Hardware City Cafe Plans April 24th Opening
By Robin Vinci | Editor at April 13, 2024 | 2:15 pm | Print
New Britain will soon be home to a new cafe. A trio of residents are opening up Hardware City Cafe at 2 Main St., the spot which was previously home to Cafe Beauregard. Cafe Beauregard closed last month.
Isaac Silva, owner of West Side Tavern, along with Miriam Geraci, a board of education member and Ellen Spelman Cedarfield plan to open the Cafe on April 24.
Geraci and Cedarfield both worked at West Side Tavern and Silva has been the chef. Silva will once again do the cooking for the cafe.
“I have spent 23 years in law and corporate and I wanted to invest in the City and give back to the City, get out of the corporate and do something for myself,” said Geraci. “We all share in Isaac’s visions and his dreams for expanding. When this place became available, we decided this is what we wanted to do.”
Hardware City Cafe was chosen as the name because New Britain is known as the Hardware Capitol of the World.
It will open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday thru Fridays and will serve both breakfast and lunch.
The menu will include breakfast sandwiches, pastries, coffee, cappucino and expresso. For lunch it will feature sandwiches, wraps, panini’s, a fresh salad bar, and hot and cold items and fresh cut meats. There will be grilled meats with a Brazilian flair, which Silva is known for making. A hot breakfast may come in the future if customers request it.
The cafe seats 19 inside and has a patio for more outside.
“There will be tons of foot traffic coming in from Liberty Square, the Courthouse and state buildings. People are popping their heads in everyday to see how things are coming along and how we are progressing,” said Geraci. “They are excited and welcome us.”
Geraci said Isaac’s cooking will bring in a crowd.
“It has proven itself at West Side. It will prove itself here,” Geraci said. “He has the ability to connect with the community and has quality.”
“I’m very excited,” said Silva. “It’s always exciting to open a new business.”
He said West Side Tavern will still be open and the food will be even better.
“It’s going to be a lot of work there is no doubt,” Silva said. “For a long time I wanted to open something here in downtown. I want to try to give people the same experience we do at the West Side Tavern in a different type of lunch place.”
Silva said he feels the more restaurants that open in the City the better it is for all restaurant owners.
“You go to one today and tomorrow you want to go to the next one. It keeps traffic coming,” said Silva. “It brings people in and boosts the economy of the City. That is what we want.”
“We are getting a lot of support from the community,” said Cedarfield. “A lot of people are opening the door and asking when we are opening. We are getting really excited.”
The cafe has been cleaned, freshly painted, has new equipment and will get a new sign in the next week featuring a hardware design.
