www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 21, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 5
message from popular lunch spot Bartaco, alert-
ing them that an outdoor table is ready.
Fully masked, a party of four was seated under
an umbrella on Farming-
ton Avenue surrounded
by barricades protecting
them from traffic.
"It's a very neat place to
go," Gorski said. "We are
hearing restaurants are
doing really well based
on the infrastructure
that we've been able to
set up in the area. Some
are pretty close to pre-
pandemic revenues or
even exceeding pre-pan-
demic revenues."
Gorski said the num-
ber of outdoor seats allocated to each restaurant
was based on their overall capacity, so the higher
capacity an eatery had, the more outdoor seats
they were given.
For now the plan is to keep the expanded
outdoor seating infrastructure in place
through the end of October, but there are
talks about extending it further.
Shuman said outdoor dining has been so suc-
cessful — both in attracting regulars and new
clientele to West Hartford Center — that local
merchants would like to see it brought back
again next year, pandemic or no pandemic.
"I'd like to see LaSalle Road one-way from
here on out," he said. "I think it brought more
people to the Center."
But expanded outdoor dining alone hasn't
been the answer to these challenging times.
Restaurants have also had to get creative with
their offerings.
For example, Union Kitchen has adopted spe-
cial themed pop-up events —
like Peruvian or Korean food
nights — that have garnered
extra attention.
An Oktoberfest is being
planned for next month.
"That's helped us a lot," he
said.
Chilling effect
While outdoor dining has
proven a success during the
summer, that will change as we
head toward fall and winter.
"My biggest fear right now is
the cold," Shuman said. "I don't
know what to expect come October."
Shuman said he has already purchased four
outdoor heaters with the hope of leveraging
outdoor dining as long as possible. But in addition
to eventually losing streetside business, he said
he's worried about indoor capacity shrinking from
50% to 25%, especially if the virus begins to spread
more rapidly as people spend more time indoors.
"What happens November 1 if outdoor
dining goes away and we are still at 50% oc-
cupancy — that's only 60 seats for me," said
Shuman, whose kitchen still employs six to
eight people less than it did pre-COVID. "If we
go to 25% capacity inside that's only 30 seats
for me. That's a big challenge."
HBJ Web Editor Joe Cooper contributed to
this story.
PHOTO
|
ONNFOODANDFARM
Union Kitchen chef and partner Zachary
Shuman.
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West Hartford
General
Land area (sq. miles) 22
Median age 41
Population 65,278
Median household income $95,298
Unemployment rate 8%
Major Employers
Town of West Hartford
Hospital at Hebrew Healthcare
University of West Hartford
Wiremold/Legrand Products Inc.
Triumph Engine Control Systems
Housing stock
Median price $326,000
Median rent $1,258
Government
Total revenue (2017) $303,652,000
Per capita tax $3,750
Actual mill rate 41.8
Grand List $6,368,328,344
Economy
Top employment industries Units Employment
Health care and
social assistance 255 5,409
Retail trade 252 3,899
Accommodation
and food services 176 3,545
Top taxpayers (2019)
Blueback Square Holdings LP $72,983,440
Westfarms $52,530,470
Eversource $46,100,130
Source: AdvanceCT Joe Zwiebel | Founding Publisher
