“Monterey Chicken” Off To Flying Start

A new chicken joint has opened in Newhallville, with a name that echoes New Haven’s history.

The new restaurant, Monterey Chicken, is operating for dinner out of the ConnCAT Orchid Cafe space at 4 Science Park, offering takeout and delivery for now and gearing up for sit-down service.

As the restaurant is named after New Haven’s legendary Monterey Cafe jazz club, it was fitting that on Friday night, the business opened with an event that put that jazz history front and center.

Jesse ​“Cheese” Hameen II beamed as he looked at the small group assembled in the space for the event. He was looking especially at fellow New Haven jazz legends Bobby Mapp and Hank Bolden. ​“The three of us,” he said, ​“are the last three born in New Haven from that era.”

By ​“that era,” he meant the heyday of Dixwell Avenue as a jazz corridor in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The Monterey Cafe had been the hub of that scene.

On Friday evening, the three musicians were gathered, along with musicians Morris Trent, William Fluker, and Phil Brown, Delores ​“Dee Dee” Greenlee (granddaughter of Monterey owner Rufus Greenlee), Alderwoman Delphine Clyburn, and others to celebrate the official opening of Monterey Chicken — a new venture from ConnCAT’s culinary program that seeks to connect to Newhallville’s past and possibly serve as another home for New Haven jazz in the near future.

“We have a responsibility to develop concepts that serve the community at large,” said Gideon Gebreyesus, ConnCAT’s vice president of restaurant development. ​“This area is a food desert. ConnCAT’s been a leader in pushing to change things.”

The Orchid Cafe — run by graduates and students of ConnCAT’s culinary arts program — has been operating out of the ConnCAT kitchen in Science Park since 2017 and has been running the cafe at the Ives branch of the New Haven Free Public Library since 2019. Open for breakfast and lunch, pre-pandemic, the Orchid Cafe focused on creating meals that are reasonably priced, made from quality ingredients, and above all, delicious. As the pandemic disrupted normal operations, the Orchid Cafe switched to takeout delivery and started up a Sunday jazz brunch outside when weather permitted. The cafe also hosted a safe space offering technical and educational support to up to 40 students, free of charge.

In deciding to start a place where people could get dinner, Gebreyesus said ConnCAT took a look at what the immediate neighborhood needed. As they took a look at other businesses, one unfilled niche that emerged was ​“a good chicken place,” Gebreyesus said, ​“no antibiotics, freshly made, pan seared.”

The poultry can be eaten as an appetizer as a plate of tenders with four dipping sauces, as an empanada, as a sandwich, or as a dinner platter, with sides of cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and fries. Vegetarians could make a meal on those sides and one of the kitchen’s salads. A variety of desserts await those who still have room.

Monterey Chicken opened Feb. 8 as a ghost kitchen, preparing meals only for takeout and delivery. Gebreyesus said it has already attracted customers, from the neighborhood, people who work in Science Park, and Yale students. ​“The beauty of it is that we open at four, when many people leave work.” As with the Orchid Cafe, Monterey Chicken is staffed by graduates of ConnCAT’s culinary program. ​“They’re coming back to run this operation,” Gebreyesus said. ​“And incoming students can see what they do.”

Chef Nathanial Allen is a prime example. He graduated ConnCAT’s culinary program in 2019 and went to work in the kitchen of the New Haven Lawn Club. A friend told him that Monterey was opening, and ​“I called Gideon and told him my services were available,” Allen said. ​“It’s a new opportunity.” He was part of the team who developed the menu along with Gebreyesus, and said of the menu items that ​“I make them my own” when he prepares the dishes. ​“We have quality food. We get it done. Give us a try,” he said.

And then there’s the broader mission regarding the restaurant’s namesake. ​“We wanted to connect Monterey to the place that used to be,” Gebreyesus said. As such, the Orchid Cafe plans to return to live jazz when pandemic restrictions are lifted, with its Sunday brunch and hopefully with a new jazz concert series.

That idea got off to a warm start as Trent on guitar, Bolden on sax, and Fluker on trumpet regaled the Monterey’s guests with a deep and relaxed set of ballads that showed each musician still in top form. Midway through their set, Trent worked out a curlicuing solo on guitar that ended with a long trill. He looked up at Bolden. Even with mask on, the intent was clear. Bolden received the message and answered with a solo of his own. At times the three musicians traded lines so fluidly that, in the best tradition of jazz playing, it was as though they had worked out an arrangement beforehand, through really it was all being accomplished by expert playing, deep listening, and real communication.

As Hameen — now jazz instructor and head of Neighborhood Music School’s summer jazz program — explained, ​“the Monterey was a rite of passage…. Everybody played there. Those that were coming up and those that were coming through.” Some of those who came through included Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Some of those who came up included Hameen, Mapp, and Bolden, as well as Horace Silver, who died in 2014. The Monterey was the anchor for a thriving club scene that included the Golden Gate, the Democratic Club, and the Playback. Monterey owner Rufus Greenlee was ​“an institution in himself.”

Hameen — who will be 80 years old this week — considered New Haven to be the town that shaped him into the musician he is, even when he moved to the West Coast and to New York for the early part of his career and toured relentlessly.

“New Haven means so much to me,” he said. ​“When I was on tour, I always came back.” He recalled being introduced to audiences on tour as being from New York, and he said he got in the habit of correcting them. ​“I live in New York,” he would say from the stage, ​“but I’m from New Haven, Connecticut. New Haven did this.”

Visit Monterey Chicken’s website for menu, hours, and more information.