Former Bailey's Owner Opens New Restaurant in Old Location

Longtime Brookfield resident Alfonso DeMasi, who has been working in restaurants since he was a teenager, said many of “the regulars” have returned since he opened The Table, a restaurant and bar, at 640 Federal Road, where he and a former partner had operated Bailey’s Backyard for five years.

“They’ve come in three, four, five times a week,” he said. “They get take-out food and they stop at the bar.”

DeMasi, who also was co-owner of the Bailey’s Backyard in Ridgefield, said he has to try to attract new customers through local radio advertising, since his location isn’t as visible as it was before the 2.1-mile .

“I think it might impact us a little bit,” he said of the $105 million bypass, which has decreased the number of vehicle trips through the northern section of Federal Road.

“Some people are going to drive around us,” DeMasi said in an interview Wednesday before First Selectman Bill Davidson helped him formally cut the ribbon for The Table during a Brookfield Chamber of Commerce event.

“The traffic flow is down, but it hasn’t turned into a ghost town,” he said.

“I think the northern section of Federal Road has become more of a destination location since the bypass was built,” said Susan Murphy, the executive director of the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce.

“I go here more often now,” she said, citing the ease in making a left turn near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road after the bypass opened.

Murphy said the chamber is anxiously awaiting the development of the 198-acre Town Center District near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road.

Murphy said the business streetscape has been discussed since the late 1980s, when former First Selectmen Ken Keller became a member of the Economic Development Commission and indicated there was a need in Brookfield.

Davidson has said there has been growing interest in the area from commercial tenants since the zoning regulations were revised early last year. However, he has said the slow economic recovery has stymied efforts to develop the area even though much of the through traffic has been diverted to the Route 7 bypass.

DeMasi said the first Bailey’s Backyard, which opened on Bailey Avenue in Ridgefield in 1999, is located in a business district where there is considerable “foot traffic.”

He said he believes the development of the Town Center District will benefit The Table.

DeMasi said he also believes he will attract more customers in the future as a result of being located within easy driving distance of the Kohl’s shopping plaza on the southern corridor of Federal Road, where the proposed BJ’s Wholesale Center is to be located.

The restaurant owner said he recently became a member of the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce, noting that it held several events at Bailey’s Backyard while it was open from 2004 to 2009.

DeMasi said his father had operated pizza restaurants in the Bronx, N.Y. before they moved to Brookfield about 20 years ago.

He said he started working in restaurants while he was in his teens and after he graduated from Brookfield High School he attended the Culinary Institute of America in New Hyde Park, N.Y., earning his degree in 1994.

DeMasi said after completing his culinary program he worked in restaurants in New York City before opening Alfonso’s, a pizza restaurant in downtown Danbury.

He said after closing the Bailey’s Backyard in Brookfield in 2009, , which he said opened in May of last year and closed about six months later.

DeMasi said he decided to move back to his former location after the owner of the building offered attractive rental terms for the 2,000-square-foot space.

“The economy is not as strong as it was when we opened before in 2004,” he said. “But I don’t have as much overhead now.”

“We have a price-conscious menu,” DeMasi said regarding an effort to attract customers during a slow economic recovery.

He said The Table offers American food, including burgers and Buffalo wings, as well as pizza and other Italian entrees and some Mexican offerings.

DeMasi said he has about 12 employees, including four who work regularly in the bar area, where there are reduced-price drinks during Happy Hour each weekday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Table is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., although it closes later on Friday and Saturday when small acoustic musical groups perform.

DeMasi said he decided to close on Sunday so that he could spend more time with his wife, Kelley, who works in human resources for ATMI in Danbury, and their two children — Joey, seven, a first grade student at Center Elementary School, and Gianna, four.

He said he is concerned about the slow economic recovery, but sees positive signs.

DeMasi said, for example, a company that did extensive studies is opening a 10,000-square foot restaurant on Danbury’s west side and .

“People right now are concerned about gasoline prices going up,” he said. “I think in another year, the economy will be better.”