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Taste of Things To Come
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Business New Haven
5/4/1999
By: Betsy Guertin Regan
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Restaurateurs hope to market Elm City's gastronomic delights
Elm City restaurateurs are aspiring to make New Haven a dining destination to rival the world's most popular culinary cities.
Joining forces as the Downtown Restaurant Council, a new branch of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, owners of some Elm City eateries are planning to use their collective voice to market themselves and the city as one great place to enjoy an evening out.
The group is spearheaded by newcomer Thomas Jurewicz, whose first restaurant venture, C'dell'Arte, will open in mid-June. Jurewicz believes New Haven is already well on its way to becoming a dining, entertainment and cultural hot spot.
“There's an incredible renaissance of restaurants and bars in New Haven,” Jurewicz says. “It's not just the revolving-door renaissance of failed establishments reopening under new management. There are new places like Polo Grill, Amalfi's and Anna Liffey's with new, young owners.”
About 15 restaurants are already actively involved in the council, which has met only a handful of times, but Jurewicz has had calls from “30 or 40 who have expressed a general interest.” He expects that as their agenda takes shape and the chamber begins to market it, the council will grow and thereby increase chamber membership.
For its part, the chamber intends to kick back 40 percent of each restaurant member's annual dues into the council's advertising budget. Michael Kreutler, manager of membership development, explains that the chamber's support of the growing restaurant industry is part of the overall picture of improving New Haven's image.
“Really, the most important aspect of the Downtown Restaurant Council is getting together and changing the perception of New Haven into a positive - a night of going out and an evening of entertainment,” Kreutler says.
In addition to marketing and public relations, the group has set goals of creating a cooperative for the purchase of advertising and insurance (such as liquor liability and workers compensation insurance), as well as establishing a collective voice for lobbying city and state officials, and for participating in philanthropic endeavors.
The council, Jurewicz maintains, will make it easier to organize charitable events by providing a conduit for requests of sponsorships and in-kind donations. He hopes to use marketing events to support local charities, and vice-versa. He previously organized a group of restaurant owners to donate more than 400 tickets to Beast of New Haven playoff games to special-needs children.
“If the chamber had not put this restaurant council together, than we would have,” says Jane Snaider, head of the Town Green Special Services District.
Snaider's district, a private non-profit, uses a percentage of real estate taxes in a 23-block radius around the Green to create an environment that is clean, safe and attractive to bring people and businesses downtown. Snaider believes any group of business owners that comes together and organizes itself helps.
“If we can create New Haven as an eating destination,” Snaider reasons, “then the public becomes more aware of other things in New Haven and it gives people the sense that there's a lot of great things to do in New Haven. Not only can you eat there, but there are theaters and shopping and so on.”
The success of an endeavor like the Downtown Restaurant Council “depends on how creative they get and how well they work together,” according to restaurant and hotel consultant Steve Fries, a professor of hospitality programs at Gateway Community-Technical College.
The creative ideas are certainly there. Jurewicz is hoping the council will get together behind special events like pub crawls and a revolving restaurant series that would allow diners to sample the dishes of several area chefs in one evening. He's hoping to revive a Taste of New Haven event and to consolidate support that already exists for events like the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
How well they work together remains to be seen. Jurewicz believes his business background (he's a former computer consultant) will help keep the organization on track and moving forward. His peers have nothing but high expectations for him: Snaider describes him as “very, very high on New Haven, young, energetic and very creative.”
Sounds like a recipe for success.
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