Coming soon

The Place 2 Be owner planning ‘bold’ expansion in CT with several new restaurants

With five new restaurants set to open in the next 18 months, Gina Luari is making a statement.

In fact, Statement is the name of her newly formed restaurant group, which will encompass her The Place 2 Be brunch concept and three new eateries planned for downtown Hartford — a raw bar and seafood spot, a Central and South American restaurant with a tequila bar, and a brick-oven pizzeria with craft beer and cocktails.

“The concepts and culinary direction we have in development will bring even more creativity and boldness to the Connecticut and Massachusetts restaurant scenes,” Luari said in a press release announcing the group’s formation.

Luari knows creative and bold. Six years ago, then 24, she opened her first restaurant in Hartford’s South End — a casual breakfast and lunch spot with stuffed French toast, sandwiches, decadent milkshakes and colorful mimosas. With an eye for details, she made the Franklin Avenue eatery and its food and drink as aesthetically pleasing as possible, appealing to an Instagram audience.

The branding and decor grew more brash and audacious as she opened two more The Place 2 Be locations, one in early October 2020 at Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford and another in June 2021 in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square.

The restaurants went all-in on trendy decor and selfie opportunities: neon light signs, swing chairs, a fullsize bathtub filled with plastic pearls, and drinks topped with rubber duckies and cotton candy. Cheeky “go bottomless” taglines joined booty-shaped drinking vessels and a bathroom mural shows rear ends alongside stripper poles.

Two more The Place 2 Be’s will open in the next few months, in Springfield, Mass., and New Haven, and the first of Luari’s three coming downtown Hartford restaurants has a projected June opening date. To help with the expansion, she’s got an experienced culinary team to help her

Luari will make her first foray out of Connecticut soon, with the debut of a new Springfield restaurant by the Basketball Hall of Fame.

execute all the moving parts.

Last summer, she hired Xavier Santiago, a veteran of the Connecticut restaurant scene who’s worked for Barcelona Wine Bar, Trattoria Toscana in Manchester and David Burke Prime at Foxwoods. Santiago, a champion on Food Network’s “Chopped,” will take the helm as the Statement Group’s culinary director.

Joining Santiago as assistant culinary director is another “Chopped” champion, Mo Major, who brings experience from Bartaco’s Stamford and Westport locations. Major was also a partner in Stamford’s Taco Daddy.

“The two of them are going to team up and oversee [the new] concepts, and help create not only the culinary side of it, but just the systems side of it, standard operating procedures for back of house, and talent,” she said.

With her eyes on eventual national expansion, Luari shared details on the timelines for her new projects.

The Place 2 Be: Springfield and New Haven

Luari will make her first foray out of Connecticut soon, with the debut of a new Springfield restaurant by the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Place 2 Be will take over the former Samuel’s Tavern at 1000 West Columbus Ave.,

Lisa Nichols / For Hearst Connecticut Media The exterior of The Place 2 Be in West Hartford, with open-air windows and swing chairs facing Raymond Road.

Courtesy of The Place 2 Be Mo Major, left, and Xavier Santiago will run the culinary operations of Gina Luari’s The Statement Group.

Gina Luari, CEO of The Place 2 Be.