Hartford Restaurant/Retail

[The Voice of Reason]

Ate at Max Burger on Friday night.

I could trash the place, but I do want to be as fair and objective as possible.

overall, for burgers, you could do better any any place that serves pub food. I could easily list a dozen places with better burgers in the greater hartford area.

I like a good fancy burger, so you should know I am not anti classy. but here goes

My wife had fried Oysters as her app shared with her friend.

the bredding was so salty it was hard to eat.

to be thats just sad. breading, or batter, whatever you call it is easy to test for saltiness. they ate them, but both said they were just a enough too salty that a half order was all each could handle. it should be noted they both gave up their beers and has about 2 glasses of water while eating them.

I got onion rings with by Burger. they were extremely greasy, but not is the way you expect onion rings to be. there was almost no breading attatched to the rings, so I had a bowl of greasy onions, but almost none of the breading that maked O-rings tastey.

they were not "bad" just not good. I ate them because I love onions greasy or not and im not the kind of guy to complain about food or send anything back. but needless to say I expected more out of a MAX place.

Meal: my wife and her friend shared the mexican themed burger.

it was pretty good, but not as good as good as most mexican themed burgers. The Tavern downtownhas a MUCH better mexican burger. Plan B crushes the face off of the max burger in a fight. I just got one bite, but she was dissapointed and I was not impressed.

I ordered poorly I can admit that

I ordered some fatty burger because it was a jake with my wife from when we were her for drinks the week before. it was a burger that had grilled cheese sandwiches as the bun. sounds utterly unhealthy so it should taste decent right?

no

it was somehow flavorless.

so as an experiment I ate part of one of the grilled cheeses and it was flavorless. the burger meat was ok, but lacked any hind of charing that maked a hamburger taste so good. it was just bland. cooked to temp fine, but flavorless.

worst of all there was supposedly bacon on this burger that they put into the grilled cheese and I could not even taste the bacon but a tiny tiny hint. mind you it was maybe 1 piece and it was the thinnest bacon ever.

so I will go back, but ONLY for beers. they have a few decent beers and outdoor seating. but it was just not a good burger place at all.

if getting a burger in WHart go to plan B. besides being way tastier they have a better beer selection, and honestly its has more options.

MAX burger had very few options, and that botherd me as well. there were only 5-6 burgers.

total meal cost 36 before tip and beer.

6 beers cost us 32 plus 4 in tip. we paid for the beer in cash before hand because we had a 90... yes 90 minute wait. so good for them, but if you do want to check it out call ahead.

CALL AHEAD!

and lastly

The Dunkin Donuts coming soon sign iup where DD's used to be in Statehouse Square.

EDIT:

The society room was packed Saturday night for some black tie event. it easily brought more people downtown than Joe blacks would have on a given Saturday.

[jcrc]

And on those many nights society room is not open joe black easily bring more people to downtown. This society room vs. joe black comparison is really futile. For one thing without joe black spending massive amount of money to renovate the place society room would have never look at the space or consider hartford for that matter. joe black's extreme misfortune is what makes society room today. while society room is bring them in on certain nights, we still have to thank joe black for making it possible for society room.

[The Voice of Reason]

jo, I do not think anyone can forget the bajillion that Joe blacks spend on that building. and there is no VS battle as best I can tell. I think the sentiment that has been put fourth is more "its not all bad" or even "in some ways its better" in terms of the activity at that location. I think everyone was sad that a resturant/bar closed, but the point is that society room seems to be doing its park to bring people downtown, so life is pertty good.

I know I speak for myself anyways.

I think the comparisons are there because it is doing so much better than thought when the bar closed.

Ideally they would find a way to rent out the front of the house to a bar or something so 2 businesses could occupy the Joe Blacks space.

[MadVlad]

If I could only talk United Technologies into building a world Headquarters there.

I tell ya, a 50+ story world HQ fronting Main, and a 25 story condo tower tucked in next to Mckinnons parking acces stays in the same place between the two buildings.

UTC uses the apartment for corporate housing and relocations. UTC sells off all its suburban offices in Farmington.

the city gains another 400 or so residents, and another 3000 or so office workers. time it just right so it co-incides with the commuter rail opening

See, now we are speaking the same language...

[The Voice of Reason]

363 Capitol Ave is definately being renovated into a dunkin Donuts

Its on the corner of Capitol and Lawrence.

This is more evidence of the improvements in that area.

I'm gonna draw a little map to show whats happening or happened. That part of the city has seen a decent amount of progress lately.

As a list

Melville charitable trust has come into the area and renovated billings forge

opened up firebox restaurant

opened up a farmers market

opened up a performing arts center

opened up a community center

started a block watch.

Kennys has been renovated and turned into a much classier bar "Red Rock" on the corner of Lawrence and Capitol.

The Dunkin Donuts coming in where the bodega used to be.

on Lawrence street 4 houses in a row are being renovated on the West side of the street.

Melville charitable trust ownes them, and it looks like full gut renovations. as per their ission statement some of these will be market rate as an attempt to make the area a mixed income area.

Aetna has built 2 parking garages taking a great deal of stress off of the flat lots in the area making them "open" for development.

Lofts on Capitol are approved with the city, even if owned by a bankrupt developer.

114 market rate apartments

map to come when I fix my home computer

[Hiramicus]

wow - so cool that is going to be a dunkin donuts on Capitol and Flower. I had no idea what could be going in there.

First thing, concerning that corner of Pratt and Main - I think rather than a high-rise, they should be put a garage. I think that's what Pratt street is suffering from: people drive down Pratt, don't see any street parking and instead go somplace where they get better parking - like Trumbull street or Allyn Street. If they did this, then maybe the asylum avenue north streetscape could be freed up for redevelopment!

Second thing, does anyone else think that with Aenta building all these high-capacity parking lots that maybe they'll be vacating that lot underneath I-84 and thus allowing the DOT to drop 84 down to street/recessed level?

[The Voice of Reason]

First thing, concerning that corner of Pratt and Main - I think rather than a high-rise, they should be put a garage. I think that's what Pratt street is suffering from: people drive down Pratt, don't see any street parking and instead go somplace where they get better parking - like Trumbull street or Allyn Street. If they did this, then maybe the asylum avenue north streetscape could be freed up for redevelopment!

While what you write may be the case for some people, I generally disagree with you immensely.

if you think about main street USA, you think of an un-interupted streetwall of storefronts brick exteriors etc. you do not think of a parking garage or parking lot. sadly this has changed and many mainstreets have been damaged greatly by the car, but the point is... that Main street is the place to meet, shop live. you park behind main street. Hartford has garages literally 1 block away from Pratt in every direction. there are likely 2000 spaces in those parking garages. if parking is the problem for people at Pratt, nothing will ever fix that.

I think that no matter what is built at that location it should have underground parking and as much as possible, but more importantly I think the location needs to have as much ground level retail as possible and as few parking ramps/loading docks as possible.

[MadVlad]

363 Capitol Ave is definately being renovated into a dunkin Donuts

Its on the corner of Capitol and Lawrence.

This is more evidence of the improvements in that area.

I'm gonna draw a little map to show whats happening or happened. That part of the city has seen a decent amount of progress lately.

As a list

Melville charitable trust has come into the area and renovated billings forge

opened up firebox restaurant

opened up a farmers market

opened up a performing arts center

opened up a community center

started a block watch.

Kennys has been renovated and turned into a much classier bar "Red Rock" on the corner of Lawrence and Capitol.

The Dunkin Donuts coming in where the bodega used to be.

on Lawrence street 4 houses in a row are being renovated on the West side of the street.

Melville charitable trust ownes them, and it looks like full gut renovations. as per their ission statement some of these will be market rate as an attempt to make the area a mixed income area.

Aetna has built 2 parking garages taking a great deal of stress off of the flat lots in the area making them "open" for development.

Lofts on Capitol are approved with the city, even if owned by a bankrupt developer.

114 market rate apartments

map to come when I fix my home computer

Isn't there already a DD two buildings away? Also, the Red Rock or whatever used to be Kenneys probably got a ton of dough for being on "Judging Amy" every week...

[The Voice of Reason]

I was told they are moving from the gas statopn. so that location will close.

[The Voice of Reason]

There is an event going on at the society room.

the parking lot is completely packed.

sure it is thursday night and there likely would be a few people out doing happy hour in Joe Blacks, but the parking lot, 200+ cars is full. Usually I see maybe a dozen cars out there at this time of night.

I think some of these people will likely grab a drink at dish or what not after the event. just a guess, but Anything that brings people downtown totally rocks in my opinion

I just wish we had a better "face" to show them

the facade at 915 Main is terrible, the empty retail along Trumbull and Main is terrible

the parking lot on main is terrible, Kyto is terrible

empty pratt is just wrong

oh well

[MichaelQReilly]

There is an event going on at the society room.

the parking lot is completely packed.

sure it is thursday night and there likely would be a few people out doing happy hour in Joe Blacks, but the parking lot, 200+ cars is full. Usually I see maybe a dozen cars out there at this time of night.

I think some of these people will likely grab a drink at dish or what not after the event. just a guess, but Anything that brings people downtown totally rocks in my opinion

I just wish we had a better "face" to show them

the facade at 915 Main is terrible, the empty retail along Trumbull and Main is terrible

the parking lot on main is terrible, Kyto is terrible

empty pratt is just wrong

oh well

How nice would it be if the city stayed as busy as it is during the day past 5:30 at night? I usually go to Starbucks at 10:30 and the line is usually out the door.

[The Voice of Reason]

Hey man 5:30 is so not the end of Hartfords day.

I leave work at 6-6:30 usually, and often look out the window while waiting for reports to print near the end of my day. I look at the street fraffic, and there are always people walking around at 6 and at 630.

then by 7 the bar/dinner traffic picks up as the office traffic wanes. Its not packed like lunch time on the streets, but there are seemingly always people walking around.

the dog walking/jogging croud is an obvious change over the last 2 years. Granted I think we need another 1500 residential units downtown to make it more obvious, and really bring that effect you are looking for, but its not as much as an office park as people think

[uconn99]

Try downtown Phoenix, a city 15x the size of Hartford on a non game night and you will happy how Hartford is right now.

Give it some more time and some more residential units and we should be on par with a city like Providence.

[The Voice of Reason]

Great observation.

Now Admitadly Providence should be our closest comparison and target I guess, but reading that game me the inferiority complex cringe...

I say, Hartford has the potential to be much better than providence. Our corporate base and geographic location allow us to be much more our own city if that makes any sense. I hope that Hartford aspires to be Minneapolis.

part of the reason is that the river is way bigger in Hartford than Providence, and it matches Minneapolis as an asset and a barrier for development. Also the Insurance presence and corporate presence and the state capitol thing all make it a good comparison. Mind you its a grown man vs a young child comparison. Minneapolis kicks our arse

and Providence kicks our arse in most ways, but yeah I just hope we aspire to be more than Providence

[MichaelQReilly]

Hey man 5:30 is so not the end of Hartfords day.

I leave work at 6-6:30 usually, and often look out the window while waiting for reports to print near the end of my day. I look at the street fraffic, and there are always people walking around at 6 and at 630.

then by 7 the bar/dinner traffic picks up as the office traffic wanes. Its not packed like lunch time on the streets, but there are seemingly always people walking around.

the dog walking/jogging croud is an obvious change over the last 2 years. Granted I think we need another 1500 residential units downtown to make it more obvious, and really bring that effect you are looking for, but its not as much as an office park as people think

I agree with you that it isn't dead; but you have to admit, if it could be like it is at lunch time all the time we would be in great shape.

[The Voice of Reason]

It looks like whatever they did at Kyto depicted in the previous pictures passed some kind of imspections or whatever since work has begun on the flat roof the city demands.

I have not seen anyone working on the building this week, but the change you see from previous pictures happened sometime between Friday and Monday.

I really hope this place gets moving at full speed. at this point there is a ton of warm weather left, but the rooftop will be useless if they finish this in September.

[jcrc]

Don't bet on it. They still don't have all the approval.

[The Voice of Reason]

So, Kyto took a lumber drop either last night or this AM.

the rooftop of the building now has several pallets of wood on it. I am guessing this means that some kind of accord was reached and renovation work will begin in earnest again.

I wonder of that has anything to do with the baloons out in front of Koji the last couple days

[mikel]

Some kind of accord? I don't know why they can't just follow the building code.

[The Voice of Reason]

So today work began in earnest.

3 guys showed up and took down all of the strange verticle wall thing they built a week ago.

then they did some more precise prep work where the eves used to be all around the endge of the roof, and removed about 1 more foot of shingles etc on the E and W side of the buiding. now these guys have framed up a wall on the East Side(Main St.)bringing the rooftop structure to appear 2 stories tall on that one side(no other walls are yet to be built, but they are now starting to frame ther W. Wall.

3 more workers just showed up bringing the work crew to 6.

I am sure I will have more changes to report before I head home.

EDIT

I dont see anyone working this morning, but last night they finished the 3 walls, so now the building looks to have a 2nd floor. no windows mind you, and the old roof is clearly still there behind the walls.

but based on how they built them, these walls, unlike the neigh walls depicted in the last pictures are pretty permanent. I am wondering if they will just build a flat roof on top of this now? it is a curious looking thing right now I assure you.

[The Voice of Reason]

So, the entire new roof is built and these guys are puting up tar paper on the new walls, so I am guessing they are planning on doing the siding before going home today since it would get trashed if left uncovered over the weekend.

I am assuming a tar roof will be coming along soon as well, but with it being so whet its not happeing today.

whomever they hired this time are a professional crew and are not messing around. some of the other workers were certainly less professional.

and yes I am obsessed with Kyto

[The Voice of Reason]

So they finished the new roof today as you can see.

I am hoping to see the regular workers return tomorrow to do the siding and hopefully start work on the interior.

[MichaelQReilly]

http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/...0,7909293.story

I'm putting this article here because a big part of it is about the Firebox, but this is a good story from the Courant about the rehab of the Billings Forge complex in Frog Hollow.

I've always been a fan of that neighborhood. It is probably the densest neighborhood in the whole city and I think that it has the potential to really develop into something special.

[The Voice of Reason]

And that is why I bought a multi-family right near Billings forge.

The area is really quite nice. it needs some more work, and I really hope that the momentum that has started is maintained.

the remodeling of Kennys into the RedRock has been great for the area. Dunkin Donuts moving from the Broad street gas station into the Charter Oak Market will be another improvement to the area. Tarragon developments was fully approved to renovate the office supply building into 114 market rate apartments as well. The problem is that financing died, and Tarragon declared bankruptcy.

Melville charitable trust owns Billings forge as well as several Multi-Families in the area.

56 Babcock

52 Babcock

46 Babcock

257 Lawrence

251 Lawrence

243 Lawrence

233 Lawrence The Lyceum

210 Lawrence Billings forge

I hope they pick up some more properties to continue the progress.

[Luca Brasi]

I lived in Billings Forge a few years back and it was a kind of a scary place with a lot of sketchy tenants. The apartment next to mine was raided for drugs. There was no furniture and no one living there... guys were renting a space to basically store and sell drugs. The day my lease was up, I left. Its great to see some investment in that area. Like you say, there are a lot of great old homes and apartment buildings there.