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Business & Tech

New Canaan Diner Smiles for the Camera

Forest Street's newest hot spot is the set of a photo shoot for an article in Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine.

If you were one of the many people that dined at the New Canaan Diner on Thursday, you might have noticed the cameras. Or the lights. Or the white chocolate banana creme pie that vogued for photograph after photograph atop the diner's counter with the determination of a contestant on America's Next Top Model.  

For a day, the diner was the set of a photo shoot that will appear in a story in the April issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray. 

The story, "Lighten Up Diner Food", will feature five classic diner dishes and how to prepare them in 500 calories or less. 

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The dishes, inspired by menu items from five 1950s diners across the country, were prepared in the New Canaan Diner's kitchen Thursday.

Assistant photo editor Mackenzie Craig, a New Canaan High School graduate, said she pitched the idea of using the New Canaan Diner when her team had trouble finding a 50s-style location in New York City. 

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Craig called Olga Giapoutzis, the establishment's matriarch who opened the diner with her husband Teddy in December, to propose the idea last week. And, to anyone who has met GIapoutzis, her warm and welcoming response didn't come as a surprise.

"She asked me if they could come to our diner and I said, 'Of course, of course!'"

Until 5 p.m., some members of the magazine's team cooked (and baked) the five dishes that are to be featured in the article. Others meticulously set up shots by moving salt shakers shaped like classic Coca-Cola bottles here or positioning a plate there. Healthier variations of diner staples like disco fries (baked instead of fried; covered in mushrooms instead of bacon) and crunch berry pancakes were whipped up in the New Canaan Diner's kitchen with ingredients supplied by the magazine. 

Though the spotlight was switched off and cameras tucked away on Thursday evening, a certain article in April's issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray is sure to be clipped out and hung up next to framed posters of Marilyn Monroe Elvis Presley on the walls of the New Canaan Diner.  

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