Customers at this new CT restaurant may never hear the words, ‘kitchen closed’

A new Manchester restaurant specializing in homestyle comfort food serves not only dinner and lunch, but also the late night eaters who in most places hear the words “kitchen is closed” after 9 p.m.

Ganymead Restaurant even has late night happy hour that starts at 10 p.m. because owner and chef Ben Phillips knows what it’s like to work second shift with nowhere to eat and get food and drink specials.

He’s hoping to attract second shift workers such as first responders, nurses, doctors, restaurant workers.

“You can get something late so you don’t have to go to McDonald’s,” Phillips said. “My kitchen is open late.”

The restaurant is only closed on Monday, and opens every other day besides Monday at 11:30 a.m.

They close at 1 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and at 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Customers can get dinner right up to closing.

Phillips, 44, opened the 2,000- square-foot restaurant about two weeks ago at 360 Middle Turnpike West.

The eatery has an open kitchen design so that the kitchen is visible from the dining room. In front of the kitchen is a deep American Cherrywood bar built by he and his brother, deep so customers can eat comfortably. The restaurant seats 40 people and has a pool table and jukebox.

Phillips started in the restaurant business 27 years ago as a dishwasher and worked his way up. This is the first restaurant he’s owned.

“I like cooking food – it makes people happy,” he said. “That interaction with other people is fun to me. It’s enjoyable.”

His casual dining menu includes specialties he honed before opening, including tarragon chicken, maple-roasted pork, fish and chips, pulled pork, stuffed meatloaf, vegetarian lasagna, baked macaroni and cheese and side dishes that include red beans and rice, seasonal veggies. The dinners come in sizes of half and full plates.

For decoration he displays the works of local artists.

Longtime catering customer and friend Alec Giggi said friends at his backyard parties “rave” about Phillips’ food.

“Nothing he’s offering comes in frozen, the focus is on prepping tasty food to serve up fresh and hot,” Giggi said.

Giggi said Ganymead Restaurant is the result of many late night talks between he and Phillips, “lamenting the lack of options for service industry workers who’ve finished their shifts serving others and just want a good meal of their own.”

Giggi said there aren’t many options for second shift workers beyond fast food with a limited menu.

“This has been a dream of his for years and years. Of all the friends who’ve talked about opening their own place he’s the only one I know to have actually followed through and chased the dream,” Giggi said.

The unique name, Ganymead, is a nod to Phillips’ passion for astronomy that started when he was a child and grew as a restaurant worker observing the night sky.

He said Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter, but he changed the spelling because there is already a business in North Carolina spelled “Ganymede.”

He said in Greek mythology, Ganymede was a server or “chalice holder” to Jupiter, so it also has a restaurant tie-in.

“It’s just fascinating to me,” Phillips said of astronomy, noting he had a telescope as a child.

“Restaurant people are up at night a real lot, so I saw the stars and the moon.”