A new “freestyle” Italian restaurant recently opened its doors to become the latest business to join the growing downtown area in Bristol.
Sei Bella, located at 182 Main St., celebrates its grand opening on Friday following a successful soft opening that started on Sept. 24. The restaurant is co-owned by 39-year-old New Britain resident Julien Garcia, a native of Puerto Rico who has worked in the restaurant business since 2008.
Garcia’s previous job was restaurant consulting. In fact, he was trying to convince other people to take over the space that formerly housed Main Street Pint & Plate before he started talking about opening his own restaurant at the location in March.
“A lot of folks loved the space and thought it was great and would say, ‘But Bristol?’ or ‘If you are not from Bristol, you aren’t going to Bristol a lot.’ But Bristol has done a great job growing and developing.” Garcia said.
“I had 15 people come look at the space, everything else, they all love it, right? But they’re not 100% convinced of Bristol yet. I’m not from Bristol. I think there’s potential. If we make something fun, energetic and dope I think it will work. This is where it came from. That’s why I’m here,” he added.
Courtesy of Julien Garcia
Sei Bella’s Chicken… Parm? entree features a half-roasted chicken with a Parmesan crust, blistered tomatoes and pesto couscous. (Courtesy of Julien Garcia)
Garcia said he saw this as an opportunity for “the underdog.”
“It’s all about helping the underdog. I translate that to Bristol. I saw the development that they have, and they are doing great with downtown. The building itself is one of Bristol’s oldest buildings and it’s very historical,” he said.
“I see all of the hard work and the development that’s coming, and for me, it was also all the housing development that’s going to be within a walking distance,” Garcia added. “There are more apartments being developed within walking distance to the restaurant.”
Bristol Mayor Ellen Zoppo‑Sassu noted that visiting the downtown area in recent months is a very different experience from years’ past, especially when dining out.
“The energy is building, and Sei Bella is a fantastic addition on Main Street,” she said. “I’ve dined at Sei Bella several times, and I am thoroughly impressed with the food and service. Sei Bella is attracting local residents as well as drawing diners from outside Bristol. This is the formula we are looking for, and we are thankful for Julien and his team.”
Sei Bella seats 100 people, including 20 in the bar area that features a full cocktail menu, 14 drafts and wine.
Garcia said his restaurant theme is a tribute to women. Sei Bella translates to “Hey, gorgeous” in Italian.
The restaurant has six walls, and each is female-themed. One wall has photos of iconic women, including the first female judge, first woman president in the world and the first woman who went into space. Another wall pays homage to other pioneering women.
Garcia said a local Bristol artist is making a collage of women’s faces meshed together.
“We have another walk of women doing iconic things like a woman smoking a cigar, a woman hunting, a woman working on a car, a woman working on boats in the Navy, a woman welding and doing things you wouldn’t see a woman typically doing,” Garcia said. “We have another wall that is a ‘Woman of the world’ theme with pictures of women from Russia, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Peru and another honoring working women like women in factories or women in farms, women who are nurses.”
Courtesy of Julien Garcia
Sei Bella in Bristol features a full cocktail menu. (Courtesy of Julien Garcia)
Garcia said the restaurant is what he calls “freestyle” Italian, noting that the menu mixes traditional Italian dishes with other cuisines.
“We try to create a mix of everything and essentially it’s to have fun. We introduce other flavors and cuisines. We could do a Rasta Pasta with a Jamaican flavor. You can add the spices to homemade pasta. This is the thought process. Freestyle is more modern. It’s not your Italian restaurant. It gives you the opportunity to play outside of the lines if you want to. If you want to throw a twist, we’re able to do that. We’re open to that and everything has a twist on our menu,” Garcia said.
The restaurant, which features housemade pasta and raviolis, will have a small menu compared to industry standards but will be “heavy” on seasonal specials. The current menu consists of 10 entrees, three salads and six appetizers.
“Our chicken parm on the menu has a question mark after it. Instead of your traditional marinara, cheese and spaghetti and some sort of pasta sauce, it’s a half-roasted chicken with a Parmesan crust, some blistered tomatoes and pesto couscous,” Garcia said.
“The Big O is orecchiette pasta with mushrooms and roasted tomatoes in a vodka sauce. You can add protein to it. We definitely have a couple things that are more approachable, but we don’t have spaghetti and meatballs,” he said.
Courtesy of Julien Garcia
Sei Bella’s fett’unta appetizer has roasted garlic and fresh mozzarella. (Courtesy of Julien Garcia)
The dishes feature creative names such as She is the One, Mr. Scallops, Tall Dark & Handsome and Hold My Meat. She is the One has salmon with truffle mushroom risotto, kale chips, and fig agrodolce. Mr. Scallops features scallops with potato fondue, sweet corn and sausage hash. Tall Dark & Handsome is prime skirt steak with roasted garlic polenta, Brussels sprouts and herb salsa, and Hold My Meat contains a white bean puree, warm kale and Brussels sprouts salad and root vegetables.
Garcia said the response has been “overwhelmingly positive” since the soft opening.
“It’s been great,” Garcia said. “The Bristol folks have been very open, and they appreciate the type of energy we are trying to create in Bristol. This is a fun date night place to have a date night.”
Garcia said the restaurant already has its regulars who have come in two or three times already.
“They come in sometimes to eat and sometimes for a cocktail. It’s nice to see regulars in such a short period of time. But we’ve had a steady flow of people coming in. Our focus in the soft opening was to be able to do it for the Bristol residents. As we know, as it gets busier and as it gets more attention on social media, we expect more people to come in from outside of Bristol,” Garcia said.
The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. The bar will remain open until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
“Sei Bella’s unique freestyle Italian concept, high-end bar program, modernized interior, and top-shelf customer service offer Bristol residents and visitors an exciting option downtown,” said Justin Malley, executive director of economic and community development for the city of Bristol. “We hope diners visit Sei Bella on its own or perhaps pair an evening at Sei Bella with a visit to the Rockwell Theater or other nearby establishments.”
