Printer Friendly Version - Stories of Hope, Resilience, Recovery

New seats arrive at the Madison Arts Cinema ahead of a highly anticipated reopening.Photo courtesy of Stephen Davis

As 2020 drew to a close we wondered, when are things going to get back to normal?

Come spring of this year, the theaters started to reopen. We started to venture out to restaurants again, to eat with friends among other restaurant-goers. It started to feel safe again not only to run out and pick up a few things at the food market, cheese shops, and tea stores, but also to engage in some occasional recreational shopping.

The pandemic isn’t over. The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to mutate. Did you ever think we would get up to the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet, something most of us had no familiarity with not too long ago? COVID cases are up. Just about the entire state, including the entire Connecticut shoreline and Connecticut River valley, is bright red on the state’s COVID-19 data tracker. Hospitalization rates are up and the death rate continues to tick up as well.

And yet, some of the most-read stories this past year show how hard our local retailers, theaters, arts organizations, restaurateurs, and others forged ahead amidst the ups and downs and uncertainties They remained dedicated to making sure that life not only continued to improve from the terrifying bleak depths of the pandemic, but that we would able to continue to experience the joys that come with living in such a vibrant and supportive community on the shoreline and the Connecticut River valley. That includes being able to pop into R.J. Julia in Madison to talk with the booksellers and get a recommendation about a great book, heading to The Kate or one of many other theaters to see a fabulous show, to sit down with family for delicious meals at one of our many wonderful restaurants, and to talk with a friend over a steaming hot cup of coffee.

Before we get to the top news of the past year, here’s some great, if bittersweet, news from the end of this year: As the year came to a close in late December, the reopening of the shoreline’s most beloved movie theater, Madison Art Cinemas (MAC), was imminent. It’s been closed for most of the pandemic.

Arnold Gorlick, the owner of the business since mid-January 1999, announced this week that the new owners will be Harold Blank and William Dougherty, who own and operate Mystic Luxury Cinemas in Mystic. With MAC in the process of undergoing a top to bottom refurbishment, including the seats, screens, bathrooms, and concession counter, the soft opening date is still a bit of a moving target, but could come as soon as Wednesday, Dec. 29 or Thursday, Dec. 30.

Gorlick, who will stay on as a paid consultant, had high praise for the new owners as having wide and deep experience in movie business. Blank has roots in Madison, but international experience with the operation of movie theaters from Mystic to Mexico and Argentina. It “will be different, but the tradition of Madison Art Cinemas will continue,” Gorlick says.

The marquee is once again lit up with a bright message, thanking the community for its love and support. Gorlick echoed that. “As word has spread, I have been touched to the point of tears. The gratitude and sense of connection that has been expressed has far exceeded anything I could imagine.”

He says he hopes to continue the tradition of the Sunday Cinema Club, perhaps in September.

Stephen Davis of Madison, a partner at Davis Realty, which owns the theater says its reopening will be another milestone on the shoreline’s journey back to the new normal, even as the pandemic continues to create uncertainty.

“Yes, opening the theater in this health crisis will be the equivalent of a shot in the arm for the shoreline, a message of hope, resilience, and recovery,” Davis says.

We look forward to writing more about Madison Art Cinemas as one of our first stories in the New Year.

In the meantime, here are some of our top stories from last year. In addition to stories about pandemic recovery, you wanted to read about efforts to help resettle people from Afghanistan, on being brave enough to discuss domestic abuse, stories about the outdoors from our backyards to the state’s parks and forests, arts and entertainment, nature and the environment, and, of course, food.

A little more than a year ago, in late February, as reports of a virus started increasing, Roxanne Coady, like most of us, was a little bit concerned. She figured that things might slow down, at worst maybe for a month or so. “Then we’d all be back,” she thought at the time. On March 20, 2020, as cases of the deadly virus spiked, a statewide stay-at-home order went into effect to help save lives and slow the spread. As March turned into April, sales at her store, R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, slipped to about 50 percent of what they had been. And then they dipped lower. Up until then, in her 30 years as the head of the iconic local indie bookstore with a national reputation, there were only two times when she thought the store might not make it. The first time? Five years into starting the business, the cost of running the store finally burnt through her start-up financial nest egg. The second? That was during The Great Recession, from about 2007 to 2009, when hundreds of thousands businesses nationwide ceased operations. March and April 2020, the pandemic, became the third time she stayed awake nights fearing the worst. “I thought…’How am I going to pay my staff? Are we going to go bankrupt?’ On the eve of our celebrating our 30th anniversary, I thought, ‘Is this it?’”

After a long, tough year, the folks at Liv’s Oyster Bar on Main Street in Old Saybrook were happy on a weekend night in late March to see a steady stream of customers come in early, and then leave early enough to allow for another round of customers the same night. Rob Marcarelli, Liv’s director of operations, turned to Nadine Piovanetti, the restaurant manager who was working front of house, and asked her what was going on. “They’re going to The Kate,” she told him. He was so happy to hear The Kate’s doors were open again. “We hadn’t seen them for a year, but The Kate always helped us get those early diners,” Marcarelli said. That same night, down the street at The Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, Brett Elliott, the executive director, watched the small crowd, limited by state-mandate space constraints, file inside. It had been 379 days since the last one. The year before the pandemic, The Kate held 275 events, many of them with patrons packed shoulder to shoulder. By keeping people safe and playing by the rules, The Kate is incurring additional costs and bringing in reduced revenues, which have plummeted 99.5 percent. And Elliott knew it was going to take some time before everyone felt safe enough to walk through those doors again. So opening the doors after a year of being starved of revenues felt like a financial risk, but one The Kate is willing to take.

Frederick More lived in New York City for 26 years, on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, and he used to frequent the renowned arthouse Angelika Film Center on West Houston Street. “The movies at the Angelika were so good, movies you would never see at AMC or Regal,” he says. When he began weekending in Madison in 1998, someone suggested he check out Madison Art Cinemas (MAC). He did, the following year. “The first time I went to MAC was like finding the Angelika in Madison,” says More. “I love the diversity of movies there, the loyal clientele, and the comfort I feel there. I love that I can recite the opening announcement word for word, ‘Welcome to the Madison Art Cinemas…’” More has since made his home in Madison, growing to appreciate the gems this small town has to offer, including the R.J. Julia Bookstore across the street, Willoughby’s, Steamed, Madison Coffee House, Madison Cheese Shop, and Moxie, all within walking distance of the theater. MAC closed during the pandemic and remains closed. Its owner, Arnold Gorlick, said its opening is dependent on the receipt of federal support in the form of the Shuttered Venue Operator’s Grant (SVOG), a program designed to help business owners and operators in the arts like Gorlick, who were blindsided by the length and ferocity of the pandemic and the extended economic downtown that came in its wake. While he waited for word on the grant, anxiously waiting with him are not only the state’s theater-goers, but also the owners of other businesses in Madison’s downtown. Together they are a tightly knit economic ecosystem, each dependent in part on the other’s success.

Last year, farmers on Connecticut’s shoreline and in the Connecticut River valley had to deal with a growing season was hot and dry. And, like everyone else, they had to deal with market disruptions caused by the pandemic. This year, it was a bit cooler and wet, and Connecticut’s farmers continued to adjust as their markets continued to shift. William Dellacamera at Cecarellis Harrison Hill Farm on the Old Post Road in Northford experienced a setback last year when the restaurant and hospitality business abruptly closed down. But then he signed on the popular federal Farmers to Families food box program. At the height of the program, he was supplying more than 2,000 boxes a week of fresh vegetables. Then, earlier this year, smaller farms like his were abruptly cut out of the program in favor of big agriculture, much to his frustration. This summer, he was back to supplying his normal wholesale customers. Volume is down a bit from its pre-pandemic pace. “But it’s not terrible,” he said. Dellacamera’s experience, and resiliency, are typical of many Connecticut farmers who survived 2020 and early 2021, said Bryan P. Hulbert, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. In a letter he wrote in Connecticut Grown, he says they persevered to remain viable businesses and to help feed a community hungry for local food.

During the 2020 fair and festival season, fields and farms everywhere stood abandoned and silent for the first time since World War II. It appears that won’t be the case in 2021. Organizers of the Chester, North Haven, Guilford, Durham, and Haddam Neck fairs and the East Haven Fall Festival spoke to Living about their excitement to open the gates again this year, whether taking last year off affected anything, and if they have anything new planned along with old favorites.

As we moved into the fall and winter arts and performance season, with some venues opening their doors to indoor audiences for the first time since the pandemic hit, more and more venue operators were implementing strict vaccine checks and masking requirements. And they were often finding that, with few exceptions, the reaction is gratitude. “Oh my god, the feedback on social media has been tremendous,” says Keith Mahler, who operates local indie concert promoter Manic Presents and Premier Concerts, which promotes major artists at venues that include College Street Music Hall in New Haven, the Palace Theater in Waterbury, the Space Ballroom in Hamden, and the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven. “Our requirements are clear cut. You need to be vaccinated or have a negative PCR test. That’s venue protocol. We use it for staff and crews, too, not just audiences. The response from music fans has been overwhelmingly positive. They like feeling safe and knowing everyone is vaxxed up.” Alan Mann, the artistic director for the Opera Theater of Connecticut, said he’s found the same thing. “Yes, yes! Of the maybe 200 times we’ve asked, we’ve had one complaint and one request for clarification,” he said. “It’s quite an amazing sign of the times.” The process of keeping music fans, arts patrons, and theater goers safe remains a complicated one. Fortunately, there is support that is being provided by Madison-based Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA), which recorded a series of videos on science-based safety measures for arts venues, all of them free and easily available at www.shorelinearts.org. This is part of SAA’s initiative called Reopening Connecticut Arts Venues: Science-Based Safety, which endeavors to provide “preparedness, consumer confidence, clarity for consumers.” Chaired by SAA Executive Director Eric Dillner, it is co-chaired by Sten Vermund, a Guilford resident and arts lover who is also dean of the Yale School of Public Health, a pediatrician, and an infectious disease epidemiologist.

Mike Urban’s new book, Unique Eats and Eateries of Connecticut...highlights many of the state’s great places to eat including many along the shoreline and in the Connecticut River valley. But it’s about more than just the food and the buildings that house the enterprises, more than just a list of places and menus. At its heart, the book pays tribute to the innovative, hard-working, and generous souls who have made it their lives’ work to serve and feed the public the food they love. “These are stories about the people behind the food,” Urban said. “As I say in the introduction, most of these places in the book are mom-and-pop enterprises. They are organically unique. Maybe it’s a person, a couple, or a family, and they decide to open a restaurant. They develop their own style, they are serving their own community. That is the essence and core of good American regional dining.” Urban said the fact that these are mom-and-pop eateries might explain why, despite the fact that this project was planned in the before-times, most all of these places have survived the pandemic mostly intact. “I originally had a list of 100 and got it down to 85,” he said. “Of those, only one closed, one in Norwich, which was a shame. All of the others, amazingly, stayed open. I was happy about that because we’ve all heard the horror stories.”

When the pandemic shut the Madison Arts Cinema down, owner Arnold Gorlick realized that more than just a sophisticated air filtration system would be needed to make the theater ready for a new decade. Photo courtesy of Stephen Davis

R.J. Julia Booksellers has weathered a few financial storms, though the pandemic has shaken it and other businesses in ways no one imagined. Photo courtesy of R.J. Julia Booksellers

A book delicery window was one of R.J. Julia Booksellers’ adaptations to the pandemic. Photo courtesy of R.J. Julia Booksellers

Spouses Matt Sciallabba and Melissa Pellegrino, proprietors at Bufalina in Guilford, are part Mike Urban’s latest book on remarkable Connecticut restaurants, Unique Eats and Eateries of Connecticut. Photo courtesy of Mike Urban

Ted and Ruth Rossi attend a mask giveaway event at Shoreline Arts Alliance in Madison. Their family foundation has given away more than 5.5 million masks in five states, along with other personal protective equipment. Photo by Pem McNerney/Harbor News

Rebekah Beaulieu, director of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, says advice from Sten Vermund, right, an arts lover who lives in Guilford who is also dean of the Yale School of Public Health, was instrumental in the ability of the museum to open. He scrutinized the museum’s filtration system, signage, and event protocols, among other measures. When the museum recently held an event for 200 people, “We did so with confidence,” she says. Photo by Pem McNerney/Harbor News

After a year off, gatherings like the Guilford Fair were back in 2021. Photo by Wesley Bunnell/Harbor News

Area farmers like Old Saybrook Farmers Market vendor John Shenstone from Glastonbury’s Shenstone Gardens faced a year of uncertainty, though statewide, local farmers largely persevered. Photo by Wesley Bunnell/Harbor News