New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
‘PEOPLE WANT TO COME OUT’
Ansonia’s downtown restaurants see slow, but steady, recovery
ANSONIA — Restaurant owners in downtown Ansonia are increasingly optimistic even as their businesses recover at a sluggish pace.
Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director, said many of the Main Street restaurants are owned by experienced businessmen and women which she said explained why few have closed due to the pandemic.
“I call them seasoned restaurant owners. So, they’ve either had other restaurants that they’ve owned and operated successfully; this isn't their first go-round, most of them,” Malley said.
Ansonia’s downtown area was considered an up-and-coming dining destination before COVID-19, and Mayor David Cassetti said Main Street restaurants weathered the pandemic in part due to the addition of outdoor tables.
“It wasn't that bad because we were allowed outdoor dining, something I wanted to try,” Cassetti said.
Libby Meissner owns Crave, a Latin fusion restaurant on Main Street. She was forced to lay off most of her staff and began to sell family-sized meals — enough to feed two or four people — because few people were dining out.
She estimated she was making 30 percent of her normal take. She expects more people to come in this spring, but she’s still not seeing enough customer spending and restrictions continue to affect her restaurant.
“Is it going well, compared to 2020? Yeah. But compared to 2019, it’s not, if you understand, even though we are open at 100 percent capacity, we still have the social distancing. So unless I invest in all the plexiglass and all that other stuff, we can't be at 100 percent capacity,” Meissner said.
Gustavo Herrera, co-owner of Chifrijo, a Latin fusion restaurant on Main Street, said business is recovering and outdoor dining has helped.
Herrera said the city helped and he began to focus on catering, but he didn’t get help from the federal government.
“We opened a small patio in front in the summer and the city helped us with that. That helped us a lot. But we were in a situation where we didn’t get any PPP since it was a new place,” Herrera said, referring to the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal stimulus program created last year to help small businesses.
Now he estimates that business is at 70 percent of 2019 levels. But Herrera said the limits on business hours continue to affect his restaurant.
Restaurants can stay open until 11 p.m., but Chifrijo used to close at 2 a.m.
He said that turns away many of his latenight customers. “People want to come out,” he said.
Tom Carney owns Copper City Bar and Grill, and said sales have increased to nearly 80 percent of 2019 levels. He said he received a PPP loan and credits his customers for keeping his business afloat. Some still order food to go, but he also noticed more people coming out. He said the vaccines have made an impact. “The quicker people get vaccinated, the more they come out, especially when they get their second shot,” Carney said.
O’Malley said that not only are businesses recovering, but new restaurants will open.
“The entire length of Main Street is an opportunity zone. And that’s helped us attract new tenants and the success of our restaurants also, of course, attracts other restaurant owners because they want to cluster together,” she said.
Jose Lara owns a Mexican restaurant named #Tacos in Wallingford. He is now preparing to open another Mexican restaurant on Main Street in Ansonia. He picked the site after speaking to other business owners and was convinced that it would be a good place for his business.
But he said he got a little nervous when he arrived to check out the site.
“The street was empty, I got a little concerned, but again, we’re living in a COVID world,” Lara said.
He said he stopped worrying once he stepped inside and saw that the space was at least three times larger than his other location. He hopes to have the restaurant open in time for Cinco de Mayo.
“It’s going to be something great,” he said.