Hartford Business Journal

HartfordBusiness.com | February 8, 2021 | Hartford Business Journal 19 business to new highs at the Cooper in Palm Beach Gardens, among other Sunshine State eateries. Revenue for the entire group was down 38.2% in 2020, and the employee count at the 10 restaurants dropped from 869 to 480 due to a combination of layoffs and attrition. Outdoor option Despite the Northeast's harsh winter weather, Rosenthal and other Hartford-area restaurateurs expect outdoor dining to return as a popular option as soon as the temperature allows. Many towns have stepped in to help restaurants adapt to moving service outside. West Hartford led the state in allowing for quick changes to expedite outdoor dining in its retail centers, including installing barriers and changing traffic patterns in West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square. The Connecticut Restaurant Association plans to help introduce legislation to make such changes easier across the state, said Executive Director Scott Dolch. Some Fairfield County towns made parts of their downtowns pedestrian- only to help restaurants, another innovation he expects to continue and expand. "You want foot traffic in your downtowns; you want that vibrancy," Dolch said. "You want people to come back." Outdoor dining was such a lifesaver for many restaurants last summer that new eateries Max Restaurant Group eateries Max a Mia Ristorante 70 East Main St., Avon Max Downtown City Place, 185 Asylum St., Hartford Max's Oyster Bar 964 Farmington Ave., West Hartford *Trumbull Kitchen 150 Trumbull St., Hartford Max's Tavern 1000 Hall of Fame Ave., Springfield, Mass. Max Fish 110 Glastonbury Blvd., Glastonbury Max Burger 124 LaSalle Road, West Hartford Max Burger 684 Bliss Road, Longmeadow, Mass. Savoy Pizzeria & Craft Bar 32 LaSalle Road, West Hartford The Cooper Palm Beach Garden, Florida *Trumbull Kitchen has closed for the winter as a result of the pandemic, but is expected to reopen this spring. are seeking spaces with outdoor potential or building out outdoor areas. When announcing the debut of a new Wood-n-Tap restaurant in Enfield last fall, the Hartford Restaurant Group (HRG) touted an 8,000-square-foot patio with 225 seats that had been built in what was once a grassy area. "We really want to show our guests and let our guests know that we are a safe environment," HRG partner Phil Barnett said. Technology here to stay Delivery apps and other forms of takeout are also expected to remain part of the mix at Max Restaurant Group, Rosenthal said. Takeout checks are smaller, however, and eat into profits, along with the cut taken by apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats. A restaurant has to do $15,000 in takeout business to replace $10,000 in the same dine-in business, Rosenthal said. Adoption is necessary: Young customers prefer using their phones and order apps and will likely sustain a higher volume of takeout orders even after the pandemic, Dolch said. Even so, most restaurateurs are confident that many customers want to return to dining at restaurants, both for the experience and because they are sick of cooking for themselves. Home cooking is much more exacting and time-consuming than it was in earlier generations and with the cost of quality ingredients, can be not much of a bargain. "People cooking at home a lot has made them appreciate our food that much more," Rosenthal said, adding that customers also miss the social experience of dining out. "We really feel that there's a huge pent-up demand to dine out. We want to be amongst people and people have missed that." Growth ahead Dolch of the CRA said he is doing his best through supporting pandemic relief programs to ensure that Connecticut's independent restaurants like Max Restaurant Group survive with enough resources to rebuild and help make the state a culinary destination again. He also hopes that the state retains pandemic changes like the rule put in place early in the crisis that allowed restaurants to sell alcohol with takeout food orders. Looking to the post-pandemic future, Rosenthal sees potential for new restaurant concepts in the Hartford area, in part due to a soft commercial real estate market and newly flexible landlords. These new eateries may have to expand their menus and look to new food trends to bring back the crowds. "We're going to have to be a little more creative again," Rosenthal said. "We have some opportunities that we're looking at – to come out of this and hopefully grow a little." Source: Max Restaurant Group

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