Gold Roc diner out of business
After two decades of serving all-day breakfast fans, after-bar crowds, longhaul truckers and third-shift workers from around the region, the Gold Roc diner in West Hartford is gone.
One of a fast-dwindling number of 24/7 diners in Connecticut, the Kane Street landmark shut down recently after struggling for the past year and a half.
With bars closed and less traffic on the highway, the pandemic cut deeply into business at the Gold Roc. It had reduced its once extensive menu and set up a handful of outdoor tables, but the parking lot had been noticeably less crowded — and sometimes empty — since early 2020.
The local news website we-ha. com reported that the building will be converted into an International House of Pancakes location, but neither Gold Roc owner Ayaz Enterprises nor Dine Brands, IHOP’S parent company, could be reached for information.
Before the pandemic, the Gold Roc had thrived despite a national downturn in the diner business. It was known as a stopping point for Boston-bound or New York-bound I-84 drivers seeking a meal, a snack or just coffee before getting back on the highway.
As one of the only all-night restaurants in central Connecticut, the Gold Roc was
a natural draw for partiers leaving bars. West Hartford police broke up numerous fights over the years, including a 3 a.m. brawl in 2013 that started when one patron mistook another for Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriots linebacker and Bristol native who had just been charged with murder. Three people went to jail.
But the Gold Roc was also a gathering spot for third-shift workers from around the region, sometimes including state troopers from the Hartford barracks.
Its 24/7 schedule meant that many people ended up there for one reason or another. Former town council member Chuck Coursey, for instance, recalled
looking for a Christmas morning breakfast spot for his wife and grown children — with A.C. Petersen and Effie’s Place closed, they tried the Gold Roc.
“One Christmas we said ‘Why not try the Gold Roc?’ We went there on Christmas for a few years. The folks were extremely nice, the food was great,” Coursey said. “It was a very diverse place — a lot of people who were travelling.”
The Gold Roc was initially an Abdow’s, a once-popular chain that had seven Connecticut locations in the 1980s and ’90s. The Abdow family sold most to a corporation that converted them into Bickford’s, but the Kane Street building became an independent diner instead.
Redroc LLC owned it until last month, when Mustafa Ayaz’s Middletown-based business purchased it for $1.95 million, according to town records. As of this week, its phone was disconnected and the doors were locked.
Most diners in the Northeast were already in trouble before the pandemic, and the Athenian in Waterbury and the Betsy Ross in New Britain shut down in 2018. Long Island and New York City, once home to scores of diners, have seen the numbers drop gradually since the 1970s.
The pandemic hit them hard: Diners aren’t designed for takeout or outdoor-seating businesses, and the 24-hour schedule wasn’t sustainable when people stopped staying out late. The Driftwood in Darien closed last year, and the Bull’s Head in Stamford shut down this spring.
In New Jersey, many have cut back to standard restaurant schedules, the website nj.com reported last winter.
“Prior to mid-march, when the coronavirus forced lockdowns around the country, there were dozens of 24-hour diners in New Jersey, the Diner Capital of the World,” reporter Peter Genovese wrote. “Now there are just a scant few.”