{"id":34,"date":"2021-05-13T15:43:31","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T15:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/?p=34"},"modified":"2021-05-25T12:59:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T12:59:30","slug":"litchfield-saltwater-grille-expanding-to-torringtons-main-street-with-broad-takeout-menu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"Litchfield Saltwater Grille expanding to Torrington’s Main Street, with broad takeout menu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Litchfield Saltwater Grille expanding to Torrington’s Main Street, with broad takeout men<\/span><\/h1>\n

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TORRINGTON\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

A popular seafood restaurant in Litchfield is expanding its offerings to an empty restaurant space on Main Street.<\/p>\n

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Litchfield Saltwater Grille<\/a>, located on Village Green Drive, is owned by Brook Noel and Andy Stowers, who moved to Connecticut from Wisconsin in 2012 and\u00a0purchased the restaurant from the previous owners\u00a0<\/a>in 2013. Brett Clugston and her husband Albert had opened the restaurant\u00a0<\/a>in 2007.<\/p>\n

Sliders,\u00a0which opened in 2019<\/a>\u00a0at 84 Main St., was preceded by Backstage restaurant,\u00a0which closed in 2018\u00a0<\/a>after seven years.<\/p>\n

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The new owners plan to offer their Salt 2.0<\/a>, a takeout menu they created to provide meals during the pandemic featuring grain and salad bowls, sandwich wraps, burritos, tacos, nachos, and quesadillas, with gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Having a successful restaurant next door to the Warner Theatre is important for the downtown\u2019s success, officials have said, as the city continues to seek ways to draw more pedestrian traffic to places such as Franklin Plaza and other areas on and off Main Street.<\/p>\n

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The city\u2019s Economic Development Department, led by Rishta Malanca, is working with Blue Haus Group on ways to use vacant spaces and popup events to attract people. The department also is seeking to make East Main Street corridor improvements for pedestrian and driver safety on the commercial roadway that is adjacent to many residential neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

City Planner Martin Connor, who has enjoyed the restaurant\u2019s food as a take-home meal option during the pandemic, said the owners had a \u201csmart\u201d plan for Torrington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Salt 2.0 plan is pretty popular,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Downtown<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Mertz building is owned by the Warner Theatre. Executive Director Rufus de Rham said he was happy to know the restaurant space is reopening.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe way they\u2019re doing it is smart, with having grab-and-go food for now, and then offer sit-down service as things open up,\u201d de Rham said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing Sliders was a big concern for the theater. \u201cThe departure of Sliders was very sudden, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It caught us by surprise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were worried; it\u2019s difficult for us to fill this space,\u201d de Rham said. \u201cThen, out of the blue, here\u2019s the Litchfield Saltwater Grille with this plan. We wanted to work with them. A lot of their ideas were very smart. I was also looking forward to a place to get burritos.\u201d<\/p>\n

After meeting with the owners several times, \u201cwe knew this was a partnership we wanted to happen,\u201d de Rham said. \u201cAnd fortunately for downtown Torrington, it did. So we\u2019re very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noel said the 2.0 restaurant option was born out of the pandemic, but it\u2019s continuing in Litchfield, and she\u2019s sure it will be popular in Torrington.<\/p>\n

\u201cSit down and dine-in eating has taken a really big hit, and we needed to pivot our business somehow to compensate for that,\u201d she said. \u201cIn Litchfield, there was a need for good, quality food that\u2019s less expensive and fast, so people could be in and out in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we took a dining room in the grille that had just three tables, and we turned it into a second kitchen,\u201d she said. \u201cFrom day one, it was incredibly successful. As we watched it grow, we knew we needed to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2.0 takeout meals were also a way to keep their employees working, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have had to lay people off, and we didn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d Noel said. \u201cIt\u2019s allowed us to remain all our staff, and make it through the pandemic. We love it. We love the customers, and we have a ton of fun. So we thought, let\u2019s do another one in Torrington.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple chose Torrington, Noel said, because they already had a following there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the genesis of it because a lot of people are familiar with us already. With the space available at the Warner, it seemed like a great fit for us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This week, Noel and Stoler were working in the Mertz building restaurant space. \u201cI was up there painting yesterday,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to be open by the end of March or early April. I was there when it was Backstage, and as soon as I saw the space, I fell in love with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

New furniture and decor are also coming into the Mertz restaurant space. \u201cThere are all new colors and we\u2019re getting all new furniture,\u201d Noel said. \u201cMost of what was it is gone now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant is large, and Stoler and Noel plan to divide it in half. \u201cFor the takeout business, customers will walk in on the bar side and order, and there\u2019s seating there,\u201d Noel said. \u201cOn the other side, it\u2019ll have a different feeling, more like a venue restaurant, for private events for the theater, private parties, graduations, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also stressed that the Litchfield Saltwater Grille is not moving or closing. \u201cWe\u2019re growing, not moving,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Litchfield Saltwater Grille expanding to Torrington’s Main Street, with broad takeout men     TORRINGTON\u00a0 A popular seafood restaurant in Litchfield is expanding its offerings to an empty restaurant space on Main Street. Litchfield Saltwater Grille, located on Village Green Drive, is owned by Brook Noel and Andy Stowers, who moved to Connecticut from Wisconsin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}