Experimental jazz fills more than one indoor space while outdoor harbingers of Halloween benefit from eerily pleasant weather.
Monday, October 4
From 116 Crown to newly opened Villa Lulu to newly reopened Barcelona, New Haven Restaurant Week is back. It’s actually two weeks long, through October 16, with 22 restaurants offering $21 two-course lunches and/or $42 three-course dinners.
sponsored by
Tuesday, October 5
At 7 p.m., local writer Mark Oppenheimer, whom we featured in August, gives an in-person author talk (with a virtual viewing option) at the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven (360 Amity Rd, Woodbridge; 203-387-2424). The lynchpin of the talk is Squirrel Hill, Oppenheimer’s book on the “historic, spirited community” of the same name, where a 2018 synagogue shooting took 11 lives. Free; registration requested.
Wednesday, October 6
The weekly Movies in the Plaza series, screening at 8 p.m. in New Haven’s Pitkin Plaza, begins this Halloween month with one of the scariest creature features of all time, Alien (1979), followed by lighter spooky fare in coming weeks. On a similar trajectory is Hamden’s monthlong Drive-In Movie Series, starting this Friday in Town Center Park with Jurassic Park (1993), while Massaro Community Farm’s October Family Night, this Friday only, keeps the kids (and nostalgic Millennials) in mind with a screening of Hocus Pocus (1993).
Friday, October 8
Centered outside at Orange Street and Crown, the New Haven Night Market, an “evening bazaar” showcasing local “art, music, food, drink, culture and more,” lights up the Ninth Square from 5 to 10 p.m. The musical lineup is five acts strong and the shopping list numbers 40 vendors, not including purveyors of food and drink both mobile and brick-and-mortar. Raffle prizes, giveaways, deals and activities—from tie-dying to pumpkin painting to a photo booth—round out what should be a night to remember.
Fresh off its reopening last Friday after a long pandemic break, the experimental jazz venue at Firehouse 12 (45 Crown St, New Haven; 203-785-0468) proceeds tonight with an 8:30 performance featuring the quintet of vocalist Mary LaRose and her bold reimagining of the midcentury music of Eric Dolphy, who, like his bandmate and fellow saxophonist John Coltrane, died far too young. Limited in-person tickets cost $25, with a $10 livestream option.
Saturday, October 9
The weekend offers two classic car show fundraisers, one east and one west, one Saturday and one Sunday. The first, dubbed Headlights and High Beams, runs today from 9 to 3 on the Guilford Fairgrounds (111 Lovers La, Guilford), with $10 ticket proceeds benefiting the Breast Cancer Center at Yale New Haven’s Smilow Hospital. The second, the 52nd annual car show fundraiser for the Seymour Lions Club, borrows the lot at Microboard Processing (4 Progress Ave, Seymour) tomorrow from 8 to 3.
Back in the city, at 8 p.m. for $10, a New Haven Jazz Underground show at quirk hub Never Ending Books (810 State St, New Haven) features sets by jazz quartet Concussion and the New Haven Improvisers Collective.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image features a cocktail in the garden at 116 Crown. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
