The Blue Turtle — a combination restaurant, lounge, and high-tech game center that opened just more than a year ago in Manchester’s Shoppes at Buckland Hills mall — has closed for good, according to a restaurant employee who declined to be identified.
“Sunday was our last day,” the worker said in a telephone interview, adding that although the eatery was busy, the closing came as the result of problems with the lease. The worker would not elaborate.
But he did say that customers can redeem gift cards at a remaining Blue Turtle restaurant in Milford at the Westfield Connecticut Post mall.
A Buckland Hills mall official could not be reached for immediate comment.
It is the fourth major restaurant that Manchester has lost since December.
Blue Turtle is operated by Mystic Entertainment Co., which is an autonomous subsidiary of the Mystic Aquarium. Proceeds go toward “the development and execution of educational programs, marine research, marine animal rescue and deep-sea expeditions for the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration,” according to a company statement when the Manchester location opened in January 2007.
The Blue Turtle and a Funny Bone comedy club are in a new corridor entrance into the mall between Barnes & Noble and J.C. Penney.
In March, Romano’s Macaroni Grill — the last remaining such eatery in Connecticut — shut its doors for good. It had been at 170 Slater St. for more than a decade.
The chain is operated by Tennessee-based Brinker International, which also operates Chili’s Grill & Bar restaurants, On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina eateries, and Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurants.
The Macaroni Grill’s demise came only three months after Manchester’s Hops Grill and Bar closed without notice over the Christmas holiday weekend. A hand-written note on the door of the 110 Buckland Hills Dr. restaurant, at the northwest corner of the Buckland Hills mall parking lot, apologized for the abrupt closing adding it “came as a surprise” to employees as well.
The chain, owned by a Georgia-based company, now lists only one Connecticut eatery on its Web site, at 3260 Berlin Tpke., in Newington. It is the only Hops in New England.
In early January, Massachusetts-based Vinny T’s of Boston Italian restaurant also suddenly shut its doors at Buckland Hills mall.
Signs were removed immediately and a small notice on the door confirmed the closing, and advised those with questions to call the company’s home office in Northborough, Mass. The chain is operated by Bertucci’s Corp., which in 2006 bought the Vinny T’s chain.
The Manchester Vinny T’s opened in 2004, next to the Buckland Hills mall’s Barnes & Noble bookstore. It was the first eatery for the chain in Connecticut.
