On-street dining making a comeback in West Hartford

Area restaurants are eager to make up for pandemic losses

WEST HARTFORD — The jersey barriers that made on-street dining possible in West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square last summer are coming back this year.

Kristen Gorski, the town’s economic development coordinator, said the barriers will go up around May 5 on LaSalle Street, Isham Road, South Main Street and Memorial Road. Barriers will go up later on Farmington Avenue pending the completion of a water main project, she said.

The barriers will create about 14,575 square feet of room for up to 18 restaurants to put a total of 460 seats outdoors. About 43 on-street parking spaces will be temporarily lost and vehicular traffic will be tightened on those roads, Gorski said.

Last year, the barriers stayed up until Nov. 15. This year, they will stay up as long as weather permits, Gorski said.

“Restaurants are really excited to be able to bring back some of these expanded outdoor dining options, to help them recoup some of the losses they had most of last year,” Gorski said.

“They have a larger ability to cater to different comfortability levels,” she added, referring to diners who may or may not be willing to sit indoors.

Statewide, restaurants have reported that outdoor dining last summer and into the fall rescued their bottom line during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the pandemic started, more than 600 restaurants in Connecticut have closed

permanently. Scott Dolch, executive director of Connecticut Restaurant Association, said that without outdoor dining, “hundreds” more were in danger of closing.

Currently, restaurants are allowed 100% capacity indoors. But with 6-feet social distancing still in effect, most restaurants don’t have the floor space to truly make 100% possible.

Christiane Gehami, owner of Arugula Bistro at 953 Farmington Ave., is applying for on-street space. Gehami said having outdoor dining last summer was “awesome.

“I had never had outdoor dining. I’m too close to the street. They gave me three parking spaces, almost 20 extra seats. It was beautiful,” she said. “It was what I lived on, that and takeout. Whenthey allowed us to open up the dining roommore, people still didn’t want to come inside.”

Scott Smith, COO of Max Restaurant Group, said he will apply for both Max Oyster Bar at 964 Farmington Ave. and Savoy at 32 LaSalle Road to get on-street seating this summer. Like Gehami, Smith said outdoor dining rescued him last summer. At Savoy, he got 24 outdoor seats. At the oyster bar, which has indoor dining and a 23-seat patio, he got 32 on the street.

“At first the only place we were able to serve was out of doors, but when they started loosening the restrictions inside some people still were hesitating to come in,” Smith said.

In an interview last week, Mayor Shari Cantor told The Courant that the town is working toward making permanent changes to allow for moreoutdoor dining. On April 12, Gov. Ned La mont signed legislation extending emergency measures to ease outdoor dining until March2022. Cantor praised the extension as giving the town more time to institute its own measures.

“There are a lot of things to consider, and it is time-consuming to makethechanges. Weneed time to do it. This gives us time,” she said.

Cantor said if the town makes such changes permanent, it could permanently affect warm-season traffic patterns in West Hartford Center, Blue Back Square and other restaurant-heavy retail areas.

Gorski also said that artists will paint the concrete and plastic barriers to make them more attractive. To donate, visit patron icity.com/project/artbarrier_ murals#!.