Opposite the Old Campus, on Chapel Street, in New Haven, Connecticut; first settled by Native Americans before memory or record; planted by Puritans in 1638; home to Roger Sherman throughout the War of Independence; the Gaius F. Warner mansion by Henry Austin in 1860; Carll's Opera House in 1880; the Republican League club in 1884; the Hyperion theatre in 1887; the Union League club by Richard Williams in 1903; the Roger Sherman Theater in 1926; a succession of French fine dining restaurants, beginning in 1977, that continues today. While the Roger Sherman house is no longer standing, the U. S. Constitution is, and reconstruction continues.
"In October 2007, while dining in the Clubroom at the Union League Café, John Kiley took an impromptu photograph of his wife, Sandra Kiley, with the British new wave group, Duran Duran. The band played two warm-up performances at the Chevrolet Theatre, in Wallingford, Connecticut, before debuting their latest album with a string of shows on Broadway."
"I meet Jan Cunningham, appropriately, in the Bistro des Artistes of the Union League Café on Chapel Street, where several of her recent paintings are on view through the end of September. She is serious and intense as she recalls leaving her native Texas to study painting at Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970s, and her subsequent move to New Haven in the early '80s."
"Merchants in the area are delighted by the rebuilding of the former Union League clubhouse, which had deteriorated greatly in its 13 years of idleness. Vandals broke many of its plate glass windows and the building developed into a depressing sight."
"A strong cold front brought brief snow squalls, strong wind gusts and dropping temperatures to Connecticut on Saturday afternoon, February 19, 2022. Whiteout conditions were reported as the line moved through. A quick coating to an inch came down statewide."
"The bar area and the dining room are next to one another and are of approximately equal size. The furnishings in each were selected to conform to the general character of the spaces. A large brass chandelier hangs over the brick bar. The paneling and stained glass in the dining room were existing and restored to their original condition."
"The Hotel Taft contains about three hundred guest bedrooms, each connected with a bath, arranged singly or in suites of three to five rooms. The building has extensive public accommodations, including regular dining rooms, private dining rooms, a banquet hall, roof garden and accommodation for small society dinners."
"Parts of these chapters were written on the tables of Jean Michel Gamme and Jean-Pierre Vuillermet's Union League Cafe in New Haven. I was equally welcome to write at Caffe Adulis, where the three Eritrean brother-owners — Sahle, Fiere, and Gideon Ghebreyesus — even went so far as to twist dials to cast extra light on my table. Similar courtesies were extended by Jeff Horton at Scoozie's Restaurant and John Clark at Zinc. All of these restaurants are in New Haven."
"The first time you climb High Street Gate marks a new phase of your life at Yale that can be most accurately described as the 'late-night phase.' Yale Police lock the gate at 12:30 a.m. on weeknights, which seals off all access to Old Campus except for Phelps Gate, directly across the Green."
"'There is no place just like this place anywhere near this place. For this must be The Place.' So said the sign on 'Whitey's restaurant' years ago. The sign is still there but now Whitey's is called The Place. It looks like a private outdoor party or a friendly country fair, convivial and joyous, relaxed, lots of fun, but it isn't private. It is a roadside restaurant, or rather an outdoor roast restaurant."
"Restaurants in Connecticut and across the country have come together to feed the front line. In New Haven, 1,100 meals a day are prepared, with 18 restaurants participating, and deliveries made to Yale New Haven Hospital, the Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven and various testing sites."
The Roger Sherman house. 