The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
PRE-PROHIBITION ERA
Conspiracy craft cocktail, beer, cheese bar with late-Victorian theme set to open on city’s restaurant row
MIDDLETOWN » Climbing the second-floor stairs of the 1920s Capitol Theater building is like stepping into a time capsule from a longago era, when a trip to the movies was a glorious experience for families and couples.
Jen Sabo, a pediatric dietitian, and husband Mark, a Simsbury pediatrician, are nearing the completion of transforming this “lost” space overlooking Main Street into a pre-Prohibition-style craft cocktail, beer, cheese and charcuterie bar and restaurant called Conspiracy.
Jen Sabo, 38, and Mark Sabo, 40, of Portland, married for 11 years, picked a modern Victorian theme as “a play on a late Victorian secret society, like the Freemasons and old gentlemen’s clubs, like Yale’s Skull and Bones, incorporating a late Victorian mysticism,” Mark Sabo said.
The place at 350 Main St. is modeled on similar restaurants in Boston, Providence, Chicago, New York and, more locally, New Haven’s 116 Crown and Elm City Social, and Hartford’s Little River Restoratives, he said.
“A curveball … something you maybe wouldn’t expect when you come up to the space and it does look elegant and posh, but then it’s something out of left field. That is what we want,” Mark Sabo said of the restaurant they expect to open Aug. 20. “The whole thing is highlow. We’ve got champagne cocktails but then we also have a shot and a beer. It’s a whole spectrum of things.”
His wife will mostly run the establishment, he said, with a corral of bartenders, some of whom have owned their own places, and overwhelmingly women, which, he said, is the industry’s new trend.
The couple is well-versed in cocktail history, technique and culture, and will offer selections, some “forgotten,” that hearken back to the 1870s to ’80s, Mark Sabo said.
“We will be bringing something new and different to restaurant row, a place to explore the history of craft cocktails and spirits, sample New England beers and relax with some of the world’s best wines,” he added. “We also consider ourselves a cheese bar and will have a huge selection of New England cheeses and charcuterie, so that guests can customize their own boards.
“We believe that the food and drink scene in Middletown is already amazing, but we also feel it’s about to explode even further, and in the next couple of years, rival New Haven, drawing in more and more food and drink tourists,” he said.
The space will have leather sofas and club chairs from Middletown-based Oak and Velvet custom upholstered furniture, he said, which is located in the old Remington Rand building on Johnson Street, now known as the Robert M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park,.
The color scheme is a “black-and-white background on the walls and floors with fun pops of colors,” said Jen Sabo, who worked as a waitress throughout high school and college.
“The stools are sea foam green to play on the fact that this was a shipping town and the couch and club chairs are royal blue and rubyish purple-red,” she said.
The tile is “kind of like the North star” guiding ships on the Connecticut River, she said.
Large paintings on canvas are being created by New London artist Katie Fogg, who, Mark Sabo said, are “modern grafitti-like murals.
“We want it to be on the elegant side but we want people to be comfortable to come after work in a T-shirt and jeans,” he said. “We’ll have tons of beers on tap — 15 to 20 — or you (could have) a fancy night out with your significant other or a business meeting.”
Conspiracy will serve customers six days a week, but not Tuesdays.
“Monday is traditionally when everyone else is closed, so we want it to be a day for those in the service industry, chefs, bartenders to come out,” said Mark Sabo.
They’ll offer between 15 and 20 New England cheeses sourced from purveyors like Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont and Mystic Cheese, and even vegan selections, Jen Sabo said.
Colchester’s Cato Corner Farm is their favorite, however.
“We really, really love them and they actually let us spend some time there and talked to us about their cheese. We love to go and bring it home and make our own cheese plates,” she said, “but we also like to go to restaurants and try different cheeses that they make.
“There’s almost no cheese that we don’t like,” Jen Sabo said, as her husband pointed to their favorites: sharp ones and aged cheddars.
“Cheese manufactured here is so amazing that we don’t need to (expand our sources),” Mark Sabo said.
“It pairs really well with wine, beer and cocktails,” his wife said.
“Cheese and alcohol go very well together,” he added.
“Then we’re going to have things that go well with cheese,” Jen Sabo said. “To start off with, we’ll have a goat cheese and fennel salad, a huge selection of grilled cheeses, baked Brie, fig and blue cheese tarts.”
And, for those looking for late-night eats, gourmet Belgian waffles after 10 p.m.
“You could order more extravagant waffles going with the playful side: We’re not serious all the time,” Mark Sabo said, “with really cool toppings, lots of fresh stuff.”
Likewise, “cocktails are meant to be fun,” he added.
“We definitely like to have fun with everything that we do,” Jen Sabo said. “It’s a college town and there are a lot of people out late that are not necessarily looking for a cheese board at 10 o’clock at night, so we thought (we’d have that) to help balance out serving alcohol late at night. It has to be something kind of fun and approachable but also delicious.”
Her husband said they really took the time to find the right bartenders, who will be the face of Conspiracy, interviewing them day after day at the New England Emporium next door, since the restaurant has been under construction around the clock with contractors doing extensive remodeling.
“Our biggest thing was the hospitality part of it, and personality,” said Jen Sabo. “People that would be happy to work with the guest and carry through the vibe we were going for.”
“We can train anybody for where we want them to be, but we can’t train a personality,” her husband said. “We want it to be all about the customers and have this been a comfortable place where you can spend hours and hours even if you don’t order anything. You can come and hang out. And that all starts with the people that you feel comfortable with.”
“At first, when we were talking about it, we thought we’d want to bring a New York-style cocktail bar to Middletown but then Connecticut and New England are awesome enough in itself,” Mark Sabo said. “We want to showcase New England and what we’re doing in New England and how frankly amazing it is to live here, and bring out the history of Middletown, the architecture — that’s why we picked the place.”
For more information, email conspiracyct@gmail. com or call 860-798-0787.