A trendy restaurant with luxurious drinks and breakfast options, plans to add an additional spot in a college town next year along with locations in other major cities.
The Place 2 Be restaurant, which has five locations, including two in Hartford, one in New Haven, one in West Hartford, and one in Springfield at the Basketball Hall of Fame, also plans to add locations in Dallas, Texas and Las Vegas, according to Nicole Salcedo, the general manager.
The location in Storrs is expected to open in the former Grill 86 space in Storrs Center. According to Salcedo, the lease was signed for the 7,000 square-foot building. The restaurant, with its photo-ready drink and food offerings and festive décor, is popular with young social media savvy users and millennials. The restaurant will be located just feet from the University of Connecticut campus.
The Place 2 Be, first opened by founder Gina Luari in downtown Hartford in 2015, has seen both success and rapid growth over the last few years. The popular restaurant serves breakfast options daily, from 7 a.m. to close, and mixed drinks after 11 a.m. Luari, who grew up in the restaurant business, got the idea for an all day brunch restaurant after serving breakfast throughout the day at Town Line Diner in Rocky Hill when she was a teenager.
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Among the menu items are bottomless drink offerings with sangrias, mimosas, and a Bellini with prosecco and fruit juice. Signature drinks include a cotton candy cocktail and drunken honeybee, both complete with miniature yellow rubber duckies and festive bendable straws.
Among the most popular shareable cocktail the restaurant offers is “Drink My Bathwater” which offers up a mix of sangria, rosé and prosecco served in a mini bathtub-shaped porcelain container. The drink is so often posted to Instagram by social media influencers that the West Hartford restaurant has a photo-op area with a life-sized bathtub mockup.
Planned Hartford Restaurants
Luari, who founded a restaurant group called The Statement Group last year, has planned other restaurant concepts with several openings as soon as next year. In Hartford, two restaurants are planning on opening their doors as soon as 2024, according to the group.
Cantina, a new South-Of-The-Border Mexican restaurant, is planning on opening at the former Dish Bar & Grill at 900 Main St. in Hartford. No opening date has been announced.
Charred, a new brick-oven pizza restaurant, will be opening in the city’s former fire station at 275 Pearl St. The building is currently being redeveloped into apartments with the restaurant opening a space on the first floor. No opening date has been announced.