The owner of a commercial space on Forest Street that’s been vacant for more than one year said Thursday that a Japanese restaurant is preparing to renovate the interior space for an opening next year.
A Japanese restaurant is planned for the commercial space at 11 Forest St. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
According to Frank Elmasry, the restaurateurs will need about three or four months to complete the work.
“They are committed and so are we and we are going to try and make a go of it,” Elmasry told NewCanaanite.com. “It is going to be a very unique situation—meaning it is not just another restaurant, since we have quite a few of them. This is going to be Japanese cuisine. We haven’t had anything in town for a couple of years that is Japanese cuisine.”
He referred to Plum Tree restaurant, long closed. New Canaan does have Sushi 25 on Elm Street, whose menu does include miso, sushi, tataki and other traditional Japanese fare, though Plum Tree had been New Canaan’s first purely Japanese restaurant (there have been many more generally Asian food restaurants).
Elmasry declined to identify the new restaurant’s owners or say what the eatery would be called, though he has said in past applications that those behind the enterprise have “a track record of success in New Jersey and New York and this would be his first location in Connecticut.”
The space at 11 Forest St. used to house Peachwave Frozen yogurt, which closed in the summer of 2015.
The New Canaan Building Department on Wednesday received an application to construct a $150,000 build-out for the restaurant function. Floor plans include two sushi bars as well as four tables and five booths in a dining area.
The commercial property’s owner over the summer received a conditioned approval from the Planning & Zoning Commission for a fee-in-lieu of parking waiver for 11 spaces.