OT. City Steam Closing

[Hoophound]

I haven't been to City Steam since maybe 2018 or 2019, but I always felt like it smelled like a frat house after a weekend of parties. They really needed to rip up the floors and start over, because the smell was distracting.

Exactly what I thought.

 

[Hoophound]

You can’t solve downtown without making successful professionals want to live there. You can’t do that without increasing shopping and entertainment opportunities and providing a safe, high quality school system they are willing to send their kids to.

You won’t make any of this happen without having Hartford run by a county government that can blur the lines between Hartford and the surrounding desirable towns. It’s futile.

Connecticut’s small town government model vs the more common county government model is killing the cities.

 

[Waquoit]

Pratt Street has opened a few places in just the last few months. Hartford Stage has rebounded from COVID, I just went yesterday. Sucks about City Steam, we'll have to hit karaoke next week. I don't get Hartford bashing.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I’ve been downtown since the early 80s, so I know exactly what its like. It’s not bashing it’s a reality. I’ve seen more places come and go than you can shake a stick at. As far as City Steam is concerned, if they were killing it, it would be illogical not to reopen. Plus, unless they were foolish, I’m sure they had insurance coverage including business interruption coverage. So, no, that “fact” doesn’t add up.

Three things on insurance.
1. Deductible - trends these days to have a very high one
2. Business Interruption - yes that means you get $ while not operating
So if the deductible is high and they made some money for nothing off BInterupt they could easily determine that rebuild, downtime and reopen costs $ > revenue after reopening

3. And presumably this is a leased premises so it'd actually be another party/owner/landlord who holds the property insurance policy and determines rebuild timeline and repair scope. If the lease had a limited time left both landlord and tenant might choose to walk away.

PS - Isn't there anyone left in the insurance industry in Hartford who can better explain this to the 'yard & giddyup or have they ALL cleared out!?

 

[EROCK CONN]

City Steam had a broken pipe and huge flood and had to shut down for 4 months. That put them so far behind the 8-ball they could never catch up. Without the disaster, they would have been fine. It is not a Hartford problem. It was very bad luck. But who needs facts when you can just bash the city?

Yup. Also, a 27 year run is 3x the normal life span for a restaurant....

 

[cohenzone]

If you don't think the City of Hartford and the politics in that city has anything to do with the lack of creativity in attracting and keeping healthy businesses that will endure you are in lala land Palatine - or you are just shooting from the hip. Christ, they can't even get together with the economic development people in the state government to correctly repair and upgrade one measly civic center.
If City Steam meant that much to the powers to be in the city the ’t repairs would have been a priority to see get done quickly. They rescue much less visible entities in other parts of the city thatarhead scratchers. I don't pretend to know if City Steam was experiencing a downturn in revenue prior to the flooding issue but is a very high visibility business and location - almost too big to ignore.

The city of Hartford politically has had issues for decades, partly due its political structure and partly due to lack of vision And downtown retail took a major whack from suburban malls. I don’t know what if anything went on between City Steam and the city I did studies years ago as a student on Hartford downtown redevelopment and then in my job had a lot of experience dealing with development issues in Hartford and around the state. For the last several years my last office looked down at the huge parking lot that is now Dunkin field. It was undeveloped for almost 50 years, the gateway to downtown from the North. Inexcusable.

 

[Palatine]

Your second paragraph is irrelevant. Your first one is wrong. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

They're giving TED talks at gas stations these days. You can't get away from them.

Another factor in restaurant closures is that you lose all your people. Front of the house, back of the house, a huge percentage have to be replaced. It is a ton of time and effort. My guess is they looked at the numbers. They looked at the amount of work to get up and running. And figured it just wasn't worth it. It probably had zero to do with the location being in Hartford.

 

[Sphinx]

I also remember a time frLooks lije City Steam on Main St in Hartford is closing. Spent many before and after Civic Center events there and at its predecessor eatery Brown Thompson &Co. How many of us are old enough to remember the Brown-Thompson Dept. Store, one of several department stores in downtown Hartford for years.

Indeed I do remember. Brown Thompson's was adjacent to Fox's and Sage Allen, up the street from Grants, across the street from Wise & Smiths (Later Korvette;s) and the 5 & 10's - Newberry's & Kresge's. Downtown Hartford not only supported seven department stores but eight movie houses -- Loew's Poli and Loew's Poli Palce, Regal, Princess, E.M. Loew;s, Allyn, Strand and Crown, not to mention the State Theater for live performances. Talking late 40's, early 50's here. Back when a grade schooler like myself thought it a great treat to take the Broad St, bus from the South End to downtown to ride the Fox's escalators. Even then, I was a UConn basketball junkie, rooting for the great teams of Yokabaskas, Quimby, Patterson et al.

 

[uconnfan68]

You can’t solve downtown without making successful professionals want to live there. You can’t do that without increasing shopping and entertainment opportunities and providing a safe, high quality school system they are willing to send their kids to.

You won’t make any of this happen without having Hartford run by a county government that can blur the lines between Hartford and the surrounding desirable towns. It’s futile.

Connecticut’s small town government model vs the more common county government model is killing the cities.

It’s how the rich suburbs handle their problems.

 

[TJT]

This was once a great place that always seemed to be packed when I visited.

 

[cohenzone]

Indeed I do remember. Brown Thompson's was adjacent to Fox's and Sage Allen, up the street from Grants, across the street from Wise & Smiths (Later Korvette;s) and the 5 & 10's - Newberry's & Kresge's. Downtown Hartford not only supported seven department stores but eight movie houses -- Loew's Poli and Loew's Poli Palce, Regal, Princess, E.M. Loew;s, Allyn, Strand and Crown, not to mention the State Theater for live performances. Talking late 40's, early 50's here. Back when a grade schooler like myself thought it a great treat to take the Broad St, bus from the South End to downtown to ride the Fox's escalators. Even then, I was a UConn basketball junkie, rooting for the great teams of Yokabaskas, Quimby, Patterson et al.

I remember all of that although you Southenders were like foreigners to us Blue Hills kids. Lot’s of great theaters. Parsons, too Did you ever duck pin bowl at the Wooster Lanes on Asylum or eat at the Spaghetti Palace? Bought all my 45s at Korvettes. You have me by a bit. I rooted for teams before I hit UConn that had Lenny Carlson and Jack Rose, one of the cheating scandal years players.

 

[ET7774]

And Sage Allen. My uncle was a G Fox VP. I worked on their furniture delivery trucks one summer.

I remember all 3 of those stores. My father worked for G. Fox as a carpet installer from the time he arrived in this country till he retired. That's right - carpet installation. Back then, before malls, the big department stores sold everything. Each floor was a separate department. We used to take the city bus 'downtown' to shop for school clothes.

 

[cohenzone]

I remember all 3 of those stores. My father worked for G. Fox as a carpet installer from the time he arrived in this country till he retired. That's right - carpet installation. Back then, before malls, the big department stores sold everything. Each floor was a separate department. We used to take the city bus 'downtown' to shop for school clothes.

If it weren’t such a diversion i could tell you a story about carpets and G Fox from when i worked on a delivery truck. Hardest thing i ever had to help lift up very narrow old colonial stairwell was a GFox carpet.

 

[uconnfan68]

If it weren’t such a diversion i could tell you a story about carpets and G Fox from when i worked on a delivery truck. Hardest thing i ever had to help lift up very narrow old colonial stairwell was a GFox carpet.

Ha! There are a lot of tricks to do things like that. Worked one summer at a furniture store doing delivery while at college (and taking summer classes). The main driver would cinch up his back brace and literally put refrigerators on his back to walk up 4 flights to apartments on Main St Middletown. Straps held by hand.

 

[cohenzone]

Ha! There are a lot of tricks to do things like that. Worked one summer at a furniture store doing delivery while at college (and taking summer classes). The main driver would cinch up his back brace and literally put refrigerators on his back to walk up 4 flights to apartments on Main St Middletown. Straps held by hand.

Trouble was it was a very narrow stairway that turned a corner halfway up and a 22 by 20 carpet that was too thick to bend. Weighed a ton too. Worst things to deliver were sleeper sofas and tool sheds. Heavy as heck and too big for hand trucks. We had no big rolling racks.

 

[Deepster]

Your second paragraph is irrelevant. Your first one is wrong. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

How is it wrong? If you go to opening day, where are you going pregame by the stadium? Hang out in a parking lot? You’d have to now go to Pratt St which has always been there and not part of the original Yard Goats revitalization.

 

[CL82]

You can’t solve downtown without making successful professionals want to live there. You can’t do that without increasing shopping and entertainment opportunities and providing a safe, high quality school system they are willing to send their kids to.

You won’t make any of this happen without having Hartford run by a county government that can blur the lines between Hartford and the surrounding desirable towns. It’s futile.

Connecticut’s small town government model vs the more common county government model is killing the cities.

New Jersey has a very strong county government. Municipalities still are responsible to run themselves. Things like the court system and interconnecting roadways are handled by the county.

FYI.

What you really appear to be saying is that successfully run suburbs around Hartford should be financially responsible for it. I will respectfully suggest that the problem isn't finances it's bad management. Throwing more cash into the money pit won't solve anything.

 

[Hoophound]

New Jersey has a very strong county government. Municipalities still are responsible to run themselves. Things like the court system and interconnecting roadways are handled by the county.

FYI.

What you really appear to be saying is that successfully run suburbs around Hartford should be financially responsible for it. I will respectfully suggest that the problem isn't finances it's bad management. Throwing more cash into the money pit won't solve anything.

The geographically tiny city of Hartford can’t solve its problems without some help from the people in the surrounding area. There’s no management miracle that can solve Hartford as it is. It’s a tiny city with big city problems and infrastructure. I used to think it could be fixed with better management. I now realize it just can’t be done.

Everyone that could have helped the city abandoned it. The mass exodus left a city that middle class families will not return to without changes that would involve massive spending. There’s gotta be some effort to build a major charter school downtown to lure parents back and another big push to get college kids and young professionals living downtown. Unfortunately, the government or some non profits will have to make this stuff happen. The first seeds are not anything the private sector can handle. Once those seeds are planted, more retail etc. will return. There has been some attempts, but nothing transformational.

 

[CL82]

The geographically tiny city of Hartford can’t solve its problems without some help from the people in the surrounding area. There’s no management miracle that can solve Hartford as it is. It’s a tiny city with big city problems and infrastructure. I used to think it could be fixed with better management. I now realize it just can’t be done.

Everyone that could have helped the city abandoned it. The mass exodus left a city that middle class families will not return to without changes that would involve massive spending. There’s gotta be some effort to build a major charter school downtown to lure parents back and another big push to get college kids and young professionals living downtown. Unfortunately, the government or some non profits will have to make this stuff happen. The first seeds are not anything the private sector can handle. Once those seeds are planted, more retail etc. will return. There has been some attempts, but nothing transformational.

The families left because the city was mismanaged. I don't know if Hartford problems can be fixed without a cash infusion. I do think it is inherently unfair to to have better managed communities subsidized poorly managed communities. Just like you can't fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom, it doesn't matter how much money you threw at Hartford until the management issues get fixed.

JMHO

 

[Waquoit]

How is it wrong? If you go to opening day, where are you going pregame by the stadium? Hang out in a parking lot? You’d have to now go to Pratt St which has always been there and not part of the original Yard Goats revitalization.

It's not just one thing. You know about but choose to ignore the chilling effect that nuisence lawsuit had on development. Still, they built those residential units right next store. And I can't park in my favorite lot across the street anymore, development is starting there. The Wolf Pack fills the lower bowl every weekend game these days, they've taken down the curtian on one side. And it's too late to get weekend seats for the Yard Goats-Sea Dogs series a month from now, only about 20 seats left total. None on Sunday. Hartford Stage was really good last month. So folks are coming back downtown.

 

[beerfan]

I lived in the Richardson apartments above Brown Thompson's right out of college in the late eighties. They had a pretty good happy hour spread that I think was my dinner every night the first year. I stopped going to City Steam when they got rid of the cheddar chicken sandwhich, a BT staple that they carried over and had it on the menu for years.

Fun fact there was a food court below which included Saigon Kitchen, their sesame chicken was the best Saturday morning hangover food. It relocated to the alley around the corner from City Steam and the same lady still runs the place.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Wasn't their beer very mediocre? I hadn't been there in years but had gone a few times but never felt compelled to go back

 

[Exit 4]

Hartford needs a new anchor and that anchor should be a top notch arena. Find the money- do it.

 

[Waquoit]

Hartford needs a new anchor and that anchor should be a top notch arena. Find the money- do it.

Belling the cat.

 

[Deepster]

It's not just one thing. You know about but choose to ignore the chilling effect that nuisence lawsuit had on development. Still, they built those residential units right next store. And I can't park in my favorite lot across the street anymore, development is starting there. The Wolf Pack fills the lower bowl every weekend game these days, they've taken down the curtian on one side. And it's too late to get weekend seats for the Yard Goats-Sea Dogs series a month from now, only about 20 seats left total. None on Sunday. Hartford Stage was really good last month. So folks are coming back downtown.

I don't think I'm ignoring the lawsuit. The stadium is going on it's 9th season. To still be in the shape it's in right now, regardless of that petty and tiny lawsuit, is ridiculous. It basically took the heart right out of the best years that stadium will ever have.