‘Rocket Café’ Nears Takeoff In Westville

By Dereen Shirnekhi, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — The owners of an East Haven Colombian restaurant are looking to open a sports bar in Westville Village.

The bar, Rocket Cafe, has put up its purple, celestial, bespectacled sign outside of 883 Whalley Ave., at the site of the former Westville Emesa pizza restaurant. That Syrian refugee-run pizzeria has been closed for nearly two years.

Rocket Cafe will be run by wife and husband Adriana Orozco and Jaime Rua, who also own My Little Colombia, a restaurant and bar in East Haven.

The four-unit retail building in Westville has been owned by Friends Center for Children since 2022, when the early childhood education nonprofit bought the property, along with an adjacent office building at 881 Whalley, from an affiliate of Ocean Management.

Friends Center Executive Director Allyx Schiavone did not respond to requests for comment for this article. In 2022, Schiavone told the Independent that her nonprofit purchased the Whalley Avenue property with the goal of expanding the childcare services it currently provides nearby at 495 Blake St. She also said existing commercial tenants would be able to stay in place through the ends of their respective leases.

Orozco and Rua have run My Little Colombia for four years. The couple has lived in East Haven for 15 years, and lived in Branford for 10 years before that.

They were drawn to the empty Westville storefront due to its positioning along a commercial corridor, as well as its proximity to Southern Connecticut State University. With plans for Rocket Cafe to be a sports bar, they plan to sell wine and beer along with appetizers, hamburgers, and chicken wings.

They want to open “as soon as possible,” Rua said. They’re still waiting for some applications to be approved by the city’s Building Department. “Maybe a month.”

City spokesperson Lenny Speiller confirmed that the Building Department received a building permit application from Rocket Cafe in early August.

“As part of this process, on August 18th, the Health Department asked for additional information from the business owner to ensure compliance with the city’s health code, which the department has yet to receive,” Speiller said. “Once that additional information and documentation is received and verified, a building permit can be issued.”

Meanwhile, on Friday, plumber Angel Ramos was at work at 883 Whalley. Ramos — who is also a chaplain for the New Haven Police Department — has been getting the space ready for opening. He moved materials from his truck outside to inside the bar.

Ramos has already set up the women’s bathroom for use, and how has to complete the men’s bathroom. “Even a bidet,” Ramos noted in the women’s bathroom.

Currently, Rocket Cafe has three large TVs behind the bar, as well as plenty of bar seating and lower tables. There’s more work to do before opening, but if all goes as planned, a new sports bar will be coming to Westville soon.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.