From head chef to hostess

You’re sitting at a table in a restaurant. Your stomach is growling. You’ve had a long day at work. And you have just enough energy left to chow down on your food. That is, when it finally arrives. For the past several minutes you’ve been teased by platters of burgers, sandwiches, drafts of beer, you name it. Finally, the server pushes open the heavy double doors of the kitchen with a tray in hand. You lock eyes, hoping that one of those white plates contains your next meal. To your satisfaction, they set the plate of steaming hot wings right under your nose. 

Dig in.

We’ve followed the journey from waiting for to receiving your meal, but what happened before that and what separates the good from the bad in the restaurant industry? 

If you were to pose these questions to Hamden’s Side Street Grille owner Dave DeNicola, he’d tell you it takes time and massive amounts of preparation. 

“At the end of the night, we pull all the fryers away from the walls, wash the walls, make sure it never smells like grease when someone walks in.” After speaking with a health inspector several years ago, his beliefs were reaffirmed. “He said he could tell when he walks in and smells a strong odor of grease that the kitchen’s not clean.” 

This is just one example of the attention paid to detail in a place where the walls are lined with metal street signs featuring sports teams, license plates from a variety of states and vintage beer taps against a vibrant red backdrop.

But in Hamden, a town bordering the tasteful delights of New Haven, as well as home to many food options of its own, an establishment has to put in plenty of work behind the scenes to stay ahead of the curve.

Side Street is typically open for lunch and dinner, but DeNicola and his staff arrive long before. 

“My kitchen staff gets here at 9 to get the place ready,” he said. “They do maintenance, they wash the floors, clean the bathrooms, whatever, and then start setting up the line for lunch service.”

DeNicola arrives early himself to accept food orders, pay bills and do anything else that may need his attention, but he doesn’t work straight through. He consistently makes time for the group of people that is a constant for him in an industry that sometimes has a lot of turnover.

“I have dinner with my family and come back,” DeNicola said. 

With three other original owners, DeNicola opened Side Street in 1996. After working at New Haven’s Toad’s Place for 15 years as a barback, he worked his way up to management. Hoping to do something on his own, he settled on the brick white building off of Whitney Avenue.

“This place became available,” DeNicola said, as he stood against the bar. “The real estate was available and it was a Mexican restaurant that had been out of business for just under a year. And so we've made a purchase. The location was everything.”

And while the reputation of the glazed wings or fried pickles travels through word of mouth, the eclectic interior adds a visual personality to the establishment. 

If that’s not enough, the menu has its own sense of flavor too. The “Janet Jackson’s Grilled Chicken Breast,” “Pee-Wee Herman's Pulled Pork BBQ Sangawich” and “Snoop Dogg's Off the Hizzle Fo Shizzle Dizzle” are just a few dishes to be found at Side Street. DeNicola says these names have changed over the years but added “it just sets us apart. It just kind of highlights our personalities.”

One of those personalities is Side Street bartender Shayna Marin. Marin, a native of Bristol, Connecticut, has been working at Side Street for over a year.

Like DeNicola, Marin also arrives early to prepare for the work ahead of her.

“If I'm in the bar, it's a longer shift, but it's shorter, it's shorter interactions with people,” Marin said as she hoisted buckets of ice on the bar top in preparation for her 4:30 p.m. shift. “And I prefer doing that. I think it's more fun versus being on the floor. I like to have the one-on-one playful banter at a bar as opposed to in the dining room.”

On Tuesdays, Side Street hosts college night from 8 to 11 p.m. According to Marin, Side Street’s foot traffic reaches its peak at around 8 p.m. during these nights. Quinnipiac students and locals alike, decked in their favorite sports jerseys, enjoy 55 cent wings as they crowd around bar stools and tables.

— and before she knows it, her 10-hour shift goes by in the blink of an eye. 

At the end of the night, DeNicola prides himself on taking the extra time to stay on top of every aspect of the kitchen. He and his staff take 15 minutes to a half-hour cleaning behind the fryers, leaving no stone unturned, after closing.

Along with the lengthy shifts, comes a variety of patrons. College students, locals from Hamden and anyone in between flock to Side Street for its inviting atmosphere.

“We just try and be friendly and relaxed here,” Marin said. “And that's what people typically  come back for.”

It’s those same satisfied customers that are willing to back that up. 

“Side Street is just one of those places that everyone hears about as an underclassman,” Christian Quigley, a senior biomedical marketing major at Quinnipiac said. “And it has a reputation for tasty and affordable food with special deals that you can’t beat anywhere else. You end up going because they are close and provide quick, fast and great service.”