![]() OK, yes, Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, to quote its full name, is a huge attraction and educational program that brings many visitors to the Connecticut coastal town. Maybe Nana's and Sea Swirl will be a model for getting along in a time of ever diminishing parking resources.Ĭomment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.Mention of the town Mystic, Connecticut, established in 1654, summons thoughts of two things: the historic seaport and pizza. I am less sanguine about parking prospects farther into the heart of Mystic, where it feels like we are on the cusp of an even more challenging summer of traffic snarls and parking woes. Fortunately, there seems to be plenty of street parking nearby. I suspect customers of both businesses will begin to settle into a new parking routine. Wayman said he doesn't believe he has lost any business since the no parking ropes have gone up, although there has been a steady stream of people coming in to ask about them. "There might be people who have a slice of pizza and go have an ice cream cone or come in for a cup of coffee and go and get some fried clams." "I feel like the two places are really suited to working together," he said. He said Sea Swirl customers sometimes sit in Nana's comfortable chairs near the water and he never had a problem with that. Wayman said he didn't think parking was a problem last summer. "I would personally operate differently." "I absolutely would say, hey, you pay for the spaces you can do whatever you want," he told me. James Wayman, co-owner of Nana's, told me he doesn't dispute the fact that most of the parking is assigned by lease to Sea Swirl and he is fine with their marking spaces for their own customers' use. The ropes will eventually come down but the spaces will probably be marked with signs noting that they are for Sea Swirl customers, she said. The ropes blocking the spaces went up before Sea Swirl opens for the season, Adams said, because they thought that there should be some "training" about the use of the lot. They are my spaces because I pay for them is a pretty powerful argument. Nana's employees sometimes park in Sea Swirl spaces while Sea Swirl employees are made to park elsewhere and walk in, Adams added. "Parking is incredibly valuable, so why would we just give it away?" she said, noting that one downtown Mystic store actually locks its gated parking lot. The rest, Adams said, are important to their business, which has always catered to customers like young parents who want to pull in and grab an ice cream cone or a grilled cheese sandwich. They did agree to an update to their lease last year that granted Nana's two of their parking spaces, so that the bakery's allotment went from three to five. ![]() Kelly Adams, who runs Sea Swirl with her husband, Ryan Devlin-Perry, told me that they pay through a year-'round lease for most of the parking. I don't worry about flying shakes or lattes across the disputed parking lot.īoth restaurant operators gave reasonable assessments of the situation. But I guess not.Īfter tracking down the proprietors of both restaurants, I can say that there is indeed a considerable rift over parking, but everyone seems to have come to a truce. I had always thought that Sea Swirl and Nana's, on Route 1 near Route 27, were far enough out of the downtown Mystic fray to avoid the constant jostle for parking. Sure enough, the person behind the counter at Nana's confirmed that Sea Swirl had become territorial over parking, suggesting a long siege to come over the summer. So it was sobering to see, when I arrived recently in the parking lot that separates Nana's and Sea Swirl, still closed for the season, that the parking spaces all around the glass-fronted clam shack had been roped off, with prominent no parking signs. I sometimes stop at Sea Swirl for another favorite summer indulgence, a grilled dog. Of course, nearby Sea Swirl has been shouldering for decades a big share of another important Mystic food tradition, the clam shack. I learned about the latest skirmish in Mystic's parking wars after stopping recently for one of my favorite indulgences, a pizza slice from Nana's Bakery & Pizza.Īs an aside, I might mention here that Nana's New England Pizza, made with potatoes, bacon, clams, garlic butter, parsley and pepper, is a remarkable local food resource, essentially New England clam chowder on a pizza crust. The ropes keep customers from the adjacent Nana´s Bakery and Pizza from parking there. The owners of Sea Swirl in Mystic have posted no parking sings in front of their closed seasonal business on Route 1, as it appeared April 10, because they pay for them in their lease.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |