This week in Stamford: 29 restaurants running prix fixe, a beer fest at Mill River, and the Moms bash that answers what your kid does after school

Morning, Stamford. School started August 25, which means the after school question is now urgent rather than theoretical, and there is an event on Sunday built entirely around answering it. Before that, Restaurant Weeks is running downtown through Labor Day, and Mill River Park hosts a beer, wine and spirits fest on Saturday afternoon that is emphatically not a family event. Both of those things can be true in the same park in the same weekend.

Best for families this week: the Stamford Moms Back-to-School Bash at Stamford Town Center on Sunday, free from 11 AM to 2 PM with 25 or more after school programs in one room, and the Kids Marketplace at Latham Park, also Sunday, where the vendors are children.

Stamford Downtown Summer Restaurant Weeks, running August 24 through September 7 at 29 downtown restaurants. Prix fixe lunch is $15 to $20 and dinner is $30 to $55, at places including Kouzina Greek Taverna, The Americano, Barcelona Wine Bar, FISH Restaurant + Bar, Blackstones Steakhouse, Columbus Park Trattoria and Hudson Social. Michael Moore, president of Stamford Downtown, runs it. Two full weeks is long enough that there is no excuse for ending up at the same place you always go. Ticketed by menu, all ages depending on venue, indoors. Details.

The Nissen Carousel at Mill River Park, 1010 Washington Boulevard, Saturday and Sunday 9 AM to 5 PM. Still the cheapest reliable twenty minutes of childcare downtown. Low cost, families welcome, outdoors. Details.

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Yoga Nidra with Jen Irwin at Sala Tree Yoga House, 135 Atlantic Street, second floor (downtown), 6:45 to 7:30 PM. Forty-five minutes of guided rest, which is a reasonable ask on the third night of the school year. Free with contributions welcome, adults, indoors. Details.

Pop-Up Mahjong at the Stamford Diner, hosted by the Greenwich Mahjong Club. A Greenwich club that drives to a Stamford diner to play mahjong is a very specific and very Fairfield County thing to be doing on a Thursday. Ticketed, adults, indoors. Details.

Coffee and Conversations at Serendipity Labs, 700 Canal Street, first floor (Waterside), 9 to 11 AM. The American Marketing Association's Connecticut chapter runs a monthly meetup here: bring a marketing question, argue about trends with people who do this for a living. There are AMA-CT shirts for anyone who brings a friend. Free, adults, indoors. Details.

Sip and Paint Party, 47 Kirkham Place. Ticketed, 21+, indoors. Details.

450 backpacks went out to Stamford students at the Boys and Girls Club, and the sponsors wrote a check on top of it. Optimum and Warner Bros. Discovery filled and handed out the bags with school supplies at an event with activities, music and refreshments. Optimum also donated $4,000 for STEM programming and after school initiatives, which brings its total contributions to the club past $26,000 since 2021. Craig Baker is the club's chief executive officer, Sam Gordon its director of development, and Mayor Caroline Simmons attended. Source: Patch.

Stamford is out of compliance with the federal housing agency because it has not spent money it already has. The city is carrying a backlog of unspent United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funds large enough to put nearly $1 million in future federal housing money at risk. Stamford's Community Development Office has administered HUD funds in qualifying neighborhoods for close to fifty years, covering housing, public improvements, economic development and public services, so this is a spending pace problem rather than a new program. Source: Stamford Advocate.

Mayor Caroline Simmons condemned two days of federal immigration enforcement in the city, and the schools spelled out their own position. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ran operations in Stamford around August 24 and 25. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network says more than 20 people were detained across a multi-city operation. Simmons said she was "horrified by the cruelty of these actions" and that "our city is not made safer when people are randomly removed from our streets and their rights are violated." Board of Education President Andy George and Superintendent Dr. Adrian Talley said jointly that schools welcome all children regardless of immigration status, will not collect immigration status information, and will not grant ICE access without a valid judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. The city posted rapid response and legal support resources for affected families. Source: Patch.

Stamford Beer, Wine and Spirits Fest at Mill River Park, 1010 Washington Boulevard, 1 to 4:30 PM. Fest Productions runs it, general admission comes with a souvenir sample glass, and there is live entertainment, food for sale and games. Read the rules before you go, because they are strict: 21 and over with photo identification, no children, no pets, no outside food or drink, no large bags, and no re-entry once you are in. Designated driver tickets are $15. Event day parking is $15, two dollars off for park members. Ticketed, 21+, outdoors. Details.

Stamford Downtown Farmers Market at Veterans Memorial Park, 130 Atlantic Street, 9 AM to 1 PM. Running Saturdays through October 10 with produce, flowers, bread, jam, cheese and oils. It takes Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which not every market around here does. Free to browse, families welcome, outdoors. Details.

Wine Down Book Club Mixer at Winfield Street Coffee, 6 PM. Ticketed, 21+, indoors. Details.

The Stamford Moms Back-to-School Bash at Stamford Town Center, 100 Greyrock Place, 11 AM to 2 PM. Representatives from 25 or more after school programs set up tables around Level 4, with performances and demonstrations in the Grand Court. Presented by Bartley Family Orthodontics. If you have spent the last week wondering what your kid is doing between 3 and 6 PM in October, this is three hours that solves it, and it costs nothing. Free, families welcome, indoors. Details.

Kids Marketplace at Latham Park (downtown), 1 to 7:30 PM. A marketplace where the vendors are children selling handmade things and baked goods they made, organized around teaching budgeting and customer service by making them actually do it. Free to attend, families welcome, outdoors. Details.

Cake Picnic at Harbor Point, 201 Commons Park South, 2 to 6 PM. Four hours of pastries, lunch, drinks, music and games on the grass, run by Pastel Cupcakes. Tickets are $50, which is a real number for a picnic, so know that going in. Ticketed, all ages, outdoors. Details.

Restaurant Weeks runs through Monday, September 7, so the second week of it covers Labor Day weekend entirely. Details.

Open Flow Yoga returns to Harbor Point Triangle Park on Tuesday, September 1. Details.

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