So when I found this insert online in 2015 - 40 years after it was printed - my first question was, "How many of these places are still open?" Spoiler alert - only three.
In the insert each restaurant appeared twice. First there was a short, descriptive write-up such as this:
And then, presumably, each blurb required the restaurant to take out an ad, and that looked like this:
So I did a little research. I spent a few cold and gray weekends in the late winter of 2014/2015 researching these 46 restaurants. Beyond the fact that 43 were gone, why were they gone? Unfortunately the answers to that are hard to find. Some burned - at least one by arson. Some owners retired but most of the restaurants just quietly went away. And for a small number of them I found absolutely no online trace that they ever existed!
In my full-blown research I had links of interest such as Google Maps Street View of what a drive-by the restaurant would look like today. In this abbreviated version I left much of that out but I am trying to accomplish just two things, (1) show how few restaurants survive for four decades and (2) provide memories for those reading this that may be from Connecticut.
The three restaurants in bold font are still in business. The eight that are in italics are the only ones that I personally visited while residing in CT. I moved out of CT in 1994. Of the eight restaurants that I visited my three favorite were The Market Place, Millpond Taverne and Pumpernickel Pub - all long gone. Unfortunately of the three restaurants that still exist today, I never visited any of them. But on my next visit to CT I do plan to visit the Griswold Inn, which has been in business since 1776.
Here are the restaurants and by my best research the address at which they were (or are) located:
| Anderson's Angus Corral | Rt 1, Westbrook |
| Antonio's | 672 Main Street, East Haven |
| Basel's | 933 State Street, New Haven |
| Beechwood Manor | 111 Scrub Oak Road, North Haven |
| Beefsteak Tavern | 377 E Main St, Branford, CT 06405 |
| Bernice's | 446 Whitfield St, Guilford |
| John Brown's | Wintonbury Mall, Bloomfield |
| Cabin Restaurant | 106 Colony Street, Meriden |
| Café Lafayette | 721 Boston Post Road, Madison |
| Captain's Table | Guilford |
| Chello's | 741 Boston Post Road, Guilford |
| China Wheel | 2380 Dixwell Ave, Hamden |
| China Yum | Meriden Mall |
| The Clark's | North Street, Willimantic |
| Countryside Corral | Chamberlain Hwy,Meriden |
| Dennis | 906 North Colony Road, Wallingford |
| Debbie Wong | 852 Washington St, Middletown |
| Edelweiss | 980 Farmington Ave, West Hartford |
| El Torero | 1698 Boston Post Rd, Milford |
| Gaetano's Restaurant | 30 Quinnipiac Street, Wallingford |
| Griswold Inn | 47 Main Street, Essex |
| Hawthorne Inn | 2421 Wilber Cross Pky, Berlin |
| Hob-Nob Restaurant | 44 Boston Post Road, Madison |
| Holiday Inn of Meriden | 900 East Main Street, Meriden |
| The Inn at Cornfield Point | Cornfield Point, Old Saybrook |
| Inn at Lake Waramaug | 107 North Shore Road, New Preston |
| Idra Restaurant | 1720 Dixwell Ave, Hamden |
| Jimmies of Savin Rock | 5 Rock St, West Haven |
| Jimmies..in Hamden | 2100 Dixwell Ave, Hamden |
| Last National Bank | 752 Main Street, Hartford |
| Manor Inn | 1636 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike, Milldale |
| The Market Place | Glen Lochen Mall, Glastonbury |
| Millpond Taverne | 1565 Middletown Ave, Northford |
| New Top Hill | 663 East Main Street, Meriden |
| Peking Inn | 1052 South Colony Road, Wallingford |
| Phyllis' | 12 Rock Street |
| Pine Valley Country Club | 300 Welch Street, Southington |
| Poor Lads | 204 Crown Street, New Haven |
| Pumpernickel Pub | 53 Welles Street, Glastonbury (+other locations) |
| Rustic Oak | 165 Washington Ave, North Haven |
| Seamen's Inn | 75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic |
| Silvertown Restaurant | S. Broad Street, Meriden |
| South Meriden House | 1076 Hanover Road, Meriden |
| Three Bears Restaurant | 79 Newtown Turnpike, Westport |
| Verdolini's | 126 Hanover Street, Meriden |
| Wonder Bar | 1726 Berlin Tpk, Berlin |
