Hit The Bricks .Blogspot

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Burn Stamford Burn

I have a potential follow up on our winged friend. He may be training at Camp Hammond, a superhero training facility based in Stamford Connecticut that prepares heroes for assignment to state sponsered teams.

There’s what in Stamford? Yes…a superhero training facility… well, atleast in the Marvel Comics Universe there is. Stamford is apparently the setting for a monthly comic book published by Marvel Comics called Avengers: The Initiative. As blogged earlier Stamford was a pivitol location in past season of The Office, but as a comic geek growing up I think this much cooler.

The Advocate ran an article on this awhile back, but here it is recapped. Stamford played catalyst for Marvel’s 2006 company wide crossover Civil War. A team of superheros filiming a reality TV show tracked a group of villians to Stamford and threw down, resulting in an explosion that killed 600 Stamfordians, including a bus full of school children (Redistricting issue solved.) The incident turned public opinion against superheros resulting in the Superhero Registration Act, which forced all heroes to register with the government, submit for training, and join one of 50 state sponsered superhero teams. Avengers: Initiative is about the training facility built in the rubble of the Stamford diaster.

Approach winged, trenchcoated gentlemen with caution...

Thursday Steps It Up

Alcohol… the wonders of the deep… 3-D Sponge Bob adventure rides… if at least two of these three interest you consider checking out the first Thursday of the month happy hour at the SoNo Maritime Aquarium next week. I went to the last one and found a bottled domestic in one hand a Sting Ray (Don’t think we forgot about Steve Irwin you fishy bastards, this isn’t over) in the other a unique experience.

Thursdays are picking up for Stamford and her neighbors. There’s the previously reported Fairfield County Happy Hour Club that collided last week with another area staple, SBC karaoke. Pictures from that debacle are now up here. Good time, although in the future I’ll be sure to avoid the camera. Check them out tonight at the Bulldog in SoNo. The Stamford/ Norwalk Bar Sports League kicks off its five week season tonight at Seaside Tavern. (Check out the official website for more details). Thursday has some options for the young in social, waiting on the rest of the week to catch up. Balls in your court Friday!

Bar Sports League of Stamford-Norwalk

Tomorrow marks the kick off of the inaugural season of the Stamford-Norwalk Bar sports league at Seaside Tavern (formally Jimmy's Seaside, see today’s Advocate for details on that). From the organizers:

We've finalized arrangements with Seaside Tavern (formerly Jimmy's Seaside) in Stamford, CT for the Inaugural Bar Sports League of Stamford-Norwalk. They've extended happy hour pricing on all drinks until 8:30 for us.

The season will run for 5 weeks starting this Thursday, March 27, at 6:30 pm and continuing on the following Thursdays. (Please let me know in advance if you can't make it so that we can reschedule your games.)

The sports will be pool, darts, and shuffleboard (Seaside got rid of the foosball table. Sorry), and you will play 2-3 games each week. The bar also has a few video games and TVs for amusing yourself when you're not playing.

Entry will be $25, which you can bring in the form of check or cash on Thursday to the bar, and almost all of that will be returned in the form of prizes.

Seaside Tavern can be found here:
Google Maps: Seaside Tavern

If you know of any other teams that want to sign up, we can accommodate a few more teams. If you can't make it one week, it's ok - you can make up your games the week before or after. And if you just want to come for the cheap drinks and good company, feel free to come along and bring your friends as well.

I will pick up competition next week since I’m seeing Lewis Black tomorrow at The Palace. My legendary darts skills were honed years ago during a longer than expected post collegiate job search. (Now that we’re in another bad economy we can expect another great crop of up and comers) Since then they’ve gone only slightly rusty on the electric dart boards of The City That Works. There is a disturbing lack of real darts in Stamford. Every bar opts for the electric versions (Murphy’s & Rack & Roll are two exceptions). The downsides are shelling out quarters and having to compete with an inferior dart. The upside is you will never have to relive some the elementary school throwback of having to solve basic math equations on a chalk board in front of your peers.

The Dark Knight

Picture courtesy of Vincent Rodriguez. Vincent has a book called Stamford Pictures of Life.

This book contains photos taken in Stamford, Connecticut from 2003 to 2007. After taking literally thousands of pictures of family and friends, Vincent Rodriguez found that taking pictures of strangers in natural environments, doing things they normally do, was the epitome of capturing the “real moment.”

You can order his book here or check out examples his work here.

If you want to be cool, helmet’s the rule.

The skate park at Scalzi Park is tentatively scheduled to reopen April 1st. This year, the park will have attendant enforcing a helmet rule.

Scalzi is probably Stamford’s most active parks when the weather gets nice. Its central location serves a number of neighborhoods including Bull’s Head, West Side, & the Downtown which brings in a diverse population. Nearly the entire square footage is carved up for the sporting life. Aside from the aforementioned skate park, there is a number of softball fields filled by an army of local and corporate leagues, some free range cricket & parking lot soccer, basketball courts, tennis courts, hand ball courts (mostly used by friendless tennis players), a roller hockey rink (mostly used by soccer players), Volleyball court and my personal favorite: the bocce courts. If you want a lesson in humility, jump in a league game with the old Italian guys who play Tuesday nights in the summer. My friend and I were owned so handedly one night last year that the competition decided they could starting taking our beer.

Like the majority of Stamford parks, Scalzi a little run down (aside from the skate park and tennis courts which are both pretty new) although I think I remember reading somewhere the city was planning to do some renovations. There are also plans to connect Scalzi as part of the Mill River greenway that will run along the river down to the sound. All of that is well and good, but Scalzi Park already sealed its awesomeness in my book when I saw a hawk eat a seagull alive there.

Bat-Bum Where Art Thou

The complaint from half my readers (that being my friend Adam) is that I don’t have enough variety in my posts. I’m accused of just putting up picture of buildings. So I haven’t landed the interview with Bat-Bum yet. I’m sorry that a guy in a women’s overcoat and make-shift Nordic headdress intimidates me. Besides, he lays low in the winter, making only the occasional appearance at Target. When the weather is nice and he’s lurking around Capriccios outside seating I’ll make my move on the exclusive.

Until then, here’s what Seaboard Properties redevelopment plans for 11 Forest St. look like: (the old Children’s Furniture Store next to Sabatiello’s off Bedford St.)

The Bronze Undead Invasion!

Every Summer Stamford has an outdoor arts exhibit downtown. This year they’ve chosen to do a one man exhibit with J. Seward Johnson, who creates life size bronze statues. 50 or so of his creations will be stationed around downtown. I’m guessing that the statue at the tip of Columbus Park that from the corner of the eye fools everyone, every time is his work. (“What’s that chick painting?”)

It may make me sound like a real ham and egger, but life size statues are more exciting than something abstract. Look, a bunch of scrap wood nailed into a series of large rectangles! My only concern is that any remotely human or animal opens itself to all sorts of degrading snapshots from the last call crowd. I remember the indignities a unicorn made out of junk suffered in photos with me and my cousins last August, I can only imagine how many “shockers” will be thrown up in cell phone pics with this young woman in the hot summer nights.

Watch Out German Nannies, Here Comes The Happy Hour Club

The Fairfield County Happy Hour returns to the City That Works this Thursday at SBC Downtown. What is The Fairfield County Happy Hour you ask?

The Fairfield County Happy Hour Club is a social networking club based in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The group centers on weekly happy hours and is aimed at helping local people meet other locals and enjoy themselves.

I have yet to hit one up, but word is they are a good time. Check out their site if you need their schedule or to gauge the attractiveness of the of the attendees.

RIP Dunn's Loft

Jesus Holy Christ! The owner of Dunn’s Loft and Ocean’s 211 is closing in the next month and selling the business. From Chowhound.com:

Now for some bad news....our waiter told us that both 211 & Dunn's Loft are going to be sold in the next few months. They already have a couple of prospective buyers. The owner wants to do something closer to home (Redding) and move onto the next project....which is odd, because I thought Dunn's Loft WAS the next project. I was so bummed to hear that. So get your fix now folks....who knows what's going to be there in a few mos time.

Sad day, this was a unique space with great food. Hopefully the new owner can keep the same vibe or even improve on it.

Dunn/ Ocean joins Zinc as the second restaurant to set to close on lower Summer St recently. FD Rich, the developer largely responsible for Stamford's original urban redevelopment in the 70's & 80's recently bought several buildings, including La Hacienda & Il Falco's respective abodes with the intention to replace them in a few years with something high density/ mixed used. For better or worse, restaurant alley will probably look very different in the years ahead.

Inside RBS Stamford

If you've driven through Stamford on I95 or come through the train station recently you have undoubtedly noticed the RBS building, now in the glass sheathing phase of construction. Here are some views you may not have seen yet.

Birdseye cut away shot. While an indoor cafe and rooftop garden above the parking garage are great amenities for the workers, I'm not sure it does much to mix our new neighbors into the community.

Shot of the garage top garden.

Top floor cafe.

This is the trading floor, which juts off the back along the river.

The City That Drinks

The Stamford St. Pat's Parade is this Saturday at noon starting on Bedford.

Sabatiello's from the Ashes

Sabatiello’s, Italian Eatery on Bedford and recent filming location for the Fox reality series “Kitchen Nightmares” has an interesting sign in the window. I didn’t have my camera on me when I ran past but here’s the jist. They are re-opening under new management, with new décor and a new menu. They are also Gordon Ramsay’s favorite Italian Restaurant in Fairfield County. I’m confused, are they his favorite restaurant before filming and if so why did a reality show about turning around crappy restaurants come there then? How can Gordon know Sabatiello’s will be his favorite restaurant after the changes since the re-opening has yet to happen? Did the new management come in before or after the show? Will there still be strange dance parties there at night?

UPDATED: It looks like it has already grand-reopened as an "Italian Steakhouse" New menu is posted outside. Never really checked out the old menu, so can't speak to the differences.

Nothing Spells Class Like an Inversion of "ER" to "RE"

Mr. Stamford has a post up on the Atlantic Centre project finally beginning this week with the demolition of the boarded up stores next to the downtown post office. I noticed the fence go up and the signs posted last week. Laziness in posting is putting me behind in what is developing as a growing Stamford Blog scene.

Atlantic Centre, with a Ritz Carlton hotel, condos, a restaurant in the old post office, & retail space joins Trump Parc and Highgrove as part of the insane amount high end luxury housing under construction in Downtown Stamford right now. RBS can only fill so many rooms, I'm interested to see if the market can fill all these new units.

The project was surrounded with controversy last year as it came up for approval. The plan broke Stamford's building height cap however was allowed after a donation was made to the Mill River Collaborative. The plan utilized the old post office as a restaurant, and it while preserved most of the building it did involve demoing a later addition and sealing it with a glass wall. Some of the St. John's Tower units who up to this point were lucky not to face a view of one of the other bleak urban cylinders now had a parking garage butting up against them.

In addition to those legitimate concerns there was a strong anti-development feeling against the project that found it's home in the Stamford Advocate forums.

My opinion, if some one wants to drop a million plus to live in walking distance of P.F. Chang's more power to them.

Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar

The Stamford Downtown Events blog wrote a review of the Connecticut Cigar Company that recently opened on Bank Street. That blog is authored by the Downtown Special Services District so any review of a downtown business is going to glowing by the prime City That Works booster group. However with hand rolled cigars, a swanky lounge, and being open late for the after diner crowd, this place looks pretty legit.

The City That Builds: Alliance Housing

Check out the funky new condo building in the works next to UConn. Development is still contingent on city approval and involves moving the church rectory that currently stands on the location. This project has been back and forth though for the past 10 years. The last design was shot down for it's out of character Jenga like look. If this happens it will be another development in the line of downtown churches selling land to developers in order to stay finacially solvent. Canterbury Green was built years ago in a church parking lot and Atlantic Center and the Ritz Carlton are both tied to land owned by churches. I think it's a win-win for both institutions when it comes together.