The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Red Fox leaps the river
Cecunjanin family opens 2nd Italian restaurant at Portland Golf Club
PORTLAND — Having established the Red Fox as a go-to restaurant destination on Smith Street in Middletown, the owners have opened a second member of the Fox family in Portland.
Fox on the Green, in the Portland Golf Club, officially opened for business Friday. The new eatery will be open year round, serving lunch and dinner, said co-owner Alex Cecunjanin.
For him, Fox on the Green means returning to Portland. He formerly served as the manager at Campagna’s on Marlborough Street. In part, it was that experience that brought First Selectman Susan S. Bransfield to Red Fox when it opened on Smith Street in Middletown three years ago.
“I encouraged them and invited them to open a restaurant in Portland. And the good news is, they have,” Bransfield said last week.
The opening is the latest chapter in an evolving story that began in 2001, when members of the Cecunjanin family arrived in America from Montenegro. One of the Balkan countries reborn out of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Montenegro is separated from Italy by the Adriatic Sea.
When Alex, then 18, and Fico, his brother and the chef at Red Fox, then 18, arrived in America with their father Seki, “We didn’t know any English,” Alex Cecunjanin said.
But what the family did know was cooking.
“Our families, for decades, were in the restaurant business,” he said one afternoon while sitting in the dining room.
Undaunted, the brothers started at the
bottom.
“At first, we got job as dishwashers and then bussing tables,” Alex Cecunjanin said. “And we learned English little by little.”
His brother decided to stick to the kitchen and get more knowledge and experience about restaurants. Fico Cecunjanin went on to serve as chef at Luce on Main Street in Middletown.
Then, three years ago, the brothers felt ready to open their own place. Their father “built our whole restaurant,” Alex Cecunjanin said with pride.
“There were 80 seats when we first opened. We were just looking for enough to meet our next paycheck,” he said. “We wanted to make it a place for people to feel comfortable. When they came through the door, we wanted them to feel they had entered our house.”
Fico Cecunjanin can cook “Greek, Italian, anything Mediterranean, American — anything you like,” his brother said. “He can make anything you want. You see something you like, you Google it, and he can make exactly the way you want it.”
They have regular customers from Italy who, one night, brought in a menu from a restaurant they love in Italy and highlighted one entree. To their surprise and delight, “Fico made it better than they had it back home,” Alex Cecunjanin said.
“I wouldn’t be afraid to have him go face to face with Chef (Gordon) Ramsay,” he said, referring to the television personality.
Clearly, the brothers were doing something very right. They have expanded Red Fox from 80 to 300 seats to accommodate their swelling client base, with a lot of customers coming from Portland.
Among them were John and Laurie Kelley, owners/ operators of the Portland Golf Course. For the past 13 years, Art and Mary Ellen Hetrick, the owners of Farrell’s, have operated the restaurant at the golf club in addition to their own restaurant at 245 Marlborough St.
But the Hetricks are now focusing more attention on their growing catering business and told the Kelleys they were giving up the dining room at the golf club. The Kelleys turned to the Cecunjanins to see if the family would be interesting in taking over the space.
It didn’t take long for the brothers to say an empathic “Yes.”
“I was floored the first time I walked in (Red Fox),” John Kelley said. “It’s right there on a par with the best restaurants in Glastonbury. What’s important is they have a really good work ethic and they are very family-oriented.”
“When you walk into Red Fox, it feels like you’re walking into someone’s home,” Laurie Kelley said.
“The Kelleys are a beautiful family, really top-notch people,” Alex Cecunjanin said. In particular, “John’s really a pleasure to work with.”
Once again, their father was involved in altering the interior, which includes 50 seats in the grill room and an additional 50 in the dining room, which has a curved glass roof.
Laurie Kelley calls it the greenhouse.
There will also be a gazebo to serve casual food to golfers on hot days, Alex Cecunjanin said. Fico Cecunjanin will move back and forth to oversee Fox on the Green as it gets up and running.
The brothers anticipate hiring 25 or 26 full- and part-time employees for Fox on the Green, in addition to the 23 who work at the Red Fox.
In all, the Cecunjanins and their extended family own or operate 15 restaurants in the region. “It’s a tough business,” Alex Cecunjanin acknowledged. “You have to love what you do.
“You can’t please everyone, but if you respect your customers and at least do your best,” more often than not, the customers will be pleased. Whatever else, “You can’t do anything without loyal customers,” he added.
Mary D. Dickerson, Portland’s economic development coordinator, said bringing another restaurant to Portland can only be a positive. “As downtown Middletown shows, the more opportunities you have for dinner, the more people will come out.”
“We’re thrilled to have them here in Portland,” Land-use Administrator Ashley Majorowski said.
Bransfield, who encouraged the Cecunjanins to “come on over” to Portland, said, “Red Fox is wonderful, both in terms of the food and the service. You couldn’t ask for a better setting than the golf course,” she added.
“I look forward to eating many delicious meals at Fox on the Green.”