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Vito's Shows the Way

Mike McGarry

December 02, 2010

The only way for Hartford to face the future is for businesses to invest, constantly upgrading, drawing more customers and building business. Success breeds success. We believe in live, work and play... especially play!

A perfect example is Vito's by the Park, 24 Trumbull Street in downtown Hartford.

A long established restaurant with sister establishments in Windsor and New Britain, its business was fine with many regular diners, happy hour customers and a busy take out. However, Rob Marfuggi, the owner, has made a significant investment in changing Vito's into an even warmer, more inviting restaurant.

Vito's now has a fireplace and has set up it's dining room to facilitate groups with a modicum of privacy. With the work done at nights and on weekends, business continued during the dress up.

Marfuggi said “We are ready for the next wave of progress in the city. Just think, if Howard Baldwin is successful with “The Whale”, hockey will draw thousands – like the UCONN games – and we will need the capacity we've developed to accommodate our regulars and hockey fans.” Right now, Vito's happy hour specials fill the bar area until late into the evening many nights, with the ability to segregate the bar from private parties, they open up a whole new market.

Thinking out of the box, like the fabled “Monday Date” series in the late 1990's, is how a restaurant (or a city) can constantly change to keep 'em coming. Some say Hartford's problem is that we are in an “Insurance City” and an adverse to taking risks. Well, the successful ones have and continue to experiment, knowing that not every flower will bloom.

On another note, congrats to Business For Downtown with its “Hartford Store” on Pratt Street. We found a copy of Mark Twain's biography there and revel in space for CDs of the various players involved in P.V. O'Donnell's Wednesday night sessions at McKinnon's. They also carry a whole line of hockey clothing and many Hartford/Conn. items.

So, visit downtown for the festivities and if you stop in at Vito's for a happy hour slice or two of gourmet pizza, ask for yours truly and we'll have a holiday drink together!