My wife and I got married with a very small and non-religious ceremony at the Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick and it was really nice (and great food, of course). Not super cheap, but we felt it was worth it, especially given how much medium to large weddings cost. It was in their bright greenhouse-ish room, which might fit the bill even if it isn't exactly gardeny. Worth a look at least.

Round trip tickets from NHV to GCT are between roughly $35 and $45 (depending on off peak or on peak), not $80. Still too expensive but nowhere near that bad. Express trains are at shortest 1 hr 40, many more local trains take 1 hr 55, and local trains back usually take a little over 2 hrs. Just as an FYI for anyone looking.

I'm not a trivia person, but I believe Fussy does Sunday night trivia? Or at least they were/had been. Their Instagram has a post about it from 10 weeks ago (but they aren't good about updating on Instagram or their website about anything anyway).

Somos, Tai Chi (for poke), G Cafe, Atticus are all good. Fussy a little further out is good too, though I get the feeling quality has gone down slightly and prices have gone up.

>Atticus carries an excellent local roaster from Fairfield co., im forgetting their name though.

Ilse? They were based in Stamford for a while, though have since moved way up to North Canaan. Their beans are very good though. Very expensive, but very good quality beans. I've got one of their Ethiopia's now and it's great.

Atticus Market also sometimes carries other some other beans from other roasters, but those roasters are usually not based in Connecticut.

Yes true – if your luggage is stair-friendly, its not too bad, but if you need an elevator it can be difficult. And again, the entire trip is much easier if you already know where you're going. In both GCT and especially Penn, it's easy to follow a few poorly planned signs and get lost in a labyrinth of hallways if you don't already know your way around.

FWIW: From the main terminal in Grand Central, the S platform can be most easily accessed from the southwest hallway (to find south quickly, it's opposite from the train platforms). If you're coming in from the lower level, the S platform is inconveniently located on the opposite side of the station from the escalator that leads up to the market.

Penn OTOH is just a labyrinthine shitshow. I've somehow developed instincts on where to go myself, but the best advice is to just follow signs for NJTransit.

Absolutely – 30 mins seems about right, possibly even a bit more if you aren't taking the subway during peak hours just in case (the S train especially runs well during commuter hours but is a bit sparser otherwise).

FWIW the S and the 1/2/3 are right next to each other in Times Square station, but yes still plenty of walking otherwise, don't want to cut it too close.

If you can take Metro North, you should also be able to take other non-Amtrak trains to get there:

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Metro North (Union Station to Grand Central)

Shuttle (S) train (Grand Central to Times Square)

1/2/3 downtown one stop (Times Square to Penn Station)

NJ Transit (NY Penn to Newark Airport EWR)

Airtrain (EWR Station to Terminal)

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Whether it's too much hassle is up to you, but I've done this plenty before and find it absolutely fine. That said, I'm a train commuter and constantly take Metro North and the subway, and I used to take NJ Transit all the time, so I'm very familiar with every leg of the journey. It might feel more overwhelming if you're not used to it.

If you’re interested in high-end coffee, Giv is good as a few others have mentioned. I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but their beans at least used to be available to buy from the Jitter Bus and Pistachio. Fussy and the Coffee Pedaler often have some nice high end beans for sale. Atticus Market sells Ilse, which is very expensive but very good. I’ve also occasionally seen a few other high end roasters at Atticus.

If you’re willing to drive a bit out of New Haven, Neat in Darien has excellent beans and is a very nice cafe, Roanjena in Glastonbury has Giv and often Ilse and is all-around an excellent place with great coffee and awesome baked goods, and Source Coffeehouse in Bridgeport has Passenger (PA based) and a rotating guest roaster, sometimes a local roaster.

I personally think Willoughby’s is dreadful, but if you’re into dark/medium roasts, they’ll probably have more of that then the other places I mentioned.

I always go to whatever Stop and Shop I'm nearest to. You often have to ask the attendant to turn the machine on, but they always oblige (and are required to).

Train. Don't drive. It's a very long ride (roughly 2 hours), although if you can get the new "super express" that stops only in Bridgeport and Stamford before Grand Central, it's not that bad ("only" about an hour and forty). Still, it's an exhausting commute if you do it more than a few times a week. I used to go twice a week and that was fine; I'm currently at 4 times a week and it's pretty rough. If you love NYC (as I do) it makes it better. I would not do it 5 times a week and would prefer to do it only 3 times.