Next Monday is my father's 80th b-day, and my brothers and I are would like to do a family thing (about 12 people) on Sunday afternoon at a nice restaurant. Parents live outside of Waterbury; anywhere between New Haven and Hartford would be fine, a place with a small private area or alcove would be ideal. "Nice restaurant" means real tablecloths and napkins, and definitely not a chain. Any ideas???

Checkout the website for the Hot Tomato in Hartford

Would you consider going to West Hartford?

As it's name implies, it is immediately to the west of Hartford and is right off of I-84 (30 minutes tops from Waterbury; 45 minutes to an hour from New Haven and about 90 minutes from Worchester). West Hartford has several great restaurants and, frankly, a far better restaurant scene than Hartford.

If you are looking for more upscale restaurants, West Hartford has two gems:

1 - Max's Oyster Bar -- an upscale seafood place with excellent service and a great raw bar. Has several non-seafood choices as well.

2 - Grant's -- right across Farmington Ave. from Max's, I would characterize this restaurant as upscale American food with great steaks and fowl. Some seafood as well.

Other good West Hartford options (but not as upscale) include:

1 - The Elbow Room -- more casual (no tableclothes), but great food. Considered the third (along with Grant's and the Oyster Bar) of West Hartford's premier restaurants.

2 - Azul -- very good nuevo Latino food.

3 - Bricco -- good Italian food with a brick oven for good breads and pizzas.

**If you decide to do West Hartford, make a reservation ASAP as all the places fill up on weekends.

The City of Hartford is dead on weekends and many restuarants may not be open on Sunday afternoons/evenings (Hartford restaurants cater more to the business lunch crowd). If you do go for Hartford, in addition to Hot Tomatoes (which is good, but not great, IMO), I cna enthusiastically reccomend Trumbull Kitchen and Max's Downtown, which are both owned by the same restuarant groups that own's Max's Oyster Bar -- their restaurants are the best in the Hartford area.

As for places between Hartford and New Haven (by which I assume you mean the I-91 corridor), I am not familiar with any places as the towns there tend to be bedroom communities of Hartford and New Haven. As it is the home of Wesleyan (sp?) College, there are probably a few good places in Middletown.

I would very strongly reccomend that you choose a place in West Hartford.

If you are really looking for places

Thanks to both of you for the recommendations. I ate at Bricco with friends several years ago, and was trying to remember the name. Also, anything with "oyster" in the name sounds excellent to me (and to my father, too) so I will definitely check that one out.

You got the spelling right, PresRDC, but believe it or not, it's actually a university!

I was stunned last winter to see how much Middletown has gentrified since I was a student, but I didn't try any of the new restaurants. The only dining establishment there I can heartily recommend is O'Rourke's Diner, which is not the right place for this particular event (but oh, do they make a good greasy breakfast).

When I was looking to buy a house in the area, I really wanted to consider Middletown as I had judged a mock trial there the previous year and really thought it was a pretty town with the river and that really impressive bridge. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything on the market that would have worked for me. My apologies for not knowing it was a university!

In that case, I very, very enthusiastically reccomend the Oyster Bar. Just make sure to make reservations early, epsecially for a group of 12.

The restaurant scene in Hartford has improved substantially. There are still places like Hot Tomatoes that are business-lunch places, and probably not worth your trouble for dinner.

But down the street at the corner of Ann and Allyn is a nice French place called Pastis.

Downtown Hartford is still in the early stages of gentrification and can still give off a Soho-in-the-70s feel, so West Hartford or one of the country inns might be more appropriate for this special event.

The Mayflower Inn in Litchfield County (Washington Depot) might do the trick. I believe it is a Relais & Gourmand property. These places are never cheap, but I have yet to be disappointed with an R&G meal.

I walk by Pastis on my way to my car when I am working in my office and it always looks nice. Never tried it. The Mexican place across the street, Agave, is decent too.

Mayflower Inn is an excellent choice. So is the Bee and Thistle Inn near the Goodspeed Opera House.

Another choice would be Le Petit Cafe in Branford, CT. This is a very small restaurant, where everything is cooked to order. Very intimate, some of the best food I have had in Connecticut. Your party would probably take one entire sitting of the restaurant (which I believe are 6 and 8pm). You could have a fantastic restaurant all to yourselves!

Mayflower is very good as is Pastis in Hartford; however, if you can make it down to New Haven I would also recommend Union League Cafe.

So, trekker, where'd you end up going?

Well, my senile brain got the week wrong (not the date, mind you---just thought it was coming up sooner than it was!), so it's not until NEXT Sunday that we are going. I e-mailed this thread to my oldest brother (who has his finger on the pulse of the rest of the family's preferences---and budget---more than I do), and he's supposed to be making the reservation. I was pushing for the Oyster Bar, but I think we might end up at a blast-from-the-past type Italian place in Torrington! My husband and I will have to take my father out for oysters some other time.

BTW, anyone know anything about Pettibone's Tavern in Simsbury?