Niantic Businesses Gear Up For Celebrate East Lyme

Downtown Niantic businesses have had just one weekend to recover since blew into town and they’re now bracing themselves for a second wave of visitors coming to on July 21. Not that they’re complaining, mind you.

“The economic impact on business was phenomenal. It was everything we hoped for. I can’t wait to do it again,” said East Lyme First Selectman Paul Formica, whose own business, the and Restaurant, did a roaring trade that day.

So far, OpSail has been the busiest weekend of the summer season. Formica estimates that as many as 20,000 people turned out for the opening ceremonies but traditionally Celebrate East Lyme has drawn even bigger crowds. Last year, an estimated 35,000 people attended the day-long event.  

“That’s always a big one for us,” said Louise Hanson, assistant manager of .  

Having OpSail first, however, has helped many local businesses be even better prepared for the coming weekend. Gumdrops and Lollipops, for instance, learned quickly that the candy store would have to stock up on bottled water.

“We couldn’t keep enough water on hand,” said Hanson.

The OpSail crowd was a hungry one too. Heather Caulkins, who organized both OpSail and Celebrate East Lyme, said that , Covino’s Italian market, and Café Sol actually ran out of food.

Café Sol had two booths in addition to the restaurant for OpSail and though café co-owner Brian Bellmore said they had enough food prepared to serve everyone on Friday, they had to close the café at 11 a.m. on Saturday because there was literally nothing left to sell.

“You can just never be too prepared,” he said. “It’s such a tsunami of people.”

Frank Grace, owner of benefited from the fact that the restaurant’s made his the only establishment with an unobstructed view of Hole in the Wall Beach for OpSail. But even with the extra space provided by the new patio and upstairs deck, Grace said he still had to turn people away because the restaurant was full.

“It was slamming busy,” said Grace. “It was wonderful for the community and great to see all the out-of-towners. We’re excited about doing another event.”

bar manager Alan Sheehan said OpSail was a nice bonus but he’s expecting Celebrate East Lyme to be an even busier night. He’s already doubled his usual liquor order and booked a particularly good band for Saturday.

Restaurants stand to gain the most from festival days. Retail stores do a brisk business too, but many store owners said they reap the real returns of events such as OpSail after the fact.

“That type of event doesn’t bring people into a boutique. The moms with kids, they’re here to eat and see the boats but they’re not here to shop,” said Donna Brennan, owner of . “My hope is that people who had not been to the area before will say, ‘Oh, look, what a cute boutique!’ and they’ll be back.”

There’s a pretty good chance that many of them will be making a return trip for Celebrate East Lyme on Saturday.