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RIDGEFIELD — After a nearly one year delay, sisters Heather and Jennifer Bellizzi have set an opening date for their coffee shop, Queen B Coffee Company. They'll open the business at 417 Main St. on Jan. 31.
Heather Bellizzi said she and her sister, who also own two other local eateries, planned to open Queen B — named in honor of their mother's nickname — last March. However, as each month passed by, they kept pushing the opening date back a month.
"Between staffing and getting things where we needed them to be, we never got around to opening," she said, adding before they knew it, it was the new year.
The Bellizzi's also own Crystals & Cones Ice Cream and Gifts and 3 Keys Restaurant & Georgetown Tavern in Redding, both of which they opened last year and are across the street from each other.
Queen B, which is approximately 1,600-square-foot, takes over the spaces of two businesses that have closed — KaFo - Cakes, Cupcakes, Pastries; and Tom-Tom's NewAmerican Restaurant, Bar, and Bakery. KaFo occupied the top floor of the building while Tom-Tom's occupied the lower level.
The women completely gutted and reconstructed the building.
"We really created it from the ground up. We've created the downstairs space to look like you were outside ... so we used a painting from our mom's collection that was Tavern on the Green in New York," Heather Bellizzi said.
They also added their own flavor to the shop, Heather Bellizzi said.
"We curated literally every angle — whether it's the music, the decor — we decorated everything ourselves," she said. "We've created every menu ourselves based on what we like and our past experiences and our upbringing and what we think people in each area want. We talked to many people and asked them what they wanted."
Remembering mom
Queen B is named after the sisters' late mother, Linda Bellizzi, a history and reading teacher in the Bronx, N.Y., who was known as “Queen B” in the classroom.
"The Queen B project was something that we were doing with our mother. We grew up in New York City but we always had a country house up here. We were originally going to open with our mom in Darien almost 14 years ago. She passed away shortly after we had signed the lease so we put the project on hold for a long time. When we moved to Ridgefield almost seven years ago, we were like, 'this is where we're going to do Queen B.'"
She added, ironically, that while she and her sister drink coffee, her mother preferred tea.
The Bellizzi sisters grew up in Bronx and Manhattan, N.Y. Their late father, Ronald Bellizzi, was a scenic artist for NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and also worked for Broadway shows that were based in New York. He died in 2002.
'Have those quiet moments'
Heather Bellizzi said the shop is unique compared to other coffee shops in town.
"We use filtered water. We buy our beans directly from farmers. We have our own roaster on site and off site. A friend of ours from high school has an organic tea company so we're using her teas," she said, adding they'll also be dedicating a wall to local artists to show their art each month.
With Queen B, Heather Bellizzi said she wants to "elicit a feeling of a place where you want to meet people, a place where you want to stay, read a book, relax and have those quiet moments."
"We're Ridgefielders so we're really looking to serve the community that we live in and that we love," she added.