Santa's Route Up Bedford Street Passes a Burned Corner and the Tenants Who Stayed Nearby

When Santa, Rudolph and the Grinch finish rappelling down Landmark Square on December 6 and start walking up Bedford Street toward the tree at Latham Park, how much of the block they pass will look like last year's?

The corner of Bedford and Spring is still boarded up. A block farther on, a parking lot has become a public plaza. Of the six businesses the 2025 fire forced out, three have reopened within a few blocks: one on Spring Street, one on Summer Street and one farther down Bedford itself. Downtown lost a building at 184 Bedford. Half of its tenants are still downtown, close to the route the holiday crowd will walk.

The three dates that put the crowd on these streets

Stamford Downtown's season comes in three pieces, and each one sends people onto a different set of downtown streets.

The Stamford Advocate reports that the parade draws about 100,000 spectators a year. The balloon lineup includes Clifford the Big Red Dog and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Hey Stamford adds Elmo, Curious George, Frosty the Snowman, Abby Cadabby and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It also says Colin Cosell, the public address announcer for the New York Mets, returns as master of ceremonies, and that the parade runs in partnership with NBC Sports. The Saturday inflation party at Hoyt and Summer has music, parade performers and Santa.

The parade stays on Summer, Atlantic and the cross streets between them. The Heights & Lights listing is the event that pulls people onto Bedford. After a descent from 22 stories and a fireworks show, Santa and friends march up Bedford Street to Latham Park for holiday music and the lighting of Stamford's Holiday Tree. Stamford Downtown hasn't posted a start time yet, so the walk's daylight or dark is still unknown.

The block, walked in the order Santa will walk it

Heading north from the Landmark Square end of downtown, the march passes these stops in order:

1. Spring Street and the 184 Bedford corner. The building where Bedford meets Spring has been empty since a four-alarm fire on March 7, 2025.
2. The new crosswalk and signal at Bedford and Spring. Both are part of the same city project that built the plaza.
3. Uncorked at 167 Bedford. It opened in July in the former Bari167 space.
4. The Bedford and Forest plaza. It opened at the end of July on what was a small parking lot.
5. Latham Park and the tree.

Each stop has changed since last December, and the biggest change is at the first one.

What happened to the six tenants of 184 Bedford

In September, a Stamford Advocate follow-up reported that the property is "vacant and boarded up with its uncertain future hanging in the wind." The fire displaced six businesses: the Women's Business Development Council, Chez Vous Bistro, Atelier Valoar Couture, Whim, Shiro and U and I Deco Fine Arts and Framing. The building sits on the corner, so tenants had either Bedford Street or Spring Street addresses depending on which side they faced.

Here is where they are now, according to the same Advocate report:

• U and I Deco Fine Arts and Framing had been on the ground floor at 33 Spring St. since 2003. It moved to 96 Bedford St. in early June 2025, keeping it on Bedford Street.
• Atelier Valoar Couture moved to 13 Spring St., just around the corner from its old space.
• The Women's Business Development Council opened a renovated office at 422 Summer St. on Sept. 1, 2026. Its CFO, Tasha Jackson, told the Advocate the location keeps the organization "in close proximity to where we were previously."
• Whim closed its Stamford store. It still has shops in Ridgefield and Darien, plus Bronxville and Mount Kisco, N.Y.
• Chez Vous Bistro and Shiro are closed indefinitely and have not announced plans to reopen in Stamford.

Three of the six reopened within a few minutes' walk of the corner, and a fourth still trades in nearby towns. The owners of U and I Deco described the move this way in an emailed statement to the Advocate:

"In many ways, the new gallery represents what we hoped could come out of such a difficult experience..."

When WBDC opened on Summer Street, Mayor Caroline Simmons called the fire "one of the worst fires our downtown has seen in many years," the Advocate reported. More than a year and a half later, the building is still empty while its framing gallery, couture atelier and nonprofit are open nearby.

Spring Street loses one more name

The Spring Street side of that corner changed again in October. The Stamford Advocate reported on Oct. 22 that Bar Rosso, the Italian restaurant that opened on Spring Street in 2011, has closed for good after 15 years. Owner Diego Suarez-Caicedo said in a statement that the team is "exploring opportunities for the future of Bar Rosso, including potential relocation and new partnerships," and noted that no plans are final.

That closure is the newest change at this end of Bedford. Its outcome is also still open, the same as the burned building's.

Where the city spent its $3 million

One block up from the boarded corner, the public side of the street has a different story. On July 30, the city opened a permanent 9,500-square-foot plaza at Bedford and Forest, Patch reported. For the previous five years the small parking lot there had been used as temporary outdoor dining. The Transportation, Traffic & Parking Department made it permanent, adding raised crosswalks to slow traffic, new signals, green space, new trees, public seating and room for restaurant tables. A $2 million state grant and $1 million from the city paid for it.

The project reaches back down the block as well. Stamford Downtown's construction notice describes new traffic signals at both Bedford and Spring and Bedford and Forest. It also describes raised crosswalks at both intersections, built for accessibility and to slow cars on Bedford. The pavement in front of the boarded building is new even though the building isn't.

This will be the plaza's first December. No winter program for it has been announced, so on Dec. 6 it will likely work as a place to stand and wait along the march.

Food along the march

Uncorked is the newest restaurant on this stretch. Patch reported in August that it opened July 23 at 167 Bedford St. in the former Bari167 space. Patch described it as chef Nick Martschenko's high-end, casual concept. Its own site lists Sunday hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Both the parade and Heights & Lights fall on a Sunday this year.

Several Bedford Street restaurants took part in Stamford's Winter Restaurant Weeks in February 2026. Stamford Downtown's directory places them here:

• Hudson Social, 128 Bedford St.
• Bedford Hall, 135 Bedford St.
• Capriccio Café, 189 Bedford St.
• FISH, 245 Bedford St.

Holiday hours often change, so check with each restaurant before planning a meal around the tree lighting.

Parking around the construction

Heights & Lights and the parade share downtown with active construction. Stamford Downtown's Heights & Lights page recommends Stamford Town Center, the Bell Street Garage, the Summer Street Garage or the Landmark Garage, entered from Atlantic Street. Because of "ongoing construction around the Bedford Street Garage," it advises against that garage.

The construction is at 130 Broad Street, where the F.D. Rich Company is building The Coastline. Stamford Downtown describes it as a 13-story building with 200 rental apartments and 4,400 square feet of ground-floor retail. The organization says the project affects westbound Broad Street traffic and access to the Bedford Street Garage. The developer expects to finish in fall 2027, so this will not be the last holiday season that construction shapes how downtown parks.

Stamford Downtown has not yet posted its 2026 parade road-closure plan, and last year's closure schedule does not apply to this year.

Fatou Niang follows downtown Stamford for clients who want to know how a street is changing before they decide anything about it. That includes which storefronts are reopening, which public projects have been paid for and which corners are still waiting for an owner's plan. If you'd like that block-by-block view of Stamford or anywhere else in lower Fairfield County, Niang Real Estate is glad to talk it through. Work With Fatou.