Things to do in Greenwich, CT?
July 17, 2006 7:39 AM   Subscribe

Things to do in Greenwich, CT?

Wife and I will be there Saturday, July 22. Thanks!
posted by ZenMasterThis to Travel & Transportation around Greenwich, CT (12 answers total)
 
Response by poster: *sound of crickets chirping...*
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:35 AM on July 17, 2006


Best answer: Well, I lived in Greenwich for a couple of years but am struggling to answer this one to be honest - it's a quiet sort of a town and probably is even more so at this time of year, with all the rich people away on holidays. Apart from the kickass public library we mostly entertained ourselves outside, in Stamford etc.

Greenwich has some nice restaurants on the main street, Greenwich Avenue (or did, I haven't been back in a year) and some nice shops which are good for a bit of browsing. There are traffic cops on Greenwich Ave instead of traffic lights, and they always look fairly dapper in their police shorts.

There's a museum called the Bruce Museum, you might want to check their website to see what the current exhibition is. You need to buy a permit to go to the town beaches and maybe some of the parks? (not sure about that one). Phone the town hall to confirm how to get one. There are ferries that will take you to the island. If you play golf there are lots of clubs in and around Greenwich, but no idea as to their accessibility. They have concerts in various of the parks around town during the summer, again town hall can probably provide you a schedule.

Driving around and looking at some of the ginormous houses was always amusing for a short drive, but again not sure if that would entertain a visitor. Greenich has its own newspaper called "Greenwich Time", if you can get your hands on a copy or check out its website it probably has listings of things going on on Saturday.
posted by jamesonandwater at 9:00 AM on July 17, 2006


I struggled to answer this too and could only come up with visit a hedge fund which is too snarky of an answer. Jamesonandwater has it fully covered. Your bump of *sound of crickets shirping...* is not too far from the truth.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:09 AM on July 17, 2006


Alright, since no one else seems interested in answering this, I'll chime in, albeit somewhat unhelpfully.

Get the hell out of Greenwich. The Metro-North train will have you in NYC in 30 minutes for something like $6 one way, at which point you'll have millions of things to do. Greenwich is a terrible place full of hateful and awful people who divide their time between a program of conspicuous consumption and extreme paranoia.

And now an illuminating Greenwich anecdote: Several years ago, I worked part-time for a frozen apple pie company, doing pie demos in the tri-state area. One day my partner and I were scheduled to do a demo at the Whole Foods in Greenwich. 6 hours later we were in total agreement that that town was without a doubt the worst place either of us ever been to. The people in that store, who are, by all accounts, some of the wealthiest people in America, were little better than animals. They treated the staff with a dismissive contempt that bordered on the delusional. I watched in amazement as a bakery employee, politely attempting to hand a customer her requested loaf of bread, was repeatedly ignored by the customer, who was animatedly gossiping with another Greenwich-ian. After 2 FULL MINUTES of continually ignoring the employee's polite attempts to hand off the bread, the customer spun around on her and shrieked "What the hell is wrong with you, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" 30 seconds later she snatched the bread out of the employee's hands and stalked off, shooting her a hateful glare. When I asked the employee about it, she told me that that's pretty much par for the course in Greenwich.

This statement proved true rather conclusively through the rest of the day. Rather than say "excuse me" when approaching a crowded aisle, Greenwich-ians would simply ram each other with their carts, hard. At 3 seperate points over the course of the afternoon, we left the table momentarily to restock on pie, only to find that someone was standing at our table, eating straight out of our ice cream sample tub. 3 different times, 3 different women, 3 different scions of Greenwich society, eating the ice cream as though it had been put there for them. They seemed to have no sense of "not theirs", as though by simply seeing it and desiring it, they owned it, which I'm sure is pretty much how their lives had played out up to that point. I wouldn't expect that kind of behavior if I'd been doing samples in a middle-school cafeteria, but in Greenwich, anything goes. A life of perfect entitlement has bred in those people perfect ignorance of common decency.

Run away from that place as fast as you can, and may God have mercy on us all.
posted by saladin at 9:21 AM on July 17, 2006


Money fight?
posted by electroboy at 9:25 AM on July 17, 2006


Best answer: Yeah, I live in the area now and pretty much it's shopping [not quite Rodeo Drive, but lots of upscale boutiques like Kate Spade, plus Saks, jewelry, stationary, and mall stores like Victoria's Secret, J. Crew, etc.] and many MANY restaurants of just about every cuisine. There are two movie theaters in town (if you use Moviefone to get listings, the zip is 06830).

The Bruce Museum is nice, but unless you're interested in the current exhibition (cave photography) I wouldn't go unless I was bringing kids. They have the main exhibit room and then the rest of the museum is a mini-natural-history museum designed for the younger set.

The town beach will cost you $20 for the day, but if you like beaches, it might be worth it. There's a sandy beach, swimming (today the water is around 70 degrees) lots of walking paths (woods, rocks, marshy stuff), barbecue and picnic areas, and a food stand selling ice cream, hamburgers, etc. The park closes at sunset.

You can also take the train from Greenwich to NYC or to New Haven as well as many other little towns along the way.
posted by xo at 9:27 AM on July 17, 2006


While I hate stereotyping and generalizations, I worked retail in the Greenwich (well ok, Greenwich up through into Westport) area for a couple of years, and I've gotta reluctantly agree with saladin. I say reluctantly because I don't like the idea that there are people like that in the world, but yeah. There are, and in my experience, they weren't the exception, they were the norm. A woman actually threw one of those big carving knives at me once because I wasn't processing her sale fast enough. This was back in the days when credit card machines had to dial in for approval, and the line wasn't clear and it had to reconnect, so it took a whole extra 20-30 seconds. (My boss wouldn't let me press charges, I was 17, didn't realize I could.) I've got a million other stories like that one, but the knife thing wasn't exactly shocking (except for the whole knife flying at me part).

I don't mean to upset anyone from that area, and I'm sure there are lots of lovely people there, but none of them ever came into my store.

That said, when I was trying to think up something to tell you to do, I was going to say either go to the beach, go shopping, or take Metro-North somewhere - I'm assuming you'd want to go south since your profile says you live in the New Haven Area. Or you can take Metro-North north into Stamford - the train station is right downtown, and there's more to do there, depending on the time of day.
posted by AlisonM at 10:11 AM on July 17, 2006


Best answer: Oh come on, like you've never wanted to play bumper carts in the supermarket.

I assume you have a car at your disposal and that you're not required to stay within the town boundaries. Take the Merritt Parkway north to exit 42 and go to Devil's Den. With almost 2000 acres and 20 miles of hiking trails, it is the largest undeveloped plot of land in Fairfield County and really quite scenic. The urban/suburban scene, as the comments above indicate, is sorely lacking, unless you really like handbags and panini.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 10:32 AM on July 17, 2006


Best answer: Audobon Center
posted by IndigoJones at 10:59 AM on July 17, 2006


Stamford and South Norwalk are neighboring towns with a lot more going on. "SoNo", as it calls itself, has quite a few good restaurants. Stamford has a nice outdoor museum, and generally quite a few beaches.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 11:06 AM on July 17, 2006


Drive across the border to Port Chester and have a superlative chili-cheese burger/steak wedge/fries at Pat's Hubba Hubba. (ignore the 'was' in the article, it's still open last I heard).
posted by jonmc at 11:44 AM on July 17, 2006


As someone who was born and raised in greenwich (well, riverside actually) I have to agree I hate the town and most of it's residents. As a kid it was a fun suburban place to grow up in, but as a teenager it sucked.

I have since moved to seattle, and I can't add anything to "what to do in greenwich" besides get the hell out of there, unless you can get yourself to Todd's Point (which is for residents only, or you have to pay $20 for parking, or something), I don't really know what else to do there.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:31 PM on July 17, 2006


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