David Blumenthal File Photo
Paul Bass Photo
The late, lamented Anchor restaurant and bar will rise again — with the same name, without a touch of its history.
Yale University Properties announced Wednesday that it has found a new owner to reopen the fabled 272 College Street spot, which closed in January, to widespread disappointment, after 75 years. The new owner will keep the Anchor name. But the business’s previous owner, Charlie Moore, is keeping the signature art-deco sign. The rest of the historic facade is to remain intact.
The new owner is Karl Franz Williams, a Yale grad who has been trying to find a downtown spot for a new bar (originally to be called “Bar Philsophi”) since last summer. (Read a story about that, and about him, here.) Williams runs a Harlem bar called 67 Orange Street (where he’s pictured in the photo at the top of the story.)
It turns out that Williams, who is 39 and a member of Yale’s Class of 1997, didn’t hang out much at the Anchor as an undergraduate. “I didn’t drink a lot in college. True story,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
Now he’s pumped to revive one of downtown’s legendary cocktail lounges, “to bring back an iconic institution,” he said.
Williams and Yale University Properties, the Anchor landlord, had sought to persuade Moore to allow the sign to remain in place, but it belongs to him.
Williams said Wednesday that he’s researching the bar’s history, including signs that preceded the current one.
“We really had hoped to keep it exactly as it is. It’s an iconic part of New Haven,” he said of the sign. “We’ll create a new sign that’ll either be very similar or I believe, we’re still doing some research on this, there may have been older sign even before the current sign. If we can find some good pictures, we may even go back that far.”
The revived Anchor will stay open seven days a week with a “simple yet classic menu items including healthy salads, small plates, and sandwiches along with a unique mixology concept,” in the words of a Yale release. Yale anticipates an opening in late autumn after interior renovations are complete.
Williams said it will retain its focus on cocktails. One cocktail to expect on the menu: “Le Grand’s Old-Fashioned,” one of the most popular drinks at his Harlem bar. “It’s made with a high-rye bourbon, apple bitters, and benedictine,” Williams said.
Asked about prices — the Anchor was known for its relatively modest bills for downtown — Williams responded: “We’ll be consistent with the market. There is already a great market there; Ordinary is one of the great bars in the world. There’s already some great bars there. We expect to price consistently with them.”
Yeah, I thought I recognized the name. He wants to reopen the Anchor and sell us overpriced $13 "craft cocktails that tell a story".
If that's the case, then I'd rather it stay closed.