Green Animals Topiary Gardens |
Greenwich Polo Club, $30 per vehicle (rolling up in a van will cost you a sideways glance.)
Among Rolls Royces from Fairfield and Westchester, we roll up to the Greenwich Polo Club in a van from JP to do some heavy tailgating. Yes, Buffy, there is heavy tailgating at the Greenwich Polo Club. The quilt of green grass and Burberry blankets, chinos, Ivy League caps, and canoodling doesn’t make us sick — we like big, silly sun hats, ponies, and drunk divot stomping (hey, we’re drunk by halftime). The club welcomes packed lunches, picnic blankets, folding chairs, and dogs but frowns on BYO booze — there’s a beer tent. Pack seven people into a van and split the entrance fee. You’ll each spend a cool $4.28 for a day beside a lush 300-by-160-yard field. This summer’s public matches include the Thomas B. Glynn Memorial Cup, the East Coast Open, and the Graff Cup. Gates open at 1 pm. Regulators, mount up.
Greenwich Polo Club | 80 Field Point Road, Greenwich, CT Large Frank Pepe Tomato Pie, $10.50 (a Tomato Pie with mozzarella — we call it cheese pizza — will cost you $13.)
This might be the first pizza house in the country. We can’t confirm it, but we do know the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana has been serving up coal-fired pies in Connecticut since 1925. Lines for the old-school pizza crowd the Wooster Street block. The parlor, with its white-clam pizza, its 10-foot wooden peels, and its massive Depression-era oven, charms out-of-towners, chefs, restaurateurs, critics, and tons of famous people. At the other end of Wooster, another line braves the wait at Sally’s Apizza, Pepe’s long-time rival. In 1938, Sal Consiglio, Frank Pepe’s nephew, set up shop, just like his uncle, with a coal-fired oven. It’s been a duel ever since. To cast your vote, you’ll have to stand in line.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana | 157 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT | 203.333.PEPE | Sally’s Apizza | 237 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT | 203.624.5271
Connecticut Wine Trail, free (if you swallow, the two-day wine trek will cost you a DUI.)
Bluegrass music, barbecues, the Land of Nod, a 19th-century-hayloft-turned-bar, llamas, alpacas, and goats are — you guessed it — all part of the free Connecticut Wine Trail. With more than 16 trails, split east and west, Connecticut’s Wine Trail is New England’s Sideways adaptation. To the East: Bishop’s Orchards Winery; Gouveia, Charmand, Stonington, Jonathan Edwards, Heritage Trail, and Priam Vineyards; and Sharpe Hill. Highlights include Bishop’s llamas (yes, they spit), Priam’s farmer’s markets, Tuscan barbecues, and Salmon River White (gold-medal winner of the Amenti Del Vino International Commercial Wine Competition). To the west: Jones, White Silo, Land of Nod, and Jerram Wineries; and McLaughlin, Digrazia, Hopkins, and Haight Vineyards. Highlights on the sunset side include White Silo’s art gallery and the Hopkins Hayloft’s view of Lake Waramaug. Bottles up!
