WATERBURY-- The Carmen Anthony Restaurant Group suddenly announced it's closing two Carmen Anthony Steakhouse restaurants in New Haven and Waterbury.
The Steakhouse in Waterbury was the first location opened by Carmen Anthony Restaurant Group owner Carmen Anthony Vacalebre in 1996. The New Haven location was the group's newest location, which opened in 2004.
The closure of the "original" Carmen Anthony Steakhouse is being called a "big loss" for the city of Waterbury.
"The physiological impact to lose iconic business like Carmen Anthony`s is very difficult to describe in words," said Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary.
About 70 people lost their jobs due to the closure.
Carmen Anthony Vacalebre, owner of the steakhouse group, released a statement explaining his reasoning.
Vaclebre primarily blamed the economic downturn and a multi-year project to widen Chase Road, which started in 2011 and took place directly in front of the restaurant. Phase II of the road project will began in April on Chase Road by the restaurant and could last another two years.
"I cannot afford another two years of substantial losses" Vaclebre said in a statement.
However, there were other concerns he had as well. This past winter caused the restaurant t close for 4.5 days due to weather, and some closures may not have been necessary, he said.
"Even the threat of a storm, which happened quite often by the weathermen, (I refer to them as the weather terrorists) has a substantial negative impact on our sales," he wrote.
Mike Edwards, owner Stadium Sports Bar & Grill, which is located next to Carmen Anthony, says the road project continues to keep customers away from his restaurant due to delays and congestion caused by the Chase Avenue roadwork.
"We're off 25-30 percent and we have not seen it come back yet. Chase Avenue is still under construction, there are still potholes and when people make a decision to stay away from an area because of construction, it`s hard to bring them back over," Edwards said.
Employees say they were not notified ahead of time the business was closing. They learned they were out of the job by showing up to work and finding a notice on the locked door.
Many long-time patrons of the steakhouse were blind-sided, too, and stopped by for lunch Wednesday, including Chris Depalo and his co-workers.
"It's a great spot, good steakhouse. Carmen Anthony is a good man," said Chris Depalo of Cheshire.
Mayor Neil O'Leary says he is long-time friends with Vacalebre and previously discussed difficulties trying to keep the restaurants open.
"Carmen is a huge stakeholder in this city. He's well-known, it's very disappointing for me to see him go through that," O'Leary said.
The Carmen Anthony Restaurant Group closed the Carmen Anthony Fishhouse in Wethersfield in 2013 and the Carmen Anthony Fishouse in Avon in 2012.
The Carmen Anthony Fishhouse in Woodbury will remain open.
"It is the right business decision at this time to downsize to one restaurant considering the current economic environment," Vacalebre's statement said. "This will allow me to focus all of my energies on the Carmen Anthony Fishhouse of Woodbury, maintaining the quality dining experience that the Carmen Anthony brand name has been known for all of these years."
Vacalebre sold the restaurant building in February, but negotiated a one-year lease with a five-year option to continue.
Here is the full statement on the closures from Vacalebre:
It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to voluntarily close both the Carmen Anthony Steakhouse of Waterbury after 19 years and the Carmen Anthony Steakhouse of New Haven after 10 years, effective Monday April 6, 2015. I have listed both of these restaurants for sale. I am deeply saddened by the fact that I had to close these two restaurants and feel deeply sorry for my approximately 70 employees that have lost their jobs in these two restaurants. The Carmen Anthony Fishhouse of Woodbury, 757 Main Street South in Woodbury will remain OPEN, saving approximately 40 jobs.
For the last 2 years, I have had to struggle through “the perfect storm” to keep my businesses open. The challenges of this relentless downturn of our fragile economy, in addition to Phase I of road construction that lasted approx 28 months on Chase Avenue, directly in front of my Waterbury Steakhouse, has caused me a tremendous hardship and substantial unrecoverable financial losses. Phase II of this road widening construction has started up again in April 2015 and is projected to last approximately another two years or more to complete this project. I cannot afford another two years of substantial losses. These challenges alone were very difficult to manage but adding this year’s disastrous winter was the last straw that I could not overcome. January, February and March are normally difficult months but this year’s extremely cold weather and snow storms, most of which fell on weekends where I do 30 to 40% of my sales, was devastating. In the restaurant industry, when you close for a day, people don’t come out and eat twice as much the next day, so we are unable to recoup lost sales. Even the threat of a storm, which happened quite often by the weathermen, (I refer to them as the weather terrorists) has a substantial negative impact on our sales. I had to close my businesses for 4½ days during these storms and the additional snow removal costs added to my financial burden. We have worked very hard to keep our doors open; I have hung on as long as I can. Now is the time to stop the hemorrhaging of the financial losses.
As far as I am concerned, the economy has not gotten any better for higher end steakhouses. As an example, Morton’s Steakhouse closed their doors last year in Stamford and as of January of this year, closed their doors in Hartford. They are a national chain with deep pockets, I am the sole owner and I have exhausted my personal financial resources and do not have the ability to raise capital to keep these restaurants open.
Finally, as always for any business, but especially restaurants, the minimum wage increase, paid sick leave, higher taxes, exorbitant increase in medical benefits, utilities and the overall general cost of goods and operations all factor into our current situation.
This has not been an easy decision for me to make but after exhausting all of my resources I don’t have much of an option. As the old saying goes the “The bigger you are the harder you fall!” It is the right business decision at this time to downsize to one restaurant considering the current economic environment. This will allow me to focus all of my energies on the Carmen Anthony Fishhouse of Woodbury, maintaining the quality dining experience that the Carmen Anthony brand name has been known for all these years. We are revamping our menu to include many of the steakhouse menu item favorites. I will personally be overseeing the day to day operations of the Carmen Anthony Fishhouse of Woodbury and look forward to serving our loyal customers and meeting our new guests.
