After months spent painstakingly restoring an iconic bar, securing locally sourced hand-crafted pies, and finding just the right ice maker, Jason Sobocinski is nearly ready to open … an ordinary watering hole.
Sobocinski (at left in photo) and his three collaborators have taken extraordinary measures to achieve their vision for the new tavern they’re opening at the site of the former Richter’s Cafe, the storied Chapel Street bar that shut its doors nearly two years ago. Sobocinski said they’re just a few weeks away from pouring their first drink, at a bar they’re calling Ordinary.
The name invokes an archaic British word for a tavern. It also refers to the kind of atmosphere the owners want to create: an ordinary neighborhood bar where everyone feels comfortable and welcome.
That doesn’t mean bottles of Bud Light and plates of nachos. Sobocinski has made a name for himself in New Haven with Caseus, the Whitney Avenue fromagerie and bistro known for its carefully crafted cuisine. He and his partners are bringing that same foodie fastidiousness to their new venture.
Ordinary will feature imported craft beer on tap, a full selection of wines and artisanal spirits, fine cheese and charcuterie, hand-made savory pies, fancy chocolates, olives, pickles, and dried meats.
A recent visit to the in-progress bar found Sobocinski sampling cheese and salamis offered by traveling salesman John Stryjek (pictured), trying out items he might offer at Ordinary.
“Mmm, really smoky. Lots of pimenton,” Sobocinski said, appraising a mouthful of chorizo. “This is a gateway blue,” he announced of a triple-cream brie.
Sobocinski’s three partners wandered in: Mike Farber, who owns Mikro Beer Bar in Hamden; Timothy Cabral, the manager at Caseus; and Thomas Sobocinski, Jason’s brother. They gathered in the back room, which is now ringed with red leather couches, and stocked with tables reclaimed from a brewery in Brattleboro, Vermont. Farber passed around a bag of grass-fed beef jerky from Vermont.
“This is good! We should carry this,” Sobocinski said.
In the middle of the room was an enormous stuffed moose head, a relic of Richter’s bar waiting to return to the wall above the mantle. The moose was shot in 1908 by Richter’s founder Rick Elser’s grandfather. Its presence is one of a number of ways Ordinary aims to honor the history of the bar.
Workers have been laboring for weeks to restore all the bar’s ornate hand-carved oak woodwork, some of which dates back to the middle of the 19th century. Jason said all the woodwork was stripped down and refinished by contractors who became obsessed with the task, pulling out Q‑Tips to get into all the nooks of the now-gleaming hand-carved grapes. Click here to see photos of the process, taken by contractor Brian Way, pictured in center of top photo.
In the hallway to the bathrooms, Ordinary has installed a timeline of the history of the site, compiled with the help of historian Colin Caplan. Fun facts: President Lincoln stayed in the building, as did George and Martha Washington, Babe Ruth, and Marlon Brando.
While Ordinary looks back at the past, Jason said the bar aims to create a new kind of place that doesn’t exist in New Haven yet.
“We’re not going to be Richter’s,” Jason said. “We definitely want to pave our own way.”
That means, in part, meticulous attention to quality when it comes to food and drink. The bar’s special ice machine, for instance, creates perfect 1.5‑inch cubes of very dense ice, designed to melt more slowly, to chill drinks without diluting them, Cabral (pictured) said.
The ice will chill “interesting” and “esoteric” spirits and classic cocktails. Ordinary won’t have a “speed well full of crap,” nor will you be able to order shots, Farber said. Absolutely no flavored Absolut vodka and no “Sex On the Beach” cocktails, said Jason.
Ordinary won’t even have a soda gun to dispense mixers and seltzer. All mixers will be made in house, Jason said.
All the drinks will have suggested food pairings. If someone orders a tasting plate featuring a 70-percent cacao dark chocolate bar with burnt sugar caramel and alderwood smoked salt, for instance, the server will be able to recommend a good beer to go with it.
Ordinary will feature six beers on tap, said Farber (at right in photo). “We’re trying to stay away from being an American craft beer bar,” he said. Those already exist in New Haven at places like Prime 16 and Cask Republic. Ordinary will emphasize European beers over American, with “large format” 750-milileter bottles available in addition to drafts.
Despite all this attention to fine food and drink, Jason said he aims to “not smash you over the head with ridiculous prices.”
Cabral said Ordinary will sell food and drink at less than the standard industry mark-up. And Ordinary will save on overhead by forgoing things like white table cloths and “fancy ballooned glasses” for beer, Jason said.
“The aim is to be accessible,” Jason said. He said he wants the bar to feel the same for a guy in jeans and a T‑shirt, or a guy in a tuxedo — like an ordinary place.
