Eye on Small Business: Siren Restobar, Old Greenwich

Designed by Norwalk’s Lynn Morgan, Siren Restobar  on Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich is a vison of seaside blue and white, a bright, airy space with mermaids and seahorses stenciled onto white brick walls. A semicircular bar at the rear of the restaurant doubles as a raw bar and the small garden at the rear suggests long, white wine-suffused Mediterraean lunches or nights under the stars.

“When you step inside, I want you to feel you just stepped ashore on a Greek island,” said Siren’s owner, Anshu Vidyarthi. And you do.

“I learned the bones of the business from a very, very successful restaurateur in LA, and she taught me pretty much everything I knew early on,” Vidyarthi said.

Moving to the East Coast in 2003, he fell in love with New York City, going to work with a friend who had just opened Le Colonnial. Vidyarthi went on to open Colonial branches across the country for the group, which also included L’escale in Greenwich and La Goulue in Bal Harbor, Florida.

Deciding to branch out on his own, he opened Le Penguin in downtown Greenwich in 2009, with Le Fat Poodle following in Old Greenwich in 2014, both to plaudits. A second Siren Restobar, also serving Mediterranean cusine, will open shortly in Port Chester on the site of the Italian restaurant Tarry Lodge, once helmed by Mario Batali. And a couple of doors down from Siren on Sound Beach Avenue, Vidyarthi’s newest restaurant, Juju Cantina – serving authentic Mexican food, with sophisticated, lemon-yellow interiors also designed by Lynn Morgan

and wide French doors opening onto the street – is on track for an early September opening.

Vidyarthi recognizes Lower Fairfield as his domain and, despite invitations to open restaurants in other cities and states, said he has no wish to widen his sphere.

“There’s such a market here for diners who are hungry for good food, for quality food,” he said. “A lot of people who live in Fairfield County have eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world, or have had some of the best chefs in the world cook in their houses.”

His take on restaurant “hospitality” is illuminating, seeing it as a kind of binding agreement, or obligation.

“When people have made a reservaton and they walk through the door, they have already committed to giving us $260 or $280. Now, it’s our job to earn it. And that’s what I look at as hospitality.” Every aspect – music, light, ambiance, food – he believes has to be spot on.

What he’s not trying to be is what he terms a “gastronomic sensation.” No exploding lollipops, no foie gras foam, no “three dots of habanera oil on the plate,” although simple, clean presentation is vital. “People eat with their eyes.”

He favors smaller restaurants, 50 or 60 seats maximum and likes ”buzz, noise and atmosphere.” He has been offered larger spaces but said it’s not something he’s interested in doing. “I don’t want a library,” he said.

Staff turnover is small. Vidyarthi said his managers have been with him for a minimum of 12 years and, similarly, his chefs have been with him for “a long time,” occasionally moving from one restaurant to another.

Keeping prices fair and reasonable, Vidyarthi said that many people dine at his restaurants two or three times a week. A great believer in the importance of lunchtime trade, he has also managed to build up a solid lunch business where most other restaurants simply throw up their hands and don’t bother opening midday. Menus are kept “user friendly” at lunch, catering to two distinct groups, business people and a “ladies who lunch” crowd.

“But order a tuna Niçoise,” he said, “and it’s going to be the best damn tuna Niçoise you’ve ever had. I believe that do it right, and you will get people in your seats. I’ve never chased the dollar.

“Is everbody going to like what we do? No. But we shoot for 95% satisfaction and we get to about 90%, which is still pretty good.”