<p>I should have stated my credentials: I grew up in New Canaan and am writing from Wilton. Other family have lived in Fairfield, Stamford, Old Greenwich, Katonah, etc. We are multi-generational Fairfield County natives. :)</p>
<p>Lots of people have made good points. Wilton is developing more of a downtown, and there are certainly places to live from which one can walk to the library–also excellent–and to the supermarket and other shops. But it still doesn’t have the walkable village center that New Canaan does.</p>
<p>I must reiterate that when you consider your H’s commute, do remember that it is NOT necessary to get on the highway to drive to downtown Stamford from the surrounding towns. If your H can walk from the train station to work, then New Canaan would really be perfect for both your desires and his.</p>
<p>I concur with Consolation … we are writing from the same town! </p>
<p>For the walkable downtown with really easy commute to Stamford, New Canaan’s got it all. </p>
<p>Ridgefield, OTOH, has a variety of housing within walking distance to downtown. And downtown is a little more spread out than NC, the husband could drive to Stamford without going on the highway, or drive to NC train or one of the Danbury line stations. She’d either need to be a strong walker or choose between walk to the huge supermarket or walk to the library and cutesy shops. Personally, I would choose walk to library and drive to the IGA.</p>
<p>And then there’s Pound Ridge and Vista on the New York side. Easy drive to Stamford or one of the Connecticut train stations. Pound Ridge, especially, is a very cute village set up. </p>
<p>And I would not overlook Old Greenwich – very short drive to Stamford as it sits right on the Stamford line – and there is some nice housing in the area.</p>
<p>Thanks SO much! You have all been very helpful. </p>
<p>I found a nice video on New Canaan [Around</a> Town: New Canaan | NBC New York](<a href=“What Our Hosts Are Wearing – NBC New York”>Around Town: New Canaan – NBC New York) and there is both grocery shopping and a library in the downtown area. Condo prices in the Main Street area there are quite high, but we will see what we can do.</p>
<p>Cnp55, that WPSIR website is a great tool! I have it on my favorite places now.</p>
<p>It is phenomenal what you can learn online these days. The input from this group is much appreciated.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the most recent Stepford Wives movie was partially filmed in New Canaan, including the scene in front of the town hall. Please don’t hold it against us!</p>
<p>Long-time Fairfield resident here. We live within easy walking distance of the “non-strip mall” downtown which is very vibrant with many restaurants, library, little shops, independent coffee houses, bookstores, an old refurbished movie theater with discount $$, live performance space, etc.<br>
The Metronorth station (to Stamford and NYC) is right downtown as are many condos. The historic district is also downtown and is beautiful. Fairfield University is here as well and is always a source of speakers, performances, etc.</p>
<p>The best part about Fairfield is beach access when compared to other towns in the area. Westport has kindof a NYC shops on Main Street feel to it. However, Westport does have more extensive public amenities than Fairfield does - not as accessible though.</p>
<p>My S commuted to Stamford this summer for an internship. His monthly Metronorth card was $50! Quite a deal I thought!! His company was not within walking distance of the train but it had a shuttle bus back and forth. He siad many other Stamford based companies did as well. My H commutes into NYC for work - always gets the hour-long express. If you have any questions, Pm me…
PS Ridgefield is absolutely gorgeous but is not exactly the most diverse thing around.
PPS If you’re coming this Saturday, eat outside at Centro’s or the Firehouse deli. They’re right on the town green and will give you an idea of the town. Congrats and good luck!</p>
<p>Moved from Darien 4 years ago – lived there for 18 years and just over the border in Stamford for 4+ years. Everyone on this thread has pretty much covered the points I’d make. Darien’s new library is incredible – a little removed from the main downtown, but still walkable. Whole Foods just opened in the downtown area. There are condos right next to WF – probably pricey, but probably on a par with New Canaan. Darien has had “New Canaan Main St. envy” for years, and more recently has been building/upgrading and bringing in more shops and restaurants. When I go back now, there’s more of a “happening” feel to the downtown area. Enjoy the search!</p>
<p>And then there’s The Ice Storm…I was living there then. Totally unrealistic. The “wife-swapping” all took place in Westport, at least according to legend. :D</p>
<p>BTW, Pound Ridge has a fairly nice little center, but the center has no library. (Unless things have changed …)</p>
<p>H has a “verbal” offer and expects a formal written offer in a week or so. Looks like this may be a go.</p>
<p>We are considering running up there from Philly this weekend or next (perhaps would be better not to travel on the holiday weekend?), just to scout out the area. We do not want to go out and look at specific properties at this point – will wait at least until we have details of the relo package. But I thought it would be a good idea to get a handle on the towns we would consider.</p>
<p>We have Marriott points and could use those for an overnight, but I wonder if anyone would suggest other ideas that could be more interesting. The towns we want to check out at this point are Fairfield, Westport, Stamford, and the Rowayton area of Norwalk. (Pretty much decided we like the idea of shore access.) Convenience and efficiency would be important in the overnight location as we would want to get up and go, and it would be a really rushed trip. But we would also enjoy a bit of graciousness/interest.</p>
<p>THANKS again for all input.</p>
<p>Also, any restaurant suggestions? (I figure we can eat a meal in each town LOL.)</p>
<p>You don’t give any financial parameters, so I’ll throw caution to the winds and make suggestions without regard for cost for Stamford, which I know best. First, restaurants. Napa & Co. is the trendy, high-end, highly regarded, “famous people go there” eatery–it’s in the Courtyard by Marriott, which is downtown, so very convenient if you stay there. The restaurant scene in Stamford is dominated by Italian food, and my favorite is a smallish spot called Columbus Park–walkable from the Courtyard–lovely service, atmosphere and wonderful food. I also love Barcelona, also close by, a lively tapas+ spot with great food. An excellent casual spot for pizza and southern Italian food is Remo’s, also downtown. There are a couple of places on the water–Saltwater Grille comes to mind, but they are better for views than food–I think Norwalk and Westport will have better waterside offerings. If there are any particular ethnic foods you’d like to sample, l can suggest spots for those, too, everything from a venerated taco truck to three Middle Eastern options.</p>
<p>An aside for Norwalk–take a walk through the SONO area–lots of charm and some very nice eateries (also, the Maritime Center). Try Pasta Nostra for Italian and Jeff’s Cuisine for Southern (really a unique spot).</p>
<p>For a totally non-chain hotel experience in the Stamford area, try the Hotel Chesterfield at Shippan Point (near the water) or the Homestead Inn in Greenwich (which houses the excellent and very expensive Thomas Henkelmann restaurant).</p>
<p>Traffic in and out of the area will be bad this weekend, and Earl will probably bring a lot of rain–I’d wait a week.</p>
<p>Fairfield is BOOMING with new restaurants lately but I still think you should try Centro - right in the center of town on one the town greens by the gazebo. Open only after5 on Sunday. Can’t make reservations so get there a little early if you don’t want to wait. I just tried Old Post Tavern across the POst road from centro’s - that was quite good. The French bistro, Martel’s, is also on Post Rd. and is quite good as well.
How’d you come up with Rowayton?? Beautiful little village within not so nice Norwalk.</p>
<p>Let me think about Westport restaurants and I’ll get back to you…</p>
<p>Barcelona is also in Norwalk (cool location) and Fairfield (funky setting but not so cool location) and is hands down, my favorite.</p>
<p>It looks like we will go not this weekend, but the following one.</p>
<p>Hotel Chesterfield at Shippan Point looks like the perfect option for a place to stay, but is heavily booked up this month. If we need to, we will do a Marriott.</p>
<p>Woody, re “How’d you come up with Rowayton?? Beautiful little village within not so nice Norwalk,” it was a suggestion of a friend who lives in Rye (where I lived decades ago). Since we will not have kids in school, the school district is not an issue for us. I saw several very positive articles about the community online. We also found a small house there, a few blocks from the water, that has appeal to both of us, and it does have train service, although I guess not as frequent as several of the other, larger communities. (I am still pushing for a townhouse at this point in our lives, but H is single family oriented.)</p>
<p>I will copy all the restaurant recs and see how many we can hit when we go. </p>
<p>^ Yes, I will try to make sure we do get to New Canaan as well. The realtor just sent me a listing for a property on Main Street there, so we will check that out. </p>
<p>We are heading up next weekend rather than going over the holiday weekend.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago we drove around the Compo Beach section of Westport. Lovely part of the world … and the smaller homes without frontage and views but absolutely beach area were not badly priced (for Fairfield County).</p>
<p>Would your H take the train from Rowayton to Stamford, or drive? I remember near-annual articles in the local paper about the yearly line-up of hundreds of people looking for a parking permit for the Rowayton station. Unlike some of the other Metro-North stations, a permit at Rowayton is only good for one year, so the “queue” was a tradition. (Of course, we moved out of the area 4 years ago, so maybe things have changed.)</p>
<p>Norwalk Inn is probably OK these days. I have been to a meeting there fairly recently. It’s on East Ave, right off exit 16.</p>
<p>Silvermine Tavern is history … I believe it is no longer operating unless it was sold and reopened without much fanfare. ETA: the website LOOKS like they are taking reservations. But it was a <em>big deal</em> when the restaurant closed recently.</p>
<p>Westport Inn on the Post Road is decent, especially the back building, but is not really as it appears on the website.</p>
<p>There are two pretty nice chain hotels, relatively new, on Main Ave in Norwalk near Merritt 7. I think one is a Courtyard by Marriott and one is a Hilton Garden Inn.</p>