Creativity During COVID: How One Local Restaurateur Is Succeeding

ESSEX, CT — With a keen eye toward innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit and a verve for everything culinary, Colt Taylor — owner of The Essex Restaurant and Los Churros in Centerbrook — has unveiled his ambitious response to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. He expanded his gastronomic offerings by opening the Essex Public Market and Food Hall under the same roof as his other eateries, housed on Main Street in the Centerbrook section of Essex.

Complete with five micro restaurants in one place, as well as a small market, the new food hall is a new concept in our "new normal."

"This is a fun, streamline, quick food option, cooked with the same high-quality attention to detail as my other restaurants," said Taylor, who is passionate about his guests' culinary experiences and wants to ensure that there are a variety of reasonably priced, expertly prepared food options available in his own community. The Food Hall offers Los Churros Mexican fare; Proof, which has meatballs and a pizza menu; Umami, which is a noodle and bao bun restaurant; The Joint, which serves up a variety of fried chicken options ranging from Korean to traditional and burgers; and for dessert, The Creamery, complete with cookies, gelato and milkshakes. All five options offer counter service, dine-in self-seating, takeout, curbside pickup or delivery.

Taylor has reinterpreted the culinary landscape in the current environment and has taken a risk to invest to succeed instead of sitting back and hoping. With a lot on his plate, including the birth of his twin sons, Sawyer and River, in mid November, Taylor is determined to come out the other side of the pandemic and economic nightmare for small-business owners, with prosperous businesses and a strong, loyal customer base.

"Realistically looking at the winter, I had three options: one, lay off my staff; two, chisel down my staff to bare bones and hope to come out the other side of all this; or three, take a chance and make an investment in something that will weather the storm of COVID and possibly another state shutdown," Taylor said. "I chose to invest and create new jobs."

He added, "Sometimes you have to take action on your own and do what you can to make things better."

Merging his extensive experience as a culinary expert with his business sense, the concept of a food hall is something that Taylor has been distilling for a while.

"I've been playing with the idea of bringing a city-style food hall, offering global flavors to the area for a few years. Just before the pandemic hit, I was scouting out places in Old Saybrook to bring this concept to; but then COVID hit, and I had to rethink a couple of things — and here we are."

The Food Hall officially opened this past weekend and is already quickly claiming local accolades as a trendy new spot to indulge in some great food where you can eat out or in, enjoy variety and, best of all, you don't have to cook!

For more information, go to www.theessexpublicmarket.com.