The 20th-floor power table that finally gave Hartford a restaurant worthy of its skyline — Lizotte's return to the top of One State Street is the city's most important opening this decade.
The Room in the Sky
For two decades, the 20th floor of One State Street in downtown Hartford held ON20 — a destination tasting-menu room run by chef Jeffrey Lizotte that Connecticut treated as its unofficial special-occasion headquarters. When ON20 shuttered in late 2023, the loss felt out of proportion to the building. Hartford had never been overstocked with ambitious restaurants, and the city lost its best view and its best kitchen in the same week.
The Foundry, which opened in the same space in early 2024, is not a reboot. It is a full rebuild — new name, new concept, new corporate backing from the Shelbourne group who owns the building — but with Lizotte returning to the pass, which is the part that matters. The 20th-floor dining room has been refinished in warmer, more modern tones: blackened steel, leather banquettes, copper-leaf accents, and a glass-walled wine display that anchors the room. The view of the Connecticut River, the Bulkeley Bridge, and the East Hartford skyline beyond is still the best in the state of Connecticut.
Lizotte's cooking has always been quiet, technical, and rigorously seasonal — a vocabulary inherited from his years at three-Michelin-star Le Bernardin in New York, reframed for the produce of the Connecticut River Valley. Expect Stonington scallops with brown butter and dashi, a foie gras torchon with fall fruit mostarda, dry-aged duck breast with black garlic, and a chocolate-and-olive-oil tart that has become a signature. The wine list leans French and Italian, with a quietly serious cellar of Burgundy and Barolo that rewards the people who know what to ask for.
Why It's Right for a Proposal
The Foundry is the Hartford answer to "somewhere that feels like New York without driving to New York." Reserve a window table at sunset, order the tasting menu, let the sommelier handle the pairings. The service is warm, unhurried, and deeply attentive — they will know it is a proposal without being told, and they will behave accordingly. The room is quiet enough for conversation, bright enough at the window to photograph the moment, and private enough between courses to never feel rushed. For clients or deal dinners, the same room converts effortlessly: the 20th-floor address is itself a signal, and Lizotte's cooking doesn't show off, which is the right register for business.
Practical Intelligence
Community Verdict
Our readers agree: The Foundry is the single restaurant every Hartford visitor should experience once. The proposal-occasion association runs especially deep — the combination of the view, the quiet, and the kitchen has already produced more engagement dinners in its first eighteen months than any restaurant in the city.
Best occasion for The Foundry? — Proposal (42%) • Impress Clients (28%) • Close a Deal (19%) • Birthday (11%). Register free to vote →
Reader Reviews
"The best restaurant in Hartford has always been whichever one Lizotte is cooking at. The Foundry is him back on the 20th floor, doing his finest work. We proposed here in March. Unforgettable night." — Daniel M., Glastonbury · Proposal
"Hosted three partners from our Boston office last week. The room does the heavy lifting — the view alone closes half the room's case — but the food is where it earns the ticket. Scallop course was the best single plate I've had this year." — Anna R., West Hartford · Close a Deal
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