NORFOLK — Tasty food, coffee and a friendly atmosphere are drawing people to the ICBX, a new café offering breakfast and lunch.
The ICBX, so named in honor of Norfolk being known as the Icebox of Connecticut, opened on Monday, Dec. 2, after many delays in the installation of an exhaust system.
“Something you’d think would take two weeks, ends up taking three months,” café co-owner Peter Crippen said. In this case it took much longer than three months, closer to two years. He said the bigger companies kept pushing back the job in favor of bigger jobs. Finally, using local contractors was the key and the work was done more quickly.
Marinelle Crippen, Peter’s wife and partner in the business, works at the counter greeting customers and taking orders while Peter is in the kitchen cooking.
“Things have been going very well,” Peter said. “We get busy, we handle it and learn each day how to refine the flow from everything for customer service to food preparation.” Marinelle agreed, saying, “It’s been fun so far.”
The Crippens are not strangers to working with food. They bring their experience running Rex Café in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, managing the Mermaid Inn in Chelsea and Red Rooster in Harlem, to the ICBX.
Peter Crippen, owner of the ICBX cafe at Station Place in Norfolk, prepares to cook a made to order omelet. ICBX opened on December 2nd. Peter and his wife Marinelle run the cafe together and offer breakfast and lunch from 7a.m. to 2p.m., everyday except Tuesday. Robin Roraback
In addition, Peter’s mother makes Mrs. Crippen’s Bourbon and Molasses Fruitcake, which is available at ICBX. His sister ran Irving Farm Coffee House in Millerton, New York, for many years. When Peter and son Rex went on a fishing trip recently, his sister filled in at the grill.
“It is amazing how the Breakfast Burritos have gone over.” Peter remarked. He also said that he has brought back something he remembers from childhood: toasted muffins. He said that once customers have a toasted muffin “it is the only way to eat it.”
David Gourley of Norfolk has quickly become a regular customer. He sat at the counter, chatting with Marinelle. “It’s a wonderful meeting place and a welcome addition to our community,” he said. Of his made to order three egg omelet, he said, “The tomatoes are warmed on the grill first. Delicious.”
ICBX offers coffee, tea, biscuit sliders, oatmeal, yogurt and granola. Breakfast sandwiches can be made to order with a choice of sausage, ham, egg, avocado, bacon, tomato and cheese. Breakfast Chorizo Burritos have options of onion, egg and hot sauce. Vegetable Burritos can be made with green peppers, mushrooms, black beans, egg and hot sauce.
A variety of baked goods is also available, including scones, breads and muffins.
Starting Thursday, Jan. 2, the café began offering lunch. The lunch menu contains two sandwiches, soup and salad.
In December they were open every day except Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and in January extended the hours until 2 p.m. For more information, call (860) 671-0005 or stop by the ICBX at 10 Station Place in Norfolk.
A blue SUV remains in a ditch after an early-morning crash along Segar Mountain Road in Kent May 27.
The driver was transported to Danbury Hospital with minor injuries, according to police.
The damage to a utility pole forced crews to shut down parts of the road and reduce traffic to a single lane throughout the day. First Selectman Eric Epstein announced that traffic would be impacted as utility companies make repairs. Motorists were advised to avoid the area until the work is complete.
As of 2 p.m., traffic at the scene was reduced to alternating single lane travel. Employees from Eversource Energy, Aquarion Water Company and the state Department of Transportation were at the site making repairs to the utility pole and wiring. They have yet to provide an estimate for when the repairs will finish.
The car was still in the ditch as of mid-afternoon, officials on the scene said.
In an email to Kent residents, which was sent at approximately 12:40 p.m., Epstein reported that a water line connected to one residence in the area was also damaged, but clarified that it was not the line supplying the town.
Repair crews respond to an early-morning crash along Segar Mountain Road in Kent that damaged a utility pole and water line. Ruth Epstein
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
Filmmaker Yonah Sadeh on a shoot last year in New York City.
It is an exciting opportunity for Sadeh, who has built his own business, Sadeh Studios, by working with small area businesses and nonprofits, “helping to tell their stories through film,” he said.
Some of his projects have included projects for local affordable housing organizations and area nonprofits such as Berkshire Busk, Berkshares, Naturalis Healing, local after-school programs and the Falls Village Fire Department. Current projects are for Berkshire Mountain Bakery and a documentary about Great Barrington’s revitalization in the 1990s.
Sadeh discovered early in life that he wanted to make films and began to develop his process and distinct style.
“It started with puppet shows and musical performances, and then, when I was around 12, a family friend showed me how to use my family’s computer to record and edit short homemade videos using iMovie. From that point on, it was pretty much all movies. I would set up my mom’s computer on a stack of books and record with the webcam.”
An early influence was Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which, “inspired my Claymation videos when I was 10 and remains one of my favorite films.”
He said getting his first camera made a big difference in his filmmaking.
“I was no longer stuck filming wherever I could set up the laptop. I could move with the camera and be more intentional about how things looked.”
Finding some of the technical aspects challenging, he watched YouTube to learn.
“I would imagine these big scenes, like fight sequences with lighting and effects, and then have to figure out how to actually make them. That process pushed me to learn. I spent a lot of time watching people like Casey Neistat, Film Riot and Corridor Digital, and just trying things out.”
Knowing the path he wanted to take, he pursued his high school education at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, MA. The school has since relocated to Barrytown, New York.
“Simon’s Rock was not a film school in a traditional sense, but it had incredible faculty that I was able to work with one-on-one throughout my years there,” he said. “It gave me the flexibility and time to make films both in and outside of class, and to start my production business while still in school.”
He was able to take college-level film courses while still in high school.
“It seemed like the perfect opportunity. I loved it so much that I stayed at Simon’s Rock after graduating from the academy for my bachelor’s degree.”
Filmmaker Yonah Sadeh at work. Lisa Volmer
After graduating, he focused full time on his freelance business.
“Most of my professional work is in documentary, where I am a one-man crew overseeing every aspect of the process, from meeting with clients to develop the idea to planning, filming and editing it all together. I love working in this way, with my hands in every part of the project.”
In addition to documentaries, he also works on narrative films.
“The script I am working on now is set over the summer solstice and follows two kids over a short but formative period of time. I feel like this idea of land and place, and the passing of time, is a pretty consistent theme in all of my work, both narrative and documentary.”
Narrative films involve working with a crew, and he said writing and directing have presented different challenges.
“By the time I get to production, I’ve usually been sitting with the story for a while and have a pretty clear picture of how I want each scene to feel. So a lot of directing is about communicating that vision to the actors and crew. It can definitely be stressful, especially with the pressure of being on set. But I’ve been lucky to work with people I really trust and enjoy collaborating with, which makes a big difference.”
The finished film, Sadeh said, “becomes something built by everyone involved.”
Eager to share his love of filmmaking, Sadeh recently took on the role of curator of the VideoWall at the Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I would love the VideoWall to become a place that showcases the work of local filmmakers, and I hope that other creatives in the area will submit their work to be shown.”
Reflecting on his chosen path, Sadeh said, “I feel really excited and creatively fulfilled to be doing the work I love in the place I grew up.”
Learn more at sadehstudios.com
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
