Eateries, clubs head into an uncertain autumn
For Connecticut restaurants and music bars, many of which are struggling to survive, COVID-19 has presented all sort of challenges that have required creative solutions — including what for some are unprecedented forays into outdoor dining and entertainment.
But what will happen in November and December, when it gets too cold for patrons — many of whom are not yet comfortable with the idea of indoor dining — to want to sit outside?
“We don’t know. We’re going to probably get some heaters for the deck to extend the season as long as we can, and then I don’t know,” said Hank Hoffman, one of executive directors at Best Video Film and Cultural Center in Hamden. “We’re sort of at the mercy of this.”
Best Video, which had been unable to present indoor music for months since the coronavirus turned things upside down, just debuted the new outdoor deck earlier this month and plans to bring in the heaters as we head into October.
Sally’s Apizza in New Haven — recently rated the 9th-best pizza joint in America by The Daily Meal — turned its entire parking lot into an outdoor dining area in order to bring back the opportunity for patrons to dine in. Sally’s also did what once would have been unthinkable: instituted delivery for those who want to enjoy their favorite pies at home.
The Note Kitchen and its sister restaurant, Notch 8, in Bethel both opened expansive outdoor dining areas — and have presented live music outdoors throughout summer at both locations.
The Crab Shell on the water in Stamford, long considered one of Stamford’s premier indoor-outdoor dining and music destinations, had to drop the live music for now but has 14 outdoor heaters going in an effort to extend the outdoor dining season as long as it can.
When it gets too cold in Hamden, “then we’ll have to stop,” Hoffman said. “We’re trying to be creative. Best Video wouldn’t be around at all if we hadn’t been creative all these years.”
Meanwhile, “We’ve been thinking about doing some livestreaming” with bands playing from Best Video’s currently-unused indoor performance space to a remote audience, but “I’m not personally a big fan of livestreaming,” Hoffman said.
“This strikes right at the heart of our nonprofit business model, which is to get people away from their screens to experience live music or films, or whatever” he said.
Over at The Windmill Tavern, a popular eatery, watering hole and music venue that has served world class hot dogs, burgers, Wienerschnitzel and other tavern specialties in Stratford since 1934, Manager Kelly Doria is a little anxious and very frustrated.
“Right now our plan is to put some tents up, to get some heaters and hope that people like our food so much that they’re willing to sit outside,” Doria said. “Our indoor dining has gotten better. ... It seems people are more willing to dine inside . ... We’ll do the outdoor as long as we can and see what happens.
“But the thing that’s going to put a damper on things” is when it gets too cold to present live music outdoors, she said. “It’s just going to be a big experiment in what people are going to be willing to do.”
Music “is part of what draws people to our restaurant,” Doria said. “I mean, we’re not having full bands. There’s no Halloween party this year. There’s no Oktoberfest. At least let us try to do soloists” indoors.
Doria, like many in the state’s restaurant business, doesn’t feel Connecticut restaurants and bars have been treated fairly.
“They haven’t even given us a chance in Connecticut, that’s what aggravates me,” she said. “They’ve had problems in other states” where they were allowed to open, “and they’ve screwed it up. Give us a chance. Maybe we won’t screw it up.
“It’s just frustrating that we have our hands tied behind our backs, yet we are still trying to stay alive and remain open,” Doria said. “We should be given a chance to see if we can” succeed.
“The uncertainty of what’s going to happen come November is so anxiety-provoking,” Doria said.
Over at Sally’s Apizza on Wooster Street, Director of Operations Rob Nelson said, “We are going to do our best to stay open as long as we can. We’re not going to add any heat lamps or anything. But as long as people are willing to sit out there, we’re going to keep doing it.”
As of right now, “we are not going to open the indoor dining unless it makes sense for both the staff and guests,” Nelson said. “We’re going to reopen the dining room as soon as we think it’s safe.”
One unexpected consequence that has grown out of the coronavirus shutdown is that “we have a very strong takeout and delivery business now,” Nelson said. In addition, “we’ve really optimized the way we make pizzas” and Sally’s is able to make pizza faster than it once did, he said.
Sally’s, founded in 1938 and run since then first by Salvatore and Flora Consiglio and then their children until it was sold to a private group in 1917, also has begun taking preorders, he said.
A few blocks away at State and Crown streets, Paul Mayer, owner of New Haven’s Cafe Nine music bar, has been shut down since March and is still waiting for the state’s go-ahead to reopen.
But on Friday, Cafe Nine presented its first show since the pandemic hit, a CD release party for local band Dust Hat that featured the band playing on the roof — with the blessing of the residential tenant who lives on the building’s top floor — to a crowd down below in the parking lot. Food was provided by neighbor Firehouse 12.
For Mayer, it was an experiment.
“We’re not really sanctioned. ... I hope we won’t have any problems with the city,” he said earlier in the week. “Are we going to get 20 people? Are we going to get 50 people?
“We’re hoping, if everything goes smoothly and there’s no issue with the apartment access, that we can do a couple of more” before it gets too cold, Mayer said.
“I’m just trying to keep the name out there and keep music happening, because it needs to happen in the community,” he said.
Mayer, who made news early this year by establishing a series of “virtual tip jar” GoFundMe campaigns that have raised more than $25,000 to date to help support Cafe Nine’s furloughed employees, also is working with Eric Bruce of the Weirdo Wonderland gift and collectibles shop in Milford, who operated a popup shop inside Cafe Nine before and during the show.
“We’re all struggling,” Mayer said. “He’s got a gift shop. He’s trying to keep it going. He’s going to bring his stuff down here” and offer items for sale.
Mayer, in an effort to bring in some money, also has stepped up the sale of a new Cafe Nine T-shirt and other merchandise — and has begun renting the Cafe Nine stage out in one-hour blocks for band rehearsals. He also has toyed with the idea of starting a streaming subscription service.
“But I’m still hoping to do live shows,” he said. “I like Cafe Nine. I like what it is.”
In Norwalk, The Clubhouse Grille at the city-owned Oak Hills Park Golf Course has been serving food and presenting music all summer out in the courtyard. What now?
“The short answer is, I’m not sure,” said owner Joe Montalto, who has owned the restaurant for nearly three years. “We have (music) booked” outside “until the end of October.”
“We can have indoor dining up to about ... 50 percent capacity, which for us is about 60 people,” he said. So far, Clubhouse
Grille has had “very limited inside” dining, Montalto said.
His plans for the winter remain fluid.
“Moving into the cold weather, without music — or without parties,” and faced with the prospect of serving “nothing more than about 25 or 30 people” at a time, “one of the options is just not to open,” Montalto said.
In the past, music “helped us get through the winter,” he said. “We had a lot of music on the books going into the summer, and we had a lot of parties going into the spring . ... All of them are gone.”
He’s been doing more deliveries via Uber Eats, but “in the winter, I don’t know,” he said. Without music inside, it might not make sense to stay open and “certainly one of the options is just to close.”
Tony Heslin, who owns both The Note Cafe and Notch 8 in Bethel, also is somewhat fluid in his plans at this point.
“My thought is, we’ll probably get through the end of October” with outdoor dining and live music “and then maybe we won’t be able to offer music until spring. The good news is, the weather has been fantastic, so we’re trying to do as much we can!”
The Note Cafe sometimes has presented up to three acts on a Saturday.
“It almost makes you feel normal again,” said Heslin, a music lover himself. “I’m lucky. I have two restaurants that have some of the largest patios in the area.”
As for indoor dining this winter, “I’m not sure,” he said. “It’s so small . ... We’re going to give it a go . ... But if I can’t get a really good musical act in there and pack the place on a Friday or Saturday ... there’s a possibility that we may have to lock up for the winter and see you in the spring.”
It’s been a strange summer at The Crab Shell, normally one of Stamford’s favorite places to sit out, have a drink and some food and listen to live music in the summer.
But Jim Clifford, who co-owns
The Crab Shell with Richard Guildersleeve, said they’ve adapted.
“We’ve been here 31 years. We’ve survived everything!” he said. “We’ve survived the storms. We’ll survive this.”
So far, “we’ve had amazing luck with the number of people who have gone inside,” Clifford said.
That’s been aided by the fact that The Crab Shell is a large restaurant with three individual dining rooms, “with tables all spaced at least six feet apart inside,” he said.
In addition, “We have extensive outdoor seating,” Clifford said.
As summer melts into autumn, “We’ll push the outdoor seating as long as we can,” he said. “We know the winter’s slow here” because people don’t like to head down by the water in as much. But he said he’s hopeful that they can resume live music next year.
At the Milford Sports Pub, owner John Romano has done a lot this spring and summer to keep things going, putting up “a series of tents that have gotten blown away and destroyed with the winds and the hurricanes and stuff, and we keep getting more.”
The pub has presented live music outdoors — including full bands at times — as well as serving food both indoors and out, except for “one incident where we got closed down for two weeks in August” because the parking lot was overcrowded.
“Obviously, food is our primary focus. So to get people here to eat food, we’ve been having entertainment,” said Romano, who has presented acoustic music and then a DJ on Wednesday evenings, acoustic music on Thursday evenings — live rock and cover bands on Friday and Saturday night — and sometimes two or three bands on Sundays.
Now it’s also drawing customers to watch football.
“Sunday, we had our best day,” through “a combination of music outside and football inside,” Romano said.
He’s going to keep up the combination — with music outside — as long as he can.
“Basically, we’re booked right through the end of October, with outdoor dining,” he said. If the pub has to stop after that, “obviously, it’s going to affect our bottom line.”
Right now, “We’re doing probably 30 to 40 percent of the business that we were doing when there wasn’t the pandemic,” he said. When the Milford Sports Pub shut down on March 13, it employed 37 people. That was down when it reopened on May 20, but has built back up to 30 employees, he said.
“Our distancing between all our tables are 8-10 feet outdoors. Indoors, at least 7 feet,” he said. “When they come here, we temp them, give them a mask if they don’t have one, and seat them,” Romano said. “Then they’re on their own.”