West Hartford Business Buzz: June 23, 2025

A round-up of openings, closings, and other news about West Hartford businesses.

Business Buzz is sponsored by NBT Bank, and we are very thankful for their support!

By Ronni Newton

“Summertime, and the living is easy …”

The lyrics to that song live in the area of my brain that stores all types of strange information – along with the fact that the song was originally written by George Gershwin for the opera “Porgy and Bess.” No, I didn’t Google to get that information, but I Google to find out the year (1935). I’m pretty sure my dad used to play it on the saxophone, and it might have also been in one of his “fake books” that he used when playing the electronic keyboard because I can picture the name of the song and the reference to “Porgy and Bess.” My dad was an extremely talented musician and could play most songs and many instruments by ear, but never learned to play the piano so when he played the keyboard from actual sheet music he had to be able to play the chords by just hitting one button. Hence the fake books, which I also used in my attempt to play the keyboard (I never really learned to play the piano beyond the basic level either) but more often used when playing the clarinet or saxophone.

Forgive my little digression down memory lane. I do always think of that song on the first day of summer, and I also think of my former co-worker Curtis at Marsh & McLennan who used to say “It’s all downhill from here” after the longest day of the year had passed.

It’s certainly feeling like summer, and it’s important not to ignore the extreme heat warning. The town, and various state agencies, have issued tips and warnings as well as information about cooling centers and you can find that information here.

And while the living isn’t easy just because it’s summertime, the flow of press releases has suddenly slowed down and the automated responses that people are on vacation has suddenly increased dramatically. There will continue to be plenty of news to report on locally, but our newsletters won’t likely be as jam-packed and I am hoping that our team will have a chance to produce more feature stories, too. We will be skipping a newsletter on July 4th, and I am looking forward to some personal downtime (and beach time) as well.

Ted and I celebrated our anniversary last week – and as is our tradition most years – with dinner at Bricco. While the weather on Tuesday night did not cooperate for outdoor dining, our meal was fabulous as always!

On Saturday night we brought Millie to GastroPark because last week someone sent me a photo of part of the mural that’s just to the left of the door – and has a dog that looks just like Millie, with a tag that says “Millie”! It’s not actually our Millie, according to GastroPark owner Tate Norden, but he said it’s fine if I pretend, and he does plan to introduce me to the owner of the “other Millie,” who apparently is a frequent daytime customer! A GastroPark truck is our feature this week, a photo of the complete mural is below.

If you are a long term, regular advertiser on We-Ha.com and have a 60 to 75 word submission for a future Business Buzz please send to Bob Carr at [email protected]. You can also contact Bob if you are interested in becoming a sponsor of a section of the site.

No trolls this week, and thank you to all who comment with your full names! Please note that it has been our policy for several years that full names be used when commenting directly on the site – with the exception of those commenters who were grandfathered when they commented prior to the policy being updated. Please comply or your comment will not be published.

If you have information to share about local businesses, please provide details in the comments or email Ronni Newton at [email protected].

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Here’s this week’s Buzz:

Bea Serban and Andrea Cortez have been best friends for 15 years, and four months ago they became business partners, launching Vagabond Trading Post – a mobile thrift shop that is now resident at GastroPark. “For as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve had a passion for true vintage and designer fashion,” said Bea, and when they inherited a truck, they decided to take their passion on the road. Vagabond is open Thursday and Friday from 5-9 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m., with most of the new drops coming on Thursday – although Bea said they are constantly changing the inventory, which comes from “anywhere and everywhere we can.” They purchase items at estate sales, buyouts, and some items come from the existing collections they already had. With very rare exception they don’t do consignment, but they do buy and trade. The styles are an eclectic mix – Chanel, Manolo Blahnik, Free People, Dooney & Bourke were among the labels I saw as I perused the truck on Saturday. They work to have a variety of sizes for women’s clothing (XS to 4X), shoes (6-12), and try to source as many of the larger sizes as they can. They also have men’s clothing and shoes and a small collection of children’s items. “It’s been going great,” said Bea. On Sunday, Aug. 3, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., “We will be doing our first Fill A BAG Event of the season! Massive Clear Out, we provide the bags and whatever you can fit in the bag is $20! It’s going to be so much fun!” said Andrea. Bea is from Hartford and Andrea has lived in New Britain for about 20 years, and they are very glad to be part of the scene at GastroPark. Andrea already knew owner Tate Norden, who was very excited to add thrifting to the GastroPark experience as of last month. “They fit perfectly with our small business mission and it’s a great addition for our customers to be able to shop while they dine at GastroPark,” he said. For more about Vagabond, follow them on Instagram (@vagabond_tradingpost). For more about GastroPark and the rotating and resident schedule of food trucks and pop-ups, follow them on Facebook or Instagram (@thegastropark). And look for “Millie” on the mural near the door …

Little Caesars is engaged in the permitting process to open a pizza shop at 1032 Boulevard, in the former Santander Bank space in the Boulevard Shops. A Google search lists an opening date of July 22, but that is completely unverified.

I actually stumbled upon the information about Little Caesars when searching the town’s website for information about plans for a package store to open in place of the former smoke shop in the Boulevard Shops. There’s a temporary sign for The Wine & Liquor Shop, but no one was there when I stopped by and I don’t have any further information yet.

And while we are on the subject of Caesar, and liquor stores … plans have been submitted to transform the former Cesar’s Liquor Outlet at 440 New Park Avenue into Royal Himalayan, a Nepalese restaurant as well as mini-mart. The initial application was submitted many months ago, but because the property is partially in Hartford it required additional approvals. It doesn’t appear from the exterior as if the work has started yet and when I tried to check the West Hartford permit records on Sunday afternoon the site was down. More information to come!

Congratulations to Senior Helpers of West Hartford owner Shaneka Miller and her team, which celebrated the ribbon cutting of their offices at 74 Park Road with the Chamber of Commerce and the town on Friday. Senior Helpers, which opened earlier this year, provides a variety of programs and services to support aging in-place.

I was excited last week to be the first guest interviewed by Irene O’Connor, the director of Public Relations for West Hartford-based Linked Media, in the new studio where they will be hosting some of the guests for We Heart WeHa

One of the topics that came up during my discussion with Irene O’Connor was the origin of We-Ha.com (and the importance of the hype) which reminded me to share this photo that was sent to me by business owner Avi Smith-Rappaport whose friend saw the van parked on a street in front of the weha location in Vienna, Austria. The company without the hyphen is based in Germany, and they offer an array of products used in the stone-cutting industry, anything from construction machinery to products needed for polishing granite counters or doing engraving of gravestones. If you search for weha.com without the hyphen, you’ll be taken straight to their website. I just looked at it to grab this link and realized that while weha is based in Europe, where they have six of their seven locations – there’s one in Charlotte, NC that I may just have to contact at some point since that would probably go better than any attempt of reaching out to the headquarters and practicing my very rusty German (my father was born in Vienna actually, and hearing him speak German with them).

Congratulations to West Hartford native Kate Olguin, who was recently awarded a place in “Forbes 30 Under 30 – Games.” Olguin, a member of the Conard Class of 2016 and a 2020 graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, lives in Boston and is a game designer at Other Ocean Interactive and also developer of “The Call of Karen.” Read more in this feature in the WPI Journal.

As the West Hartford Center Infrastructure reconstruction progresses, I’ll continue to provide regular updates, including photos, in this column. It’s now been about 12 weeks since the project commenced, and according to a newsletter from the town last week, the work remains on schedule and about one-third of the way complete for what is planned for this construction season. Most of Phase 1A and 1B have reopened to the public, including in front of Max Burger and PeoplesBank on the east side of LaSalle Road, and more recently the area from Music and Arts down to Crush Wine Bar. The sidewalk on the northeast corner of LaSalle and Ellsworth is still partially closed to pedestrians. Phase 2B (west side of LaSalle between Webster Bank at the corner of Arapahoe Road and Union Kitchen) is set to begin and Phase 2A (from Bluemercury to Friendly Toast (including Iris Photography, Bridgewater Chocolate, Green Tails Market, Lil’ Hope, Penzey’s, Savoy, Jos. A Bank, and Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan) will also begin shortly. Phase 2A and 2B are scheduled to be completed around Aug. 19, with the third and final phase beginning right after that. Below are some photos I took on Saturday afternoon.

Click here to listen to an important installment of the “On the Scene” podcast, where On The Scene hosts Tom Hickey and Bob Carr discuss financial scams and identity theft with Andreas Kapetanopoulos, Connecticut Regional President and Nicole Lent-Pollard, Fraud Risk Manager, for NBT Bank. Scams are a constant issue and this information can be helpful in recognizing scams. Podcasts can also be found at the bottom of the home page on the revamped We-Ha.com website!

ICYMI, the Town of West Hartford has recently been informed of state funding for a variety of projects, including nearly $900,000 through the Brownfield program to assist the development of The Jayden and some expansion plans for Playhouse on Park , and $600,000 in the state budget to support the construction of mobility hubs in the Center, servicing various means of transportation including bike parking, EV charging, rideshare pick-up and drop-off, bus stops, and more.

and some expansion plans for , and $600,000 in the state budget to support the construction of mobility hubs in the Center, servicing various means of transportation including bike parking, EV charging, rideshare pick-up and drop-off, bus stops, and more. Don’t miss our coverage of the weekend’s West Hartford Pride events, including the rally and festival. Thanks to Roz Green and Mia Jaworski for their reporting and photography!

Remember, if you have any business news to share, add it in the comments section below or email Ronni Newton at [email protected].

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