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“Hey, it's Fran from Chicks in the Office. It's Peak Summer.”
One plan is turning into five, but trust all be wearing Abercrombie to all of them. Catch me in their Sloan Taylor Pan at work and then the happy hour right after the Dylan dress for dinner plans when you want something easy, but still put together. And of course, they're denim, because Abercrombie denim just works no matter the plan. Keep up with the pace of summer, without overthinking it, shop in the app online and in-stores.
It's the Ryan Resillot Show presented by DRAPkins. Now if you're wondering that's not Ryan's voice, you're correct. This is its producer Kyle Crayton. We do not have a loaded show today. This is actually a one-off that I was hoping we could tack onto a show and maybe blend in a little bit, but we are right in your face here with a bonus episode. I went to Danbury Connecticut to fulfill a childhood dream of going to the Danbury Fair Mall.
“I think they asked me as a joke to do it, but you know, if it's asked of me, I will do it.”
So I recorded my before and after, gave you a little history lesson. And yeah, so that's all coming up right after this. This summer, whatever you're watching, baseball, golf, soccer, racing, draft King says you covered for every single moment of it. The draft King sports app is now available in all 50 states, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. From Florida to Texas to California, and I spent a ton of time in California, and the whole time
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All right, it is Saturday, July 11th, around 8 a.m. Such a pretty good last night. Salads are pretty good here. I'm in Pekipsy, New York right now. But the reason for this is today we are headed to Dan Berry, Connecticut for the main attraction there, which is the mall. We'll get to that. But a little history real quick. Dan Berry was settled in 1685 by eight families of colonists from the now,
Stanford and Norwalk areas. The land was bought from the Hakyoki, man, I looked up the pronunciation earlier, but that was like 30 minutes ago.
“Pack the pack yoke. I think it's the pack yoke. It's now a awkward speaking tribe.”
It became a formal town in 1702. It was an important supply depot for the military during the
Revolutionary War. Another fun fact, the mineral Dan Berry was discovered there in 1839. So
that's something. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut, clocking in at about 86,000 people for the 2020 census and it was the number one city on money magazines top American cities to live in in 1988, cited for low crime, good schools, and location. Probably the proximity to New York city. It's also known as Hat City, which was once the center of the American Hat industry. I can run through that really quick. Dan Berry's first hat shop opened in 1780. They were doing like
12 hats a week. I think maybe they were 18 hats a week sounds right. By 1800, the city was pumping out 20,000 hats per year. By 1887, 30 factories were pumping out 5 million hats per year. There were lots of problems with mercury poisoning during the felting process. If you've heard of the mad hatters disease, but locally, it had a fun little name known as the Dan Berry Shakes.
It doesn't sound as bad.
1890s to the early 1900s. By the 1920s, the industry was facing a decline. But the big blow
“became after World War II. There's a lot of returning soldiers went hatless, which sparked a trend”
that accelerated in the '50s throughout the country. Dan Berry's last major hat factory clothes in 1964, and the last hat, I'm sure there's a little smaller dad hat companies there, but the last hat was made in Dad Berry in 1987 when the last small hat factory closed. Some attractions for Dan Berry. It was like, we'll say there's not a ton, but the John Riderhouse. He was a carpenter during the Rotalutionary War, and the house was built in 1785.
And that's it, now it's a museum. Maybe I'll check it out. I was looking a heartstone castle. It was finished in the 1899. I'm not actually a really big castle guy if we're talking to 1800s, there's a couple of those in the northeast, but I don't think it's going to be on my list. Just doesn't seem like it's got the same magic of a medieval castle. But it was commissioned by a photographer who moved out five years later in 1905, that had changed hands for one more time
“and now it's owned by the city of Dan Berry. Alright, I think that's all I got. Let me see.”
Oh, this is another thing. Dan Berry's federal prison was one of the main housings for conscientious objectives during World War II. I think that's the extent of the non- Dan Berry mall things I have for you. Alright, let's move on to the mall. So it's not, I mean, we call it in my area of the Dan Berry mall, but it's actually the Dan Berry Fair Mall, and that's because
the first Dan Berry Fair was held in 1821. It was more of an agricultural deal, and it didn't
become an annual event. It was kind of sporadic until 1869. It's a little help from the manufacturer's of hats, rundle, and white, but I think they formed some sort of society that, you know, did stuff, including having the Dan Berry Fair we are. The last fair was in 1981, pretty good run. After that, the site was cleared for the Dan Berry Mall, which opened in 1986. Today, there are currently 192 stores and restaurants in the Dan Berry Mall, and some of them on my list are
going to be Brooks Brothers, Champs Sports, a revamped Abercrombian fit, shout out to Serrity, LL Bean. You know, I was under the impression that was a catalog, which I would leave through, had a lot of LL Bean backpacks, because I wanted the Jan Sports, but my mom said LL Bean was more of a, you can put more stuff in an LL Bean. Macy's, we have Macy's here, but it's kind of
of a declining Macy, so always pop my head into a Macy's lucky brand, love lucky brand T-shirts. I was
under the impression that they were closed, but there's lucky brand. There's a love sac show room. Always been a dream to have a sectional couch, so I'm going to sit on some love sacs, and I'm not really sure why, but I'm definitely going to go to Williams and Sonoma, William Sonoma. Yeah, and I'll pop my head into the AMC just to see what we're working with there. We've got regal cinemas here, but I just want to see what kind of movies they're watching over there.
“I think that's it. We're going to go with my sister and her fiance, who said there's a book store”
not far, not far from the big mall there, and yeah, it's an hour there, our back, it actually 52 minutes is what it's suggesting, so, you know, not a huge trip, but some I'm going to knock off my list today. I will report back after we cross back over the border into New York. All right, see you guys. Okay, it is Sunday, July 12th, 845 in the morning, and I could tell you off to bat my allergies,
our kick of my ass, so sorry, in advance, or the handful of sniffles, you're probably going to hear ended up doing the post game today, because life got in the way a little bit. I thought we are going to have a really, it was ended up being pretty cool sports night, but not as cool as it was built to be, and that's sort of like what's going on within very today. So I got to the mall around 1230, it was like a 50 minute trip, parking lots were full, that's a good sign. I was excited to see
a mall, like bustling outside of the Christmas season. The second we walked in, it was clear.
That's up to what's wrong, it was way too hot in there, stagnant air, scouts, like maybe it's the skylights, and we just, as we moved through the mall, it was like something, something is off. Some school, some of the stores had their own cooling systems. Others didn't, when I saw the
Box fans, I was like, I don't think we're going in there.
the bones of a JC Penis. I mean, this was, I thought they were all gone. I thought it was Sears and
“JC Penis out to window, but yeah, they had like walls in there dividing what used to be the whole”
store with, you know, there's like the lights were down, and they put fake walls up, walk around there for as long as I could stand it. So that was that was crazy. I thought they were done. Well, yeah, once I was there for a minute, I realized there was kind of only two stores, I really wanted to see that I couldn't really get in pickipsy, and one of those where it was LLB, in which was awesome. What a highly recommend. There was like five or six sort of like sports
stores, you know, sports apparel stuff, which actually was like, oh wait, I mean Connecticut, there was like, I had like a nice pick of Patriots stuff there. So I got like, I had a couple Patriots
items, which you know, in New York and LA, it's just like good luck. There's like one basic,
navy hat that sucks. So yeah, that was cool. That was a nice thing about being Connecticut. Was there with my sister and her fiance there. Everyone seemed to like have a couple of stores they wanted to hit, and then when it came time to eat, it was like, we were just going to go to the food court. There's a couple things. You know, we don't have a Chick-fil-A here. I know, crazy. We got most of the other big ones, but Chick-fil-A would, you know, have sort of like, I'll maybe
we'll go get some Chick-fil-A. It was just so hot. We decided we could need in the food court. I think the food court is probably the hottest part of the hot mall. So there was a cheesecake factory attached to it. I got out voted on that, which I'm glad I did because I had a great meal
of the cheesecake factory. You know, I think doing a lot of time in LA made me think like,
“don't go to franchises or chains because you should go to these one-off places that are,”
you know, only doing it the way they're doing it. And as I move back, there's nothing wrong with chains. Go to a chillies. Get that three for me. So anyway, this now has taken quite a bit of time. I get don't regret it. But there's a difference between a food court meal and a sit down. She's cake factory meal. Anyway, so this is now done. It's like 430. I'm like, all right, we did it. We should, we should go our separate ways now. And my sister had wanted to go to this bookstore.
That's, I don't know, two miles away. She, she'd heard it's what she said. Let me take a look at the quote here. It's like the best in the tri-state because it's not the biggest, but it's the best in the tri-state. And I'm thinking about the Norway game. It's 430. I think it's about Norway, England. I'm like, all right, we're 50 minutes away. It's 430. If we just
“leave after the cheesecake factory thing, maybe I'll get to watch most of this game. And my wife,”
my sister and her fiance were all like, we're going to this, and this is a non-mall excursion by the way, this is, like I said, two miles away. So I'm like, okay, I'll vote it on that. I'm not, I'm not beat three women. When it comes to choosing what we do next. So we, we drive to this thing. It's, it's in this place called the summit at Dan Berry. And I just saw the movie "Backgrounds" a kind of recently. And it was like, you know, it was like a flashback of some sort.
It was like this old hospital. We had to drive around like three times trying to get in because it's like, it's like, it's like a converted hot. I thought it was a hospital, like an 80s hospital, but Reddit says it was just it, you know, mixed-use office buildings. But they have changed it into several different residences, uh, and I've been on Reddit this morning. And the people who live there are like, this is why you don't turn offices into, into buildings. Like, there's no,
like, the ventilation's bad. The, uh, the windows are all sealed. It's possible to heat and cool. But, uh, anyway, um, so we drive around like four times trying to get to this bookstore, which we end up having to use the website to get actual directions because Apple and Google Maps are all fucked up. They're using the office building days of this, this place. Uh, so we get there. It's like built into, you know, the bottom floor of this building in a parking garage.
We get, we get in there. It's probably now five o'clock. Good news. This place closes at six. Oh my god. Maybe we'll catch the end of the Norway game. Go in there. Air conditioning's fucked again. Like no way. Uh, this bookstore was not great. Uh, shout out to Brian Curtis and the press box. I don't want to shoot on bookstores, but it was just funny that my, I looked dead at my sister. I'm like best in the tri-state, uh, and I had to be quiet
because it wasn't big at all. Um, really unorganized, um, but use bookstore. So the prices were right. I got a couple things. I got into thin air from John Crack Hour. I did get the wager because it was a use copy, even though it was a hard copy. Five books. Really good condition. And, uh,
This other smaller book on, uh, American Indians.
It seemed like stupid enough to, I think I paid like $18 for three books. Like hard covers too.
“Uh, yeah. So, uh, my sister gave it her best shot. I think I bought those books after 20 minutes”
and just sat outside because it was the same fucking temperature as it was inside. Well, I thought I were sitting outside. I think they had like a, they had like this wouldn't take
“tactile game that was missing the one O-piece. Uh, so we did that for about 15, 20 minutes.”
And my sister and her fiance came out and we made it back. So all in all,
temporary mall, better than the Pekipsi Galleria. I always knew that. But not much better.
Not or not way better. So probably not going to go back there. We are thinking about woodberry commons. Even though it's a burry, it's not in Connecticut. It's an, uh, sort of an eye-ack lower in New York area. So I heard there's a polo outlet there that your boy is titulated by. So yeah, that was fun. It was like 45 minutes. When I told my friends
“that when I was doing they were sort of like Ryan and so we were like, why the fuck would you do that?”
Kind of explained. It was sort of a spiritual journey. Just never got to do that trip
back in the day in high school and stuff. So yeah, it was cool. Um, what I recommend it. Maybe if it's cool or out. Maybe if it's cool. Maybe it was just a bad day on the, on the age fact, but that was tough. Definitely took me out of the experience a little bit.
Alright, first travel. See you guys.
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