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STORM WATCH: Average of 4 inches of snow across Long Island expected Sunday

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newyork

Emily Knapton

Mark6AML117_2025-01-17-06-22-53

It's Friday. Time for Main Street, Connecticut, a chance to showcase our local towns and cities and the things they have to offer. This week we're in Norwalk, or at least News show Mark Sudall is, and he's kicking off our morning at Liz Sue bagels. Mark. Good morning, Becky. Yeah, all these bagels, I gotta tell you, are amazing being made fresh right now behind me. Oh, I can't wait to sink my teeth in the egg bagel here that Peter Telesco has for me here. Here he is the man from Lizo bagels. Tell us, how do you make these bagels? The bagels are made by this machine behind us. This is a bagel, uh, this cuts the dough into pieces and it falls onto that into a former and it comes out a bagel. And then we got a friend of mine that he picks them up, puts them on the board, on the racks, and then once the dough is finished, we put it in a walk-in box and that's where it stays until we're ready to bake. And so how long does it take to bake? But first we boil. It takes about 10-12 seconds to boil, and then we throw them in the oven after like 78 minutes we uh. Take them off the boards and we flip them and they bake the rest of the way on the shelf. usually all about 20 minutes. Wow. So where'd you get the name Liz Sue? The name was from the previous owner. This the this bagel started originally as Bel USA and They went bankrupt after 2 years. They were selling frozen bagels and people weren't buying. So he started making his own bagels and He had to change the name because of bankruptcy, so he changed it to Liz Sue after his two kids, Elizabeth and Susan. Oh, nice. And then when we bought it, we couldn't figure out a name because it was Peter, Tony, Leo. So we just said, you know what, let's run with Liz, and it has a good story to it also. It does for 45 years you guys have been doing this and through thick and thin. You were even at 1.1 point a year ago at this time, but I came back strong and uh. Back to work, back to work, um, and your, your brother is my brother Tony is doing good. He's in the Stanford store and my brother Tommy's out rehabbing. But he'll be back. Wow. So you have the two stores, Stanford and Norwalk, Stanford and Stanford's 45 years, and Norwalk is 31. So how many customers do you think you're getting here a day? We've had the support of both areas for years and thousands, you know what it is? We get the kids hooked. And the parents, the kids, once we hook the kids, the parents have to come. They, they complain to me sometimes. They're like, I can't believe I got to come all the way over and my kid won't eat nowhere else. I'm like, you got a smart kid there. Well, he does have a smart kid there, and I'll tell you what. I know a little bit about these bagels. This is not my first. Is this OK? Well, I, I've had half of it already, but I wanted to just have the other half here now, um. And then This is right out of the oven, so soft. Got a little butter on there. Thank you very much. Amazing, amazing, and your good friend Sky Mercedes is gonna talk to us next over uh for Sweet Bakery. And he likes to say back to you, Bob, but we're going to say back to you, Mark. OK or Becky. All right, sounds good. It looks delicious, Mark. Thanks so much. Thanks.

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Mark7AML117_2025-01-17-07-29-24

We made it to Friday. Time for Main Street, Connecticut, a chance to showcase our local towns and cities and what they have to offer. This week we're taking a look at Norwalk. News Jo's Mark Sudall is at Forever Sweet Bakery with more for us. Looks like you got some good stuff behind you there, Mark. Oh, you're not kidding. Oh, we're gonna get to this in just a little bit. Sky Mercedes is the man behind it all. Of course your wife really does all the cooking, but you are the kind of the front man for all this, and we see you all over town. And so tell us now you said you've been in business for 12 years, but you had a couple of stops in in the area. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Um, we started out in a commercial kitchen. And then we started selling in a kiosk at the Stanford Mall, uh, back in the day, you know, about 12 years ago, maybe 13, and we had a kiosk there, uh, for a few months, wanted to test everything, see how it was received, and everybody loved the cupcakes. We had cupcakes, cookies, and cake pops. And then we left there, we found a small location, uh, just around the corner from us here in Norwalk, um, which, uh, which, uh, which is, um, behind the Duncan, uh, next to the betting store that people knew, know of, um, and then we, uh, we were there for about 5 years and, uh, we were busting out from the seams and we said, hey, we need a bigger space and we came over to here and, and, uh, we're. Now on Main Avenue next door to, uh, Walgreens and, um, tell us about your products. OK, so we've got cupcakes, delicious. We're known for our cupcakes, our specialty cakes. We have cakes. We have cookies, crispy chocolate chip cookies. Uh, people say they're insane. Um, I agree. But they're crispy chocolate chip cookies. Uh, we have our new product. We call it the Big Dipper. Um, it's a soft cookie. Um, we have chocolate chip. We have drizzle, it's a red velvet little baby, which I love the red velvet we've got peanut butter, uh, we've got, uh, pretzels. I mean, um. I think you keep talking I'll eat them. That's a red velvet with uh buttercream icing. It also comes in cream cheese. Uh, don't forget Valentine's Day is coming up. You need the red velvet. Becky, amazing stuff. You, you've had a couple of these yourself. Don't why now. Uh, we've got more for you in our next hour. Just a few, just a few, and everyone was delicious. Thanks, Mark. Thanks guys.

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Mark8AML117_2025-01-17-08-18-41

Well, we made it to Friday. Time for Main Street, Connecticut, a chance to showcase our local towns and cities and all they have to offer this week. We're in Norwalk. News 12 Connecticut's Mark Sudall is at Dave and Charlie's hometown deli. Mark and Becky, the grill is hot and you can see they got some, uh, a little steak going there. They have some eggs going. I mean, the sandwiches are flying out of the door here. It's amazing. Uh, now you remember Dave Cuban from Planet Pizza. We did a story with him earlier this week on National Pizza Day. Well, this is his brother-in-law, Charlie Gonzalez, who's a part owner here at Dave and Charlie's hometown Dey. So how long have you had this place going? Uh, we're working on our 4th year, Mark, 4th year, November 1st will be 4 years, and I mean, look, you're right next to Norwalk High School. You get a lot of high school, they're a huge part of our business. Me about the crowds you get here. Oh, it's about 100 kids daily. Yeah, this is like their hangout. We, we want it to be like their clubhouse. Come here and feel safe and get something to eat, you know, gatherings, whatever, whatever they want to do here, this is their playground. So what are some of your specials that people come in for? Uh, so right now Ci's making one of them right now, which is the hometown cutlet. Oh, the hometown. Oh, that's delicious. That's one of our most popular ones is the chicken cutlet with fresh motts, roasted peppers. Balsamic glazes, balsamic vinaigrette, basil. Oh, that looks it's amazing. Oh yeah, wait till you try it. What's your favorite? My favorite is the hometown chicken. Is that the Italian combo. Wow, Italian combos you can't beat them. Oh, you can't beat that. Yeah, no, it's a really good sandwich. It's filling, always fresh. So what are your hours? Uh, we open at 6 in the morning and we close at 5 o'clock. We're here 7 days a week. On the weekends we close at 2 from 6 to 2. There's Dave just sneaking by on you here. I'm busy back there. It's tight, but we try to make it work. He's trying to, you know, knock it on on this week. That's all right. Uh, oh, I gotta try this, uh, what do you got here? Bacon, egg and cheese. We got a bacon, egg and chip, bacon egg and cheese on a brioche. That's brioche. Oh, that's nice and soft. Take a nice big bite. There you go. Oh, Taking some of this back, Becky. I'm full from the last two stops. Charlie, thank you so much, Becky. Look at this, huh. Thank you. Oh, it looks good, Mark. Oh, I am hungry. That looks great.

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Main Street Connecticut: Showcasing the best Norwalk has to offer

News 12 is checking out all the best spots in Norwalk.

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