Ridgefield sits in northwestern Fairfield County along Route 35 and Route 33, shaped by its preserved Main Street corridor of colonial and Federal-era architecture and a wooded ridgeline plateau. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum on Main Street stands as one of the oldest contemporary art museums in the country, featuring a risk-taking exhibition program and an exceptional sculpture garden. Keeler Tavern Museum preserves an eighteenth-century tavern with a cannonball still embedded from the 1777 Battle of Ridgefield. The Ridgefield Guild of Artists on Halpin Lane charms with rotating exhibitions, while Bennett’s Pond State Park delivers forested trails with reliable wood duck sightings.
The Main Street dining scene is accomplished and varied. Barolo Ristorante serves benchmark handmade pasta and a serious northern Italian wine list. Earth, Food and Fire on Governor Street impresses with wood-fired farm-to-table duck breast, while Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe rounds things out with handmade chocolates and seasonal ice cream.