Remodeled And Resilient, Claire’s Reopens

Downtown New Haven feels just a little bit more like Downtown New Haven again, now that Claire’s Corner Copia — remodeled, expanded, and replete with vegan baked goods and a supportive community 45 years in the making—has reopened.

“It’s gonna take more than a pandemic to get rid of us,” said Claire Criscuolo, a faint smile visible behind her face mask.

On Friday at noon, Claire’s Corner Copia opened its doors to lunchtime customers for the first time since Covid-19 shuttered the Chapel Street restaurant, along with every other dine-in food establishment throughout the city and the state, in mid-March.

In the intervening months — five months and four days to be precise, Criscuolo said — the restaurant’s founder and owner has been working with her landlord, Yale Properties, to remodel the space.

Not just to refresh its look and bring everything up to code, but also to make sure it’s safe for customers and all 21 of her employees to come back during the ongoing pandemic.

And she’s done just that — bringing her restaurant through the first wave of the Covid-19 crisis at a time when the pandemic has permanently shuttered a host of other nearby food businesses and retailers.

Just as it’s done for the past 45 years, Claire’s has survived — and is prepared to thrive, even amidst challenging times.

“I haven’t been this happy since my great nephew was born,” Criscuolo said about the reopened restaurant, ​“since I became a prozia.”

“We’re Doing The Best We Can”

What started out as plans to put in new floors, counters, and walls in the kitchen quickly expanded into a much more comprehensive rehab.

Criscuolo said the restaurant’s plumbing and electrical systems have all been redone, there are new floors in the dining room as well as the kitchen, and the entire place — wall to ceiling — has been repainted.

Covid-specific changes to the space include arrows on the floors directing foot traffic; floor markers ensuring six feet of distance between customers in line; hand sanitizer by the exit door; signs around the restaurant requiring everyone inside to wear masks; an upgraded air conditioning system and two HEPA air purifiers; and, Criscuolo said, ion generators on the air compressors that kill the virus before it has a chance to recirculate indoors.

“We’re not playing,” she said. ​“We’re doing the best we can. I think I’ve spent more time reading the CDC, Johns Hopkins, MIT, and the Mayo Clinic about Covid over the past few months than I have about cooking.”

And on top of all of that, the restaurant has expanded its footprint, extending its dining room all the way to the corner of the street in the space previously occupied by the Town Green District’s Info New Haven booth.

For Criscuolo, the expansion does more than just add a few extra square feet to the dining room.

It also brings the restaurant back into the space it originally occupied when she first founded the Downtown vegetarian eatery on Sept. 17, 1975.

When asked about what she’s missed most in the months that Claire’s has been closed, as she’s juggled the physical space remodeling with Zoom calls with staff with applying for loan after loan, Criscuolo immediately replied, ​“The people. I’ve missed the people.”

She said she’d had virtual pizza parties with her employees, where she’d send a pizza to their house and they’d eat together and talk — separated physically, but together online.

“And I miss hugging,” she said. She’s said she’s done some research on how to hug as safely as possible — and even found some helpful tips in the New York Times.

Criscuolo said that her restaurant — and the city she loves and has run a business in for the past nearly 45 years — has survived some hard times. Recessions in the 1980s, early 90s, and 2008; the collective, communal trauma of 9/11.

She said she’s seen larger corporate retailers and chains come and go in downtown New Haven, often closing up shop during economic slumps. She said her small business has survived for as long as it has because she is motivated by something other than pure profit.

“If you come from a place of love, then people are your bottom line,” she said, standing alongside Erin Guild and Maria Felice, two employees who have each worked at Claire’s for over a decade.

“Money has to be there,” she said, at least enough of it to make sure a business can pay its bills and pay fair wages to its employees. ​“But if money’s your bottom line, then … Hello!” she interrupted herself with a cheer upon seeing a longtime customer and friend. She dashed over and gave her a brief hug.

She then took a step back and lifted her nose an inch. ​“Oh my god, do you guys smell the bread?” she asked anyone who may be listening. ​“Oh my god. Be still, my heart.”

“We Missed It Like Crazy”

Customers waiting to grab lunch at Claire’s on Friday were just as enthusiastic about the vegetarian restaurant’s reopening as the owner was.

Hamden-based artists and sisters Laurie and Candice Klein said they’ve been coming to Claire’s since it opened some 45 years ago.

“Everyone’s friendly, there’s good vegetarian food, and Claire really cares about New Haven,” Laurie said.

“We missed it like crazy,” added Candice about the five months and four days the restaurant has been closed.

Their favorite foods at Claire’s? The Lithuanian coffee cake, of course. Soups and salads. Nachos. Fritters. The two took their lunch outside to the restaurant’s sidewalk seating to enjoy the midday sun.

Noah Prancuk, a Shelton native and sophomore at Gateway Community College, said Claire’s is one of the first places he brings friends and family to whenever he’s in New Haven.

He said he fell in love with the neighborhood feel of the place, as well as with the wealth of vegetarian dishes on the menu.

He ordered a hazelnut coffee and a pumpkin spice whoopie pie for a midday snack.

“It’s not like any other place,” he said, grateful that it’s now back open.