Connecticut's Colony Grill is accelerating its Hartford County push with two new restaurants slated to open in 2027—one in Newington and one in South Windsor—joining a Glastonbury location already in the pipeline. The moves signal a deliberate, community-by-community growth strategy for a brand that has operated bar-style pizza concepts since 1935.
The Locations
The Newington restaurant at 3260 Berlin Turnpike will seat more than 175 guests, feature a large patio, twelve draft tap lines, and sports-oriented TV viewing—but its headline addition is Colony Grill's first-ever fully private dining room. The dedicated space targets team dinners, corporate outings, and milestone celebrations, a format that operators across the casual-dining and pizza segments have increasingly pursued to diversify revenue beyond standard table turns. CEO and co-owner Paul Coniglio framed the expansion around community identity, noting that both towns share the local pride that Colony Grill has built its brand around since its Stamford founding.
The South Windsor location at 255 Gateway Blvd will be embedded in Buckland Gateway, a new mixed-use development combining retail, dining, and community spaces. Seating approximately 150 guests with a patio, the restaurant carries Colony Grill's standard 12-tap bar format and targets the foot traffic mix that mixed-use projects generate—nearby residents, office workers, and visitors. Phoebe Sager, Principal of Sager Development, cited Colony's Connecticut heritage and community loyalty as key factors in selecting the brand as a tenant.
Why Operators Should Watch
Colony Grill's format—thin-crust bar pies, a short menu, a full bar, and sports-friendly seating—travels well into suburban markets and requires relatively modest build-outs compared with full-service casual dining. Adding a private dining room to the Newington unit is a notable evolution for the brand, one that taps into the growing operator interest in event-driven revenue as a hedge against traffic volatility. With locations already spread across Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and Florida, the Hartford County cluster suggests the company is consolidating density in its home state before pushing further afield.
For foodservice real estate developers, Colony Grill's anchor role at Buckland Gateway also illustrates how regional pizza and bar concepts with cult followings are winning mixed-use placements that once defaulted to national chains. As beverage-forward casual concepts continue to resonate with suburban diners, regional brands with strong tap programs and community roots are increasingly competitive in lease negotiations.
Both 2027 openings follow the expected debut of Colony Grill's Glastonbury unit, which will further tighten the brand's Hartford County network before the two new restaurants come online.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
