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March 25, 2020 VIRAL BUSINESS

Struggling to stay in the black — without the Blue Mother

PHOTO | New Haven BIZ Garden Catering manager Fracassini: ‘As long as people are coming in we’ll be here.’
By Michael C. Bingham

The sign on the brick wall inside the doors of Garden Catering says it all: “Keep Calm & Carry Out.”

The business, which opened a little over a year ago at 930 Chapel Street on the New Haven Green, serves a toothsome variety of chicken dishes, pasta, barbecue, salads, sandwiches and “the best chicken nuggets you’ll ever have.” (Editor’s note: This is not actually hyperbole.)

It’s just the place for busy professionals who work downtown who crave a quick nosh between meetings. And a healthy segment of Garden Catering’s business has been catering corporate functions including business breakfasts and luncheons. Except that, for now, there are no meetings, and no hungry office workers.

But after ten days of the effective shutdown, the store, which employs a dozen full- and part-time workers, is holding its own.

“We’re fortunate to have been doing a lot of takeout [business] before [the COVID-19 crisis hit],” explained manager Jena Fracassini. “So while it’s been slower, we’re still seeing people come in, and we’re still here.”

Garden Catering’s offerings were also just the thing for Yale students looking for a quick bite between classes, or to power down after a few hours quaffing liquid refreshments at the nearby Temple and Crown Street watering holes. To serve the late-night bar crowd, Garden Catering has stayed open until 2:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

But now the bars are shut down, and with them the Yale students that crowded them many nights. “You can’t go get a drink at the bar right now,” Fracassini said, “but people are still coming out,” so the late night hours are staying in effect, at least for now.

On the other hand, the breakfast business has fallen off sharply, so for now Garden Catering opens at 11 a.m. instead of the previous 8 a.m.

There’s no doubt that the disappearance of 13,000 Yale undergrads and grad students for half a year (in late February the university announced that it would shut down for the remainder of the academic year) is the gaping hole in the city’s commercial doughnut. 

“The Yale students were a big part of our business before,” Fracassini said, “but they’re all gone.”

Garden Catering, which started in the 1970s in lower Fairfield County, has since 1991 been owned by Frank Carpenteri Sr. It has eight stores in Connecticut and New York, including Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford and Old Greenwich. And, since September 2018, New Haven.

Fracassini hopes that for the sake of her staff and their customers, even including long-gone Yalies, Garden Catering will be around to mark its second anniversary on Chapel Street.

“We’re committed to staying open as long as we can,” said Fracassini. “As long as people are coming in for food, we’ll be here.”

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