Chowder Pot of Hartford, a popular seafood restaurant, has announced it will close after nearly 30 years in business.
The restaurant posted an announcement to its Facebook page Tuesday, saying it will serve its last guests in that location “in the coming months.”
Owner Dennis Longo said Tuesday the closing date is not “set in stone,” but will likely be in March or April.
“It would certainly be no sooner than that,” he said.
Chowder Pot, which opened in 1994, has been a staple in greater Hartford for lobster dinners, classic New England seafood dishes and prime rib. The building at 165 Brainard Road originally opened as Valle’s Steak House in 1965, according to the post, and then briefly became the Hilltop Steak House in the early 1990s.
“After almost 60 years and millions of customers, the location is showing its age,” Chowder Pot wrote in the post. “Due to the age, size and constant amount of work needed to maintain this old building combined with a new business wanting to make this property their home we have decided the right decision is to sell at this time.”
The Hartford Business Journal reported in October that INSA, a Massachusetts-based cannabis company, plans to build a large cultivation facility and retail shop on Brainard Road. INSA intends to retrofit existing buildings there, including where Chowder Pot currently resides.
“We weren’t looking to sell,” Longo said of the INSA opportunity. “They came to us, they were looking for property, they liked the location right off the highway and in the center of Connecticut. This checked a lot of the boxes they needed.”
Longo said he will update customers once the restaurant has a closing date, likely in the next few weeks. It will be business as usual until the closing, he said, with regular hours and menu offerings.
Chowder Pot will continue to sell its soups at area supermarkets once the restaurant closes, according to the Facebook post.