, The Capitol Theatre, or colloquially ‘The Cap’, is Westchester’s music mecca…and legendary impresario Pete Shapiro has the place pulsing!

24

BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN

P.65 NO NAMES, PLEASE PAUL & AVA ZUKOWSKY …AND WOMAN 2 WOMAN AT THE BEDFORD HILLS CORRECTIONAL FACILITY Paul is really a big deal, but calls himself a ‘regular schlemiel’, and is a feature-worthy subject in and by himself. But it’s Ava, and more particularly her work with Woman 2 Woman visiting women incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, that’s B&NC’s focus in this piece.

P.75 1 PARLEY LANE, RIDGEFIELD This is America! Take a peek at this magnificent home in the heart of Ridgefield’s historic district.

P.94 COVER FEATURE NICOLE BLOOM…BLOSSOMING! Our Cover Feature, NICOLE BLOOM, is now starring as Maude Beaton in the hit HBO series The Gilded Age…and she grew up in Pound Ridge. Her dad, TV Correspondent David Bloom, died when Nicole was only 9. B&NC MAG President, Casey Kaplan, who went to First Grade at Pound Ridge Elementary with Nicole, catches-up with Nicole at her mom’s house in Darien.

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

2 0 2 4

45 E PUTNAM AVE.

ANDERSON@ANDERSONKENNY.COM

GREENWICH , CT

TABLE CONTENTS

Old Town Barns

OF

Crafted with Care in the Equine Tradition

JA N UA R Y / F E B R UA R Y 2 0 2 4

P.148 P.84

P.125

P.149 P.158

P.132

P.110

P.140

P.132 392 BRUSHY RIDGE, NEW CANAAN This Modern Farmhouse is not just environmentally friendly and electronically smart, it’s architecturally brilliant. The perfect combination of form and function, this house offers comfort and convenience amidst sophistication and style.

P.84 LITCHFIELD LUXURY AN HOUR DRIVE…A WORLD AWAY An idyllic retreat nestled on 58 secluded acres in Washington, Connecticut, the Mayflower is the epitome of luxury. No comfort spared, no detail overlooked.

P.110 BRAND NEW @ CASA DE CAMPO CASA DE CAMPO 2024 is not what Casa de Campo used to be…It’s mostly brand new, and it’s even better than ever! B&NC MAG attended Casa de Campo’s First Annual Wine & Food Festival in October 2023…and has plans to return to the next Annual Wine & Food Festival in October 2024!

26

P.140 A LEGACY BECOMES LEGENDS LET US EXPLAIN Corcoran Legends has acquired Renwick Real Estate, and taken over the prized location overlooking the Bedford Green. The new Corcoran Legends office is the company’s 5th in Westchester, and about two-dozen of Corcoran Legends 100+ agents are now based in the B&NC market.

P.149 THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF NORTHERN WESTCHESTER in Mt. Kisco, is by far the largest provider of children’s programming in Northern Westchester. Be inspired by the great work The Boys & Girls Club is doing…and consider a New Year’s donation!

P.125 OLGA SWEET PRESTIGIOUS PORTRAITIST

P.158 ESMERALDA SANTIAGO

New Canaanite Olga Sweet philosophizes, “As I said, the eyes are the key. It’s the point of highest contrast in the whole painting.

The White is real white and the Black for the Iris is pure black. …But every painter does that…the thing is where to stop. When do you see the person? …The older I get, the more I see people.”

Esmeralda Santiago is the matrilineal voice of the Puerto Rican experience, who most recently authored the novel Las Madres, published by Alfred A. Knopf…and she’s dyed in the wool Katonah!

BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN

LAS MADRES …AND MORE PUERTO RICAN LORE

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

2 0 2 4

Tel 845.855.1450

www.oldtownbarns.com

Zublin Construction Services, Inc. Pawling, NY 12564

HANNELORE HANNEL ORE KAPLAN

IT’S COLD THIS WINTER...

BUT THE SPRING MARKET IS ALREADY HEATING UP!!

LET ME BE YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL THROUGH A CHANGING MARKET

914-450-3880 UNPARALLELED ACCESS | 20+ YEARS EXPERIENCE | DEEP ROOTS IN THE REGION

Inventory is at an all-time low; you need the most experienced agent in town to navigate the process of buying or selling.

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HANNELORE KAPLAN THE HANNELORE KAPLAN TEAM WILLIAM RAVEIS 4 ELM STREET NEW CANAAN CT

A highlight of recent events in our community EMILY NEVILLE FISHER’S ART BARN OPENING

Runners gear up in festive garb for the Annual New Canaan Turkey Trot

Emily Neville Fisher, Lindsay Cain Heron, Natasha Bedingfield

Timeless Spaces for Modern Living™

THE PALMINTERI’S HALLOWEEN PARTY AT THE BEDFORD PLAYHOUSE

Monte and Angelina Lipman with Lisa and John Chambers

Photography by: Albert Vecerka | ESTO

|

NEW CANAAN’S TURKEY TROT

Construction by: Legacy Construction Northeast, llc

OUT & ABOUT

®

Chazz and Gianna Palminteri, Casey Kaplan, Joe and Janice Giardina, Sam Ring

Photos c/o David X Prutting / BFA.com

HOWL-O-WEEN WOLF CONSERVATION CENTER HALLOWEEN PARTY at Conant Hall in Pound Ridge

carol kurth architecture

®

Architecture as a backdrop for living ® Doug Jacobs, Sofia Sokolov, Martha and Richard Handler 30

BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN

Jill Teich, Martha Handler, Cristina Civetta, Sofia Sokolov, Lianne Sorkin

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

2 0 2 4

carolkurtharchitects.com

carol kurth interiors

®

Interiors as an inspiration for lifestyle ®

| 914.234.2595 | NY | NJ | CT | MA | VT | FL Follow us @ carolkurth

OUT & ABOUT BEDFORD’S HOLIDAY MARKET AT THE OLD FIREHOUSE

Jonny Cournoyer, Eric and Xander Wittenberg, Niccola Stephenson, Jen Niles

Building Her Future

Jennifer Sarkilahti, Sherri Owles, Jodi Kimmel, Jonny Cournoyer, Jenna Jones

THE PALMINTERI’S HALLOWEEN PARTY AT THE BEDFORD PLAYHOUSE

The Bueti Cousins: Debbie Stover, Gracine Bueti , Barbara Temple, Nancy Bueti, Fran Gardner, Susan Bueti Hill

Event Co-Chair, Jill Rae, with Steven March

Chau Prutting, Libby McAleer, Lucas Prutting, Victoria Cohn, Michael Cohn, David Prutting, Hugo Alves, Maria Alves, Jordan Bock, Peter Rosen, Reese Tatum and Henry Cohn, Alessandra and Amalia Alves, Jack and Lindsey Rosen, Frank Acocella

New Canaan Rams: Will Pepe, Tucker Milligan, Scott Fittzgibbons, Henry Purine

NEW CANAAN HOLIDAY STROLL

COMMUNITY CENTER VOLUNTEERS

95TH ANNUAL NEW CANAAN VS. DARIEN TURKEY BOWL

Where dreams take shape.

At RCS, we’re dedicated to nurturing young minds and empowering RippKids to reach their potential.

Santa and Friends with Heather Satin, owner of Wave, during New Canaan Holiday Stroll

Members of the John Jay High School Touchdown Club collected 1,390 pounds of food for the Community Center.

Justin Barry, Luca Duva, James McHugh and Christian Herlihy

Schedule a visit!

rcsny.org | (914) 244-1205 | admissions@rcsny.org | 439 Cantitoe Street, Bedford, NY 10506

OUT & ABOUT

THE GREAT PUMPKIN CAR SHOW & RALLY AT THE JOHN JAY HOMESTEAD IN KATONAH

Kirsten Tegtmeier, Carter Kramer, and ‘Best in Show’ winner, Graham Glauber

Tony and Inii King with Diane Bourque and her son

POUND RIDGE PARTNERSHIP HOLIDAY PARTY AT THE HUNTRESS

BEDFORD FRIENDS AT THE OPENING OF CAFÉ BOULUD

ULLA JOHNSON | REPEAT CASHMERE |

A PIECE APART | LILLA P | ELA RAE |

MARIE OLIVER | LOVE THE LABEL

CLARE V | BIRDS OF PARADIS

POUND RIDGE - 70 Westchester Avenue 10576 - 914.232.3283 | BRONXVILLE - 70 Pondfield Road 10708 - 914.793.0737

Terri Pike, Patti D’Agostino, Tanja Vogel

Andrew Yu, Katherine and Daniel Boulud, Evan Goldstein

KATONAH PEPPERMINT PARADE

Live in your element B&NC Half Page Advert

From top: Ellen Calves, Urmi Desai, Meesha Chang, Jeb Hunsinger, Eliza Hunsinger, Leela Bianchi, Lucia Witherow, Winnie Hunsinger, Charlie Colaco-Curry, Serena Blanchi, Bea Hunsinger.

Santa makes his way through downtown Katonah

AN OPENING NIGHT AT KATONAH CLASSIC STAGE

BOOK LAUNCH AND SIGNING OF 52 WEEKS BY JANE BEILES AT THE NEW CANAAN COUNTRY CLUB

Do not forget to extend your images and background to the red bleed line

Neuromodulators, Filler, Lasers, Hair Restoration, Peels & Facials Patricia Kalember, Daniel Gerroll, Claire Karpen, Trent Dawson, Richard Hollis

Kelsey Banfield, Jane Beiles, Eve Taben

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(203) 594-1907

OUT & ABOUT

COMING UP AT RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE

AN EVENING WITH VANESSA WILLIAMS AT THEJACOB BURNS FILM CENTER

BLUHDORN HOLIDAY PARTY

Chris Holliday, Vanessa Williams, Shruti Ganguly, Ryan Harrington Photographer: Ed Cody

Andrew Yu, Casey Kaplan, Julie Testwuide, Host: Anni de Saint Phalle, and Amy Jowayne

BEDFORD’S MENORAH LIGHTING

MAR 2 @ 7:30PM

CORINNE BAILEY RAE The Bushnell family with Lauren Ritter

The Black Rainbows Tour

Ryan and Arela Mancinelli, Liat Justin, Ariel Bluman, Jenny Haviland, Andrea Tuckel

GRACE FARMS 8TH ANNUAL BENEFIT

- The New York Times

Photo: Melani Lust

Conor Grennan, Nate Berkus, Sharon Prince, Liz Grennan, Athena Calderone, and Jeremiah Brent.

photo by Melani Lust

JAN 28 @ 7:30PM

FEB 13 @ 7:30PM

Benefit Co-Chairs Sara Wiener, Rand Niederhoffer, Vani Birnbaum, Eleanor Banco, and Jennifer Pastore with Zoe Reinman of Grace Farms Foundation

CARAMOOR DECEMBER BENEFIT CONCERT

“One of the most dazzling [jazz guitarists] around.”

- New York Times

FEB 15 @ 8PM Vanessa Williams, Stephen Limpe, Edward J. Lewis III, Ganessa James, Yissy Garcia

MAR 20 @ 7:30PM

Kate Kend, Earl Geer, Sara Geer, Leslie Williams

203.438.5795 • RIDGEFIELDPLAYHOUSE.ORG

OUT & ABOUT

NEW CANAAN FOREIGN CAR

PARTY IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH A FESTIVE FALL AND HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION AT BEDFORD FARMS

SINCE 1964

Michael Kaplan, Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell

Bedford Farms owners: Nicole and Max Apton

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024!!

Tami McCarthy, Nicole Steinthall, Casey Kaplan, Andrew Yu, Caleb Kane, Arielle Kebbel, Zach Roerig, Julie Testwuide

Chris Lacovara, Trish Baum, Hannelore Kaplan, Sam Green

QUALITY MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR COMPLIMENTARY PICKUP AND DELIVERY GENERAL MANAGER MARK GONCALVES

THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN FINE PRE-OWNED SALES AND PURCHASE Erik and Kelly Duffield, MaryEllen and Stuart Yankell, Cristyn Girolami and Freddy Ochoa

Alicia Andros, Tami McCarthy, Luba Winegardner, Joanne O’Neil, Jeanne-Marie Scura

SALES MANAGER PHIL BROUS (203) 349 9410 59 Pine St, New Canaan, CT 06840 www.ncforeigncar.com

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VISIT GINNEL.COM 914-234-9234 *ONEKEY MLS DATA: Total Sales Volume by office, 1/1/20-11/20/23, in the towns of Bedford, Pound Ridge, Lewisboro, North Salem, Somers, Mount Kisco.

PET PORTRAIT PALOOZA We received hundreds of entries to our 2023 Pet Portrait Giveaway, including dogs, cats, horses, birds, a llama, and a snake.

We’re happy to announce that the winner of B&NC’s Pet Portrait Giveaway was

MAVERICK!

Maverick is a Golden Retriever and a BluePath service dog, who just completed two years in service with the Bedford Police Department, and is now in formal training before he is assigned to service an autistic child in the area. We featured BluePath in the March/April 2023 issue of B&NC MAG, and as our judges struggled to choose a winner from a field of overqualified cuties, it was Maverick’s BluePath pedigree that was the deciding factor.

The portrait of Maverick is by Pet Portraitist Kathy Hoets, a long-time New Canaanite, whose work can be seen at kathyhoets.com

But fret not… we’ve partnered with another amazing local pet portraitist,

Mary Rosseland, who specializes in very realistic pencil sketches, and will together be doing

A SECOND PET PORTRAIT GIVEAWAY! So there’s still a chance to win a free portrait of your furry friend.

To enter the second giveaway for one of Mary Rosseland’s custom commissioned pieces of your pet, send us a photo of your pet, and let us know what town you live in, your pet’s name, and breed. Keep those cute pictures coming!

42

BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

2 0 2 4

BRINGING BROADWAY TO RIDGEFIELD!

POWERFUL PARTNERS WORLD-CLASS HEART CARE JOIN US FOR THE REST OF OUR 2023-2024 SEASON! VISIT ACTOFCT.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO PURCHASE TICKETS!

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Sara Greene, the daughter of Michael and Betsy Greene, grew up in New Canaan, attending West School, Saxe, and New Canaan High School. She met Joe Domo in their dorm, freshman year at Wake Forest. Sara lived one floor up from Joe, and they started out as friends, but, as Sara recalls, “When we got back to school from Thanksgiving break, Joe asked me out on an official date. I was so nervous I parked the car way too close to the car next to me at the restaurant… and had to climb over the passenger’s seat to get out of the car.” The couple have been together ever since, and moved together after graduation to Manhattan,

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where they currently live in Gramercy.

Sara works as an Account Manager at Snapchat and Joe runs Business Operations at Veronas, a data and cyber security firm.

“I’ve always felt so lucky to have found Sara,” Joe gleams. “In college everyone used to say how I had the coolest girlfriend… and I’ve always thought so too! We’re definitely both different people than we were ten years ago when we met, but moving to New York together gave us the opportunity to really grow up together. We’re aligned with the same North Star!”

The couple spent the early months of the pandemic together in their apartment, and got a puppy, Finn, a King Charles Cavalier. “The pandemic was obviously a really horrible time in the world, but those early months were a really special time for us, and a time I look back on fondly,” Sara says. “I got to hang out alone with my best friend,” Joe smiles.

The couple got engaged in February of 2022, on what was a farce of a Brooklyn staycation weekend concocted by Joe, complete with the couple’s closest friends and family flown in from around the country as a surprise to Sara to celebrate.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GLEN ALLSOP CHRISTIAN OATH STUDIOS

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My something blue For Sara there was never a doubt that she was going to be married at St. Aloyisus, and the pair had a very small and private ceremony, with just their closest family, followed by a welcome dinner clambake and lobster dinner on the beach at Woodway in Darien. “Having that first ceremony be so intimate allowed us to have some really special private time and to soak everything in without the stress of the big day,” Sara says… and Sara picked a beautiful Carolina Herrera dress for the occasion, with ‘something blue’ blue bows to match the blue hydrangeas, and wore her mom and aunt’s veil as a ‘something borrowed’ for the ceremony.

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The following day, the bridal party, comprised of siblings, lifelong friends, and sorority sisters from Wake Forest, got ready at Sara’s childhood home in New Canaan.

The main event took place at Blue Hill at Stone Barns which started out with what the couple called a ‘vow renewal’ - essentially a second and more public wedding - and an elegant and beautiful party on what was one of the only dry days in September 2023. “We love to host dinner parties and entertain, and Blue Hill is the atmosphere we’re always trying to create,” Sara smiles.

As an ode to Wake Forest, where the couple met, the pair decided to incorporate Magnolia leaves and branches into their florals and palette as one of the subtle touches that enhanced the already beautiful space. Sara designed a custom logo, a sort of riff on the Blue Hill weather vane, replacing the cow with an outline of the couple’s dog, Finn - which appeared on the invitations, cocktail napkins, and matchbooks.

SKINCARE

Sara and Joe shared a first dance to This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley brothers. “I think we nailed it; a few tense nights working through the moves but it came together great!” Joe laughs. And the bride danced to My Girl with her dad, and the groom shared a dance with his mom to the tune of James Taylor’s You’ve Got a Friend.

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PETE SHAPIRO

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PHOTO: DINO PERRUCCI

& THE CAPITOL THEATRE

‘The Original Rock Palace’, The Capitol Theatre, or colloquially ‘The Cap’, is Westchester’s music mecca…and legendary impresario Pete Shapiro has the place pulsing!

Opened at 149 Westchester Avenue in Port Chester as a grand playhouse in 1926, and about to celebrate its Centennial, The Capitol earned its reputation in the late 60’s and early 70’s as a regular tour stop for some of the biggest names in music, including the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Traffic, and most notably the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia, the legendary leader of the Grateful Dead, famously remarked about The Capitol, “See, there’s only two theaters, man, that are set up pretty groovy all around for music and for smooth stage changes, good lighting and all that - the Fillmore and The Capitol Theatre. And those are the only two in the whole country.”

Shapiro purchased, refurbished, and reopened The Capitol in 2012, and today The Capitol hosts about 100 shows a year, and is otherwise available for private events. While The Capitol may be best-known as home-base for Phil Lesh and Friends - Lesh has played The Cap over 100 times, and for Bob Weir - with over 25 appearances at The Cap, the theater puts on a wide array of music, with lots of rock, blues, country, jazz and other genres, and has some top notch comedy as well. Over the last decade, The Capitol has hosted legends including Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Robert Plant, Steely Dan, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Avett Brothers, Elvis Costello, Snoop Dogg, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Bill Burr, Tom Segura, Billy Strings, Gary Clark Jr., and many others. Some of The Capitol’s headliners just in 2023 included Bob Weir, of course, and Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Brandi Carlile, Goose, Wilco, Lake Street Dive, Tina Fey & Amy Poehler, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, and Diana Krall.

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PHOTO: CHAD ANDERSON

PHOTOS: ANDREA CERASO

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PETE SHAPIRO

PETE SHAPIRO

Born 1972, Peter Shapiro grew up on the Upper East Side, went to Dalton, then on to Northwestern, where he graduated with a major in Radio, TV and Film.

On March 11, 1993, Pete went to see the Grateful Dead perform at the Rosemont Horizon in a suburb of Chicago…and the rest is, as Pete describes his job, “Rock n’ roll, and get on the next call”.

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Immediately and completely caught-up in the movement of ‘Deadheads’ following the Grateful Dead from tour date to tour date, during the summer before his junior year of college Pete drove 14,000 miles in 30 days, in an old van, passing through all 48 Continental States, and shot a film on video about the experience called And Miles To Go: On Tour with The Grateful Dead. “I was hooked, and not just on the Dead, but on the whole energy of the jam band era,” Pete declares. “During my senior year at college I was the Associate Producer on a film called Tie-Died: Rock ‘n Roll’s Most Deadicated Fans, which was released at Sundance 1995…and then Garcia died about a half-year later on August 9th of that year. …

But I’d felt the energy of the young audiences that were not just listening, but totally involved with the Dead and the other big jam bands, like Government Mule and Disco Biscuits, and who were totally loyal to stand-out performers like Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones… who, in turn, could always fill an arena. I knew ‘The Dead’ would survive Jerry’s death but I didn’t expect to play a role in some of their next iterations. And I of course had no idea that one day Stevie Van Zandt, from Springsteen’s E Street Band and a star of the TV series The Sopranos, would say about me that “Peter is the reincarnation of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s entrepreneurs. He’s as close as we have to Bill Graham,” the legendary producer of the Grateful Dead.

“I was friends with Larry Bloch, who owned a classic rock club in Manhattan called Wetlands Preserve, and in 1996 he handed me the keys,” Pete explains. “Wetlands was my education in the business of live entertainment and my entree with the biggest performers in the music industry. We had a big run, drawing sold out shows for bands like Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews, and Phish. …But that all came to an abrupt end on 9/11, when we had to close the club. I worked on producing some films, including All Access: Front Row, Backstage.

Live! in 2001, and U2 3D, the first live action digital 3D film released in movie theaters, in 2007. Then in 2009, I opened the Brooklyn Bowl at 61 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and returned to the business of putting on shows in my own venue.”

Shapiro’s Brooklyn Bowl, a combined concert venue and bowling alley, with a substantial restaurant and a screaming bar, has been a huge success. Shapiro programs and books an array of music that continues to bring packed crowds night after night. And the formula is so good, Shapiro now also owns and operates Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia, Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, and Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas.

Separately, Shapiro owns and publishes Relix Magazine and Fans.live, with both media ventures focused on communities formed around mutual interest in music and live events. And Shapiro is a renowned producer, with the Lockn’ music festival, Central Park Jazz & Colors, the Jammy Awards, the Green Apple Earth Day Festival, and the Climate Rally to his credit, among other shows, events, and festivals. …All register-ringing music to Shapiro’s ears.

Even more important, Shapiro is deeply involved in an array of charitable and philanthropic endeavors.

The Capitol Theatre has a dedicated Capitol Community program that contributes a portion of ticket sales to local and musicrelated charities, and itself runs a children’s live music program called The Rock And Roll Playhouse, which introduces young people and their parents to the music of rock ‘n’ roll at rock clubs around the country. Shapiro is also a Founder and former Chair of HeadCount, a not-for-profit that aims to use music in an effort to register voters and promote participation in democracy, and he serves on the Board of New York Public Radio and of New York’s City Parks Foundation. And he’s a family man, who gleams when he talks about his wife, Rebecca, who is a high-powered music publicist at ShoreFire Entertainment, and his two teenage kids.

Pete dances with Natascha Weir, Bob Weir’s wife, during one of his concerts at The Capitol.

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PETE SHAPIRO

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Pete celebrates Phil Lesh’s 79th birthday with him on stage.

“

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PHOTO: MARC MILLMAN

~

Pete with Don Was in Pete’s box at the Capitol.

I am the unofficial the theater that night. It’s ‘President of the Pete all about keeping The Cap Shapiro Fan Club’. ‘pretty groovy’ like Garcia

“I still get to about 40 or 50 events a year at The Cap. I’m there for most of the big performers, and for some of the private events where we may have arranged something special,” Shapiro says, having just ‘done a private’ with the Tedeschi Trucks Band the night before. “I’m 51, and I feel like I’ve been putting on a party just about every night for the last 27 years! And, down deep, I want everyone to like my party and have a great time…every night! So there’s a lot of stress involved, and I have to take a risk, financially and emotionally, on every show. All the details matter - and there are a lot of moving parts! Stuff happens. I once had a small tornado hit a Tom Petty show at an outdoor event in Virginia…you duck for cover…and then get back up. At The Cap, I’m particularly focused on the visual components and a total integration of lighting and visuals for the show. And I like to be around as people start coming in - check-out the pre-show mood, and make whatever adjustments to the theater or the staff or the music or the bar that might get things primed. We have about 50 volunteer ushers at The Cap, and each one is a kind of a host to their kindred listeners in

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- Monte Lipman said! …And, of course, I like to make sure the performers are happy! I have a great life for a lot of reasons, but, you know, the kid in me is still tickled about putting on shows with musicians like Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and of course the guys from the Dead!”

Monte Lipman, Founder and CEO of Republic Records, and a B&NC local, sums it up, saying, “I am the unofficial ‘President of the Pete Shapiro Fan Club’. It’s hard to imagine an individual who’s more passionate, positive, and full of life than Pete Shapiro. Attending a concert with Pete is quite the spectacle! As this bigger than life figure saunters through the venue of adoring fans, his aura of positivity and beautiful vibes are nothing short of infectious. Equally as cool is catching the early bird special for a gentleman’s round of golf with my man on a Sunday morning. Though his game could use some work, his stories and anecdotes are of historic proportions!”

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NO NAMES, PLEASE PAUL & AVA ZUKOWSKY

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Paul and Ava Zukowsky were reluctant to be featured in B&NC MAG. Paul is a Partner of ML Management Partners, one of the largest privately-held business management firms in the U.S., which has a focus in the entertainment industry and boasts a roster of dozens of high profile clients. The thing is, Paul doesn’t ever divulge the identity of his clients, and in order to agree to do this B&NC MAG feature, B&NC MAG had to agree not to disclose any more specifics than that his client list includes a few of the most famous celebrities who reside in the B&NC MAG area.

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P

aul is unassuming. He calls himself “a regular schlemiel”, and recounts his personal and professional history without braggadocio.

“I grew up in Mt. Vernon in very humble circumstances,” Paul says. “I went to Lehman College and got a job at a certified public accounting firm to help put myself through school. And, to make ends meet, I spent the next 15 or so years of my life working my way up to being a partner at that firm. But when I turned 40, I realized I needed to do something that would lead to more fulfillment and happiness.

I came home from work one day particularly frustrated and chagrined…a substantial client was a rivet manufacturer, and I’d spent the day counting rivets! So I called my current partner Mark Landesman, who’d worked with me at the CPA firm, having left several years earlier, and already established ML Management as a successful business management firm. Mark welcomed and supported me, we eventually became partners, and good friends…and our 22 years together have been a rocketship.

My work is exciting and fun. We take care of virtually every matter in our clients’ businesses and affairs. We do absolutely anything and everything for them, and we work with them through good and bad times. …I enjoy dealing with people and appreciate the particular challenge of dealing with the creative mind.

It’s been a lucrative process, but more than anything I’m professionally fulfilled.” Paul just turned 65, but celebrated without fanfare, commenting, “In this day and age, you’ve got to be tone deaf to be celebrating.” He says, “I have no intention of slowing down, that looks like being dead to me! I work my butt off, and I’m not a golfer. I like my cars, I read, I play the piano, and more than anything else, we enjoy spending time with friends.” He doesn’t talk about it, but Paul also finds time to do volunteer work in the community, including serving as the current Board Chair of the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College.

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And the only person more unassuming than Paul…is Ava.

She was born in California and moved all around the country as a kid because her dad was an urban planner and moving from place to place came along with his job. She went to high school in the Berkshires, and then the University of Massachusetts, majoring in Education. “I came to New York, stayed in my best friend’s apartment, and found a job in Queens teaching kids with special needs. Although times were tough for me economically, I was fulfilled by the social service I was doing,” Ava says plainly. “But after five years of teaching, I took a job as a headhunter in the information technology industry in order to make ends meet and, a lot like Paul back at his CPA firm, I was then successful but unfulfilled.”

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“Some time later my best friend set me up on a blind date with Paul. …She was probably eager to get me out of her apartment!,” Ava smiles. “We got married, lived in Manhattan for a few years, and then, because Paul was always eager to live in the suburbs, we moved to Peekskill. In 1989, we adopted our daughter, Rebecca. We met Rebecca’s birth mother and we and Rebecca are still close with her today, but from the moment we adopted Rebecca she became the center of our universe - and my most important job! …We moved to Armonk, and Rebecca grew up going to the public schools. Now she’s got a Masters in Social Work, and lives with her husband in Brooklyn. …Nine years ago, we sold in Armonk and moved to Pound Ridge. We were thrilled to find a really rustic and private property, and we’ve made the house completely comfortable. We added a guest house so family and friends can come to visit and, as Paul’s only excess is his passion for automobiles, we’ve added a few garages. But what we like best about Pound Ridge is the community. We’ve made lots of good friends here and feel like this area is filled with interesting and caring people - and particularly people doing good work for the environment and to help people who need social services. We’re regulars at Northstar and The Kitchen Table, and really enjoy the chance to meet new friends at our local hangouts - like something from a better age.”

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…But if all this about the Zukowskys seems like it could be about a lot of other folks in the neighborhood, Ava’s volunteer work in our community stands out, and warrants B&NC MAG’s focus…

A

va is a volunteer with WOMAN 2 WOMAN, an organization unaffiliated with the New York State Department of Corrections, whose volunteers meet with women incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Ava explains, “I actually learned about Woman 2 Woman about eight years ago from a feature in Bedford Magazine - the predecessor to Bedford & New Canaan Magazine! Like most people around here, I was hardly aware of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, no less that it is New York State’s maximum security prison for women, or that there are over 500 women incarcerated there. And I’d never really focused any attention on the penal system, allowing myself to feel comfortable in our society while eschewing care or consideration for the incarcerated. But I was moved by what I read in the Bedford Magazine article about how these incarcerated women were being treated inhumanely. While most of the women have been convicted of violent crimes, an overwhelming majority were themselves the victims of abuse, and many suffer from mental illness as a result. And the Bedford Magazine article was reporting that three women - the two Ministers and an Elder from the Bedford Presbyterian Church - had formed an organization called Woman 2 Woman…and that the incarcerated women were benefiting from the chance to merely meet and have some private and relatively quiet

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and safe space and time to just talk with someone from the Woman 2 Woman organization! So I volunteered!”

Ava has gone for visits at the prison a few times a month for the last seven years, and estimates that over the course of her service she’s met for varying lengths of time with about a dozen women. She reports that Woman 2 Woman, which is celebrating its Tenth Anniversary, may have thus far touched the lives of about 150 women inside the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.

All Woman 2 Woman volunteers are carefully screened, trained, and coached, and Ava does some extra work for the organization, participating in those processes. All volunteers have to commit to a minimum one-year involvement and agree to a set of hardand-fast rules, including a commitment that each visit be a minimum of one and one-half hours. As Ava explains, “...It’s out of respect for the women. It’s a real hardship on them to get to the meeting.

Because we’re not sanctioned, it’s like any other prison visit. Their day will be scheduled around the visit and that can involve having to get up early or skip a shower. It’s a long walk from their cells to the visitor area. They have to be strip-searched by the guards prior to the visit. …And most of the women we see have no one else visiting - ever - so the least we can do is commit to being available to talk for a while.”

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Of course, another rule - like in my husband’s business - is ‘no names’,”

Ava says, smiling about the irony of she and Paul both having to keep their ‘clients’ identities and life stories a complete secret, but for such different reasons. “We never ask what the woman did to be incarcerated, although they often want to discuss and explain their history. We’re not therapists.

We’re simply offering the incarcerated woman a chance to have some safe social contact, to be seen and heard, and to talk through whatever they want to discuss. It’s seeing the person as a human being, notwithstanding the reason for or circumstances of their incarceration.”

“We’re not in a position to be advocates for the women we see, or for change in the prison system, generally or within the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility,” Ava says, stepping gingerly to avoid making any statement that might bring the ire of the New York State Department of Corrections or anyone working at Bedford Hills. We try to attract as little attention to ourselves as possible. It’s why I was hesitant to do this article…but decided I could help bring B&NC MAG’s positive focus on Woman 2 Woman - without making a statement about the nature of the punishment or the lack of rehabilitation these women are receiving.”

Answering a few of the usual questions about her prison visits, Ava says, “I feel one hundred percent safe making the visits. We avoid wearing green, which is the color of the womens’ uniforms - which, by the way, are the same uniforms that were designed for men. I do send some food and items for the womens’ basic needs, but we are strictly limited by the prison, and we’re anyway very careful not to become a vending machine. I correspond with

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one woman who I met with for quite a while at Bedford Hills, who’s been transferred to Albion - and because it’s cold up there, I sent her warm clothes. But, I don’t anticipate continuing a relationship with any of the women I see once they’re finished with their incarceration. What we’re doing with Woman 2 Woman is serving a very acute need.”

Richard Serra, Casablanca #3, 2022, Hand-applied oil stick, etching ink and silica, 66 x 60 inches

“And I want to say,” Ava adds, “that I think I’ve gotten a tremendous amount out of it. In fact, next to parenthood, my work with Woman 2 Woman has turned out to be one of the most growth related experiences of my life. It makes me feel engaged in my community and, most importantly, I’ve learned tolerance. I’m much less critical of everyone. People don’t care about the incarcerated, but these women are human beings.”

Photo credit: Casablanca #3 © 2022 Richard Serra and Gemini G.E.L. LLC

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To get in touch with Woman 2 Woman please send an email in complete confidence to: Woman2WomanBedford@gmail.com

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914-273-9300 | info@summitclubresidences.com SUMMITCLUBRESIDENCES.COM

This advertisement is not an offering. It is a solicitation of interest in the advertised property.

No offering of the advertised units can be made and no deposits can be accepted, or reservations, binding or non-binding, can be made until an offering plan is filed with the New York State Department of Law. This advertisement is made pursuant to Cooperative Policy Statement #1, issued by the New York State Department of Law. File No: CP22-0091.

FINANCIAL DECISIONS DON’T HAVE TO BE CONFUSING Retirement Planning

Insurance

401K plans IRA - Roth, Traditional SIMPLE IRA SEP IRA Annuities Mutual Funds

Life Disability Long Term Care Health Dental/Vision Medicare

www.LubaFinancial.com www.bermanbuyscollectables.com • 914-244-9500

Securities offered through The Leaders Group, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC 26 W Dry Creek Circle, Suite 800, Littleton, CO 80120, (303) 797-9080 Luba Financial is not affiliated with The Leaders Group, Inc. Medicare disclosure: We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.

HOME HIGHLIGHT

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CUSTOM LUXURY HOME CARPENTRY AND RENOVATIONS customartwood.com

914-879-8626

customartwood@gmail.com

Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLC Residential and Commercial Real Estate | Zoning and Title Issues | Construction Contracts | Construction and Commercial Litigation | Trusts and Estates

1 PARLEY LANE RIDGEFIELD This is America!

PHOTOS: EMILY SIDOTI & DANIEL MILSTEIN

Todd Lampert Gerard Gjertsen 203-972-8100

Philip Toohey Greg Williams

David Rucci Arthur Zinn

Jason Gladstone Harvey Melzerr

46 Main Street, New Canaan, CT

LTR-LAW.COM

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

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Ridgefield is best-known for its quaint downtown and the historic section of houses dating back to the 1800s on the east side of town.

Though Ridgefield has set a precedent for the preservation of historic homes and buildings, and is to be commended for still having so many standing and restored to or beyond their original glory, owning one of these homes remains a rarified opportunity that just doesn’t come around too often. Many of the historic Ridgefield homes don’t ever change hands, and are instead passed-down generationally, or trade off-market. And so, when B&NC Mag heard about one such home that is set to come on the market this Spring, we knew we had to get our readership a sneak peek.

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1 Parley lane

1 Parley Lane is located two-houses-in from West Lane, in the most prestigious sidewalk-to-town part of Ridgefield. With all of the conveniences of being walking distance to the elementary school or an array of coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, or even the book shop, it’s unique that this home also feels completely private. Set on 1.28 exquisitely landscaped acres, the 6 bedroom, 8 bathroom, 6,500 square foot house and property enjoy a totally secluded feeling. From inside the back yard, there’s not another home in sight as the entire property is encapsulated in rows of mature evergreens, and the fabulous heated saltwater pool and attached hot tub can be enjoyed in total peace. Ornamental gardens and a large pagoda with a firepit centerpiece and large patio area are perfect for entertaining.

A large wrap-around covered front porch is the main attraction on the exterior, setting the mood for the interior flavor and style of a day gone by.

The home itself is a showpiece of a Victorian Farmhouse. Built by railroad executive William O. Seymour in 1886, the home has been renovated and remodeled with love and care by a few owners who have each expanded the footprint and updated amenities, while keeping true to the character and charm.

A large-scale renovation took place in 2000, bringing the home up to meet and exceed every 21st Century standard, and the current owners undertook further updates and cosmetic changes, and engaged the renowned designer Molly Hirsch to marry contemporary style with the historic bones of the home.

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1 PARLEY LANE

1 Parley lane

Exquisite Victorian Farmhouse

The main floor features notably high 9 foot ceilings and includes a spacious family room, a study with built-ins and a fireplace, and an oversized chef’s country kitchen with butler’s pantry and eat-in dining area, as well as a full-scale dining room. Feeling it would be more useful than a formal living room, the current owners opted to have a custom pool table and jukebox installed in that large space, framed by double depth archways, allowing for an expanded sightline through the home.

The four large bedrooms and the media/ recreation room on the second floor all feature 9 foot ceilings, hardwood floors, walk-in closets, and en-suite bathrooms, and the length of the home provides natural separation and privacy in each separate bedroom suite.

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And there’s a three-car garage set off in a side courtyard of the home, with a separate mudroom entry.

Ridgefield is known for its top-rated schools, robust community activities, and a wide array of sports and recreational opportunities. And local cultural attractions include, notably, the Ridgefield Playhouse, with its 200-shows-a-year offering, A Contemporary Theater with its Broadway-level performances, and the Aldrich Museum, just across Main Street from 1 Parley Lane.

The third floor is the ‘fun floor’, and includes a rec room and a game room, but the large space is like a wide open canvas that could be used for almost any purpose. Think: art studio, in-home office, game room, home theater, gym. There’s currently even a bunk room installed on the third floor, with six beds… perfect for the ultimate slumber party.

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

This magnificent home will be going on the market this Spring with Houlihan Lawrence!

IDYLLIC…ICONIC…IDEAL…I WANT IT!

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Custom Homes | Real Estate Development | Construction Management

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Top of the World 340 Croton Lake Rd | Bedford Corners, NY Come away to this private oasis, perched atop one of Bedford’s highest crests with breathtaking views of the Croton Reservoir and the Lower Hudson Valley.

Incomparable, gated, and fenced, this nearly 15-acre retreat includes a completely updated five-bedroom home, automated with brand new Savant and Lutron systems, plus a saltwater pool, pool house and tennis court.

Offered at $11,995,000 ANGELA KESSEL Real Estate Salesperson M 914.841.1919 AKessel@houlihanlawrence.com AngelaKessel.houlihanlawrence.com

B ED FO R D/P O U N D R I DG E B RO K ER AG E • 914. 23 4.9099

AREA ESCAPES

Litchfield Luxury AN HOUR DRIVE… A WORLD AWAY THE MAYFLOWER INN & SPA

An idyllic retreat nestled on 58 secluded acres in Washington, Connecticut, The Mayflower Inn & Spa is the epitome of luxury. It’s the perfect getaway for a solo trip to get some much-needed R&R, or a girls weekend, or a romantic escape, or a mother-daughter retreat, or just about any group that’s looking for a special day trip or weekend jaunt. An Auberge Resorts Collection, no comfort is spared, no detail is overlooked.

With the feeling of a small-town inn, and the facilities, service, and operations of a multinational top-notch hospitality company, the experience is pleasant and pristine. The charm is immediate; friendly valets are outside ready to whisk away cars and luggage; a perfectly decorated foyer has a large inviting staircase and adjacent sitting rooms with crackling fires and plush oversized seating, and the mahogany bell desk window is complete with an old-fashioned button bell and brass keys with braided tassels stored in wooden cubbies. There’s always an array of tea, coffee, water, and sweet treats out for guests, next to an assortment of daily newspapers in a room richly decorated with textured wallpaper and heirloom furniture. If you’ve ever watched Gilmore Girls, now is the time to conjure the image in your head of Loreli Gilmore’s Dragonfly Inn in Stars Hollow… and then imagine it’s been given an ultimate facelift.

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charming interior

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The Mayflower

sumptuous,

THE ROOMS ARE

seamlessly combining old-school opulence with modern elegance in the Granmillenial style. Complete with a king-sized four poster canopy bed, each room looks out on the perfectlylandscaped grounds and bucolic surroundings.

Of course, the Mayflower isn’t just an Inn… it’s also known for its

AWARD-WINNING SPA AND WELLNESS CENTER, ‘THE WELL’,

which is nothing short of exquisite. The abundant facility is a seemingly neverending depot of tranquility. Book the best massage of your life in the most well-appointed treatment room imaginable, utilize the indoor pool or jacuzzi, partake in a meditation class or a signature movement class, or hone in on breathwork with certified experts.

The spa is downright restorative, with an almost magical essence. There’s absolutely nothing more calming than an afternoon spent curled-up with a book in an oversized bathrobe in the spa’s sanctuary, sipping tea that seems to magically be always-refilled at the exact right moment, before heading off to the next class or treatment.

Depending on the season, there’s an array of activities and amenities to enjoy during the visit. The Inn offers mapped e-bike rides through the pastoral landscape of Litchfield County. Warmer months are perfect for an afternoon dip in the outdoor heated pool. There’s a selection of board games in the parlor.

The concierge is happy to book archery lessons, snowshoeing, or a fly fishing expedition, and the GM is known for leading impromptu hikes around the grounds. There’s canoeing and tours of the Shakespeare gardens. And out on the patio there are nightly campfires often involving s’mores and a selection of fine wines. The boutique hotel is a portal to a simpler time…and a higher style.

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The Mayflower

fresh and tasty, “THE MENUS ARE

INCORPORATING AS MANY LOCALLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS FROM CONNECTICUT FARMS AS POSSIBLE” Under the new leadership of Executive Chef Jose Ramirez-Ruiz, the food is superb! The menus are fresh and tasty, incorporating as many locally sourced ingredients from Connecticut farms as possible, with a flavorforward approach. The main dining room is a sensory delight, from the decor to the aromas and flavors. The bright and airy space feels whimsically like an English garden paused on a perfect summer day. In stark contrast, the Tap Room feels more like a 19th Century library at an all-men’s country club, with rich dark woods and deep green fabrics, a collection of Regency-style Federal eagle mirrors, oil paintings of the hunt, and a thick bar stocked with a wide variety of liquors…perfect for an afternoon bite or a late-night treat.

And it’s really worth noting that the staff and the service is top notch. Before it’s possible to think of the next thing one might desire, someone is there ready to accommodate

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any whim…or add a log to the fire. For the guest, there’s an overwhelming feeling of effortlessness and ease. Enjoying the roaring fire pit on the back lawn as an evening turns chilly… a staff member appears with a blanket.

Ready to head out to explore the local Litchfield attractions…the Bell Team has the car warmedup and waiting at the front door - and with an umbrella if it’s raining. Need a suggestion for what to do…everyone on staff seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of which apple orchard to stop at, which book shop not to miss, and which restaurants are the best stops along the way. Just the way staff is supposed to be, the team at the Mayflower is friendly and helpful, yet never too present or intrusive.

No need for a private jet to get there, but every bit that kind of an experience once you arrive, The Mayflower Inn & Spa is only an hour drive, but it’s a world away.

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y

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New Year Fresh Start

Interior Design & Art Consultation

Get a fresh start to the New Year with fresh, delicious, wholesome food from The Market.

Pick up plenty of crisp, fresh fruits and veggies to start eating right, right away.

Choose from a variety of lean prime meats and just-caught seafood. Select nutritious whole-grain breads and rolls from our Bakery. You’ll find good-for-you selections throughout our aisles, Eating right is easy when you have the right ingredients!

They’re all here for you at the Market Interior Design & Art Consultation Joanne@jgoneildesigns.com

646.734.4263

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FLOWERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS BEDFORD VILLAGE

OFFICES

914 461 6234 Elaflowersco@gmail.com 73 Westchester Ave Pound Ridge NY

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Secure your room and suite reservations at marriott.com/slcxr or with your travel consultant.

The St. Regis Deer Valley 2300 Deer Valley Drive East Park City, UT 84060 t. +1 435 940 5700 marriott.com/slcxr

COVER FEATURE

N

icole and I were in the same First Grade class at Pound Ridge Elementary, and we were playmates around that age. I remember lots of playdates over at the Blooms, and was kind of captivated by them, and Nicole in particular. First of all, Nicole has a fraternal twin sister, Christine, and I’ve always been fascinated with multiples - even requiring twin and triplet dolls as a toddler. And she has another sister, Ava, who was a baby then, who we used as our real-life baby in our game of ‘house’. Nicole’s mom, Melanie, was really friendly and fun, and pretty, and was always running an activity and involved with everything. And she had a famous dad, David, which I knew mostly because I knew they’d moved around for his job before coming to Pound Ridge, and because he was away a lot and people would be talking about where he was and what he was doing there.

The funny thing is, if there’s one thing in particular I remember about Nicole, it’s that at six or seven years old she was already a performer! She was the first to volunteer for a play, she was the loudest in the choir, and whenever we did anything imaginary during a playdate, she would immediately jump in front and assume the lead role - probably shocking my own sense of primacy.

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BY: CASEY KAPLAN PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREA CERASO

Then, when Nicole was 9, her dad died…and as the community mourned the very public tragedy, I realized David Bloom had been a famous TV Correspondent for NBC News. It all came together for me that when the Blooms moved to Pound Ridge, David had become an Anchor on Weekend Today. And that, before coming to Pound Ridge, the Blooms had lived in California because David was then covering the OJ Simpson trial, and that they’d moved to Washington D.C. when David was becoming even more well-known serving as a White House Correspondent. The news on TV was non-stop about how David was embedded with the U.S. troops in Iraq - spending long hours cramped inside an armored vehicle - and about how he died, on the morning U.S. forces moved into Baghdad, from a condition called Deep Vein Thrombosis, where a blood clot that had formed in his leg caused a pulmonary embolism.

I lost touch with Nicole after that. She’d already transferred to St. Patricks for Second Grade, and then she went to Sacred Heart from third grade through Twelfth. I hadn’t kept up on where she was or what she’d done and, weirdly, she wasn’t really even on my social media radar, nor I hers.

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NICOLE BRYDON BLOOM

I

got in touch with her immediately so we could catch-up, and so I could tell her story here in B&NC MAG. We met on a crisp morning at her parents’ home in Darien - Melanie is re-married to Dan McNulty, a widower himself and dad of two, who became a wonderful father to Nicole and her sisters. Not having seen each other in so long was a little awkward, but Nicole is bright, bubbly, and cheerful, and we were soon at ease.

She’s wholesome, with twinkling eyes, a radiant smile, and a classic beauty, something like a young Annette Benning…and she has the same polite little giggle she had when we were kids.

I asked her to start where we’d left off…

admired him so much. …And NBC kind of scooped us up after the loss too.”

Nicole adds, “After my dad passed, my mom used her public platform to raise awareness about Deep Vein Thrombosis, and I’ve tried to follow in her footsteps and do the same. For us it’s a way to honor my dad, and we hope we’ve helped bring awareness to this critical medical condition.”

“It really rocked us,” Nicole reflects, “we were such a close-knit group of five. But losing our dad gave our little girl crew an even stronger and more unbreakable bond. Our mom was amazing. She gave us space to grieve, but also didn’t allow it to rob our childhood. And this community was such a strong support system for us. All our friends’ parents swooped-in and took us around to all of our sports activities and theater rehearsals. Dinardos and Blind Charlies, our favorite restaurants in town, generously delivered many, many meals to our home! Tom and Meredith Brokaw were really incredibly gracious, kind, and supportive. Tom adored our dad, and our dad

… So I was momentarily shocked when Nicole showedup on my TV screen playing the part of Maude Beaton, as I was engrossed watching the Second Season of the HBO hit series The Gilded Age!

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF HBO

“I’m 29 now, and my dad was 39 when he died, so it definitely makes me reflect on what I want to do in life, and the finite nature of time. Loss at a young age opens your eyes to the world.

I lost the feeling of being protected. My dad was super young, he had this boyish energy, and he was incredibly smart, and the most kind and loving father. I really admire the courage he had to follow his passion, and I learned how important it is to spend the time you have with the people you love, doing the things you love to do,” Nicole says. “That’s why I’m an actor!”

BE ATON NICOL E B LO OM AS MAU

NICOLE BLO OM AS MAUDE BE ATO N

NICOLE BLO OM AS MAUDE

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“I’ve always loved theater and everything Broadway! I remember when I was five, my parents took us to see the Wizard of Oz and my dad brought us backstage to meet Dorothy, and it was a really formative experience for me to see the backstage! You might remember that when we were in First Grade, Christine and I started acting classes at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts. …And after my dad died, theater became a cathartic experience for me. I enjoyed acting and was making new friends doing it! A few years later, one of those friends mentioned that she was going to a summer camp called Stagedoor Manor - and I decided to join. Stagedoor is an intensive theater and performing arts camp known for their Broadway-level full-scale performances, rigorous rehearsals, and the famous alums they’ve produced, like Robert Downey Jr. and Natalie Portman.

You’re surrounded by a ton of other people that want to do exactly what you want to do, and are simultaneously getting great joy out of the experience. I went to Stagedoor for seven years, and I still have a close group of friends from camp, including my random roommate from the first year who’s still one of my best friends!” Nicole says with a smile.

NICOLE BLOOM…BLOSSOMING!

NICOLE BRYDON BLOOM missed that community. So I spoke with the head of the acting department about transferring in, and two weeks before my sophomore fall semester, I got an email about an opening in the program, and I went back to school early for auditions.

Luckily, I got the spot! I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting…with minors in Journalism and Psychology.”

And rounding out the explanation of her acting roots, Nicole adds, “Tim Russert established an award in our dad’s name for courageous and enterprising journalism, and every year since we were 11, my sister Christine and I have been presenting the award at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner in Washington D.C. That was definitely good training for getting-up in front of a large audience and lights and cameras and delivering a speech. …And I feel like when you’ve written the script you’re a lot more vulnerable than when you’re playing a character and reading the lines someone else wrote. I like acting because you get to be a different person in a different world.”

“I’VE ALWAYS LOVED THEATRE AND EVERYTHING BROADWAY!”

“I went to Elon University and initially had the intention of getting a degree in Journalism from their prestigious school.

I’d done a lot of writing and broadcast journalism in high school, and of course my dad was a big influence. I love storytelling and writing, and I have a huge amount of respect for journalists. Access to reliable information is so important now, especially in this age of misinformation,” Nicole reflects. “But my freshmen year I went to see a performance at Elon of August: Osage County, and I was so blown away! And envious of everyone up on stage! I realized just how much I

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“Right after graduation from Elon, I did a summer of live theater in Kentucky, playing the lead role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. I moved to Manhattan in the fall, and started auditioning…and nannying and walking dogs on the side to pay my expenses, like any other aspiring actor,” Nicole says without a hint of having been deterred. “I started to book a couple roles.I was in an episode of Law and Order: SVU - which is like a rite of passage for New York actors. And I got to be in an episode of The Affair - which was my first time eating on camera. I started the day eating potatoes and finished the day still eating potatoes,” Nicole chuckles. “One of the other actors finally suggested taking very tiny bites or pushing the food around on my plate which was invaluable advice.”

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“THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE! “

I

auditioned for the protagonist lead of this little indie film, called 1BR, and I booked the role!” Nicole exclaims, with some of the same excitement as the day she got the news. It was a horror film about a girl who gets accidentally trapped into a cult in her apartment building. Filming in California was a complete whirlwind.

I really had no idea what I was doing at the time, but the cast and crew were supportive and patient with me. It was an amazing first experience. The weirdest thing I had to get used to was performing out of order. We filmed the very last scene of the movie on the first night of filming - so I had to look at the whole arc and understand how I wanted to portray the character within the context of the story.

That was so different from the natural progression of telling a complete story from start to finish, and in one fell swoop, in the theater.” Nicole was busy attending premieres and festival screenings for 1BR when the film was previewed on the festival circuit in 2019. When 1BR was released on streaming services in early 2020 - at the start of the Covid lockdown, when fresh content was being voraciously consumed by a captive national audience - 1BR hit #1 streaming horror film on Netflix.

“I was a huge fan of Downton Abbey, so when I heard rumors that the same creator, Julian Fellowes, was going to be doing some kind of a similar period piece with a New York story, I told my agent that I would love the opportunity to audition if at all possible. …I auditioned for Season One of Gilded Age, but didn’t get the role.

When they called me back about a role on Season Two, I was ecstatic!” Nicole declares. She plays Maude Beaton, a socialite and suggested heiress, on the HBO hit series.

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The cast and crew were very welcoming.

I immediately felt like part of their tightknit family. It was an education to work with such a great group of people and so many talented actors, with such a variety of experience levels. There are some really seasoned people in the cast, like Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski, and then some where this is their breakout role, like Louisa Jacobson, who had just finished grad school before starring as Marian in season one, and who was like my Gilded Age mentor. She’s become a great friend,” Nicole shares. “And Gilded Age is particularly fun for me, because I think that about half of why anyone acts is because we like playing dress-up, and the costumes for Gilded Age are as elaborate and historic as can be. Our costume designer and the entire costume team did such an incredible job. Every dress had at least three fittings! The intricate and ornate costumes and sets definitely helped me to completely immerse myself in the world of my character. A lot of the scenes were actually shot in the same Newport mansions where the folks from the real Gilded Age were partying in the late 1800s! I love period pieces, and I’d love to do more of them.”

Just prior to the actors strike, Nicole had wrapped We Were the Lucky Ones, a limited series for Hulu, based on a book originally written by Georgia Hunter, a Rowayton neighbor. The storyline follows a Jewish family living in Poland during the start of WW2, and the journey of siblings who are separated through the Holocaust.

Nicole comments, “I play Georgia’s grandmother in the series. We filmed in Romania and Spain. It’s unfortunately so timely, and it’s a story that has so much heart, and it shows the importance of perseverance, and the unbreakable bond of love and family. It’s heavy and beautiful, and I can’t wait for that to come out this Spring.”

“Now that the strike has ended, I’m looking forward to getting back to work. It’s back to the grind of auditions. It’s a hard business, and you mostly hear ‘no’... but that makes the ‘yeses’ so much sweeter.

And in this industry, work begets work, so I’m always curious and excited to see what will come next. Though I’m currently prioritizing film and TV, I would love to get back to the stage at some point. For me, there’s nothing like a live audience!”

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF HBO

NICOLE BRYDON BLOOM

LA MAISON FÊTE

ABOUT HER PERSONAL LIFE, she wouldn’t dish details for disclosure, other than the canned “I’m happy and I’m dating” So, to be clear, it’s People Magazine - not me - that reported Nicole is dating Justin Theroux, an actor and filmmaker who was previously married to Jennifer Aniston, and that the pair has been spotted together in Manhattan. “I’m not used to being in the public eye and I like to try and keep my private life as private as possible.

But I do understand that any kind of success in this industry can come with media attention. It’s truly gratifying when people love a role or show I’m lucky enough to be a part of – that’s what I love about my job. And I guess we’ll see how the privacy thing goes…”

Like every Disney heroine, Nicole’s story includes tragedy and loss…that she’s spun into motivation and triumph.

She’s a B&NC MAG Hometown Hero and, come to think of it, she’d be great as Snow White!

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Don’t let the party stop in the New Year!

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Follow us on Instagram for news and upcoming store events @lamaisonfete La Maison Fête 11 Court Road, Bedford New York 914.234.8627 www.lamaisonfete.com

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LAKE COMO, ITALY CELEBRITY OWNED | 18TH CENTURY RENOVATED VILLA The three-story luxury property boasts well-manicured gardens, tennis courts, outdoor pool, spa, gym, theatre, guesthouse, staff house, pizza room, beautiful balconies, and secluded outdoor patios. Two private boat moorings.

The Villa consists of 4 estates that are included in the sale. €75 million

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TRAVEL

In 2023, MARTHA STEWART went to CASA DE CAMPO to shoot her astounding SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Cover Feature. …That was actually ‘nothing new’! Sports Illustrated has used the beautiful beach at Casa de Campo as the backdrop for several Swimsuit Editions, and Casa de Campo has long been a paradise for the rich and famous!

But CASA DE CAMPO 2024 is not what Casa de Campo used to be…

It’s mostly brand new, and it’s even

better than ever!

Brand New

Casa deCampo

@CASA DE CAMPO 110 1 0 BEDFORD BEDFORD& &NEW NEWCANAAN CANAAN

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In October 2023, Casa de Campo held its

First Annual Food & Wine Festival!

Any foodie would be satisfied by the regular offering at Casa de Campo! In addition to Lagos overlooking Teeth and the Caribbean; and the spectacular and satisfying indoor/outdoor La Caña at the main hotel; at the yacht-filled marina, there’s Causa, a Peruvian Restaurant, La Casita, with Spanish-inspired dishes, and the modern Mediterranean SBG; and at Altos de Chavon there’s La Piazetta, an outstanding Italian restaurant designed by Oscar de la Renta, and Chilango Taqueria for Mexican; and at the beach, there’s Manitas Beach Club & Restaurant and the tasty Massa and Brasa food trucks and cafe.

An opening night Beach BBQ pig roast, with top notch live music, kicked off the festivities. Next night, a more elevated evening with poolside cocktails, and dinner served in the cabanas at the Manitas Beach Club & Restaurant, featuring a 7-course tasting menu from 7 top chefs from around the United States sourced to cook for the Food & Wine Festival. Each chef used different locally-sourced ingredients. A crowd favorite that night was the brown butter poached lobster with green plantains fermented in a banana peel vinaigrette with aguamole created by Chef Victor Muñoz. And there was a PAR-ticularly fun night when the festivities, hosted at the Teeth of the Dog practice facilities, featured a glow-in-the-dark golf competition…in addition to a guest-judged cookoff with 10 acclaimed chefs each presenting a dish, alongside mixologists shaking-up curated cocktails in partnership with famed American and Dominican brands. Maybe most fun of all, was a blow-out bash held at the Marina’s big open event space, with great live bands, and a couple dozen liquor companies, cigar manufacturers, chocolatiers, confectioners, and other luxury goods and services companies eager to give every guest ‘a taste’. Though it would have been impossible for any mortal to have sampled every drink, the place was flowing with a selection of some of the world’s finest rums, tequilas, liqueurs, and beers. …And a talk with the owner of jet charter company led to the realization that a private charter round-trip from Westchester to Casa de Campo - for the 2024 FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL for example - is about the same as flying a group on first class!

But, Casa de Campo’s now Annual, Food & Wine Festival - with a dozen internationally renowned chefs and mixologists competing for recognition - is as much fun as you can have with a fork!

The 2024 FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL is scheduled for October 10 through 13. Want to put a group together?

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CASA DE CAMPO

The brand new

Casa deCampo

Premier Club and Suites

are modern luxury at its finest.

The Premier Club Suites are so comfortable…they feel good!

First off, they’re twice the size of even the best room at most resorts. The construction is solid. The mood of the interiors, with lots of natural stone and wood finishes, is clean and modern, but warm and sensual. A glass wall offers a view of the tropical paradise and lets in the glorious sunshine. The bedroom is well appointed and has a comfortable seating area with a couch and coffee table, and a separate table and chairs perfect for in-room dining or getting some work done.

The room is equipped with a smart system to set the lights and temperature just right. There’s a walk-in closet. And the bathroom is inspired - with a sexy glass wall between the tub and the bedroom for a view in either direction - that can be shuttered for privacy - and a large jacuzzi tub, a walkin glass shower, an enclosed water closet, and a separate double sink and vanity.

There’s a brand new Premier Club Clubhouse, which serves as a separate bell desk and concierge, has a large and airy lounge for business or pleasure, and is open all day with a full bar, a full menu, and a constantly refreshed offering of small sandwiches, snacks and desserts. The whole thing feels like a private hotel-within-a-hotel in the middle of an otherwise already over-the-top resort!

Premier Club guests get brand new 4-seat electric golf carts for total freedom to head-off to various destinations around the resort, but the Suites are located within the central campus of the resort - only steps away from: the ocean-view Lagos buffet restaurant for the best-ever pre-golf breakfast or lunch; the pro shop, range and first tees for the Teeth of the Dog and Links courses; the main hotel, with its La Caña restaurant and a pool with a swim-up bar, and; the brand new Spa!

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Note: The Premier Club and Suites room service, available early, all-day, and late, is especially good.

The food is delivered promptly and served nicely in the room, or out on the balcony. Fabulous fresh fruit plates, a perfect caesar salad with grilled chicken, even a great steak!

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Casa deCampo

CASA DE CAMPO

But the word ‘sublime’, when used as a verb, is described by Google as having an archaic origin and meaning to elevate to a high degree of spiritual purity or excellence - e.g. their thoughts were sublimed, and a meaning in chemistry referring to changing a solid directly into vapor - e.g. their tensions sublimed away.

18,000

This square foot

BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN

indoor-outdoor facility would be a stunner in any five-star urban resort or hotel, but is now immediately established as the bellwether for beauty and the new standard for regal relaxation in the Caribbean.

Like stepping into another world, the spa is centered around a shaded outdoor courtyard, and the feeling inside is zen, calm, and cool. Beginning at check-in, service is paramount, and each guest is shepherded by a dedicated team member who is attentive to every whim. Wooden pathways with thatched shade are surrounded by water features and lush plants and lead from the lobby into the tranquil oasis of the spa.

A dedicated relaxation room filled with floor to ceiling sheer white curtains has perfectly padded ergonomic lounges that overlook a beautiful pond through a massive glass window.

A palm tree laden tropical courtyard features a very private pool with shaded lounge beds and a waterfall and some

Sublime

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…And the new Spa will sublime you for sure! high-powered jets for some total immersion. Adjacent to the courtyard, an indoor therapy room has large and small hot tubs and cold plunge pools, a sauna, steam room, eucalyptus showers, and an ice spout that collects atop a pedestal that guests are encouraged to splash on their face and head between the heat-focused experiences.

A team member is constantly ready to supply fresh towels, a mint tea, healthy snacks, or whatever else could be dreamed up. The treatment facility is in its own section of the spa, centered around its own indoor courtyard, with a large tree, and lots of natural light and natural stones and woods. Each treatment room is equipped with state of the art technology, heated adjustable treatment beds, and its own private outdoor space with a sofa for relaxation prior to or after the treatment. And as if there weren’t already enough dining options on the property, the spa has its own cafe with all kinds of healthy snacks, meals, and juices!

when used as an adjective, is described by Google as meaning that the thing being described is of such excellence, grandeur or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.

Synonymous with elevated, magnificent, marvelous, splendid, and wonderful.

And the brand new

Spa

at Casa de Campo is all that and more!

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CASA DE CAMPO

Now, there’s the brand new 9-holes called Lagos, set amidst the lakes and vegetation of the Chavon highlands, that’s a suitable sibling to Chavon and Marina…and rounds out 2DYE4’s full complement of 27. At 3763/3543/3268/3027/2841/2504, this 9 holes is a challenge for any player. The course offers a tour of the tropical landscape, and it will require skilfull course management from any of the six sets of tees.

And the new golf news from Casa de Campo is that Teeth of the Dog will be closed on January 20, 2025, for a complete renovation - to be re-opened for the 2025 Holidays! No matter how great the design, and no matter how unique the beachfront layout - consistent with keeping everything about the resort ‘best in class’ - the Fanjuls, who own the resort, have determined to rebuild the old masterpiece with the same historic Dye design, but with all new irrigation, paths, tee boxes, fairways, traps, and greens!

There’s even

brand new golf

at - and golf news from - Casa de Campo!

While Pete Dye’s signature Teeth of the Dog is so famous, so spectacular, and so special, it’s almost golf sacrilege to suggest that any other course, no less another course at Casa de Campo, might deserve similar accolades. …Dye’s To Dye Fore - a ten minute golf cart ride from Casa de Campo’s central campus, has got to have a place at the top of every ‘Best Of’ list!

The first two 9-hole routes, called Chavon and Marina, are only a few years old, and each is a distinctly delectable stroll and a great play!

Chavon is perched high atop the Chavon River Gorge, with views made famous in the scene where Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas slide down the side of the gorge in the 1984 movie Romancing The Stone. …And the

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Gorge is trouble on half of the nine holes! The course, which measures 3469/3303/3126/3018/2554, plays long and requires big drives and careful approaches.

The terrain is dramatic: right from the start, on the 500 yard Par 5 1st hole, with the Gorge on the right, the course’s ‘vanishing edge’ makes the hole feel like it’s hanging-over the vast expanse; to the finish on the elevated green on the Par 5 9th hole that’s a challenge to hit from any distance out.

Teeth of the Dog

The Casa de Campo Tennis Center should now be renamed the Racquets Center!

The world-class facility boasts 13 Har-Tru courts, including a stadium court, and a top-notch pro staff with ‘hitters’ and ball boys available.

The Tennis Center now has 2 brand new PADEL courts and 4 brand new PICKLEBALL courts!

Marina has an entirely different feel.

At 3474/3286/3078/2975/2601, with vistas of the mouth of the Chavon River, Casa de Campo’s Marina, and the blue Caribbean, this is a shotmaker’s nine. Sweeping fairways with big elevation changes lead to protected green complexes, and accuracy from 150 and in is rewarded with birdie opportunities,

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Of course, there’s still a whole lot of the ‘old’ sunsational Casa de Campo to enjoy!

The jetty that Casa de Campo installed fronting the beach back in the ‘70s turned about a half-mile of oceanfront into what is now a wide, white-sand, clean-bottom, clearwater beach!

Casa de Campo supplies everything - from the chairs and umbrellas, to the catamarans and snorkels, to the great selection of beach food from beach-side restaurants or food trucks.

+ Altos de Chavon is a spectacular stone village built 40 years ago to look like a 16th century enclave, perched high above the Chavon River Gorge.

In addition to the restaurant offering, it’s a fun spot for an afternoon cafe and a little shopping, some nightlife in the Club Genesis nightclub, or to attend a big-name event in the 5,000 seat amphitheater - Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Sting, Duran Duran, and Andrea Bocelli are just some of those who have performed in recent years. + Strolling around the Marina before or after lunch or dinner is another good time - the yachts on view are showstoppers! + The equestrian facilities, offering everything from rides to polo, is premier. + The Shooting Center has clay skeet and live birds available, and the pros make shooting a safe, fun, and easy experience for the novice and as challenging as the most experienced shooter might prefer. + And there are excursions like taking a catamaran to some spectacular scuba around nearby Catalina Island.

But with constant and ongoing new additions, updates, renovations and improvements, the feel at today’s Casa de Campo is

beach

… mostly brand new!

But new at the the Manitas Beach Club & Restaurant is the adults only section of the beach, and includes one of the best covered-but-open-air restaurant spots anywhere, and a pool and cabana area that’s just plain chic. The restaurant has a great selection for lunch or partying all afternoon around the pool, including everything from crab cakes to burrata salad, and the bar is fully equipped with ice buckets filled with Veuve and Whispering Angel and the Dominican Republic’s own Chinola mango liqueur. The mood around the pool is hip, without feeling intimidating. …Warning, that a day planned with golf in the morning, leisurely lunch at Manitas Beach Club & Restaurant, and then anything else, may actually turn into an entire afternoon spent around the Manitas pool and on the beach, with cocktails toasting the spectacular sunset!

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PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREA CERASO

OLGA SWEET

PRESTIGIOUS PORTRAITIST Olga is an extraordinary portraitist! Her style says ‘Official Presidential Portrait’, and maybe that’s because her mentor, Ronald Sherr, did the Official Presidential Portrait of George H.W. Bush that’s hanging in the National Portrait Gallery. Yet Olga’s work is even more incredibly efficient. Capturing everything about the subject in what seems like just a few brush strokes. No need for the kind of ‘make-up’ of flesh-tone paint even some of the greatest portraitists require to give the feeling of body and life.

If from moment to moment it seems like she’s a bit distracted…make no mistake, the reason is, there’s a lot going on up there! She’s attractive and intriguing. And if her still detectable Russian accent, and somewhat Euro-politan demeanor make her seem a little different - like Sting’s Englishman in New York…well, Olga is also every bit an American citizen…and a local mom!

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OLGA SWEET

Olga was born and raised near Moscow. She has a Bachelors and a Masters in Art and Philosophy from Moscow Imperial University.

As a part of her PhD program, Olga came to study at The Carter Center in Atlanta, where she met her husband, Robert, who was an Emory grad who had returned to Atlanta to be a Researcher at the Center. “We were married on Cumberland Island. Robert has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and studied literature and history at Oxford University, and he became a Visiting Professor at a liberal arts college in Atlanta, so we stayed there for eight years. But then he switched to University Development and took a job at Vassar. We moved to Millbrook, New York, where our older son, James, a gifted photographer who just graduated from UConn, was born,” Olga recounts. “Then Robert moved jobs to Princeton, which is when our younger son, William, was born. In 2010, as Robert’s work had become more and more consultancy and remote, we decided to move to New Canaan. William is now a Senior at New Canaan High School, plays on the Varsity Tennis Team, and is already quite focused on the environment…

He’s devoted thousands of hours to eradicating invasive species and deterring their negative impact. We live close to town, with two Parakeets, Dom and Perignon, and a Sparrow, Amelius, whom we allow to fly freely around the house. We had a wonderful cat, Octavia, and a beautiful white rabbit, Lord Chuffnel - named from the P.G. Wodehouse novels on Jeeves and Wooster - who helped raise our boys.”

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“I was an only child, and my mother made sure I was introduced to art and music at a young age, and that art and music school was a critical part of my education. I painted all the time as a kid! I also wrote and published poetry, and my way of being concise in my poetry carried over to my painting. And I play the piano, but very little now,” Olga says with a smile.

I’d taken some drawing and painting classes at Yale in the 90s, but I didn’t start painting seriously until I had the opportunity, starting in 2001, to do a four-year apprenticeship in New York with Ronald Sherr.

He was an amazing man and taught me so much. I admired how his work was always very proper, but never seemed stiff or artificial, and how I felt like I got to know each person he painted. …He liked some drawings I’d done of Ingres masterpieces, and he encouraged me and my style. He gave me a better understanding of simplicity…and beauty.”

DELVES INTO HER TECHNIQUE, saying “I work for three or four hours a day on several paintings I may be doing at any one time, and each painting might take three to six months to produce. I often start with lights, then add mid tones, then add the darks, which is the opposite of the traditional way of painting. Nearly every brushstroke is permanent, and some of the ‘mistakes’ turn out to be some of my better brushstrokes.

I often leave the preparatory lines as well, as I think they make the painting less formal. I look at how the painting looks in the bright light and in the near dark. For me, the eyes always stand out. It’s sometimes a struggle and sometimes a joy, but I’m always working to bring out the quintessential character of my subject. I love people, and I want that to come through in my art.

My portrait of Karl von der Heyden is one of my favorites. There’s not much detail, but I think you meet the man - whom I’ve always admired.”

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OLGA SWEET

“My first client was Lady Mary BaggsterCollins, whom I met in Millbrook and who liked a painting I’d done. I did her graphite portrait from life, no photographs, for $200. Her cousin, the Countess Lucy von Stirum, commissioned me to paint her two grandchildren. …Now I get six-figure portraits commissioned! ...But regardless of the price, and surely when it’s for free, I still paint ‘for pleasure’ - mine and the recipient’s,” Olga declares. “I love seeing how happy people are with their portraits! I did portraits of the two children of the Director of Japanese Art at Princeton, and he and his wife say it’s one of the most important things in their lives. My art takes me to interesting places and to meet the most interesting people. I did a portrait of the Duke of Argyll and visited His Grace at his ancestral home, Inveraray Castle, in Scotland, and also got to meet the Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Christopher Baker, and the Curator of Portraiture, Imogen Gibbon. I love polo, and have painted Nacho Figueras and Prince Harry from that world. I did a portrait of the Archduke Dr. Geza von HabsburgLothringen, the former Chair of Christie’s Europe and the world’s leading authority on

Olga says her favorite portraitists include the 20th Century Italian painter Pietro Annigoni, the French Neoclassical master Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and the American John Singer Sargent. “But I really have to add that Ronald Sherr, who unfortunately passed away last year, is as important - at least for me - as those giants! With Ingres, the person emerges from a mass of colors. Ron showed me how visible brushstrokes can bring even more to the portrait.”

the Russian court jeweler Carl Faberge, and got to go with the Archduke to the Opening and Private Viewing of the Faberge Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. One of my clients is the iconic Stuart Weitzman: Stuart has so influenced my style and aesthetic sensibility.

And one of my favorite memories is of presenting

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER with my two portraits of him, one graphite, the other oil. President Carter met with my family and me for almost an hour. At one point, William, then seven, shared with President Carter something he had heard on PBS: ‘Do you know how you can tell if someone is lying to you? He does not look you in the eye!’. President Carter was very, very serious and at the end of the meeting he turned to William, and said, “I’ve learned so much from you,” and presented him with a desk set that had been on the HMS Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.” Notably, Ben Heller, the prominent New York art collector and dealer who’s been credited with bringing artists including Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Barnett Newman to the fore, commissioned Olga when it came time to do his own portrait.

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Olga philosophizes, “As I said, the eyes are the key. It’s the point of highest contrast in the whole painting. The White is real white and the Black for the Iris is pure black. …But every painter does that…the thing is where to stop.

W H E N D O YOU S E E T H E PE R S ON? …T H E O L D E R I G E T, T H E M O R E I S E E P E O P L E .”

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CELEBRATE THE MAGIC AND MYSTERY OF NATURE at home with a native landscape that nurtures your family and the planet

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REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY: CARLOS MARQUES

392 BRUSHY RIDGE ROAD NEW CANAAN This Modern Farmhouse is not just environmentally friendly and electronically smart, it’s architecturally brilliant. The perfect combination of form and function, this house offers comfort and convenience amidst sophistication and style.

Only one mile from downtown New Canaan, the home is nestled at the end of a long tree-lined driveway on 2.65 private acres.

The home was constructed in 2010 and completely updated with a substantial addition in 2021, to include geothermal cooling and heating, solar water heating, high-performance windows, a sustainable irrigation system and other green improvements.

The exterior design of the home incorporates two attached barn-like structures with metal roofs, natural wood siding, lots of glass, and stone chimneys, foundation, patios, and retaining walls. The back of the house features a large covered porch and stone patio overlooking the tree-lined, professionally landscaped backyard.

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392 BRUSHY RIDGE ROAD

The interior is dramatic.

Brushy Ridge defines one of New Canaan’s finest neighborhoods, set high above the village and filled with elegant estates. At $3,495,000, 392 Brushy Ridge Road stands out - not just for its comfort, convenience, sustainability, sophistication, and style…but as a real value as well!

Large rooms feature floating staircases with steel banisters, oversized skylights, soaring walls of glass, massive art displays, and planar surfaces. Lots of natural wood and white stone give-off a kind of California-cool. And a suspended balcony and plenty of odd angles in the architectural design give the living areas the feeling of a modern museum.

The first floor of the house is open concept, with an easy flow from the state-of-theart ultra-modern kitchen, to the breakfast room and family room, and then into the glass-walled comfy living room. The four bedrooms on the second floor are all ensuite.

There’s a three-car garage and a huge storage room. And in addition to the 4,666 square feet above ground, there’s a spectacular 1,600 square foot lower level, includes a media room, a full entertaining bar, and a gym, and has its own walk-out stone patio with fireplace. Finest quality construction and materials were employed throughout.

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J JA AN NU UA AR RY Y/ /F FE EB BR RU UA AR RY Y 2 20 02 24 4

392 Brushy Ridge is listed by Hannelore Kaplan.

914-450-3880.

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At King School, we believe that the smartest person in the room is not the one with all the answers, but the one with all the questions.

The Power of Wonder

We welcome the curious ones – the ones who aren’t afraid to ask why, to try something new, to get it wrong before they get it right.

We believe that wondering minds go further!

King School is a PreK-12 independent school located in Stamford that serves the students of Fairfield and Westchester counties.

Visit Campus to Learn More

kingschoolct.org

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A LEGACY BECOMES LEGENDS Let Us Explain

No worries.

Jim and Missy Renwick, The big news in Bedford-based and most of the real estate brokerage is that, in established Renwick 2023, Corcoran Legends Realty team of agents, are staying on with acquired Renwick Real Estate.

Corcoran Legends, and are still ‘ready, willing and able’, as they say in the real estate biz, to assist in selling or purchasing real estate.

Renwick was a legacy. The brokerage agency was founded in 1879 by Henry Lounsbery, Jim’s great-grandfather, and after a successful corporate career Jim joined the business to help his father Renwick was run with the forthright ethos and absolute integrity of a family company, and has long been regarded as one of the leading brokerage firms in the area. …And one need look no further than a list of ‘SOLD’ listings to see that Renwick has long been one of the most active brokerage firms in the area as well.

“Make no mistake,” Renwick continues, “I still love selling real estate, and Missy and I have no intention of retiring, or even really slowing down. We love Bedford, and we’re not going anywhere! But we’d had enough of managing the office and the business …and have actually already increased our personal activity as agents as a result of having so much ‘free time’.

And the combination with Corcoran Legends is already working for all the agents from the Renwick team as well!”

“You know,” Jim reflects, “people always say real estate is all about ‘location, location, location’, and, well, that may be somewhat true for buyers and sellers. But in the brokerage side of the real estate business it’s all about ‘reputation, reputation, reputation’ ...and I’m really proud of everything we did as Renwick…and to now share our good name with the fine people at Corcoran Legends.”

“Selling the business was a little bittersweet, but only because it meant taking the Renwick name off the front door!” Jim smiles. “The sale to Corcoran Legends was lucrative for us…and my two daughters, Philippa and Sarah, have gone into the sports apparel business with a brand called Renwick Sports and are busy with their families, my son, Jamie, works at Pepsico…and my grandkids are still way too young to turn them into real estate brokers!”

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Of course ‘the proof is in the pudding’ ...and Corcoran Legends is already hitting it out of the park in the Bedford area!

Corcoran Legends

is an affiliate of the global real estate powerhouse Corcoran Group, and the office that they’ve taken over at 634 Old Post Road in Bedford, just North of the Bedford Green, is Corcoran Legends’ 5th office - all in Westchester.

The Corcoran Legends business model is pretty simple. Identify a fertile real estate market in an affluent area - and Bedford and the surrounding area is certainly all that. Leapfrog into the marketplace by acquiring an existing firm with plenty of local knowledge and experience, talented agents, and a great reputation - and Renwick was certainly all that. Hire some top agents in the community to add to the new team - and Corcoran Legends is doing that; there are now a total of two dozen agents dedicated to the Bedford office. …And then apply all the advantages of Corcoran’s global resources, including in client referral and relocation, marketing and advertising, property search, and mortgage and financial services, and Corcoran Legends’ Westchester network - and that’s just what Corcoran Legends is now doing in Bedford!

It’s the best of both worlds - an independently-owned and hyper-local agency, but with all the advantages of a global powerhouse!

But Corcoran Legends is somewhat unusual. The firm was founded in 2006, by five women who had tremendously successful careers working as real estate agents, but who were fed up with the tensions and conflicts that came with working in traditional top-down and typically male owned and dominated brokerage firms. One of the five women, Marcene Hedayati, agreed to give-up her practice as a real estate agent, take the title of Managing Partner and be the outwardly facing representative of the company, and serve as the one and

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“Right now, it’s a Seller’s Market - mostly because of paltry inventory, resulting in part as a lull after the sell-off at record prices during Covid’s rush-to-thesuburbs. While house prices have cooled nationally in the more recent environment of higher mortgage rates, in the Bedford area good houses are going quickly, and often above ask. From $2M on up, we still have plenty of all-cash buyers looking for their dream home! And as mortgage rates go back down in 2024, things are likely to heat up! …In times like these it’s more important than ever to have an agent with intricate local knowledge, and extensive pricing, negotiating, and closing experience,” Marcene explains.

only Office Manager of all of Corcoran Legends’ offices. Marcene was a good choice to lead Corcoran Legends - she’s energetic, businesslike, friendly, and charming. …But what makes Corcoran Legends unusual, is that the identity of the other four women owners - who continue to work as real estate agents among Corcoran Legends’ corps - is not publicized!

do a disservice to everyone but the #1 agent in the office,” Marcene details. “In this context, that means I’m not going to try to announce that any one broker in our office - other than Jim and Missy Renwick, of course - is our ‘shining star’.

Or that one agent or another has the best listing in our office. …We have the best agents! And we have great listings! …But what we talk about - is results!

We’ve done over $60M in sales in just our first six months in Bedford! Our record, even right out of the gate, already stands for itself!”

“I invite everyone in the community to get to know a Corcoran Legends agent…they’re all terrific!”

Marcene says - really meaning it!

“A part of our operating policy is to avoid favoring particular agents, as we believe clients prefer not to be pushed to a particular person. We even avoid a lot about ranking our agents, as most other brokerage offices do, as neither total sales dollars or frequency is a particularly good measure of who’s the right agent for a particular client, and the rankings

“We think our egalitarian approach to the business makes Corcoran Legends a happier place for agents, and yields happier clients and better results! In fact, we think it’s a real point of difference for us!” Marcene says. “Our agents have the world-class Corcoran systems, tools, and back-up, the unparalleled Corcoran referral network, Corcoran Legends’ extensive network in Westchester, and the advantage of a great office location in Bedford…and yet, because of the way we’re set up, each Corcoran Legends agent feels like a fully empowered independent agent, without most of the normal burden of office politics, hierarchy, or bureaucracy.”

“We’re proud of Corcoran Legends’ tremendous growth in Westchester, thrilled to have acquired Renwick, and now look forward to proving ourselves, again and again, in the Bedford community,” Marcene commits.

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187 Hook Road

44 Broad Brook Road

187 Hook Road, Bedford SOLD above the ask of $2,395,000, shortly after it was listed for sale

55 Clinton Road

44 Broad Brook Road, Bedford SOLD for $10,000,000, within a few days of listing

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55 Clinton Road, Bedford SOLD for $2,537,500

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Celebrating its 85th Anniversary in 2024, The Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester is by far the biggest provider of children’s programming in Northern Westchester.

Alyzza Ozer, the dynamo at the helm of The Boys & Girls Club, is both a cheerleader and a plainspeaking messenger. “The first thing I want everyone to understand is that The Boys & Girls Club is for all kids! We have almost a thousand children participating in our programming at any given time - and the population is split roughly down the middle between children who come from economically and otherwise challenged circumstances and those who do not. The mental health crisis facing our youth does not discriminate between rich and poor. Right here amongst our mostly affluent communities, 45% of our high school kids report feeling loneliness and depression. The Boys & Girls Club is all about activities, and the bottom line is the overall well-being of our kids! Our mission statement is: ‘To inspire and enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.”

On a shoestring budget of less than $5 Million a year, and operating over-capacity out of The Boys & Girls Club facilities located at 351 Main Street in Mt. Kisco, just across from the Northern Westchester Hospital, Ozer rather miraculously manages a staff of about 125, produces the Club’s wide array of programming, and runs the entire business of the Club! “But what I really want to boast about,” says Ozer, “is our report card.

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Over the last fifteen years, 100% of our high school seniors have graduated with their class and gone on to college, trade school, or the military! And maybe equally as impressive, our experience is that 87% of kids who attend our programming will do something material to give back to the community they live in as adults!”

PHOTOGRAPHY: BENJAMIN ALLEN

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“We start our youngest children out in a Head Start preschool program. We currently have about 60 children enrolled and are about to open our fourth classroom. Most of these kids don’t speak English at the start,” Ozer explains. “At the elementary school level, where the Bedford Central School District operates Mt. Kisco Elementary with every kid every day alternating the use of English and Spanish, we serve an important function helping the English kids with their Spanish and visa versa. Similarly, the Club serves as an early melting pot for kids to learn about racial and socio-economic diversity. Kids with learning issues are included with additional support.

We have about 150 elementary school kids enrolled.

Some of the kids come before school and can get a good healthy breakfast here, and then there’s programming for these kids from 4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon, and we bus them to and from Mt. Kisco Elementary.”

“At the high school level,” Ozer continues, “our programming is focused on teaching civic advocacy and leadership, and includes wellness and fitness, workforce development, and college readiness.

All our high schoolers are engaged in learning about self-empowerment and responsibility to the community. We’re a safe place for all high schoolers, enrolled or not, to come and do homework or just hang out with friends. And when we host events like Soccer Tournaments, hundreds of local kids show-up for the festivities. For the 100 or so high schoolers who are formally enrolled in our Keystone leadership and advocacy program, we start off teaching what advocacy means and how legislation is created, advanced and enacted, and end up sending teams to Albany and Washington D.C. to lobby on bills…to have a direct impact on laws and funding that will have a direct impact on them. It’s exceptional!”

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“And our swim program, under the leadership of Aquatics Director Eric Mitchell, is second-to-none!” Ozer declares. “We have about 300 kids enrolled in our learn to swim programming, in addition to all our preschoolers learning to swim. And we have about 275 kids enrolled in our outstanding Marlins Swim Team programming. Under the direction of Head Coach Zac Hojnacki - who has a PhD in Child Psychology, and Head Age Group Coach Connor White, the renowned Marlins program draws swimmers from all over Westchester and Fairfield Counties and beyond. The Marlins have been the Boys & Girls Club of America National Champions for the last 23 consecutive years, are consistent winners at Empire State, Eastern, and National competitions, and serve as a springboard to many college swimming opportunities.”

promised, ‘One day I’m going to come back and help kids like me’ - and now he’s doing just that! And then there’s Stephanie Trejo, who started at The Boys & Girls Club as a young kid, did all the programming the Club had to offer, spoke before the NY Assembly when she was in our Keystone program, and was our ‘Youth of the Year’ as a senior. She went on to be the Salutatorian of her class at SUNY New Paltz and, aside from working full-time for us, is presently getting a Masters in Early Childhood Education at Lehman College.”

Stephanie remarks, “I grew up with a single mother who worked as a housekeeper and who spoke very little English.

We struggled. The Boys & Girls Club was my home and my family! I learned English at the Club, and wellness, fitness, and basic life skills, and leadership and advocacy. I would not be who I am were it not for The Boys & Girls Club! And I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to now be working as a PreSchool Teacher at The Boys & Girls Club - and giving back directly to an organization that did so much for me!”

“One day I’m going to come back and help kids like me”

Getting a little deeper into the programming, Ozer continues, “We’re currently in the process of instituting a wellness program which will overlay all our existing programming and involve some one-on-one counseling with kids of all ages. The wellness program involves the entire staff - everyone has received 5 to 8 weeks of dialectic, behavioral, and trauma training, and every kid will be impacted in one way or another. We’ve already hired the first two full-time clinicians for a team we hope to build to a dozen - and, poignantly, one is himself a ‘Club Kid’ success story! Brian Srour faced a lot of challenges growing-up in Mt. Kisco, and found his voice at The Boys & Girls Club. When he graduated from our high school Keystone program, he

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Another Boys & Girls Club success story - and now a major benefactor - is Stuart Marwell, who grew-up at the Club, then built the giant drive systems engineering and supply company, Curtis Instruments, also located in Mt. Kisco, which he sold a few years back to Kohler. He shares that, “I learned all my leadership skills at the Club. Generations of my family have benefited from and supported the Club, and we look forward to making sure that other children and their families will have the same opportunity for years to come.”

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MODERN, CLASSIC, OR ANTIQUE

BLATT BILLIARDS IS THE FINEST IN HANDCRAFTED, BESPOKE POOL TABLES FOR ANY SPACE.

“Funding is our constant challenge!”, Ozer declares.

“We get some governmental support, and I want to acknowledge the help we get from NYS Senator Peter Harckham and NYS Assemblyman Chris Burdick, who were instrumental in getting recent allocations of $500,000 from the State to support preventative wellness programs for Clubs throughout the State, and another $128,000 from Westchester County. Westchester County Legislator Erika Pierce, the Westchester Commissioner of Mental Health Michael Orth, and Dr. DaMia Harris Madden, the Director of the Westchester County Youth Bureau, all recognize the importance of positive youth programming.

But, bottom line, we depend on private donations to operate…and we’re about to start a capital campaign to fund much-needed improvements and expansions...so we can serve more children.”

Ozer continues, gratefully stating, “The Boys & Girls Club simply wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our dedicated Board of Directors and our generous donors. Seema Boesky stands out as a long-standing ‘Patron Saint’ and is ‘Mom Emeritus’ for every boy and girl at the Club. And some of the Club’s ‘Angels’, as we call them, include Bonnie Tisi, Muffin Dowdle, Anne Citrin, Skip Beitzel, who owns the Hickory & Tweed ski and bike shop in Armonk, David Singer, an owner of Robison, and Andrew and Kim Handler. …But there are so many people to thank for donating time and money…!”

B&NC Full Page Advert Do not forget to extend your images and background to the red bleed line Inspired by the work The Boys & Girls Club is doing, Bedford & New Canaan Magazine recently donated a classic billiards table, that’s now available in the Club’s rec room, and Blatt Billiards, the region’s preeminent dealer of fine tables and equipment since 1923, and owners Steve, Bruce, David and Jeff Roeder, were gracious enough to relocate, refurbish, and prepare the table for the kids’ use.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREA CERASO

Esmeralda Santiago is the matrilineal voice of the Puerto Rican experience .

I

n 2023, she authored the novel Las Madres, published by Alfred A. Knopf, about five women’s journeys from Puerto Rico in the Seventies to the Bronx circa 2017 - and the ties that hold them together.

Esmeralda is also the best-selling and award-winning author of the memoirs When I Was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, which she adapted into a Peabody Award-winning film for PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre, and The Turkish Lover; the novels America’s Dream and Conquistadora, and a children’s book, A Doll For Navidades. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and House & Garden, among other publications, as well as NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. …And she’s dyed in the wool Katonah, having lived here with her husband, Frank Cantor, for thirty-two years, and raised their kids right here in town. Their son, Lucas, now lives in Los Angeles and works as a composer for films, and their daughter, Ila, teaches Jazz in Ashland, Oregon.

ESMERALDA SANTIAGO

Much of Esmeralda’s writing is drawn from her personal experience. “I try to keep it as close to non-fiction as possible, and to tell a story at the same time,” she explains. “I was born in San Juan, but raised in Macún, a rural barrio in Toa Baja. I was the eldest of seven children in a family of landless peasants. We were poor. We had no books, but with some of my father’s brothers and their families living down the road, Macún was a rich place for stories. My father brought newspapers from the towns where he worked, and I learned to read from them, and found a larger world beyond our barrio.”

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Esmeralda continues, “When I was 12, my youngest brother, who was 6 at the time, was in a serious accident that required my mother to bring him to New York for medical attention. He ended up losing two toes, but then my grandmother, who was already living in New York, convinced my mother to bring all her children to New York. I was thirteen years old when my parents broke up and she brought us to Brooklyn, and she found work as a Seamstress in the Garment District. I write about real people, with struggles and flaws, and try to be honest, and include the failures as well as the triumphs in my work.

My brother’s accident is a big part of the reason we came to the United States, and it plays a big part in When I Was Puerto Rican.”

“When we arrived, I didn’t know English, had never seen snow, and had certainly never lived in a tall building in a metropolis like New York. I learned to read English from illustrated children’s books, but couldn’t pronounce the words at first because the vowels were foreign to my tongue.

Only eighteen months after arrival in the U.S., I auditioned for and was accepted to Performing Arts High School. It was there I learned how to properly speak and pronounce English. At the school, there was an emphasis on voice and diction, meant to eradicate the accents students brought to the school from Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. In my case, they helped me to soften my Puerto Rican accent,” Esmeralda explains.

Right after high school, Esmeralda was hired as an extra in the film of Up the Down Staircase. “I didn’t really like being an actor.

I wanted to be a producer, and thought I’d

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instead enjoy working behind the scenes with a bird’s-eye view of all the action.”

She worked full-time and studied part time for eight years after high school. “I was ambitious, and wanted a career, not a series of jobs.” To advance professionally, she needed to finish her college degree.

She applied to Harvard - and got in, with a full scholarship! She graduated with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies. “After college, I went on to earn a Masters in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence. I was interested in filmmaking.

I met my husband a few months after graduation. He’s a second-generation American from a Russian Jewish family. He didn’t speak a word of Spanish, but has a smattering now, and we’ve been married 45 years!

When we bought a house in a town 30 miles South of Boston - I felt I was the only Puerto Rican around! When I took our children to the playground, other mothers thought I was a Nanny, because the only other Spanish speakers they came across were domestic workers.”

In the mid-seventies, Esmeralda worked for the Suffolk County District Attorney, south of Boston, as a proposal writer and consultant working on behalf of underrepresented minorities and families trying to break the cycle of domestic violence. At the same time, she and her husband founded CANTOMEDIA, a film company. “My main job was writing educational films and documentaries.

Most recently, our focus has been on films about contemporary artists.”

“I was ambitious, and wanted a career, not a series of jobs.

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All along, Esmeralda wrote and published personal essays about her experience as a Puerto Rican living in the United States. “I was writing 1,000 word essays each week for a local newspaper, and some were picked-up by the Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times. Radcliffe Magazine asked me to write a story about my mother’s experience in New York’s Garment District for an issue they were publishing about Women At Work. Merloyd Lawrence, a respected editor in Boston, reached out to me because she loved the essay. It was her idea that I write a memoir.

That was in 1990, when I’d just started a Masters in Fiction Writing degree at Sarah Lawrence.

Chapters from When I Was Puerto Rican were from my thesis. It was published in 1993, when I was 45! I had a late start as a writer, but it felt I’d been heading in that direction all along. Almost a Woman was published in 1998, and then The Turkish Lover in 2004. In 2008, when I was working on the manuscript for Conquistadora, I had a stroke affecting the Wernicke’s area of my brain - and lost all ability to read or write in Spanish or English. I had to learn how to read in Spanish and English all over again, the way I did as a kid. Like I did when I first came to New York, I studied children’s picture books in the early part of the process. I can’t produce quite as much as I used to before my stroke, but writing has become therapeutic. …I’ve lectured and written about my stroke and recovery, and it’s included in some medical journals.”

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“Writing Las Madres was a labor of love, and a signature work for me,” Esmeralda says. “Historians are great at providing information about events, but it seems to me they forget ‘History’ is created by people. I write about people who don’t get much of a voice. Most of us don’t live in wealth, in comfort, or in safety.

I write to offer a more realistic version of Puerto Rican history and culture in the archipelago and beyond its shores.”

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Esmeralda is a bit timid and without pretense, yet she’s confident and comfortable in herself and in her writing.

She’s quiet and warm. Polite, but unapologetic. Sweet, but circumspect.

Her demeanor belies her literary prowess.

And it takes a special moment for her to show some pride, and admit, “You know, in Katonah, besides my large circle of friends, I have anonymity…but in Puerto Rico, I’m recognized on the street. When I Was Puerto Rican is required reading in school, and my work has been read all over the world in numerous languages. I’ve narrated all my books for audio, in Spanish and in English! …As a matter of fact, I’m walking over now to Kessler Studios to work on the Spanish audio book for Las Madres.”

The Washington Post hails Las Madres as “a vibrant portrayal of women supporting one another through disability and hardship,” and the novel has been embraced by readers around the country. Following a months-long book tour, including stops in Puerto Rico and across the United States, Esmeralda is finally settled back home in Katonah, where she’s looking forward to getting to work on her next book.

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