Ribbon Minimize On New Carnival-Themed Eatery In New Haven

NEW HAVEN, CT — Neon candied apples, plump corn canine, flaky fried Oreos, and carousel jingles await clients of a brand new Whitney Avenue restaurant, the place co-owner Victoria Streeto hopes to supply a time-traveling portal to childhood comforts and delights.

That restaurant is named Fest Faves, which opened at 15 Whitney Ave. earlier this fall and which celebrated an official ribbon reducing Monday morning.

Streeto and her husband, Eric Balcerzak, have made a pastime out of visiting carnivals for the previous decade — “primarily for the meals,” she mentioned on Monday. They determined to open a carnival-themed restaurant on Whitney Avenue as an escape from the stressors of a brand new Covid-19 regular.

Two months after its opening, Fest Faves has grow to be a joyful and nostalgic different world inside a strip of downtown commerce, dropped at life by way of neon lights, vivid purple, and an aroma of contemporary popcorn that fills the storefront.

On the morning of Halloween on Monday, Fest Faves was crammed with eerie dolls and pictures of possessed clowns in honor of the vacation, recasting the happy-go-lucky carnival ambiance in a twisted, horror-inspired overtone.

Balcerzak, Streeto, and a bunch of native leaders and financiers gathered for what Mayor Justin Elicker known as “the creepiest and spookiest and probably sweetest ribbon reducing” he might keep in mind.

“Popping out of a pandemic, who doesn’t love responsible pleasures?” mentioned Tony Rossley, vice chairman at Liberty Financial institution, which is working with the brand new enterprise.

In its quick life thus far, Fest Faves has had gradual days and busy days, mentioned Streeto. The most well-liked choices embrace her favourite — Buffalo rooster eggrolls, which pack in “somewhat bit of warmth, somewhat little bit of crisp.”

The restaurant has already garnered some common clients. A trio of Housing Authority workers, whom Streeto affectionately calls the “Cheetah ladies” after their frequent Cheetah-print outfits, mentioned they go to Fest Faves practically day by day for candy treats (they advocate the fried Oreos and churros) and the pleasant surroundings. They cheered enthusiastically at Monday’s ribbon reducing, the place they stopped by to indicate their assist.

“I used to be born and raised on Coney Island,” mentioned Lynn Brunache. The carnival theme reminds of her dwelling.

Knowledgeable dancer educated in disciplines starting from faucet to ballet, Streeto has labored as a dance teacher in New Haven Public Faculties and at Neighborhood Music Faculty for 14 years. She’s additionally linked to New Haven by way of her household of Italian-American restaurateurs, who embrace a chef on the New Haven Garden Membership and Ristorante Faustini (her father) and a baker on the traditional Libby’s Italian Pastry Store (her uncle).

“It began out with my wood spoon and my dad and my mother,” mentioned Streeto. “I used to be the dancing chef.”

Streeto’s household additionally figures within the recollections of childhood carnival visits that she’s channeled into the restaurant: she recalled using roller-coasters along with her cousins whereas “attempting to scream as loud as potential.”

The brand new restaurant displays her strategy to all the things she units out to do, she added: “it’s excessive.”

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest day by day information website based in 2005.