Fusion eatery aims to keep family touch

ORANGE — At the new Fireside Bar & Grill, the goal is not only to tantalize the taste buds with its American fusion cuisine, but also to make customers feel they’ve entered the comfort of a family member or friend’s home, says manager Valentina Coatanroch.

“We don’t want you to be patrons, we want you to be like friends and family,” she said. “If there’s a problem, we’re willing to listen, accept it, move on from it like friends and family.”

The dynamics among the diverse staff at the restaurant are similar, with everyone lending a voice, Coatanroch said.

“We aren’t typical owner/managers. We operate as a family,” she said.

The new restaurant at 385 Boston Post Road is owned by Eddy Zheng and his girlfriend Sarah Belke, who met five years ago when the two were working at a restaurant in Rhode Island — she as a waitress, he as the manager.

They are closely intertwined in running and developing the restaurant with Coatanroch, who has decades of management experience. Her husband, Viviane Coatanroch, the chef, is French. The Coatanroches, who live in Fairfield, met each other when she managed a Norwalk restaurant and he was the chef.

The couples met through a friend of a friend when the Fireside Bar & Grill was in the planning stages — and their years of diverse experience are making for a nice management as well as fusion.

“We like to keep it spicy,” Coatanroch said, quipping about the coupling at the heart of the restaurant.

Coatanroch said the restaurant workforce is diverse, as she’s Puerto Rican, her husband is French, Zheng is Chinese and there are many other nationalities in the employee mix.

“It’s always great when you have different cultures” under one roof, she said.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media From left, manager Valentina Coatanroch and owners Eddy Zheng and Sarah Belke pause in the newly opened Fireside Bar and Grill in Orange on Friday.