The Wise Old Dog is modeled after all of the mom and pop stores I frequented with my own mother growing up on the North Shore of Long Island in the 1980s. We went, of course, to the supermarket, too, for big basic items like salt and paper towel and breakfast cereal…but: Makinajian Farm for chicken, Jeff’s Seafood for fish, Mr. Sausage for Italian specialties and fresh made mozzarella and homemade pasta. Chocolate at Halloween and Christmas strictly from Bon Bon’s Chocolatier and deli meat and groceries from Southdown Market, fruit from across the street there at Happy Farms, and, of course, beef and pork from RS Meats. 

Here’s what’s crazy: every single one of these businesses are still there a quick drive or leisurely walk from my childhood home on Fairview Street, where my mom still lives. Now, this was 40 years ago, so the handsome middle-aged man, Sal, behind the butcher counter is now in his late 80s…wouldn’t you know, though, that when I go in, to this day, to get my mother hand cut steaks for the grill, he still makes everyone else stand politely and wait in line while he slices me a single slice of Bologna as he has been doing since I was three years old. 

These businesses make me feel safe, and nourished, and home. And, growing up, it’s interesting to confess that while the service and quality at these small storefronts was, in all ways, better than any large national chain store, the main reason we went there was not to be fancy…indeed, growing up more modestly than my family  lives now, the packages we purchased were not only better in “quality” but better in pricing and value. Some of that value was derived from careful curation and selection, some from the advice of the merchant as to how much to buy, and sometimes just because in all of the various and innumerable ways, an unquantifiably higher level of care had been attended to each step of the Shop and its goods yielding a more valuable and thus more value-driven experience. 

In 2011, I decided to open up my own mom and pop store in my new hometown of West Hartford Connecticut. And, here, on our new website,  I have been asked to share digitally with clients, many of whom I will never come to know personally, what our Shop(s) are all about. Well, it’s this, really: I and my Family and our Team care more for you than you will ever know…we welcome and look forward to your questions, we work tirelessly to ‘make it nice’ when you walk in our stores, or log on to your laptop. 

If we take best care of you, cherish it and know that you can come back to us and we’ll do it again and again. I hope to be like Sal the butcher someday…but, if you lose your taste for Bologna, just tell me…I’ll get you a taste of whatever you like.

All best, always,