Park-Elm To Become ​“Place 2 Be” Again

A Hartford-based brunch bar is planning to move to the former home of Box 63 on Elm Street, now that New Haven’s zoning board has OK’d the renewed sale of alcohol there.

Zacharias Morton presented on plans to create a New Haven location of the family-owned restaurant where he serves as business manager, The Place 2 Be, on Tuesday evening before the Board of Zoning Appeals. The restaurant currently has three Hartford locations serving breakfast and lunch food and drinks.

Morton told the zoning board that Place 2 Be plans to do ​“very minor renovations” to 338 Elm St. before moving in.

The location, at the corner of Elm and Park, used to host a firehouse-themed, American-style bar and grill called Box 63, which closed down as Covid-19 devastated the local restaurant business. While Box 63 served drinks at the site until its recent closure, Place 2 Be had to apply for a separate special exception to serve alcohol there.

“We’re trying to add something new and vibrant to the neighborhood,” Morton told the zoning board. 

Place 2 Be specializes in ​“a variety of lunch and breakfast items, from omelettes to french toasts to hamburgers,” according to Morton, as well as drinks ​“from mimosas to Bloody Marys.” The restaurant, which has rapidly grown its footprint in Hartford over the pandemic, is known for its Instagram-worthy meals and settings.

Father Stephen Holton of Christ Church New Haven, located directly across the street from 338 Elm St., asked Morton about the restaurant’s hours of operation. 

“Our concern is that under the previous license, the restaurant functioned more as a nightclub on the weekends, with long lines and a lot of underage drinking,” Holton said. Box 63 generated ​“a lot of noise in the neighborhood at around midnight on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,” he added.

Morton replied that the restaurant would close at 8 p.m., serving a breakfast-for-dinner style of food toward the end of the day. ​“We are a family-run establishment… We will not operate as a nightclub,” he said.

Local attorney Ben Trachten expressed his support for the restaurant. ​“I think it’s great to get a new use in this space, because we lost Box 63 and Terry Lodge around the corner,” Trachten said.

“It’s really hard on some weekends to get breakfast,” he added, noting that nearby Maison Mathis is often crowded.

City staff recommended that the Board of Zoning Appeals approve the special exception, with conditions in place: that the outdoor patio use wouldn’t extend past 11 p.m., and that music would be limited to acoustic, live, or karaoke songs.

“Is it OK if we have exterior music playing on the patio?” Morton asked.

“The current conditions doesn’t allow speakers outside,” replied City Plan staffer Nate Hougrand. ​“If you were to leave a door open and if the music carries out, that’s one thing.” He said the recommended conditions were based on conditions for the previous restaurant.

“I understand that there is a residential unit next to us. We obviously want to be respectful,” Morton said. But he asked to be allowed to play music outdoors. ​“It would be a bit awkward from an operations standpoint not to have a silent, ​‘drowning out’ noise on the patio. We have it at our other locations, and it hasn’t been an issue in the past. It won’t be clublike by any means.”

Zoning board member Alexandra Daum asked whether it would be possible to introduce a maximum decibel level for outdoor music. ​“My office is across the street from one of the Place 2 Be locations” in Hartford, she said, and ​“there’s pretty loud music outside.”

Roderick Williams, the city’s legal counsel for planning and zoning, said such a limit would be possible, but complicated to enforce. Decibel readings would need to be taken at varying distances from the restaurant, he said. He added that the city’s existing noise ordinance would cap the volume permitted at the restaurant.

Zoning board Chair Mildred Melendez moved to approve the special exception to serve alcohol, along with most of the city staff’s recommended conditions. She proposed amending the music regulations to apply only after 8 p.m., after the restaurant is set to close.

The vote to approve the request was unanimous.