A Restaurant With No Walls?

ESSEX, CT — A restaurant with no walls!

That’s the innovative, original idea that restauranteurs Colt Taylor and Jon Kodama have pitched to the Old Saybrook Zoning Commission for consideration, to be housed on the former Dock and Dine property, located where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound.

Willing and very able to take on this pioneering business endeavor, Kodama has owned the property since 1987 and is the managing partner of JTK Management Restaurants and Taylor is the owner and chef of The Essex and Los Charros Cantina, and Essex Public Market and Food Hall in Centerbrook.

Proving his innovative spirit, Taylor successfully pivoted in the middle of the pandemic to create jobs and a new restaurant model, with the Essex Market and Food Hall take-out food option, that has worked well with the changing environment caused by Covid-19. He is attempting to apply that same inventive nature to the Smoke on The Water project, which is proposing a waterfront restaurant environment with no walls, portable food grade trailers and seating for 300, with a 180-day season.

Colt, whose second job when he was young, was at the iconic Dock and Dine, said he is trying to create jobs, offer covenanted waterfront dining, provide simple elevated good food, while utilizing the natural attractiveness of the property and be environmentally conscious at the same time.

“What we are proposing, and what is there now is night and day,” said Taylor, referring to the fact that currently, the 2.23-acre property, (located in a floodplain) where Dock and Dine was destroyed by not one, but two hurricanes (Irene and Superstorm Sandy) has no structure on it.

To rebuild the restaurant on the property calls for code compliance of a 13-foot elevated structure, (due to Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zone hurricane regulations) which Taylor explained is just not feasible at this time.

Instead, he and Kodama want to bring in food-grade trailer structures and set up a New England style smokehouse with oysters, scallops, brisket, locally sourced vegetables, a variety of seafood options and more. The trailers would be easy to move in case of impending hurricanes and bad weather and the plan is to remove them from the property during the off-season. They are designed to house refrigeration, storage, office space, bathrooms and bar service. Cooking would be done on outdoor grills and a food pavilion would be created.

Some neighbors have voiced concern about noise, garbage and light pollution associated with such a business, while other town residents support the idea, citing the creation of jobs, public enjoyment of the waterfront property and attracting tourists to the area.

The application needs zoning approval because the flood ordinance doesn't allow for temporary structures, so the project has been continued to a public hearing on March 15, at the Old Saybrook Zoning Commission meeting, which will take place at 7 p.m. via zoom.

For more information go to the Town of Old Saybrook home page.