Designed by Norwalk native Lynn Morgan, Siren Restobar on Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich is a vision of sea blue and white, a bright, airy space with mermaids and seahorses painted on white brick walls. A semicircular bar at the back of the restaurant doubles as a raw bar, and the small garden behind it invites long, white-wine-flavored Mediterranean lunches or nights under the stars.
“When you come in, you should feel like you have just landed on a Greek island,” says Anshu Vidyarthi, the owner of Siren. And that is exactly the case.
“I learned the basics of the business from a very, very successful restaurant owner in LA, and she taught me pretty much everything I knew early on,” Vidyarthi said.
When he moved to the East Coast in 2003, he fell in love with New York City and began working with a friend who had just opened Le Colonnial. Vidyarthi opened Colonial stores across the country for the group, including L’escale in Greenwich and La Goulue in Bal Harbor, Florida.
He decided to venture out on his own and opened Le Penguin in downtown Greenwich in 2009, followed by Le Fat Poodle in Old Greenwich in 2014, both to great success. A second Siren Restobar, also serving Mediterranean cuisine, will soon open in Port Chester at the site of the Tarry Lodge Italian restaurant once helmed by Mario Batali. And a few doors down from Siren on Sound Beach Avenue is Vidyarthi’s newest restaurant, Juju Cantina — serving authentic Mexican food, with sophisticated, lemon-yellow interiors also designed by Lynn Morgan.
and wide glass doors opening onto the street – is planned for an opening in early September.
Vidyarthi considers Lower Fairfield his turf and said that despite invitations to open restaurants in other cities and states, he has no desire to expand his turf.
“There’s a huge market here for diners who have an appetite for good food, for quality food,” he said. “Many people who live in Fairfield County have eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world or had some of the best chefs in the world cook in their homes.”
His view of “hospitality” in restaurants is insightful: he sees it as a kind of binding agreement or obligation.
“When people make a reservation and walk through the door, they’ve already committed to paying us $260 or $280. Now it’s our job to earn that. And that’s what I mean by hospitality.” He believes every aspect – music, lighting, ambience, food – has to be perfect.
What he doesn’t want to be is what he calls a “gastronomic sensation.” No exploding lollipops, no foie gras foam, no “three dots of habanera oil on the plate,” although a simple, clean presentation is important. “People eat with their eyes.”
He prefers smaller restaurants with a maximum of 50 or 60 seats and likes “the hustle and bustle, the noise and the atmosphere.” He has been offered larger spaces but said he is not interested. “I don’t want a library,” he said.
Staff turnover is low. Vidyarthi said his managers have been with him for at least 12 years and his chefs have been with him for “a very long time” as well, occasionally moving from one restaurant to another.
Vidyarthi keeps the prices fair and reasonable and says that many people eat at his restaurants two or three times a week. He believes strongly in the importance of lunch business and has also managed to build a solid lunch business where most other restaurants simply give up and don’t bother opening at lunch. The menus are kept “user-friendly” at lunchtime and are aimed at two different groups: business people and a “ladies who lunch” crowd.
“But order a tuna Niçoise,” he said, “and it will be the best damn tuna Niçoise you’ve ever had. I think if you do it right, you’ll get people in their seats. I’ve never chased the dollar.”
“Will everyone like what we do? No. But we aim for 95% satisfaction and achieve about 90%, which is still pretty good.”
