Hartford is one of those places that outsiders are wary of. We can sit here and debate why, whether it's fair, whether it's reality, perception, race, poverty, or cattiness, but the fact remains, people are skeptical. That outsider opinion only accentuates our hope that when a friend or family member visits town, they have a great time.
This particular evening that didn't happen.
We received this text Saturday evening and by Monday we all knew Braza didn't matter. Oddly, that Friday we had attempted to visit Braza On The Plaza during lunch for what would have been our first Braza eating experience and were stunned to find it closed. "Closed at lunch on Friday at Constitution Plaza?" "That's not a good sign."
Hardcore business analysis was dropped that afternoon.
So we never ate at Braza. Visited a few times, had a few beers, saw some karaoke, but at a slight build and not a fan of large quantities of red meat, the Braza buffet was never exactly a value buy here. Yet we did know Braza for one remarkable thing. As unlikely as it may seem, we were once told Braza was the best West End Tuesday Night First Date Bar.
The thinking behind this unique theory was explained to us roughly as follows;
"First, it's a Tuesday night, so, no one has plans on a Tuesday night. Basically, if a girl won't go out with you on a Tuesday night, she's not interested. Braza is a great place to start the date. It has a good atmosphere, a few good beers, and it's low key and quiet enough so that you can get a good rapport going. You pretty much have the bar to yourself at Braza on a Tuesday and you're still right in the middle of the West End."
Hey, the best we've ever come up with is Tinker's.
And Tinkers isn't even Tinkers anymore.
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting behind the scenes story in how Braza was funded publicly at first as part of a West End revitalization effort and is actually connected to the current owners of Hot Tomato's. It's also pretty odd and/or sketchy that this happened not just so soon after opening the Constiution Plaza location, but that one closed location is falsely redirecting people to another closed location. The money which was given contraversally to Braza way back when was also offered to the folks from Plan B/Half Door group to start something across the street on Farmington Ave. I guess the project began construction but stopped abruptly before opening or even publicly announcing what it was going to be. So there have been whispers of shadiness surrounding this place from the start.
ReplyDeletePlan B is open next to Braza on Farmington Avenue, I live down the street from them, and they're open, but they're not advertised for some odd reason. there's no Signage anywhere, but go to the front door, and it'll say it's open and it's on the second floor. Why they haven't put up any signage and made look like some speakeasy club is pretty weird to me, because it's gives it this creepy "private club" vibe. I doubt the people who live nearby(the ghetto types across the street, or even next door, lol on Clemens Place) will patronize, but why act all private?
DeleteI work for the company. That location is Plan B's corp. office space. It's not a speakeasy. But that would be cooler.
DeleteApparently they all closed and rather abruptly:
ReplyDeleteFrom the Article:
Churrascaria Braza has abruptly closed all three of its restaurants, including the Constitution Plaza location in downtown Hartford, which opened just three months ago.
The Brazilian chain opened its first restaurant eight years ago in Hartford's West End.
Peter Donohue, general manager for Capital Properties' Constitution Plaza holdings, said Monday that the restaurant at 10 Constitution Plaza — formerly occupied by Spris — closed a week ago. The Farmington Avenue restaurant in Hartford's West End closed the week before, and the Waterbury location on Bank Street also has closed, Donohue said.
Full Article at:
http://articles.courant.com/2012-04-23/business/hc-braza-closing-20120423_1_churrascaria-braza-spris-tom-altmann