Sidewalk soirees, private fetes pepper parade route

STAMFORD -- While most coming to watch the UBS Parade Spectacular travel light, with small thought to a good vantage point, a smaller group take a more ambitious tack, either establishing small sidewalk enclosures or even taking up private indoor space with bird's eye views of the floating spectacles.

Rather than brave the crowds and the November chill out on the street, some spectators opted for a cozier spot inside the Palace Theater, with food and warm drinks aplenty.

For the past several years, the Stamford Center for the Arts has hosted a private gathering on the top floor of the building, where the wide-paned windows look directly onto Atlantic Street, at just the right height to watch Big Bird or Cookie Monster sail by.

Mike Moran, general manager of SCA, said the space used to be rented by Luxury Mortgage for a private party, but for the past few years, the SCA has opened the top floor to donors, sponsors, employees and their families to view the parade.

"It's a great venue, isn't it?" Moran said. "The kids are having a great time."

The party includes face painting and tables stocked with snacks and hot drinks. Patrick McHugh, who works for Finn, Dixon & Herling LLP, sat with his wife, Megan, at a table while their three children crowded around the windows.

"We've done this for a few years," Megan McHugh said. "It's a different experience from being down on the street. The food is great and we're warm."

"It's a great experience, there's a sense of community," Patrick McHugh added.

Outdoor encampments claim significant parade-watching ground on lower Summer Street, with one or two pressed discreetly pressed into nooks next to buildings, while some more ambitiously demarcated with yellow police tape, plastic mesh fencing, or wooden sawhorses.

On Summer Street, 39-year-old Stamford native James Rockwood and other 30-somethings loudly cheered balloon handlers who passed by their moveable feast of fried chicken, sugar cookies with M&M's, and an eclectic mix of other finger foods in front of a two-story building next to the Dragonfly Cafe.

Rockwood said the tailgating tradition at the parade has been going on for the past few years, but has become more child-centered as some of his friends have had children.

"It's just a really good time," Lockwood said. "With the kids it makes it more fun in some ways. "

For the eleventh year in a row, John Sharkey, 39, of Norwalk has arrived four to five hours early to assure that he grabs his usual space on the south side of the street to accommodate the dozens of relatives and friends who have come to recognize it as a pre-Thanksgiving standby.

Sharkey, a Stamford native, began attending the parade 13 years ago with his son Hunter, now 16, and rose at 5:30 a.m. to cook sausage and peppers for a crowd that grew to more than 60 on Sunday.

"The holidays are a big deal for us and this is a way to mark the beginning of that," Sharkey said. "If a little kid walks by and is looking in, I'll offer them a doughnut because it's a party."

"We just like to get everyone together," his wife, Diana Sharkey said.

Source: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Sidewalk-soirees-private-fetes-pepper-parade-4048544.php

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