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Hartford Restaurant/Retail

ctman987

By ctman987
in Greater Hartford

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MadVlad Town

MadVlad

Posted
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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.

Billings Forge is a two-man area with the phone company. The basement is straight out of a Freddy Kruger movie, someone could disappear down there and not be seen for a very long time. The lights are on a timer, and spaced out about every twenty feet down a hallway the length of the building. The lights are also a mere lightbulb hanging at the end of a cord, so they just hang and sway in the air. Once out of the hallway, there are no lights and large open pits of water and scum around old furnaces. If you're not paying attention, you could easily slip into these badboys. There's also endless dripping water echoing throughout , as well as little scurrying things the scatter when you shine the flashlight their way. Super creepy, and the tenants, as already stated, can be shady as well...

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mikel Hamlet

mikel

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Billings Forge is a two-man area with the phone company. The basement is straight out of a Freddy Kruger movie, someone could disappear down there and not be seen for a very long time. The lights are on a timer, and spaced out about every twenty feet down a hallway the length of the building. The lights are also a mere lightbulb hanging at the end of a cord, so they just hang and sway in the air. Once out of the hallway, there are no lights and large open pits of water and scum around old furnaces. If you're not paying attention, you could easily slip into these badboys. There's also endless dripping water echoing throughout , as well as little scurrying things the scatter when you shine the flashlight their way. Super creepy, and the tenants, as already stated, can be shady as well...

In other words, Billings Forge is an old building. Got it.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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The Society room is finally getting a "permanent" sign.

replacing the canvas banner is a huge maroon bilboard like sign measuring about 25'X8'

its pretty frekin big.

they have placed it on the parking lot side of the building on the third floor. there are no windows facing West on the 3rd floor, so a they could have gone bigger if they wanted to.

why so many new signs in Hartford?

Society room, Northeast Utilities, UBS, Hampton Inn and Suites, even capitol CC got a new sign a couple months ago facing the highway.

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mikel Hamlet

mikel

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The Society room is finally getting a "permanent" sign.

replacing the canvas banner is a huge maroon bilboard like sign measuring about 25'X8'

its pretty frekin big.

they have placed it on the parking lot side of the building on the third floor. there are no windows facing West on the 3rd floor, so a they could have gone bigger if they wanted to.

why so many new signs in Hartford?

Society room, Northeast Utilities, UBS, Hampton Inn and Suites, even capitol CC got a new sign a couple months ago facing the highway.

Downtown Hartford was full of signs until modernism declared barren walls were in vogue. Bring on the signs.

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  • 3 weeks later...
jcrc Hamlet

jcrc

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that sucks.

they never really got traction it seems.

I went there and enjoyed it.

I saw you had a hell of a line today at lunch jojo :)

Yeah, Most restaurants were busy on Wednesday, most, like us did not get much sleep the night before. Max Bibo had their people in by 5:30. We being slackers took our time to opened at 6:30.

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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I think Wednesday shows us how easy and manageable the turnaround of downtown can be. One huge event at the Civic Center, and downtown was bustling. Unfortunately over the last 10 years, we have lost the Whalers to another state, lost most of UConn basketball to a new arena on campus and lost a lot of concerts to the Meadows (an unbelievably short sighted idea) and the casinos. There used to be 3 big events at the Civic Center every week.

Thats a lot of people taken out of the downtown picture every year.

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uconn99 Hamlet

uconn99

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I think Wednesday shows us how easy and manageable the turnaround of downtown can be. One huge event at the Civic Center, and downtown was bustling. Unfortunately over the last 10 years, we have lost the Whalers to another state, lost most of UConn basketball to a new arena on campus and lost a lot of concerts to the Meadows (an unbelievably short sighted idea) and the casinos. There used to be 3 big events at the Civic Center every week.

Thats a lot of people taken out of the downtown picture every year.

Downtown Hartford has more UConn basketball games now than ever.

Remember, it's only been about 6-7 years since the girls team has played in Hartford on a regular basis. There are typically only 7-8 games aa year in Storrs for the mens team. There isn't any shortage of UConn games in Hartford.

I used to like games at the Civic Center, but over the years have learned the atmosphere in Storrs is now so much better. Back in the 90's when UConn was just becoming a power house, games at the Civic Center had more energy. Today, the student section at the XL center is pathetic.

Back in the day, the Civic Center was known as one of the louder large arena's in the country. Now, even when you have a sellout, you maybe have 13,000 actual fans in the seats.

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zimbu1228 Unincorporated Area

zimbu1228

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I think Wednesday shows us how easy and manageable the turnaround of downtown can be. One huge event at the Civic Center, and downtown was bustling. Unfortunately over the last 10 years, we have lost the Whalers to another state, lost most of UConn basketball to a new arena on campus and lost a lot of concerts to the Meadows (an unbelievably short sighted idea) and the casinos. There used to be 3 big events at the Civic Center every week.

Thats a lot of people taken out of the downtown picture every year.

most of the concerts in the meadows would skip here altogether if it didn't exist, because they want to do summer outdoor shows.

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jcrc Hamlet

jcrc

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Yeah they're done unfortunately. I heard the entire staff that was let go at Hot Tomatoes was going to take it over. Its a beautiful place... too bad they didn't make it. Portuguese food downtown was something different and a good thing.

Is Hot Tomatoes moving from the train station to dolce's location?

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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Is Hot Tomatoes moving from the train station to dolce's location?

No... Hot Tomatoes is staying put. But much of the staff was recently let go including the GM. This caused much of the remaining staff to leave as well. Word is the former HT GM and chef are looking to open up in Dulce along with much of the former HT staff.

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LOV Unincorporated Area

LOV

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i'm actually surprised that they even made it for a year. every time i walked by it i wondered when they'd close.

the place had a complete identity crisis. i didn't even know it was a portuguese food until i read your comments. my friends and i actually made it there twice when they first opened and both times we'd rather gouge out our ears because their band was so obnoxiously loud that you couldn't even carry a conversation as you were eating dinner. if it wasn't the band then it was the music/dj that once again killed any sort of a conversation.

add to that to the complete stereotype of a duchebag clientelle and there you go.

too bad they didn't make it. Portuguese food downtown was something different and a good thing.
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LOV Unincorporated Area

LOV

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HT was open at 9PM yesterday, i guess it doesn't say much, but they're open so far.

i'd take it with a grain of salt that a staff at one restaurant is going to boycott their employee and open a venue on their own elsewhere. i know nothing about restaurant business but i imagine it doesn't run cheap, i just can't imagine a bunch of waiters all of a sudden getting approved to be owners.

you keep talking about 420 asylum, do you know more details? the initial fill date was supposed to be in august. walking by it in the evenings i've only seen one light on, although yesterday there we no lights and makes me wonder if the one i saw 1/2 weeks ago was construction related.

it seems as though upstairs is done, but downstairs still doesn't have any walls or anything put in. perhaps they're waiting for tenants and will build to order?

I hope Hot Tomatos stays open. I think that part of town will get an extra puff of air once 410 Asylum fills up.

I had no idea Dolce was portugese either, or at least it never stuck in my head.

did they have a nice Port menu? that would have been nice.

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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HT was open at 9PM yesterday, i guess it doesn't say much, but they're open so far.

i'd take it with a grain of salt that a staff at one restaurant is going to boycott their employee and open a venue on their own elsewhere. i know nothing about restaurant business but i imagine it doesn't run cheap, i just can't imagine a bunch of waiters all of a sudden getting approved to be owners.

Like I said... Hot Tomatoes is staying put. Its not a bunch of waiters but a very popular GM and head chef. These guys have built up quite a client list and following over the last 15 years and have the financial backing and loyalty of wait and barstaff. In the restaurant industry, thats huge. I have heard the new place will be called "Salute" and will be yet another Italian restaurant downtown. Look for a December opening.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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Like I said... Hot Tomatoes is staying put. Its not a bunch of waiters but a very popular GM and head chef. These guys have built up quite a client list and following over the last 15 years and have the financial backing and loyalty of wait and barstaff. In the restaurant industry, thats huge. I have heard the new place will be called "Salute" and will be yet another Italian restaurant downtown. Look for a December opening.

cool, good to hear.

I have to say for a city with a reasonably large itallian population, and having one an itallian quarter, it has no real continuity in regards to an itallian presence on the streets regarding retail.

little italy is all sorts of broken, and so there is no real place to go to get the concentration of itallian eateries this city should have.

We could use some good southern itallian places

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  • 2 weeks later...
jcrc Hamlet

jcrc

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Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

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MichaelQReilly Whistle-Stop

MichaelQReilly

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Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

Anything is better than empty space. At this point, nobody is going to pay a huge premium for Northland's space when there are plenty of other vacant storefronts in the city. Banks aren't ideal, but they still generate foot traffic and keep occupancy rates up.

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