Connecticut Muffin Co.
108 Main St., New Canaan, CT
Leave the mothership with the valet
On seeing the sign for the Connecticut Muffin Co. in New Canaan I pulled my ’93 Chevy pickup into a space between a Navigator and a Mercedes. As I fed the
meter a gaunt woman in boutique clothing and owl like sunglasses glanced at the rust dappled hood of my truck and scurried off down the sidewalk.
Several minutes later I stepped out of the shop feeling a little dazed. I had just paid eleven dollars for a big box of muffins, scones, and cookies.
Just eleven dollars in a town where you valet park at Starbucks, soccer moms have chauffeurs, and a car pool is a car with a pool in it.
To further my confusion, my pickup truck was surrounded by a mass of New Canaanites chattering in their own bewilderment. A man with a heather grey cashmere sweater draped ‘casually’ over his shoulders approached me and said “Do you see that? It’s unreal. I’ve seen vehicles like that in documentaries on Public Television but, here, in New Canaan..?”
Back at home, and back to my senses, I opened the box to find a crumbly scone perfumed with orange and filled with tart cranberries. The banana nut and
lemon poppyseed yogurt muffins were well flavored breakfast muffins (decidedly not cupcakes). The depression in a dense and buttery cookie was filled with an intensely flavored
raspberry jam.
Some advice: If you’d like to visit New Canaan without feeling like a creature from another world, you’ll need to buy yourself a chic wardrobe and a current year luxury vehicle. And if, after trying to fit in, you end up with only a couple bucks there’s no need to despair. You’ll still be able to afford a muffin or a cookie.