A Rocky Hill restaurant that offers one of the prettiest views in Hartford County — and is just offshore of the nation’s oldest continuously operating ferry — is now owned by possibly the youngest restaurateur in Connecticut.
Sarah Bezdelovs, 18, a 2021 graduate of Rocky Hill High School, bought Ferry Park Grill, located on the banks of the Rocky Hill Glastonbury Ferry, from its previous proprietor.
When Bezdelovs’ new sign is installed, the lunch and dinner shack will have a new name: The Ferry Grill & Chill. The restaurant opens for the season today.
“I grew up in Rocky Hill. This place is where everyone comes — young people, old people, people who want to eat or people who just want to watch the water. I came here all the time to fish with my dad,” Bezdelovs said.
Just seven weeks after graduating from high school, Bezdelovs got a real estate license. She now works at Berkshire Hathaway in Glastonbury. She also works as a server and a bartender at Maggie McFly’s in Glastonbury, but is taking a temporary break from that job to launch The Ferry Grill & Chill.
“I’m going to keep trying new things until I find what works for me,” she said. “I don’t want to be limited to one thing.”
The chance to take over the restaurant came suddenly, and she jumped at it.
“I am a very impulsive person. It was a good opportunity and I did not want to shy away from it,” she said.
Bezdelovs will be in the kitchen alongside her staff of about six people. Her head chef is 20-year-old Sam Wilder of West Hartford. Wilder just finished the acclaimed culinary program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence. He still has two years to go to finish the restaurant entrepreneurship program.
“My ambition is to own a restaurant of my own. This is the first job where I get to be the cook. That came sooner than I expected,” Wilder said.
“He is passionate and good at what he does. He thrives in a kitchen,” Bedzelovs said.
Bezdelovs worked at the shack in previous seasons, on the counter and register and, at age 16, doing the books. Wilder is a veteran of the shack, too, working weekends while school was in session and full-time summers.
The Ferry Grill & Chill will be open seven days a week until the weather gets cold, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. It sells lobster rolls, lobster grilled cheese and lobster mac and cheese — all market price — as well as grilled salmon ($24), jumbo scallops ($28), grilled shrimp ($24), and fried platters of shrimp, clam strips and fish and chips, each for $14. Sandwiches are BLTs, chicken sandwiches, chicken Caesar wraps and tuna melts for $12, a shrimp po boy at $14 and grilled cheese at $8. Cheeseburgers, veggie burgers and a “brunch burger” with bacon, egg and cheese on it are $12 each. A soul burger, with BBQ sauce, mac and cheese and an onion ring, is $14. Hot dogs are $6. The shack also serves soups, salads, fries, onion rings, calamari, chicken tenders, drinks, ice cream, Italian ices and a kids’ menu.
That menu is smaller than in previous seasons.
“We tried to condense the menu down. There was too much variety. In a kitchen this small, you want the best quality food in a short period of time,” Wilder said. “Restaurants succeed if they have a few items on the menu and just do them really well.”
Russell Pelletier owned Ferry Park Grill before selling to Bezdelovs.
“It was tough for me to find labor and I needed a year-round income,” he said. He has a full-time job, and he keeps his connection to the food shack by helping Bezdelovs and Wilder with prep. Before owning the place, he had fond childhood memories of the restaurant.
“I used to come here as a kid and get Good Humors when my friends and I would ride our bikes to the park,” he said.
The restaurant is next to Ferry Park at 277 Meadow Road. Phone orders are welcome at 860-328-2911. Those 21 and older can BYOB. ferrygrillandchill.com.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
