Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • September 21, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com West Hartford Center restaurants see steady business with expanded outdoor dining By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com C OVID-19 has proven to be a death blow for some Connecti- cut restaurants, but not all eateries are on life support, particu- larly those located in the posh foodie destinations of West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square. Union Kitchen chef and partner Zachary Shuman said his LaSalle Road restaurant, which serves American comfort fare, is only down about 10% to 12% in revenue com- pared to 2019, despite being shut down for a week in March and only doing takeout service during the early part of the pandemic. While things haven't been easy or certain — Union Kitchen was projecting up to a 30% spike in 2020 revenues coming into the year — expanded outdoor dining has provided the res- taurant dozens of extra seats, to help curb the pain from being restricted to 50% indoor capacity. Currently, Union Kitchen is operat- ing with about 20 fewer seats, when outdoor dining is included, than its pre-COVID 131-seat capacity. "Monday through Wednesdays are still a little soft in the Center, but on Thursdays through Sundays it's packed," Shuman said. "We are see- ing hour-long waits on weekends. A lot of customers are putting their names on the wait lists of multiple restaurants in West Hartford Center and seeing who calls them first." Shuman credits the town of West Hartford for taking a proactive ap- proach in laying out a coordinated expanded outdoor dining plan for the late spring and summer seasons, which seems to be working for many eateries there. Kristen Gorski, the town's economic development coordinator, has helped lead that effort, which started in April with the convergence of a work- ing group made up of various town departments that began to develop a plan with input from local restaurants. From there, the town created a fast-tracked outdoor seating permit, approving 43 applications with an average turnaround time of 2.8 days. That added nearly 1,500 new out- door dining seats in town, with the majority (about 75%) for restaurants in West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square, Gorski said. Meantime, the town converted about 71 parking spaces on Farming- ton Avenue and LaSalle, Memorial and Isham roads into on-street din- ing areas, sectioned off by town-rent- ed jersey barriers, while other park- ing spaces were reserved for take-out customers. In addition, LaSalle and Isham roads and a section of Memo- rial Road became one-way streets. The end result was the creation of an outdoor dining town center that has received rave reviews from res- taurateurs and patrons, Gorski said. On a recent sunny Sunday af- ternoon in West Hartford Center, clusters of restaurant goers were seen eagerly waiting for an automated text Up Front TOWN PROFILE: WEST HARTFORD 860.871.1111 Toll Free: 800.741.6367 nemsi.com MECHANICAL | ELECTRICAL | PLUMBING | SHEET METAL | BUILDING AUTOMATION | FACILITIES SERVICES License #'s: E1-0125666 S1-302974 P1-203519 F1-10498 SM1-192 MC-1134 SUSTAINABLE FACILITIES COMPETITIVE. EFFICIENT. PRODUCTIVE. The company that builds and installs the critical systems in virtually every type of facility is the same company you can rely on to maintain them. For over 50 years, our clients have trusted us to provide sustainable, more efficient, greener facilities. Experts in: Energy Systems & Incentives, Building Automation Technologies, Sustainable Design & Operation NEMSI HBJ_QtrPg Ads_200117.indd 1 NEMSI HBJ_QtrPg Ads_200117.indd 1 1/17/20 1:31 PM 1/17/20 1:31 PM LaSalle Road in West Hartford Center has been turned into a one-way street so restaurants like Avert can have more outdoors tables. HBJ PHOTOS | JOE COOPER

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