Wendy Mount and Amanda Desmond picked their opening date with a wink. When their two shops reopened together at 40 Reef Road in June, the day was the tenth of June. "The 10th of June, couple days ago," Desmond told News 12. Tenth of June, a home and garden store, and Wendy Loves This, a lifestyle and apparel brand, now share a storefront called Wendy & June. "We're still two separate businesses," the owners explained.
Their old storefront on Unquowa Road is still standing, but probably not for long. In the last two weeks of September, a demolition crew took down 39 Unquowa Road, the longtime home of Catch a Healthy Habit. Westfair's photographer found a pile of bricks where the café used to be. The neighboring buildings, which held Las Vetas Lounge, Fairfield Barber Shop, Tenth of June and Nancy Galasso Interiors, are marked for demolition but hadn't been razed as of Westfair's September 29 report.
Every business on that block has relocated, and none left town. They spread out over a few blocks of Sherman Street, Reef Road and the Post Road. Downtown Fairfield lost a block and kept nearly all of its businesses. The walk between them has changed, though, and the construction schedule suggests this new map will be the one Fairfield uses for a long time.
How the Block Emptied
The businesses started the year knowing their time was short. News 12 reported that the landlord had notified them of plans to turn the property into an apartment complex, and they were later given a mid-April deadline to move or close. Catch a Healthy Habit owners Glen Colello and Lisa Storch went to court to extend their stay, and the café's last day on Unquowa was May 19.
The project replacing the block is Center Commons, developed by Dr. Lee Forest of Stratford-based 15 Unquowa Road LLC. Plans call for a five-story, 50-unit apartment building with eight affordable units and two ground-floor retail spaces. The approval took a while. The Plan and Zoning Commission denied a larger proposal, Forest sued, and the commission approved the 50-unit plan with conditions in June 2025 as part of a settlement. The agreement requires at least two street-level shops, so the block will have retail again once the building is finished.
The New Addresses
Here's where each Unquowa Road business is now, based on the most recent reporting:
| Before Unquowa Road closed | Where it is now | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Catch a Healthy Habit, 39 Unquowa Rd. | Clean Slate, 116 Sherman St. | New name, still organic, now with a full coffee bar |
| Las Vetas Lounge, 27 Unquowa Rd. | 1640 Post Rd. | Same name, new space |
| Fairfield Barber Shop | Fairfield Hair House, 1040 Post Rd. | Joined a shop next to Hansen's Flower Shop |
| Tenth of June and Wendy Loves This | Wendy & June, 40 Reef Rd. | Two businesses sharing one storefront |
| Nancy Galasso Interiors | 51 Sherman St. West | Moved to Sherman Street |
Clean Slate made the most visible change. The town's Department of Community & Economic Development gave it a micro-enterprise assistance grant to help pay for new equipment and fit-up costs, which allowed the café to stay in Fairfield. The menu still centers on organic, gluten-free fresh-squeezed juices, dairy-free smoothies and matcha. Storch said in June that the new location would also offer some non-vegan options and a full coffee bar. The café has served downtown for about twenty years. Storch is also a raw foods chef, and in 2020 she beat Bobby Flay on the Food Network. "We are grateful for the support that we received from the Town," she said in the town's announcement.
The barber shop moved with the least disruption. Owner Marco DiVincenzo joined Fairfield Hair House, owned by June Chen, who used to work with him at his old shop. Chen told News 12 that the parking lot at 1040 Post Road has been a big plus compared with the old space.
Las Vetas Lounge, the coffee shop a community fundraiser called "a crucial piece of our community," spent the summer renovating its new space. In April it was aiming to reopen around July 1. Westfair confirmed the move to 1640 Post Road as of September 28 but didn't give an opening date, so check the shop's hours before you go.
A Fall Saturday on the New Map
The relocated shops are spread out more than they used to be. Sherman Street and Reef Road are a short walk from the old block, and 1040 and 1640 Post Road work better as stops along a drive. October has plenty of reasons to cover all of it. Saturday, October 17 is a good example:
- Start on Sherman Street. Get a juice or coffee at Clean Slate at 116 Sherman St., then stop by Nancy Galasso Interiors at 51 Sherman St. West.
- Walk to Reef Road. Wendy & June at 40 Reef Rd. is the only stop where you get two shops in one storefront.
- Head to Old Town Hall Green by late morning. The Fairfield Chamber of Commerce's Harvest Market runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 611 Old Post Road, at the corner of Beach Road. It's free, and there's a Halloween costume dog parade at noon with seven prizes. The parade requires registration, and the rain date is October 24. There's also a guess-the-giant-pumpkin-weight contest, and last year's market had more than 70 retail vendors plus food trucks.
- End at The Warehouse at FTC. Start Making Sense, a Talking Heads tribute, plays that night.
The Harvest Market and the Fairfield Museum are both on the historic stretch of Old Post Road and Beach Road, so the Museum's fall lecture series is easy to add to a weekend. The 2026 Fall Speaker Series, "Reflecting at 250," looks at how American history gets retold now that the country has marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The October 4 opener is T.H. Breen on The Will of the People. On October 18, the day after the Harvest Market, Michael Langlois talks about the musicals 1776 and Hamilton. On November 8, Travis Glasson presents "Nobody Men: Neutrality and Loyalties in the American Revolution." Registration is required. Single lectures cost $15 for members and $20 for non-members, and the series costs $60 for members and $75 for everyone else.
The Rest of October, Close By
Other dates within a short trip of the relocated shops:
- October 2 and 3: The Fab Faux plays The Warehouse two nights in a row. Friday's show is A Hard Day's Night in full, and Saturday's covers greatest hits and Beatles solo-years material.
- October 9, 10 and 14: StageOne has Adam Ezra Group, then The Tull Project, then The Travelin' McCourys.
- October 16: The Rocky Horror Picture Show anniversary screening at The Warehouse, with audience participation.
- October 22: Asleep at the Wheel at The Warehouse.
- October 25, noon: Halloween on the Green at the Fairfield Museum Commons, 370 Beach Road. It's a free family event with trick-or-treating, historic-building displays, food vendors and activities. If the weather is bad, it's canceled, not rescheduled.
- October 30: FTC's Halloween Bash at The Warehouse.
A bit farther out on the Post Road, Flat Out Burger opened August 15 at 58 Post Road, at Grasmere Avenue, serving New York-style smashed burgers. It held its ribbon cutting in early September.
Why the New Map Will Last
The construction timeline is the reason to learn the new addresses instead of waiting for things to go back to how they were. The developer's current schedule starts construction in late 2026 or early 2027. Westfair reports that vertical construction and interior build-out should take 12 to 18 months from the foundation pour. Even on the most optimistic reading, with a late-2026 pour and a 12-month build, Center Commons' two storefronts wouldn't open before late 2027. With an early-2027 pour and 18 months of work, it would be mid-2028.
Center Commons is also part of a bigger pattern. In the same two weeks, crews took down the former Rio Bravo Tacos & Tequila at 770 Commerce Drive and a WWII-era industrial building next door at 750 Commerce Drive. That site, about 0.1 miles from the Fairfield Metro/Black Rock train station, is set to become a 90-unit mixed-use building from Skala Partners, with 4,313 square feet of ground-floor retail. Construction is scheduled to start in late 2026 and finish in 2027. Both projects follow the same plan, with apartments above and shops at street level, built where older retail buildings stood.
Until the cranes are gone, downtown Fairfield's Unquowa Road regulars will be on Sherman Street, Reef Road and the Post Road. If you'd like to see how this summer's downtown openings fit with the fall changes, our summer guide to Fairfield covers the Sherman Green openings, and our Fairfield neighborhood page covers the town more broadly.
Redevelopment projects like Center Commons and the Commerce Drive site change how a few downtown blocks function for years. If you own a home near Fairfield Center and wonder how the next couple of years of construction might show up in your home's value, Jennifer Twombly can walk you through it block by block. Request Your Home Valuation and we'll start with your street.
