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Spent most of last week in the city


beerbeer

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I hadn't been to Hartford in a year.

I attended a convention in the new building. It is a nice facility but the most impressive thing is the view out the huge glass windows of the city. The Science Center is going to be a nice looking addition. It is easy to see the potential for Front Street. Anything over there will be like a welcome beacon for convention visitors. But it really needs to be be developed, high rise, low rise, it doesn't matter, right now it is useless.

I stayed at the Hilton. The place was packed. I overheard great comments about the Trumbull Kitchen and City Steam. I ate at Morton's on Wednesday night and the place was doing a brisk business. Neither restaurant at Pratt and Main are open. But both looked to be under construction. They should liven the corner when the doors open.

The American Airlines building looks like it still has a ways to go. Pratt Street itself, looks to be picking up from my last visit. There are definitely more bars on it. I have no idea what's happening with Trumbull Street. It is lined (on the west side) with gleaming new store fronts and no stores. Northland says the H21 is over half filled but it seems lifeless because of the empty bottom floor. I checked where the market is supposed to go on Asylum Street and saw no sign of life.

I went to to Coaches to catch a little college football on Thursday night. It was packed. This was a theme of the visit. Most of the bars and restaurants seemed to be doing a very good business. If I was a first time tourist, I would think this is a nice little town with great places to eat and drink but not much going on.

One thing about not visiting for a year. The Old State House is a jewel. It's a beautiful historic building on a open space park in the middle of the city. It is an under used asset. It should contain a museum of Connecticut, perhaps even the original charter. It should also have a room to rent for events, the replica of the old state government is (in reality) just a bunch of desks.

There is still much work to be done on the city but it was clean, friendly, easy to manage your way around. I came away thinking that the city doesn't need more skyline as much as it needs more streetscape.

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The resturants at pratt and main street are getting close. Dish, the one next to city steam under the lofts at temple street is so incredibly close to being done. I was sure it would open Yesterday. there are tables set all ready so its really done.

Kyoto is coming along so incredibly slowly. they did almost nothing the entire month of September. But starting working on the facade last Thursday.

And yes they will ad a great deal of life to that area come next spring.

as far as retail... well it will come eventually.

Cheers

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The resturants at pratt and main street are getting close. Dish, the one next to city steam under the lofts at temple street is so incredibly close to being done. I was sure it would open Yesterday. there are tables set all ready so its really done.

Kyoto is coming along so incredibly slowly. they did almost nothing the entire month of September. But starting working on the facade last Thursday.

And yes they will ad a great deal of life to that area come next spring.

as far as retail... well it will come eventually.

Cheers

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I think the issue is the paychecks to their employees were bouncing. They also stopped giving employees their tips at the end of the night, and instead told them the tips would be in their checks, but then the checks bounce. It's gotta be serious stuff to have Attorney General Blumenthal investigating.

I think Joe Black's is a great place, but they are getting a reputation for terrible food and service, and now this.

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I think the issue is the paychecks to their employees were bouncing. They also stopped giving employees their tips at the end of the night, and instead told them the tips would be in their checks, but then the checks bounce. It's gotta be serious stuff to have Attorney General Blumenthal investigating.

I think Joe Black's is a great place, but they are getting a reputation for terrible food and service, and now this.

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I hope all of this is an exaturation by a small group of people.

The biggest shame would be putting (what I hear was) $5Million into the building, but not keeping enough monies in reserve to run the business for the 5 years on average that resturants need to become profitable.

As I walked by the place tonight at 6:00 it was very busy looking, even the 2 women walking in front of me turned in there.

hearing about their potential financial problem is likely going to make me take the wife there this weekend for dinner.

Cheers

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