Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 18, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 15 continued improvements bode well for res- taurants serving the traffic, McDonald said. Maffucci of V's Trattoria, said Dunkin' Donuts Park injected welcome traffic onto the streets and sidewalks of Hartford over the summer, a typically slow time for restaurants. "Anytime you have all these little ac- tivities it helps," he said. "Baseball is great because they play a lot of games." Baseball brought him customers and he likes being among choices visi- tors and residents have downtown, whether attending a game at the stadium or XL Center or a show at the adjacent Hartford Stage. "The whole bal- ance of the restau- rant industry is im- portant, that people have a choice" of more than steak- houses and Italian food, Maffucci said, happy to see Harlan enter with French cuisine, for example. "I've never seen the city look so good as it does right now, with the ballpark, with the residents that are living downtown," he said, excited by additional apartments planned at 101-111 Pearl St. Max renovation Abrams said Max renovated to attract a wider audience and to reflect times differ- ent from the no-jeans rule it had when it opened and from a white-tablecloth setting some today consider stodgy. "This project was thought of and crafted very carefully to make the restaurant a little more casual, but not alienating any of our guests who like it the way it is — and that's plenty of them," Abrams said. Indeed, last year was the restaurant's best ever and 2017 was on target to beat that before the shutdown, he said. "But we knew that if we didn't do this project in a certain amount of time, in the next couple years, 2019 and 2020 we were not going to have our best years," Abrams said. While customers from 20 years ago are older and may not dine out as much, the project wasn't done solely to appeal to younger palates, but to make it more com - fortable for everyone, he said. While casual attire — jeans and shorts — have been welcome for years, not everyone knew that, he said. The menu is evolving too, with choices to share items, "and I don't mean small-plate sharing, I mean steaks and chops that will be encouraged to share," he said. As for the motif, Abrams said it will be mod- ern without being contemporary. The look will borrow from their longtime restaurant designer's visits to London, where brass and wood distinguish restaurants of Max's caliber. Max's CityPlace I landlord, with which Max renewed its lease for 20 years, is contributing to the renovation cost, Abrams said. Other restaurant projects Max Restaurant Group's next project is to renovate Max A Mia in Avon. Recent projects include renovating the bar at Max's Tavern in Springfield about six months ago and the private dining area about a year ago. The bar at Max Burger in West Hart- ford was recently renovated and the group's Trumbull Kitchen in Hartford is constantly being freshened, from furniture to paint. Bear's, which hopes to draw more people to its Chango Rosa at Union Station, also plans early next year to provide a café for quick items like ice cream and coffee in the station's Great Hall for travelers and others. Next spring, Bear's plans to open a loca- tion in New Haven and relocate its commis- sary midyear from South Windsor to Hart- ford's former Swift Factory, where it also might bottle sauces for retail. It's installing a bar at its Windsor location. Maffucci, who also has Vito's by the Water in Windsor and Vito's Pizzeria in Wethersfield, doesn't have any immediate plans for more renovations or new restaurants, instead focus- ing on dialing in his V's Trattoria, which has about half the seats of his prior location and is under the same roof as his Vito's To Go Café, a quick-service eatery that opened last year. Being creative is key in restaurants, which must change with the market, or die, Maffucci said. "You have to constantly keep things fresh in everyone's mind; you have to stay relevant," he said. New or Renovated Restaurants in downtown Hartford These are some downtown restaurants that are new or have made renovation investments in the last year. Max Downtown Harlan Brasserie V's Trattoria Chango Rosa Bear's Smokehouse Blind Pig Pizza Co. Peppercorn's Grill Nixs Stephen Lewandowski, chef/ owner of Harlan Brasserie, opened the restaurant in May inside the recently reopened Goodwin Hotel. Steve Abrams, partner in Max Restaurant Group, stands outside Max Downtown, which closed for the summer for a $1.5 million facelift, as noted on the window sign in the upper right photo. The project at Max Downtown aims to modernize Max's look and broaden its customer appeal. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | JOHN STEARNS HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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