Glenville Can Walk to the Grocery Store Again. Here's How the Rest of Glenville Street Changed Around It.

Selectwoman Lauren Rabin got to Glen Plaza at 7:30 on the morning of September 9, when DeCicco & Sons first opened its doors. She has lived in Glenville for 23 years. She told CT Insider she arrived "with tears in my eyes, almost," because she was "so excited about having a grocery store within walking distance."

Glenville had no supermarket from the 2023 closing of the Stop & Shop at Glen Plaza until DeCicco's took over the same building at 21 Glenville Street. In the meantime, most of Greenwich's grocery stores were on U.S. Route 1, at least a couple of miles away. The store came back at the very end of a long rebuild of Glenville Street itself. That timing explains why the strip now works on foot in a way it didn't before.

The front door is around back

Regulars from the Westchester locations should know one thing about the Greenwich store first. The main entrance faces the rear parking lot, not Glenville Street. When the store opened, Greenwich Free Press photographed the expanded rear lot and the signs that send drivers behind the building. An entrance on the Glenville Street side is still open.

So the store serves two kinds of shoppers. Drivers pull around to the back lot. People walking over from the neighborhood use the street-side door, a short walk from the new sidewalks along the corridor.

Inside, the core is several aisles of packaged goods plus a produce section. Around it are counters for bakery, café, cheese, floral, meat, salad, sandwiches and seafood, along with a hot-food bar. The store's Greenwich page also lists brewed coffee and a juice bar. It gives these hours:

• Monday through Saturday: 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Sunday: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Phone: (203) 742-0410

One feature of the New York stores won't be coming here. Nine of the 11 DeCicco's locations in New York have bars. Connecticut doesn't let a grocery store hold a grocery-beer permit and an on-site consumption permit at the same time, so the Greenwich store won't have one. Greenwich Time also reported that the beer cases were empty on opening day while the store waited for its license. CT Insider reported that signs on the coolers said, "We know you're ready for beer. Trust us, we are, too. Just waiting on our license." Before planning a beer run, call the store to see if the license has come through.

Plenty of Glenville shoppers knew the brand before it crossed the state line, since DeCicco's has 10 stores in Westchester County. Randi Fuks, a Glenville resident, told CT Insider she had shopped at DeCicco's for more than 20 years, starting when she lived in Armonk. In the same article, First Selectman Fred Camillo called it "probably the most anticipated" store opening in Greenwich in recent years.

The sidewalk got there first

Rabin could talk about walking to the store in September because of road work that was nearly done by June. The Glenville Corridor Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Project covers about 1,500 feet, from the Glen Ridge Road and Glenville Street intersection to Weaver Street. The work optimizes traffic signals, adds sidewalks and improves intersections.

The project took years and ran into a funding gap. In the end, the Connecticut Department of Transportation approved $6.5 million in state funds to cover the full cost. When the town planned it in 2019, about 15,000 vehicles a day used the corridor. In 2019, Greenwich Free Press photographed a stretch with no sidewalk, where people had to walk in the road.

Greenwich Free Press reported that paving was scheduled in June as overnight closures between Glen Ridge and Weaver Street. Selectwoman Rachel Khanna said the timing was ideal with DeCicco & Sons about to open.

Longtime customers of Glenville Pizza at 243 Glenville Road will see the biggest change. For decades, cars parked unevenly on a slope along the curve in front of the restaurant. That shoulder is now an extended curb with grass and a sidewalk, with room for picnic tables. Parallel parking is available just west of the restaurant. According to its own site, Glenville Pizza has been part of the neighborhood since 1976. On that one corner, the pizza place has traded curbside parking for a spot where people can sit outside.

Glen Plaza was already a lunch stop

Before DeCicco's arrived, Glen Plaza had already started drawing people at mealtimes. The center's old post office building was renovated and now holds four eateries, according to Greenwich Free Press:

• Green & Tonic
• Luca's Pizzeria and Italian Kitchen
• Longford's Ice Cream
• Bluebird Taqueria

DeCicco's adds the grocery run to a plaza people already visited for lunch, a smoothie or ice cream. It also brought the expanded rear lot. On opening morning, CT Insider found the lot full by late morning. Greenwich Free Press photos taken around noon showed open spaces behind the store. Both are opening-day snapshots, and parking on a typical Saturday in October may look different from either one.

A weekday Glenville loop, in order

The street now holds together as a single outing, and Abilis is part of it. On October 6, Abilis Gardens & Gifts reopened at 50 Glenville Street in a renovated building. It replaces a greenhouse that, as Greenwich Free Press noted, wasn't properly insulated for year-round use. The shop is a retail training site for the Abilis Employment program, which gives adults with disabilities vocational and job skills training. Abilis keeps weekday hours only, so the loop works best Monday through Friday:

1. Abilis Gardens & Gifts, 50 Glenville Street. Open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. It sells handmade soaps, candles, bath and body products, jewelry and grab-and-go floral arrangements. Abilis also runs a pop-up in the lobby of Greenwich Town Hall, 101 Field Point Road, on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
2. DeCicco & Sons, 21 Glenville Street. Do the grocery run, or grab coffee or the hot bar to go.
3. The former post office building at Glen Plaza. Lunch at Bluebird Taqueria or Luca's, or a cone at Longford's.
4. Glenville Pizza, 243 Glenville Road. A slice at the new curbside spot, where cars once parked on the slope.
5. Greenwich Grill, 328 Pemberwick Road. Dinner at The Mill. It opened July 15 in the former Centro space, and the Greenwich Sentinel described American food, cocktails and a patio facing the waterfall.

Nothing on that list is new to the neighborhood except the grocery store, the Abilis building and the restaurant at The Mill. The difference is that all of it now sits along a corridor rebuilt with new sidewalks and improved intersections. When the corridor was designed, Glenville Pizza still had no sidewalk out front.

Friday night adds one more stop

Greenwich Parks & Recreation holds Halloween Happenings at the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center on Friday, October 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., with music, games and light refreshments. Tickets cost $12 for everyone age three and older. They went on sale September 15, so check whether any are left before heading over. Families who make a night of it can pick up dinner at Glen Plaza on the way, since DeCicco's stays open until 8:30 p.m. on Fridays.

If DeCicco's opening has you thinking about what a walkable grocery store and a rebuilt corridor mean for a Glenville address, Randy Musiker is glad to talk it through street by street. Let's talk about your next move. Contact Randy for a consultation.