New Shops Keep Upper State Humming

As the sun prepared to set, John Torello worked with Joe DeLucia and Joe Neagle on the finishing touches on a soon-to-open neighborhood tavern. Down the block, Joseph Jenkins and Keiry Pena were taking Thanksgiving orders from loyal customers of their new Spanish grocery. Rory Ballachino poured Silk soymilk into an evolving matcha latte inside a new coffeehouse preparing for the fifth — sixth? — community event of its first week in business. Blair Daniels was in the kitchen scooping white flour to prepare the dough for a batch of country loaf to be baked the next morning in time for the steady stream of bread-buyers.

None of these businesses was operating a year ago. They are among six setting up shop this year on just three blocks of Upper State Street, maintaining the momentum of one of New Haven’s signature ​“new urbanist” neighborhoods.

“It is a really exciting moment,” neighborhood Alder Caroline Smith said as she popped in on the businesses Wednesday afternoon.

The visits invariably began with hugs from the proprietors, whom she helped negotiate government red tape to open their doors and has helped draw patrons.

She helped percussionist and baker Bill Frisch navigate the city bureaucracy over the period of a year to open East Rock Breads at 942 State. Frisch bought two refrigerators and a cooler with a $15,000 grant from a city leaseholder improvement program. He took out a $40,000 loan as well. He opened up in March — and, to his surprise, has already paid back the loan. His sourdough is a hit with both neighbors and visitors who come from elsewhere just for the bread.

“My initial projections were laughingly low,” he said, the reverse of what first-year business owners often discover. 

A.J. Perez took a break from scurrying around Spruce Coffee to fill in Smith on how the first week has gone since he and partner Katie Leavitt opened the gathering spot in the space formerly occupied by Gather East Rock. A hundred people attended one of the two open mics, Perez reported. A Smash Brothers contest highlighted another evening, as did Shrek and Shrek II viewings and a board game night. Wednesday evening they were preparing for an event for the transgender community.

Perez had actually picked an apartment within walking distance of Gather when moving here from Los Angeles. He figured he and Leavitt could draw that same young audience in the growing neighborhood.

He told Smith that being on the edge of East Rock rather than Downtown provides a more promising clientele. He likes ​“the underground community that exists over here, independent artists and musicians who would make full use of a space like this.”

John Torello also brought up the contrast with Downtown when Smith checked in on the renovation work going on inside The Crooked Goat at 974 State. Torello, who’s 55, used to walk over from his home on Nicoll Street to patronize JP Dempsey’s when the popular neighborhood tavern occupied the same space. (More recently it was a bar called Ward 9.)

He and his partners gutted the interior and moved the bar back from the middle to the southern end of the cozy exposed-brick space. They plan to open in December; they’re already hearing enthusiasm from passersby eager for a Dempsey’s‑like old-school neighborhood hangout.

Upper State already has ​“a wine bar and upscale restaurants,” Torello noted. A slogan painted above the entrance advertises ​“New Haven’s OK’est bar.” Boozy milkshakes are on the menu, along with food sourced from a farm Torello owns in Cheshire. But ​“we’re not a fancy kind of place. I don’t think we would have opened up anywhere else. We’re the right fit. We’re not Downtown guys.”

The six new businesses — including Latino-themed East St. Grocery & Foods, Vintage Deli, and soon-to-open Fair Meadow Flower — are all located within three blocks of the roughly mile-long Upper State district. The stretch had 95 businesses as of the most recent (year-old) city inventory, tucked amid historic three-story apartment walk-ups as well as newer apartment complexes like the Corsair and the Vanguard, according to Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre.

Eyzaguirre said the opening of six new businesses in a year reflects Upper State’s strength — that it can refill the inevitable vacancies that regularly occur in retail districts.

The district has been going strong, on and off, since its rebirth in the 1980s. The area had hit bottom before that: It was known for colorful thrift and antique shops and second-hand shops. But buildings were falling apart. Crime was spiking. The city launched a commercial revitalization program that sought to learn from mistakes of urban renewal: Rather than knock down the buildings, it offered business owners modest grants to restore and improve them, with public improvements in the mix. 

By the 1990s it had become a busy National Register historic district with new businesses like Christopher Martin’s restaurant establishing themselves as both neighborhood and regional draws, building on anchors like Modern Apizza. It became a model mixed-use, human-scale, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with distinctive locally-owned shops (that ​“new urbanist” idea). It fared better than other areas during Covid-19.

Brian Virtue, who has co-owned Christopher Martin’s for three decades, portrayed the new openings as a periodic upswing in a series of up-and-down waves in an area that has remained steady overall. ​“There’s always stuff opening and closing,” he observed. The one change he has noticed: ​“There’s more money in the neighborhood than there was 30 years ago, and certainly 40 years. It’s a younger crowd than there used to be, that likes to dine casually” and walk the streets.

“This is a bit of a new era of younger people and some people who have made bigger life changes,” agreed John Martin. Martin’s father ran an electrical business in the neighborhood for 40 years. John ran the Bradley Street bike co-op for ten years and headed the Upper State Street Business Association from 2017 through 2022.

One ingredient in the district’s secret recipe: Even with gentrification, the businesses represent a mix of backgrounds and ethnicities.

Joseph Jenkins and Keiry Pena, who opened East St. Grocery & Foods three months ago across the street from Hanmi Oriental Food & Gift Shop, grew up in the area and attended Wilbur Cross High School and East Rock School, respectively. Arlene Beltran grew up across the street from Marjolaine Pastry Shop, which she has owned for the past 13 years. Spruce Coffee’s A.J. Perez, by contrast, moved here from L.A. after working as a barista, a Yelp! sales manager, and a marketer in New York City, Arizona, and Texas. Bill Frisch of East Rock Breads, a former percussionist and for ten years a baker in Chicago, moved to town with his Yale drama grad student spouse.

To keep up the momentum, Alder Smith is focusing on helping both newcomers and district stalwarts strengthen their businesses. She’s helping Beltran organize a 45th anniversary event for Marjolaine. With city officials like Ezyaguirre, she has organized meet-ups with merchants to drum up ideas to streamline the application and permitting process for new businesses, with specific proposals in the pipeline. There’s more work to be done, she noted, to keep Upper State humming.