Hartford Restaurant/Retail

[The Voice of Reason]

Big Mike!

even though HT runs/owns a store that I think might be kind of simular to bell and beep, they are quite a bit different than a corporate store. If the T-Mobile is a national retailer, and I do not know if it is, but it matters. national retailers just do not exist in Hartford, and I assure you cell phone companies are like pioneers into areas.

[HartfordTycoon]

Big Mike!

even though HT runs/owns a store that I think might be kind of simular to bell and beep, they are quite a bit different than a corporate store. If the T-Mobile is a national retailer, and I do not know if it is, but it matters. national retailers just do not exist in Hartford, and I assure you cell phone companies are like pioneers into areas.

I actually no longer own the store, but you are correct. Bell and Beep is an independent establishment and T Mobile may very well be a corporate owned operation, though I think T Mobile does allow for independent franchisees. If it is a corporate owned store I agree with you that it is a good sign for Hartford.

[redbaron]

I actually no longer own the store, but you are correct. Bell and Beep is an independent establishment and T Mobile may very well be a corporate owned operation, though I think T Mobile does allow for independent franchisees. If it is a corporate owned store I agree with you that it is a good sign for Hartford.

It's only a T-Mobile authorized vendor the store is actually called CT wireless source, or something like that....

[jcrc]

rumor has it McDonald's is closing but Wendy's may take the spot. Au Bon Pain is also closing, following Metlife to the burb.

[grock]

I heard Au Bon Pain was moving to the old Sovereign Bank location on Pearl STreet

[jcrc]

I heard Au Bon Pain was moving to the old Sovereign Bank location on Pearl STreet

I heard they are leaving, but like I'd said, rumor only. The corner space of the blue building could be nice, with outdoor seating potential.

[beerbeer]

I heard the new Coaches was lit up after the UConn game but not open.

[jcrc]

Looks like we are losing another retailer on Pratt Street. The art and frame shop is closing. Apparently business slow down and they went to Northland for some rent relief, and Northland told them to get lost. I am not sure what is going on with Northland, but they are laying a bit of people off. Their inability to get the long promised grocery store and other retailers, and losing lots of current tenants, and closing Goodwin Hotel, and laying people off; are they pulling out of Hartford?

[The Voice of Reason]

The place that was Roscoes up untill about 2 months ago has a sign on the front of it saying "DD's coming soon"

Not sure if its Duncan or something else. but if its duncan.... Why?

so I would be inclined to think it is more mom and pop.

Also a woman I work with said that she heard a Duncan was going to be moving into the statehouse square food court. that makes a little sense, but still, there are so many.

[Theophrastus Bombastus]

The place that was Roscoes up untill about 2 months ago has a sign on the front of it saying "DD's coming soon"

Not sure if its Duncan or something else. but if its duncan.... Why?

so I would be inclined to think it is more mom and pop.

Also a woman I work with said that she heard a Duncan was going to be moving into the statehouse square food court. that makes a little sense, but still, there are so many.

I heard the foodcourt in SHS was going away, any truth to that?

[jcrc]

I heard the foodcourt in SHS was going away, any truth to that?

I don't think so, but a few tenants are without lease. I think the owner wants to renovate the food court...and hike the rent. If it is going away, no way would dunkin' donuts build a shop inside.

[The Voice of Reason]

As someone who works in the building, I have a hard time seeing how they could get more money for the space as office or other uses than they do on the food court.

Mind you if they have a tennant like sears lined up I take that back there definately is a huge amount of public, and therefore unrentable space.

Also If this foodcourt were closed I think this would help the surrounding streets as many of the tennants have very loyal customers, and the street level retail in the area would fill up with these tennants.

For this reason I would not mind losing the convenience at all.

Hell I bring my lunch. so it means little to me.

And if the building owners could bring something more usefull to downtown in the main space I am all for it.

oh and the liquor store is gone, so since I have worked here (2 years) the drycleaner, the liquor store and DJ's have all closed. The only gain was the sushi place.

so, we will say -2

[JimSawhill]

I heard the foodcourt in SHS was going away, any truth to that?

Hmmm.....

I thought the food court at SHS was gone!!! Last time I was there (4 years ago) it was nearly empty.

[Luca Brasi]

I heard the foodcourt in SHS was going away, any truth to that?

I know that the restaurants there are operating without a lease and are month to month. It is conceivable on March 1, SHS could say they are closing the foodcourt and everyone could be out of business. Le Petit Chef is leaving the foodcourt and has signed a lease next to the old Roscoes on Temple and is building out his space as we speak because of the situation at SHS.

[Luca Brasi]

The place that was Roscoes up untill about 2 months ago has a sign on the front of it saying "DD's coming soon"

Not sure if its Duncan or something else. but if its duncan.... Why?

so I would be inclined to think it is more mom and pop.

Also a woman I work with said that she heard a Duncan was going to be moving into the statehouse square food court. that makes a little sense, but still, there are so many.

Don't worry.. there is already a Dunkin Donuts in the Richardson Building so I doubt they will be putting in another. I'm pretty sure all the D&D's downtown are owned by the same person.

[The Voice of Reason]

Don't worry.. there is already a Dunkin Donuts in the Richardson Building so I doubt they will be putting in another. I'm pretty sure all the D&D's downtown are owned by the same person.

I actually think of the one in Constitution plaza as being closer. It likely is further but the fact that you can see it from the front door makes it feel closer

I would hope that DD's would be like DJ's was.

It was one of the places I occasionally got an egg sandwich from.

I knew about Le Petit Chef. but they have been super slow moving over there. its been month and months of workingover there. I guess they are waiting untill the weather gets a little nicer, so they have a seemless start to the new location.

I think there was another location in the chow row getting some work done.

Also I want to remind everyone of the two places coming to pratt street. a strip tease exercise place, and a womens botique.

[Luca Brasi]

... a strip tease exercise place...

????????

[The Voice of Reason]

????????

Yes, these exist.

basicly its a danse studio with stripper poles, and they do stripper training, but its apparently an exceptional work out. its very popular with the stay at home mom. trying to stay sexy and all that.

they do a lot of stuff on the ple like the pros do, and it works the arms and legs with the climbing and all that sminning and the mid section gets a good workout with the gyrating.

[The Voice of Reason]

Here is a roundup of what I have seen anyways around downtown.

The first major item is that for the first time in over a year I see a worker on the roof of Kyto. he is bricking over a window that was sealed in 915 Main street to make it look nice. I am not sure if this is more a sign that work is begining at 915 Main again to finish things up, or if it is a sign the Kyto is moving forward. I should also point out that last friday I saw the owner of Kyto walk in the front door and there were lights on in there. not sure if work was happening, but it seems that he has not given up.

Le petit Chef is now open at chow row.

some place called DD's is coming to roscoes old location as well.

It is of course another large empty space at the State house Square food court.

Now, DJ's is closed , Le Petit Chef, the Liquor store, the little place behind the liquor store (used to sell jamaican beef paddys) the tailor shop are all closed.

also, I have heard that Dpiels will close eventually and be replaced by Dunkin Donuts. the people running it now are just keeping it warm for Dunkin.

I asked building management the other day if the rumors of the food court closing was true and also if Dunkin was coming. The answer was kind of diplomatic and he of course was holding cards close to his chest.

He confirmed Dunkin is coming to the food court on a long term lease.

this of course implies that the foodcourt will not be closing, but does not really mean crap since the rumor that D'piels is the location of the Dunkin. I bet that the plan is to close the court in general and do something else with it, and to move certain businesses into those corridore spaces to keep the place vibrant etc and maximize ocupancy by adding more office space on the ground floor.

who knows, but Dunkin is confirmed, that is really all.

Outside statehouse square, the entire plaza area is run by the building and he said to keep my eyes out for improvements out there. he mentioned that the balconies out there will be used for stuff. and there will be more vendors etc...

Between State House Square and what the BID was doing last year it might make for a nice atmosphere with many more stalls.

Asylum street:

with the cell phone place and the Soverign Bank open I just realized that every retail space on that block of Asylum is now filled. Obviously the nasty ssurface parking lot is a huge draw back, but it is nice to see that every space has something in it. I suspect that the landlords here are not asking insane rates.

Pratt:

I am not sure whats the long term play here, but in general I would say things have devolved a bit.

Joe Blacks is closed, but the Society room is fully moved in and has signage that looks pertty smart. The chinese imports store is now closed as is footstop as is cuginos as is sweet janes as is the UConn store as is some other location I forgot the name.

Cuginos was turned into a Thai place that looks GREAT, but almost always seems empty. such a shame it seems empty all the time, the location is truely class in appearance and a huge improvement over cugginos. The Uconn store of course was replaced my minutemen press and seems to be doing fine. The noodle place that went into the old No fish today location is quite good and affordable. not sure how they are doing. Jojo as always is holding things down, and there are signes in the footstop location and the other place that I can not remember what whas there for new stores. one a womens botique clothing store, the other a exercise pole aerobic studio. I have not seem any real change there though so who knows when anything will open. Blimpies, the Russell are standing strong.

Sweet Janes remains vacant as does Beckers as does the old larger itallian resturant and many of the other locations. Pratt street needs some love and needs it this spring to help secure the areas vitality. Not much just 1-2 more eateries. Vaughns and The russell are the only real resturants/bars left. If the place across from Vaughns could re open and maybe another small place like Vaughns it would be great.

Coaches new location across from Agave is a huge boost to that corner as is The Tavern next to Agave.

last weekend during the parade that curner area actually look like a nice finished off part of the city. It was kind of impressive Filled from the Mansion around the curner with the Pour house the lounge etc.

I miss sanding stone even though I did not go there very often, but the lounge down there looks pretty flashy from the outside.

again this is a part of the city with every retail location filled. I think they are all filled anyways. If only we could build a new Arena and re connect Pratt to Allyn and really jumpstart our retail.

I think thats pretty much everything I have seen recently except that there is a new place moving into the eurocafe location in the richardson building.

[Luca Brasi]

I think thats pretty much everything I have seen recently except that there is a new place moving into the eurocafe location in the richardson building.

The place is called Bocca Rossa and will be a wine bar and lounge according to the sign in the window. The curtains were open today and the place looks pretty impressive with red velvet curtains and chandeliers. Its the same people from Room 960.

Also have heard rumors of a new nightclub in the basement space under Koji.

I have also heard that Kyto actually has the OK to move forward, but who knows on that...

[The Voice of Reason]

The place is called Bocca Rossa and will be a wine bar and lounge according to the sign in the window. The curtains were open today and the place looks pretty impressive with red velvet curtains and chandeliers. Its the same people from Room 960.

Also have heard rumors of a new nightclub in the basement space under Koji.

I have also heard that Kyto actually has the OK to move forward, but who knows on that...

I think I posted about the nightclub under koji a while ao when I saw demo work happening over there in the fall. so thats been long on the hoof. we will see what happens, but if you heard about this outside of this thread at least its now a more solid rumor right? after I saw nothing else happen I assumed it died or was just a confused construction worker

Kyto has the OK it was in the city planning meeting info online, but it just says approved with conditions so you dont know if that has to do with the apartments or the resturant etc...

but there is definately someone still on the roof working right now.

I also forgot one more change

There is a new place over by firebox on Broad street that is like a jazz club. but its a nice addition to the South End. a very nice addition.

[PubCrawl]

Its good to see some life in this topic.

Looking forward to finding out where these places will be from the folks that brought us Half Door and Plan B:

http://www.westendsocial.com/

http://www.maxamigo.com/

maybe big kohones on park and ???

I think someone responded on Tanuki - I love that place and I wish that people would go there even more then they already do. Having something in that building makes a huge difference. Also, as someone who lives and works downtown I really wish Le Petit Chef would start opening on weekends every week, and not just for the parade. Something open on Sunday would be nice. Eurocafe used to do that and though the service wasn't good the food was pretty decent.

I watched the guy on Kyto today too - still not holding my breath. The owner seems to go in and out of that place a few days a week. We need more outdoor drinking / eating downtown.

[HartfordTycoon]

The social seems like a cool idea. Max Amigo's is interesting. I assumed it was a Max restaurant but it looks like it's the same company as Half Door and Plan B. I wonder if this is going to go smoothly with Max's Restaurant Group.

[The Voice of Reason]

MORE info...

Apparently DD's is a gyro place. not sure if its greek food in general, but I was told gyro place by a co-worker. I am a big fan of Tappas, but might find room in my heart for another greek place if its any good.

Also the new rumos is that MOE's southwest grille will be coming to the foodcourt. I checked MOE's web site and see nothing there, so it may just be a rumor. MOE's did say that they were looking to build 6 new moes in CT including one downtown, so I would not be shocked.

[ynksfn1986]

I wonder if this is going to go smoothly with Max's Restaurant Group.

That's certainly confusing. Which restaurant group is this?