The Panera Bread restaurant in downtown Darien will be closing on Dec. 13, according to a Darien Health Department inspection report.
“Establishment closing Dec. 13, 2016,” wrote Mindy Chambrelli, a health sanitarian (inspector) at Darien Health Department, in an Oct. 26 health inspection report just released by the department. (The restaurant received a “Fair” health inspection rating.)
Darienite.com has asked Panera Bread’s media relations department for comment on the closing. Panera’s other locations nearest to Darien are on Westport Avenue and Main Avenue in Norwalk, and in Westport. There’s another Panera restaurant in White Plains, N.Y.
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See also:
- One Darien Food-Serving Establishment Gets a ‘Poor’ Rating in Latest Health Dept Inspections (Nov. 18)
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Darienite.com reported back in June that the popular lunch spot at 1063 Post Road would be closing its doors for good by the end of the year. Now a date has been fixed, less than a month away.
Panera Bread restaurant’s sign at the front of 1063 Post Road.
The store, which also has take-out service for its bread and other items, has rented the 3,754-square-foot, first floor space in the building since 2007. At that time it was the restaurant chain’s first Connecticut location. The chain now has almost 2,000 restaurants.
As Darienite.com reported last June, someone who spoke on condition of anonymity said Panera told the building’s owner months ago that the tenant didn’t expect to renew its lease, which expires at the end of the year.
According to a land-use application filed when Panera was being proposed as a tenant at the site, the restaurant was expected to have:
- seating for 65 diners indoors;
- a 12-foot-by-30-foot patio on its southwest side used for outdoor dining, with about 20 more seats at six tables;
- 1,520 square feet of space leased in the basement for a cooler, freezer and dry storage;
- Seven to nine full-time employees and another 18 to 25 part-time employees.
The building sits on just over a quarter of an acre, with just over two dozen parking spaces in the back.
Outdoor seating at Panera Bread, 1063 Post Road
In 2013, the building’s original owner, Thomas Golden Realty Co., sold it to Greenwich Manor LLC for $4.7 million. Greenwich Manor is owned by a partnership of two doctors and a man who works for a rug manufacturer.
Chyten Tutoring, a test preparation and academic tutoring business, rents much of the second-floor space in the two-story building, and has been there since 2013.
According to the Darien Tax Assessor’s Office, the building’s value was appraised at $4,362,6000 (actual, 100 percent value) for the 2013 town revaluation.
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