New London ― Since arriving in the city in 1990, they have survived the Great Recession and the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And despite some reservations about New London’s current direction, entrepreneurs Bladimir and Rosaura Pedroza and their CJ Peruvian Bar & Restaurant at the corner of Broad Street and Connecticut Avenue aren’t going anywhere.
“I can’t move. I own the building,” Bladimir said in a recent interview at the restaurant, where he was getting ready for another day.
Alternatively, he might consider moving the restaurant amid New London’s growing downtown scene, which he believes is putting businesses on the outskirts of town at a disadvantage. He is also concerned about rising property prices and what he believes is an increase in violent crime.
Things are different because of the pandemic, he said, though he’s optimistic they’ll get back to the way they were.
“We are fine; not great, but good,” he said. “Before the pandemic, it was great.”
State-imposed COVID-19 restrictions halted the restaurant’s business for about 15 months, beginning in March 2020. Before that, the Pedrozas kept CJ’s open until 10 p.m. every night to accommodate bar traffic they added to the restaurant during a 2018 expansion. . His staff grew to more than a dozen employees, including waiters.
“Now, no one comes to drink after 8 or 9 o’clock, that’s why the early hours,” said Bladimir.
CJ’s, which serves lunch and dinner, is open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and has six employees, none of them waiters.
Native Peruvians, the Pedrozas ― Bladimir is 58, Rosaura 60 ― met in New York City in 1986 and married the following year at Manhattan City Hall. They first spoke when Bladimir answered a phone call meant for someone else. Rosaura was on the other end of the line.
“We talked for two hours,” Bladimir recalled. “I didn’t meet her for two or three months.”
Inseparable ever since, the Pedrozas resettled in New London, where Bladimir had friends. He soon began working at the Benchmark Belt Co. factory. in Madison, which is no longer there, and both got part-time jobs at Foxwoods Resort Casino before going into real estate. They bought their first multi-family residence in the city in 1991 and eventually rented 23 apartments.
Fortunately, Bladimir said, they sold all their rental properties shortly before the U.S. economy went south in 2007. Now, they only own the building that houses their restaurant and the house they bought in Waterford in 2003.
Owning a restaurant had always been Bladimir’s dream, although neither he nor Rosaura knew much about what it would entail.
“My mother had managed a small restaurant in Peru,” he said. “I have always wanted to bring Peruvians to the area. When we came here, you had to go to Hartford for Peruvian food.”
When the building at 255 Broad Street became available, the Pedrozas bought it and began a major renovation, replacing walls, plumbing, electrical wiring. Rosaura’s mother and Bladimir, who both knew how to cook, trained in a family establishment in Providence to learn how to cook for a restaurant.
The 2018 expansion quadrupled the size of their restaurant, which now seats 105. Before the expansion, its name was Pollos a la Brasa, which means “grilled chickens”.
Known for dishes like marinated long roast chicken and chicha morada, a “corn soda,” CJ’s caters to a mix of customers who are 40 percent American and 30 percent Peruvian, with the rest “a variety of cultures “, as he explains. Bladimir
“We bring some color to the city,” he said.
Although Bladimir wishes the Pedrozas’ older children, Christopher and Jessica, were interested in taking over CJ’s, they have moved to Colorado and Tampa, Florida, respectively, to pursue other pursuits.
The first to arrive and the last to leave the restaurant each day, Bladimir sees no retirement in his immediate future, no matter how intriguing the idea.
“I can’t sit still, though,” he said.
b.hallenbeck@theday.com
