Your guide to the heart of Litchfield County:
Discover local stories, hidden gems, and must-know events.

An impressive fieldstone fireplace anchors the room while a roaring fire sets the tone. Strategically placed wall sconces provide the perfect amount of ambiance while illuminating a hand painted mural depicting a colonial New England landscape. 

This is the essence of the G.W Tavern, an iconic Washington restaurant that for 23 years has loyally served traditions over trends. In the kitchen, executive chef Brendan Martin alongside owner John VandenBosch work together to keep the menu in line with the previous owners long-term vision. Meatloaf, chicken pot-pie, and a mouth-watering filet mignon are just a few of the classics you can expect to find here. 

Through daily specials the culinary team stays “creative and engaged” something that VandenBosch says is important. On the menu, a roasted crescent duck with farro, cider braised red cabbage, cherries, and golden raisins or a black pearl salmon, grilled with a pear dried cherry chut

ney over a housemade pilaf are just a few of chef’s culinary creations. 

The team’s passion for honoring traditional New England fare alongside providing an exceptional dining experience in a cozy, comfortable atmosphere is exactly what makes G.W. so special. “When the whole team shares a passion says VandenBosch, everything comes together.”

VandenBosch, pictured above holds a triple chocolate mousse cake layered with white chocolate, dark chocolate, and orange curd topped with hazelnuts, one of pastry chef, April Massey’s latest creations. Originally written by Nicole Goncalves for Litchfield Magazine.

G.W. Tavern
20 Bee Brook Rd, Washington Depot
860-868-6633 

By Charles Dubow

“Have you ever had a Hanukkah cocktail?” asked Christine Short, the bartender at New Milford’s popular tapas restaurant Zaragoza. “That’s because they don’t exist. You think of Christmas and you think of egg nog, Champagne, and all sorts of great drinks. But for Hanukkah there’s nothing.  I want to change that.”

This year the holiday falls on December 22, at the height of the Christmas rush and Short is working to create a series of Hanukkah-themed cocktails that will incorporate such flavors as cinnamon, chocolate, apple and berries found in traditional dishes like Sweet Noodle Kugel,  Sufganiyot (jelly donuts) and Hanukkah gelt (the chocolate coins given to children). “I’m going to be working for the rest of the year to come up with the perfect drinks,” she says. “And not just drinks but also think of tapas with a Jewish twist: brisket, latkes, lox, bagels even. It’s going to be amazing.”

Such creativity comes naturally to Short, who has worked in restaurants across Litchfield County for many years. “I love applying my knowledge of cooking and pastry-making to cocktails,” she says. What makes her drinks special is her use of local botanicals that she obtains either foraging on her own or working with New Milford’s Twin Star apothecary.  She has invented 28 original cocktails featured on Zaragoza’s menu, including such popular concoctions as the Lavender Lush and the Mimi. “I’m like a mad scientist,” she says. “I love coming up with these cool combinations that no one’s ever thought of.”

Permission to repost from Litchfield Magazine’s holiday issue.

Little did a set of preschool classmates know that they would eventually date, get married, and now, for the past 20 years, own the restaurant where they both worked during high school.

Having both grown up in Litchfield County, Rene and Jason MacKenzie’s worlds collided at a very young age. After meeting in preschool, the love bug hit and they were dating by junior high. While attending Litchfield High School, they both fortuitously got jobs at Bohemian Pizza. With great encouragement from his instructors, Jason excelled in his culinary arts class at Litchfield High and decided to attend culinary school. Once he graduated, he spent some time working in fine dining before partnering with one of the original owners of Boho, Gary Copeland. 

Living in Litchfield their entire lives, the couple is well connected within the area. “One of the greatest joys of owning the restaurant is the impact we can make in the community,” shares Rene MacKenzie. Bohemian regularly supports local non-profits through various fundraising efforts. 

The restaurant business has always suited the couple. Jason is the executive chef, so to speak, who cooks on the line almost every single night. He develops and writes all of the menus and spends countless hours stretching dough, food prepping, meeting with various food purveyors, and even taking out the trash.

Besides being the mother of their two children and a full-time teacher, Rene is also Bohemian’s social media manager and fills in wherever she is needed – from staffing, scheduling, motivation, community work, charity work, party bookings, and menu development, she is quite busy! Luckily, they have an amazing staff that supports the day-to-day business.

Bohemian’s building was built in the 1930s as a house and then became a variety of small businesses over the years including a coffee shop, steak house, and pool house. It wasn’t constructed to withstand the commercial volume they were doing so the MacKenzies embarked on a major renovation a few years ago. Most of the building was torn down; saving the original double-sided fireplace and one wall. Although the kitchen, bar, and seating area are new, it was important for them to  keep the décor and basic footprint the same. Besides the food, Bohemian is loved by the locals for its eclectic and funky atmosphere. The walls and ceiling are covered in album covers and the bar is usually packed.

As they celebrate their 20th year in business, Rene  and Jason love to hear stories from their loyal customers about first dates at the restaurant, gratitude for the charity fundraisers they’ve done, as well as providing a venue for live music, “it’s all very humbling to know we can give our little hometown a place where people want to be,” shares Rene. 

Caroline Kinsolving, actor and Litchfield County resident, brings the play CRY IT OUT, which is currently showing at Hartford Stage, to Washington Montessori School on December 14 and 15. The playwright, Molly Smith Metzler, has granted Kinsolving’s organization Theatre for Good the rights to bring the play to New Preston to raise money for PAAL – Parent Artist Advocacy League – which supports parents in the arts. Broadway actors will head up from NYC to donate their time and talents while the director Rachel Alderman will reshape the performance for the WMS stage.

Kinsolving who plays the upper class mother in CRY IT OUT shares how her experience growing up in Litchfield County informed her role:

“I felt very close to my character: my compassion grew for her the longer I played her. I borrowed qualities from people I’ve socialized with and worked for in the past and worked with understanding what it really meant to be in their shoes. During our table work discussions, our Assistant Director, Jasmine Gunter, brought in a chart called “Hidden Rules Among Classes.” Reading it shone a light on the story we were telling and I felt keyed into the pressures of my character when I read that the Destiny of the Wealthy Class is ruled by expectation. I find the judgement that classes thrust upon each other so limiting to our society in general and that’s one of the biggest reasons I love this play. If the upper class could hold enormous empathy for the middle and lower classes and vice versa, we would live in a much more civil, caring world. I am appalled when this is lacking in any society, especially our own.”

In a review by Joseph Harrison of Broadway World, he states ““CRY IT OUT at Hartford Stage is a perfect mix of comedy and thoughtful relationship drama that elicits laughter while encouraging introspection. The dilemmas that are brought to life on stage feel real and have a sense of urgency that translates into a fast paced, thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes. Whether you are a new parent, or can barely remember those diaper-filled days, CRY IT OUT is a lovely night at the theatre.”

Kinsolving shares, “This play explores so much about how we judge one another unfairly and place incredibly high expectations on women. Through this rehearsal process and speaking with other mothers, I’ve had incredibly eye-opening conversations that have made me so much more aware of the plethora of challenges mothers face. I only wish that we all, as a society, had many more open and honest dialogue about pregnancy, birth, and postpartum…I just wonder how our collective minds might shift if we told the stories around birth as frequently as we do war stories and saluted those who’ve been through it with more depth and respect.” For tickets to the show at  Washington Montessori School on December 14 and 15 email Caroline at ckinsolving@me.com.

Rachel Spencer Hewitt, Evelyn Spahr, Erin Gann, Caroline Kinsolving in Hartford Stage’s production of CRY IT OUT, photographed by T. Charles Ericson.

Decades of The Nutcracker Holiday Magic, Reinvented

It is very fitting that in its 50th year, The Nutmeg Ballet will mesmerize audiences with a dazzling reinvention of “The Nutcracker,” a beloved holiday tradition the conservatory has presented for more than 40 years. 

A fairytale ballet in two acts, “The Nutcracker” centers around a family’s Christmas Eve celebration. Alexandre Dumas Père’s adaptation of the story by E.T.A. Hoffmann was set to music by Tchaikovsky. It was then commissioned by the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatres in 1891, and premiered a week before Christmas 1892. Since premiering in western countries in the 1940s, it has become one of the most popular ballets to be performed during the Christmas holiday season.   

The Nutmeg has been delighting audiences of all ages with this enchanting classic for the past 42 years. And the exquisite previous set, designed by Campbell Baird in 1996, has been transporting audiences to grand foyers, battlefields, snow-covered forests, and distant lands for over two decades. Now it’s time for this venerable design to retire, with an innovative new production poised to enchant audiences anew.   

When the curtain rises on this year’s performances at The Warner Theatre and The Bushnell, it will reveal captivating new sets by Roger LaVoie Scenic Designs, a firm that specializes in designing scenery for professional ballet and opera. The Nutmeg’s magical new “Nutcracker” also features beautiful new costumes, designed by Janessa Cornell Urwin and Susan Aziz, with lighting designed by Brian Sciarra, whose work has graced such world-class venues as The Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House in London.   

The Nutmeg’s innovative and sophisticated 2019 production also showcases elegant and challenging new choreography, under the direction of Victoria Mazzarelli, artistic director, and Timothy Melady, ballet master. The young dancers have been rehearsing tirelessly with their instructors—with passionate intensity and dedication—to bring the heroine Clara’s story to life at an impressively professional level.    

The renowned Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory was founded by Sharon E. Dante in 1969 in Torrington, in a small studio on Water Street. Now housed in a modern 50,000 square foot, state-of-the art complex in downtown Torrington,  it is celebrating its 50th year of providing professional-level ballet training, education, and performance experience for exceptional students interested in pursuing a career in dance. And today, it is recognized as a leading professional ballet training organization, producing dancers who have enjoyed outstanding careers in over 60 companies worldwide.   

The newly reinvented “Nutcracker” production debuts as part of Nutmeg’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, which culminates with a weekend of festivities August 6 – 8, 2020.  In honor of its landmark jubilee, the Nutmeg has installed a beautiful retrospective gallery documenting its many achievements, performances, renowned staff, costumes, and archival photographs.   

The exhibit was curated by Denise Warner Limoli, Nutmeg’s senior ballet mistress, and Michael Limoli, the principal ballet accompanist. Hours for viewing the exhibit are Wednesday and Friday 11am – 2 pm and Saturday 10 am -1 pm. 

Nutcracker performances are at The Warner Theatre, Torrington, on Saturday, December 7th, 2 pm and 7 pm, and Sunday, December 8th, 2 pm.  

Nutcracker performances are at The Bushnell Saturday, December 14th, 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm and Sunday, December 15th, at 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm. 

For more information and tickets visit www.nutmegconservatory.org/nutcracker

Head over to 100 Main in Falls village on Saturday, December 21 from 11 am – 4 pm to get some great books signed by their authors and pick up a few last minute holiday gifts.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Meet Bunny Williams of Falls Village from 11 am to 3 pm. Bunny will be signing copies of her most recent book Love Affairs with Houses and An Affair with a House. World-renowned designer and industry leader Bunny Williams is a member of the prestigious Architectural Digest Hall of Fame, the Elle Décor A-List, and the Interior Design magazine Hall of Fame. She also has received House Beautiful’s Giants of Design award.

Meet Courtney Maum of Norfolk from 1 pm to 4 pm. Courtney is the author of the novels Costalegre (a GOOP book club pick), I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and Touch (a New York Times Editor’s Choice and NPR Best Book of the Year selection), and the handbook Before and After the Book Deal: A writer’s guide to finishing, publishing, promoting, and surviving your first book, forthcoming from Catapult. Her writing has been widely published in such outlets as the New York Times, O, the Oprah Magazine, and Poets & Writers.

Meet Jessie Sheehan of Sharon from 11 am to 2 pm. Jessie is the author of Icebox Cakes (Chronicle Books 2015) and The Vintage Baker (Chronicle Books 2018). She has contributed recipes/and or written for Rachael Ray Everyday, the Washington Post, Better Homes & Garden (Christmas 2019) Yankee Magazine (October 2020) Epicurious, Food52, Fine Cooking, TASTE, Yummly, Spruce Eats, Chowhound, and Little Sous, among others.

100 Main Street
Falls Village, CT 06031
860-453-4356

Fran and Michael Keilty, owners of the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot and Maple Spring Farm in Morris, were honored for their volunteer contributions to economic development, the arts, tourism, education, and sustainability.

By Jennifer Clement

Many of Connecticut’s small towns are touted for their strong sense of community. In Washington, the people and places that contribute to that overall feeling of well-being, what the French call bien ȇtre, are celebrated uniquely by The Gunnery’s presentation of the Friend of the Green Award. 

This year’s award was presented November 23 to Fran and Michael Keilty, owners of the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot and Maple Spring Farm in Morris, for their volunteer contributions to economic development, the arts, tourism, education and sustainability. At the heart of their story, however, is the well-stocked and welcoming independent bookshop that will soon celebrate its 70th anniversary and has, under the Keiltys’ ownership for the past 16 years, become a community hub, and a local attraction for bibliophiles of all ages.

“What bookstores offer is a sense of community, a gathering place for people,” Fran Keilty said. “Our philosophy is to say yes, except for when there is a compelling reason not to say yes. We’re a destination. Certainly we have good support in Washington, but people come from all over.”

Over the years, the shop has hosted midnight launch parties for the newest releases in the Harry Potter series, and created in-store displays featuring all 339 books that TV character Rory Gilmore was said to have read for the Gilmore Girls Fan Fest. When the late Frank McCourt was in store to read from his 2005 memoir “Teacher Man,” the Keiltys were struck by the number of parents of his former students in New York, who came to thank him for what he had done for their children.

“When we first moved to Litchfield County, the very first establishment I walked into was the Hickory Stick,” said Dani Shapiro, author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, “Inheritance,” as well as four other memoirs and five novels. “To find a well-curated, warm, welcoming bookstore in the heart of my new town made me feel right at home.”

“It is a gem and we are fortunate to have such a thriving indie in our community, and all the credit goes to Fran and Michael and their knowledgeable staff,” said Nan Rossiter, who started out as a children’s book author and is now a New York Times bestselling author of adult fiction books. “Fran always has a warm smile and a hug when I stop in, and she’s always ready and willing to host a signing, as she does for so many authors. I think it’s wonderful that they’re receiving this award – it’s well deserved!”

The list of local and well-known authors the shop has welcomed over the years is long and has included adult fiction and nonfiction writers Shapiro, Rossiter, Frank McCourt, Frank Delaney, Ann Leary, Florence de Dampierre, Stuart Woods, Amy Julia Becker, Susanna Salk, Marie Bostwick, and children’s book authors and illustrators Wendell and Florence Minor, Nancy Tafuri and Mary Pope Osborne, among others.

In addition to supporting local authors, the shop hosts a writers group, an in-store book club and community events, including a new Open Mic Night co-sponsored by 9 Main Bakery & Deli in New Preston. Of course, there is also storytime. “One of my greatest pleasures is seeing little ones come into the shop and make a beeline for the children’s section, and seeing families sprawled out on the floor with toys or books on a Saturday. That’s magic,” Fran Keilty said.

Outside of the shop, Keilty has volunteered countless hours to the community both in Washington and Morris, where she and Michael have lived since 1974. A longtime member of the Washington Business Association (she is a former president and current vice president), she is a member of the Washington Economic Development Committee and Washington’s representative on the Western Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau. She served on the Region 6 Board of Education for 13 years, including two years as Chair, on the Morris Planning and Zoning Commission and the Morris Library Board, as well as on the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council Board.

Lifelong residents of Litchfield County (she is a native of Woodbury and he grew up on a farm in Bethlehem) the Keiltys met in high school and both are graduates of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where Michael worked for nearly 20 years as a sustainable agriculture research associate in the Department of Plant Science. Prior to his retirement in 2017, he coordinated a wide variety of sustainable agriculture programs and co-edited a book, “Alternative Health Practices for Livestock,” which was at the forefront of the movement to enhance the health of food animals by reducing excessive antibiotic, hormone and steroid use.

Keilty has worked with livestock producers, veterinarians and extension educators from Maine to West Virginia, conducting seminars, speaking at conferences and teaching at UConn, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Rhode Island. He is the founding chair of the Connecticut Community Gardening Association, and a current member of the Connecticut Food Policy Council and the Governor’s Council on Agriculture Development. He has hosted programs for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CTNOFA) at his 35-acre farm, which was the first organic farm in Litchfield County. Keilty grows a variety of produce, herbs and medicinal plants and raises cows, hens, and Cheviot sheep, prized for their wool, which you can buy at Hickory Stick.

Merchants have planned a series of exciting events for New Preston’s annual Winter Walk on Saturday, December 7 from 1-4 pm.

Special guests will be on hand while musicians stroll throughout the village spreading holiday cheer. The shops will be filled with sophisticated collections of gifts, antiques, clothing, home and kitchen goods, seasonal plants, holiday decorations, local foods, and more. A percentage of sales will be donated to the Washington/Warren Food Bank. Here’s a peek at what the merchants have planned for the event:

Mixologist Riley Lumbra will be whipping up festive cocktails at DK Schulman and Santa will be handing out candy canes at Sweets. John Truex (of Lambertson Truex) will be at Privet Live offering exclusive monograms for your purchases. Privet House is taking the word ‘celebration’ to a new level with a curated collection of linens, dishware, and glasses for the holiday table.

New Preston Kitchen Goods will have a Christmas shop where you can find beautiful and unique tree ornaments. J. Seitz and Co. will host author and acclaimed NYC chef Amy Chaplin who will be signing her new book, “Whole Food Cooking Every Day”. Pergola will present tablescapes of natural and preserved botanicals to be enjoyed while sipping eggnog and seasonal scones. 

Across the street, Dawn Hill Antiques will host noted potter Frances Palmer who will have armloads of seasonal flowers ready to create holiday arrangements in her amazing pottery. 

Nine Main will offer Whit’s hot doughnut holes along with Julie’s very special apple cider. The Smithy keeps it local with chefs Luis and Robert from Arcadia Kitchen offering samples of their winter signature dish Caldo Gallego. Sal Anthony will be welcoming guests with a glass of prosecco in his new salon. And as the sun begins to set, warm up by the fire at The Owl and enjoy a cup of steaming hot chocolate from their hot chocolate bar.

In her new book Start-Ups and Downs, local part-time resident Mona Bijoor explores the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and shares the success stories of 10 start-up founders.

Successful entrepreneurs inspire us to follow our dreams and passions. We are fascinated with stories of their rise to fame from a simple idea that was taken to fruition. Too many times these stories leave out the bumps that happened along the way. In a newly released book titled Start-Ups and Downs, the author Mona Bijoor shares the wisdom, failures, downfalls, and exits of 10 entrepreneurs. She delves into how the best entrepreneurs think about failure and ultimately win. “Entrepreneurship is rarely linear, and a lot happens between the headlines and reality. Entrepreneurship is a cycle of failures and recoveries—hopefully with more successes than not.” Bijoor’s own story is cleverly woven through the ten stories she tells.

Mona Bijoor is a Partner at King Circle Capital LLC, an investment and advisory firm, where she has holdings in real estate, franchises, start-ups and online businesses. Mona is also the founder of JOOR, the premier online global B2B marketplace for wholesale buying that directly connects brands and retailers.

Mona’s experience as a brand consultant for the fashion industry and within buying departments for global retailers inspired her to create JOOR in 2010 to solve some of the incredible challenges and time constraints she encountered during her career. By 2016, she had grown the company to process over $10 billion in gross merchandise value. Based in New York City, Mona expanded to offices in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Milan, Sydney, and Melbourne, increasing the team to 100 employees worldwide. Clients included Neiman Marcus, Saks, Harrods, Michael Kors, and Kate Spade. While at JOOR, Mona was recognized by Crain’s 40 under 40, The Big Apple Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Wharton’s 40 under 40. She is a frequent contributor to TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, and Huffington Post.

As an entrepreneur who successfully disrupted an entire industry but felt as if she was never prepared for what came next, Mona Bijoor has created a guidebook for navigating the process, from pitching with power to coping with competition, with inspiring stories from respected entrepreneurs, including Nat Turner, cofounder and CEO of Flatiron Health; Courtney Nichols Gould, founder and co-CEO of SmartyPants Vitamins; and Stephen Kuhl, cofounder and CEO of Burrow, intended to lift up anyone determined to keep pushing forward. The book is about resilience.

While interviewing over 100 entrepreneurs, and researching the book, Bijoor learned that most of the founders were innately optimistic and, in a sense, spiritual. As their failures and setbacks occurred — with losing funding, competitors, losing workers, and one even being kicked out of his own job as a founder, they were focussed on taking massive action, not on tactics. They went with the flow and were very flexible, so fixed on their vision, that failure was not an option. From their stories, Mona became interested in how to build resilience within a team.

“In order to get through setbacks along the way, you need mental agility and perseverance. You can get through anything. And these lessons can be applied to life as well. I wrote this book for my kids”, says the author. “To help them to reframe their problems, to rewrite the script in their own heads. The lessons learned in this book can be applied to social relationships and parenting, — it is a framework for life in general.”

Even though it was tough to get the subjects of her book to open up about their vulnerabilities, she found the faith they had in their visions unwavering—they believed that they were the only ones who could execute their visions.

Personal Tech Support’s Michael Jay is the roving tech consultant who keeps us up to date on our Apple products – with the finesse of a detective

Michael Jay has spent a lifetime utilizing technology in support of the arts, and in enabling others to implement their visions – a talent he now brings to our own consumer tech. He grew up near New York City, working in theatre and music studios before shifting to work as a composer and audio editor/engineer in Los Angeles, where he won a contributing Emmy Award. His work with other artists led him to be called on as a technology consultant and project manager, working exclusively with Apple products for artists including Michael Jackson, Neil Young, and the band Yes.

Returning to the east coast about fifteen years ago, Michael taught technology for several years at NYU, Rutgers, and other colleges. He is a natural teacher who can make consumer devices easy to understand for those of us who are tech-challenged.

Since leaving New York City for the country and founding Personal Tech Support, Michael has been the ongoing tech tutor for the Kent Memorial Library, and has lectured at dozens of other libraries and schools – most recently, with a lecture at the Greenwich Library on how to organize one’s computer files. From showing us how to navigate iCloud to explaining simple steps on an iPhone to providing tips on how to back up your data, Michael is an expert in all areas of the latest technology.

Michael’s Kent residence houses a stable of nearly 20 Macs spanning three decades, allowing him to run old software and recover clients’ otherwise lost files. He has helped authors find lost book chapters, helped artists organize or recover photos of their art, and helped yet others find lost iPhones. In just one recent week, he helped two clients who believed they were hacked – restoring one’s email account, and clearing out malware for another – debugged a business’s Wi-Fi, found ways to access or reset numerous client passwords, remotely guided an elderly California user to revamp their Mac and regain access to family Zoom meetings, and the list goes on.

Whether you attend his lectures or hire him to come to your home or business (or have him access your computer remotely), you will be amazed with the results. He can guide you through the various steps, follow up with more answers to questions by phone, and instill confidence in your own ability to use your devices with ease. He is professional, persistent, and diligent in finding solutions to every problem and situation. With his incredibly vast knowledge, he approaches each client’s request with the finesse of a detective as he clarifies each area of concern and makes our lives easier. He is the consummate professional.