About the Owner

Upscale Downtown was opened in January 2007 by Barbara Levitt and Susan Tritter. Susan stayed with the business through it’s first two years and left in December of 2008. Barbara will forever be dedicated to her for her financial, technological and philosophical wisdom!

Barbara was born in Brooklyn, New York (who doesn’t know that already!) and emigrated first to New London, CT and then to Niantic before moving with her husband Joel and daughter Lia to Danbury on New Year’s Eve, 1981!

Graduated from Brooklyn College with an elementary teaching degree and a Master’s in math education, Barbara worked as a substitute teacher in Brooklyn, New York, administrative assistant to the chairman of the History department at Brooklyn College and in various positions at a Brooklyn weekly newspaper.
Barbara and Joel were married in April 1973 and their children Lia and Jessica were born in 1980 and 1983. Jessica married Joe in 2006, come see the pictures!!

In New London, Barbara and Joel and Rufus and Nicodemus, (the cats!) (to be preceded by pussycats, Sniffer, and followed by Bagel and Bialy and Eggcream!) published $uper$aver, a monthly shopper’s newspaper for two years, selling the advertising and doing the artwork, distribution and financial work too! Barbara became a tutor in a Special Education class at a school in Niantic for several years before they left for Danbury when Joel was appointed Art Coordinator for the Danbury Public Schools in October 1980.

Barbara worked at The News-Times for almost 22 years beginning the paper’s Newspaper in Education program and produced curriculum and held workshops for teachers in all of greater Danbury’s public, private and parochial schools. This was a great job which allowed her to have birthday parties for Dr. Seuss, learn about the Stock Market, football, be a special guest in kindergarten classes and travel to conferences in L.A. And Toronto, and even train NIE coordinators in the Bahamas and Ashland, Kentucky!

Barbara’s hobbies in preparation for owning Upscale Downtown include endless years of shopping, collecting useful and useless items at flea markets and tag sales, leading shopping trips to Brooklyn and Manhattan and probably more shopping!
Barbara’s hobbies include, you guessed it!, shopping, keeping up with old friends, enjoying her new puppy, Gingy, traveling to New York with Joel and talking to our customers! She is Vice President of Congregation B’nai Israel synagogue in Danbury and has been very involved in volunteer community activities for almost 30 years.

Joel has recently retired and begun a group called Artists in Transition which seeks to help artists who have health issues to network. He has started this organization as a creative response to his own very serious health crises two years ago. Please ask me about this organization. I am very proud of him!

The store is dedicated to the memory of my parents, whose wedding picture you can see on the shelf, Kay and Harry Robinson, who taught me about the most important things in life, including shopping! They would have been proud of me.