Pace yourself. Drink plenty of water. Between a cocktail event Tuesday, an extensive wine tasting Thursday, a BYO all-night rager blurring Friday with Saturday and a Super Bowl on Sunday, excess is easy this week in New Haven.
Monday, January 27
Nicholas Winton was a stockbroker with a heart of gold. In 1938 and ’39, the Englishman arranged passage and housing in Britain for more than 600 mostly Jewish children from Nazi-controlled Czechoslovakia, then kept the tale to himself for the next fifty years, when his wife found documentation among their personal files. Tonight, the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven (360 Amity Rd, Woodbridge; 203-387-2522) tells Winton’s tale through a 6:30 p.m. screening of the documentary film Nicky’s Family. $5 suggested donation.
Tuesday, January 28
Tonight at 6:30, the Haven String Quartet makes 116 Crown (116 Crown St, New Haven; 203-777-3116) feel even classier with a performance to mark the unveiling of an original, limited-time-only cocktail. For the next month, sales of the punny “Dominant Tonic”—fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, aromatic yellow Chartreuse, Plymouth gin and tonic water—will benefit local music education organization Music Haven, from which the HSQ springs. An exhibit of photos by Kathleen Cei will also grace the bar’s walls.
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Wednesday, January 29
The NewAlliance Foundation Art Gallery at Gateway Community College (20 Church St, New Haven) hosts an opening reception for Our Community at Winchester: An Elm City Story from 5 to 7 p.m. this evening. Capturing labor perspectives at the historic (now closed) Olin-Westchester repeating arms manufacturing plant, the exhibit features images, documents and “interviews with retired Winchester workers” provided by the Greater New Haven Labor History Association. Free.
Thursday, January 30
Flights of Fancy flies from 4 to 8 p.m. today. The semiannual wine tasting takes tasters around the main retail arteries of downtown, with a different wine furnished by The Wine Thief (181 Crown St, New Haven) available at each participating shop. The home base for the roving event is the Study at Yale (1157 Chapel St, New Haven; 203-503-3900), where ticket holders pick up a map to start and maybe even a raffle prize to finish. $20, or $15 if you bring a glass from a previous Flight.
Coinciding with those grand festivities is the grand opening of the currently soft-launched Chocolat Maya (47 High St; 203-214-7059). In the former location of Chocopologie, the biggest difference between the businesses’ chocoholic concepts is that Maya also serves alcoholic drinks. The new shop promises free champagne and hors d’oeuvres between 5 and 8 p.m. this evening, plus “drink specials all night.”
Friday, January 31
The Yale Repertory Theatre’s production of The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls has fun with linguistics, liberation and shots of punk music in an “alternate, fantastical, fairytale world,” as playwright Meg Miroshnik has put it. The show opens tonight at 8 p.m. and runs through February 22. Ticket prices and options vary depending on the date; check the Rep’s website for specifics.
Tonight starting at 11 p.m., Afterlife (the basement at 130 Crown St, New Haven; 203-498-2484) hosts New York-based electronic music producer Bookworms for a two-hour set in the middle of a marathon seven-hour dance party. The venue is 18+; those 21 and over can bring a bottle of wine or even a mid-sized bottle of liquor per person, with a $10 corkage fee. Admission is $10 before 2 a.m. and $15 after.
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Saturday, February 1
The Yale-China Association’s annual Lunarfest celebrating the Lunar New Year (a.k.a. Chinese New Year) happens today, starting with a bombastic lion dance on Whitney Avenue between Grove and Trumbull Streets at 10 a.m. Proceedings then fan out to three nearby venues for a packed schedule of workshops and demonstrations ranging over martial arts, traditional dance, calligraphy, painting, music and more between noon and 5 p.m.
Sunday, February 2
Pre-pay for your inevitable gridiron gluttony later today with a 5K dash through East Rock Park. Starting at 10 a.m., the “Run for Refugees” benefits Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), which resettles people from around the world right here in New Haven. Entry fees are $28 for adults and $18 for those under 18. The starting line is at Wilbur Cross High School (181 Mitchell Ave, New Haven) and the finish line leads to a post-race party featuring “fabulous international food, beverages and entertainment.”
It’s Super Bowl Sunday and sports bars downtown are salivating for your saliva. Black Bear Saloon (124 Temple St, New Haven; 203-562-2327) has a $40 “party pass” good for unlimited well drinks, house drafts and soda, plus a basket of chicken wings. A couple doors down, The Russian Lady (144 Temple St, New Haven; 203-691-7276) offers unlimited wings and Bud Light drafts until halftime for $30, with raffle prizes awarded each quarter. Anna Liffey’s (17 Whitney Ave, New Haven; 203-773-1776) is opting for no cover charge, with food and drink specials, including $8 pitchers, and “cash prizes.” Over at O’Tooles (157 Orange St, New Haven; 203-562-7468), an optional $40 ticket gets you unlimited wells, beers (bottles and draft) and glasses of house wine, plus a “huge” halftime buffet and the chance to win raffle prizes.
Written by Dan Mims. Photographed by Kathleen Cei. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
