The restaurant DeNovellis by the Shore celebrated it’s one-year anniversary recently, and the owners say that, unlike the previous businesses located in the same building, DeNovellis will break the so-called “curse” of the Hungry Lion.

To celebrate the one year anniversary, the restaurant baked cupcakes which were given to every guest after their meal for free on June 9. Located at 192 East Main Street, Clinton, DeNovellis occupies the same location where the popular Hungry Lion Restaurant made its home from 1990 to 1999. Owner Mase Luciano had also owned a restaurant named the Luciano’s Boathouse from 1985 to 1990. In the 17 years since the Hungry Lion closed, a string of restaurants has opened and closed in the same location, with some barely lasting a full year.

Lisa Dockus, the general manager of DeNovellis, said she has worked for years in the restaurant business, including a previous restaurant at the same location, and she believes DeNovellis is here to stay.

“I worked here before, and the previous owners just didn’t have the experience,” Dockus said. Experience with a restaurant isn’t something Enzo DeNovellis, the owner, lacks. DeNovellis has operated the popular DeNovellis Family Restaurant in Rocky Hill since 2006. The restaurant has won the Chamber of Commerce Award for Best Restaurant eight times since 2008 and has garnered a large following. Dockus said that some patrons of the Rocky Hill location in the fall and winter come to the Clinton location in the summer. “Enzo’s reputation proceeds him,” said Dockus.

While Dockus said she “wasn’t worried” about the curse, that didn’t stop her from taking some measures against the curse, such as having the restaurant blessed and cleansed by a spiritual healer. Dockus said when she mentioned the restaurant’s location people would tell her “oh you gotta get that building blessed.”

Small Strange Instances

During the remodeling of the restaurant before it opened Dockus said small strange instances started happening, like the time a contractor told her he had heard voices coming from upstairs despite nobody else being in the building. Dockus then decided to contact a spiritual healer from Hartford to come cleanse and bless the building. For about two hours the two of them walked the property and visited area where the healer said had felt negative energy. Dockus called it “an interesting process.”

Whether or not many customers actually believed in the curse is up for debate, but what isn’t is the number of people who had grown skeptical of restaurants in the location being successful. “Everybody that comes in brings up the old place. If I had a penny for every time somebody asked me If I knew this was where the Hungry Lion was I could retire from the restaurant business,” Dockus said.

Becoming a Part of the Community

Even on the reviews for DeNovellis on the popular review site Yelp, people bring up the old location. One recent Yelp review said “I recently had dinner here for the [first] time after being very hesitant. My hesitation stemmed from seeing several restaurants move in and out of this location some not lasting a full year. I was extremely surprised and pleased with the authenticity of the dishes being served, how each dish was packed with flavor, the affordability of the dishes as well as the generous portions, and the warm and friendly atmosphere. To top it all off we felt comfortable as a family with two children under the age of 6 to have dinner.” DeNovellis currently has a four out of five-star rating on Yelp.

Dockus said the restaurant has been receiving a lot of attention through word of mouth and also is looking to endear itself to Clinton residents. In May it hosted a fundraiser for the Clinton Police Department K-9 fund. “We’re becoming more and more a part of the community.”

DeNovellis By the Shore offers Italian cuisine such as chicken, veal, and seafood. The restaurant also offers pizza, salad, and pasta. Dockus is a fan of the table side pasta in particular. Dockus believes DeNovellis by the Shore is the only restaurant in the area that does this dish, which consists of wheeling an 80-pound wheel of Parmesan cheese out to a table on a cart. The cheese is then covered in marinara sauce and lit on fire. After the fire burns and melts the cheese, pasta is then added to the dish.

DeNovellis by the Shore is open Tuesday through Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.