From Tools to Tables: Meekers Hardware Gets the Green Light for a New Danbury Eatery

This heartwarming story is about a man with a passion and a dream about revitalizing downtown Danbury. That man is the late Harold "Hal" Meeker, the legendary owner of Meeker's Hardware, located at the corner of White Street and Patriot Drive, across from the train station.

According to the Historical Marker Database, Meekers Hardware, originally a four-story building, opened for business in 1889 and is the only hardware store on the National Register of Historic Places. The store closed in 2013, but the building, still owned by the Meeker family, was home to Vazquez Soccerchamp Sports.

According to Hearst CT Media, in July 2023, Danbury's Zoning Commission denied the application by the owner of Billy Beans restaurant to build a 92-seat bar. One year later, Meeker's owner, Luis Matailo, was back in front of the Zoning Commission with blueprints to turn the 1897 building into a sit-down Peruvian-American restaurant, and this time, Matailo was awarded a unanimous decision to build his restaurant. Alyson Meeker Halas talked to Hearst CT Media about her late father, Harold "Hal" Meeker, during a public hearing last week.

“My dad was all about revitalizing downtown Danbury – it was his passion and his dream – and he also believed in the diversity of our community and showcasing that. I think there is nothing better to showcase how Danbury can evolve than to put a Peruvian-American restaurant inside of Meeker’s Hardware. … This is going to bring the old and the new together.”