Connecticut restaurant chain preps new Longmeadow location

Date: 8/30/2011

Aug. 29, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — Max Burger is coming to Longmeadow.

Rich Rosenthal, founder and president of the Connecticut-based Max Restaurant Group, confirmed to Reminder Publications that the addition of a second Massachusetts location in Longmeadow is expected.

“We’re very excited to be opening our second restaurant in the Greater Springfield market,” Rosenthal said. “We love the area and even though we don’t live in that community, we want to be a part of it as much as we are in Connecticut.”

Max Restaurant Group owns a chain of restaurants ranging from sit-down hamburger joints to oyster bars throughout central Connecticut and the Springfield area. Max’s Tavern, located at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was the company’s first venture north of the border and its success led to the exploration of a second location in the Bay State.

“We already have the one restaurant in Springfield and the Springfield market has been very good to us,” he said, adding that the two restaurants would act as a compliment to one another. “In Connecticut, we have a Max Burger with a Max Oyster Bar in close proximity and it seems to be well-received in that area.”

As a “high-end burger place,” as Rosenthal called it, Max Burger’s menu focuses on hamburgers ranging from the classic American favorite to the Kobe Fun Guy 2.0, which is served with sautéed mushrooms, truffled cheese, French onion aioli and au povre dipping sauce. It also offers appetizers, such as pickle wrapped pastrami and buffalo shrimp served with celery, carrots and bleu cheese.

“It’s not fast food by any stretch,” Rosenthal said. “All of our burgers are made with all-natural beef that is raised with no hormones or steroids, making it not only healthy beef, but tasty beef.”

Max Burger will also have full alcohol service after securing a liquor license. In addition to cocktails, the restaurant will feature American craft beers.

“We focus on having draft beers mostly from the region the restaurant is in,” Rosenthal said. “At Max’s Tavern, we serve [Berkshire Brewing Company] on tap and we also have our own draft that we make in Connecticut called Brewtus Maximus.”

The new restaurant will be located in a portion of the space formerly occupied by Blockbuster Video in the Longmeadow Shops. Rosenthal said the signing of the lease is “imminent” and that any hold up associated with it has been due to conflicting vacation schedules and not because of any controversy or problems with the town government.

David Lavenburg, chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals confirmed that the board determined in a mandatory parking finding at its July meeting that there was enough space to accommodate parking for a restaurant with a seating capacity of approximately 164. He said that because the lease had not been signed, the name of the restaurant was left anonymous.

Because the location is not currently equipped to house a restaurant or a kitchen of any kind, the restaurant is not expected to open until early 2012.

“We’re starting completely from scratch,” Rosenthal said. “There’s a lot of space and other than the four walls, we have nothing.”