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December 12, 2024

Mercato, Blu Pointe upscale restaurants coming to West Hartford Center

Contributed Market Hospitality Group plans to open a second Blu Point restaurant in West Hartford Center. The first, above, is located in Newburgh, New York.
By David Krechevsky

Eli Hawli, owner of Market Hospitality Group (MHG), has high praise for West Hartford Center.

“Every time I go there, it feels like Boston,” he said. 

Hawli hopes to make the Center feel even more inviting by developing two high-end restaurants in space formerly occupied by a CVS Pharmacy on Farmington Avenue.

In September, MHG acquired the vacant 9,100-square-foot building at 978 Farmington Ave., for $5.25 million from Center Equities LLC, which had owned the property since 1977. The location is not far from Max’s Oyster Bar, at 964 Farmington Ave., and is next door to Treva, at 980 Farmington Ave.

MHG is a Newtown-based company that operates upscale restaurants in the Northeast, including Mercato in Canton, Southbury and now Shelton; The Wheel in Stamford; and Marketplace Kitchen & Bar in Shelton. It also operates Blu Pointe in Newburgh, New York.

Hawli said his company is finalizing plans to transform the former CVS site into two restaurants, featuring a fourth Mercato location on one side and Blu Pointe on the other. 

“This will be the fourth Mercato in Connecticut, because we just opened in Shelton,” Hawli said. “And this will be the second Blu Pointe, the first in Connecticut. The original Blu Pointe is on the Hudson (River). It's a waterfront property.”

Mercato Italian Kitchen & Bar offers authentic Italian dishes and pizza for a “casual dinner or a special night out,” according to its website.

Blu Pointe offers an “upscale dining experience featuring a Wine Spectator Award winning wine list, prime and Wagyu beef, (and) fresh seafood,” the website states.

Hawli said that while the original Blu Pointe is on the waterfront, he believes it can do just as well in downtown West Hartford.

“It is one of the best, if not the best markets in Connecticut for dining destinations,” he said of West Hartford Center. “What the town and town officials and the mayor have created is really incredible. So it's only getting better.”

MHG is having architectural plans drawn up to be submitted to the town for site plan and building permit approval, Hawli said. While the plans are not yet final, he believes the former CVS space can be divided about evenly between the two restaurants, though one might be slightly larger than the other. Each will have its own entrance from Farmington Avenue, he said, while adding that there may be some form of connection between them inside.

Combined, the two restaurants will employ between 120 and 150 people, which will include a chef and sus chefs for each.

He added that between getting town approvals and construction, the restaurants likely won’t open for at least a year, with a target of the fall of 2025.

“We've been trying to get into West Hartford for the past eight years,” Hawli said. “And you know, we're very happy and excited.”
 

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