New London
Was once home to one of region’s largest restaurants
accounting firm plans to buy and demolish the former Poor Richard’s restaurant in Waterford.
Waterford — A New London accounting firm plans to buy the unused property at a busy Waterford intersection that once housed Poor Richard’s restaurant and demolish it to make an office.
The large green, wood-paneled building across Boston Post Road from the Waterfall Shopping Center has been vacant for many years, but it was once the home of one of the region’s largest restaurants and changed hands multiple times starting in the late 1980s.
Ed Lorah, whose accounting firm has offices in the Shaw’s Cove office complex in New London, said he has not yet closed a deal on the building but plans to make it official within a month.
The building is in disrepair and will be torn down to make way for a new building of similar size, he said Wednesday.
“There’s just too many unknowns,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s lucky it hasn’t fallen down already.”
Lorah said he plans to have a new building to move into within a year.
Poor Richard’s opened in April 1977 in the rambling Victorian-style home at 49 Boston Post Road. It seated 300 people and featured wood-paneled walls, leaded glass, brass on much of the furniture and a collection of stained glass from the U.S. and Europe.
Reviews from the time noted a large quiche dish, flounder stuffed with crab meat and veal Marsala on the menu.
In 1986, after several years of zoning disputes and money problems, owner Richard Maynard filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, selling all the furniture and fixtures at bankruptcy liquidation auction. Mystic restaurateur Jon Kodoma bought the house and in 1988 opened the Post Victoria Steakhouse, which closed shortly afterwards.
The spot saw several establishments come and go, including a brewery in the late 1990s, but has been vacant for many years, Lorah said. He plans to buy the property from the current owner, a Madison-based realty company. He said the firm employs about a dozen people.
Lorah applied for permission from the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission in May to allow him to build office space on the property, which was zoned for commercial use.
He said he plans to work out a parking plan with the owners of Café NV, which neighbors the building on Boston Post Road, and whose customers often park on the empty lot next door.
The new building will have a 3,500-square-foot footprint on the ground floor and a slightly smaller second floor, which Lorah said he will rent out. The location on a busy stretch of Boston Post Road will boost his firm’s visibility.
“I don’t want the Taj Mahal, I just want a nice building,” he said. “It’ll look nice.”