Walking into the kitchen of the Red Fox Restaurant & Bar, a mouth-watering aroma greets you.
In a pair of large stainless steel pans on the huge commercial stoves, one of the restaurant’s chefs is preparing two of the Red Fox’s signature Italian dishes: chicken medallions and chicken scallopini.
Located on Smith Street in Middletown, the Red Fox is a family-owned and operated restaurant that serves a unique melange of Mediterranean-Italian-American food.
Opened in 2015 by the husband and wife team of Zumra and Fico Cecunjanin, the Red Fox has enjoyed so much success that it quickly had to expand its footprint at its 218 Smith St., location - including adding banquet facilities and an outdoor bar and a patio dining area.
Last year Fico and Zumra opened a second location, Bone In Prime Steakhouse, in Cheshire, and now they are expanding again this time with a third restaurant at Glen Lochen Mall at 39 New London Turnpike.
Zumra says she and her husband have signed a lease for the new restaurant at Glen Lochen. The site is still under renovation and a firm opening date for Red Fox isn’t set yet.
She and Fico want to open another location here, she says because they think their restaurant’s vibrant gourmet offerings would be a good fit in the town’s diverse and dynamic restaurant scene.
“We just really like Glastonbury and we wanted to go to a town where there is a lot of potential for us. I think it would be a great fit for us and the town and we're really excited to get started there.”
The couple like to describe the Red Fox’s menu as a melding of Italian cuisine with the “bold and delicious” flavors that hint at her husband’s Montenegrin roots. Fico immigrated here with his family at age 14. They settled in upstate New York where Fico cooked in his extended family's restaurants since he was a teenager.
Take, for instance, the inclusion of Italian standards like chicken piccata and ravioli pizziola on a menu that also includes beef tenderloin ragu, dry-aged ribeye and New York strip steaks, and Branzino Mediterranean sea bass.
Red Fox also offers a full slate of appetizers, including calamari, rollatini, and oysters, as well as fresh salads made from local, organic produce. You can build your own seafood cocktail platter - which comes with lobster tails, oysters, clams and shrimp - or share a Surf and Turf for Two meal, which is served with two filet mignons and two lobster tails, with your dinner partner.
The restaurant is open daily and serves a Sunday brunch, complete with several different types of mimosas, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Middletown restaurant has a mellow and intimate atmosphere, boasting small, separate dining rooms - including one with just a few tables draped in white tablecloths right inside the Red Fox’s wine room.
The outside patio and bar also have an intimate feel and are lined with lush tropical and flowering plants, as well as pear and peach trees that bear fruit used in Red Fox recipes.
The new location in Glen Lochen will seat about 100 people and will include outdoor seating as well, Zumra says.
Red Fox Restaurant & Bar
218 Smith St., Middletown
860-740-4967
Redfoxmiddletown.com
On Facebook @Redfoxct
Fox Bone In Prime Steakhouse
1410 Highland Ave., Cheshire
203-806-1430
Boneinprime.com
On Facebook: @Foxboneinprimesteakhouse
Coming Soon:
Glen Lochen Mall
39 New London Turnpike, Glastonbury
