The Bar Method, a New Exercise Studio, Coming to Downtown Darien

The Bar Method Darien, part of a national franchise of exercise studios for women, is renovating the former site of Patriot National Bank downtown after receiving approval from town land use officials.

At 800 Post Road, right on the corner of Sedgwick Avenue and next door to Burgers, Shakes & Fries, the local owners plan to have hour-long exercise classes from early morning to early evening.

They’ll have yoga and exercise clothing and equipment for sale, complimentary coffee, tea, magazines and newspapers in the waiting room for those who arrive early or want to chat with friends after the workout.

The Bar Method will also have an “upscale” locker room with a few showers and a hair and make-up counter with “complimentary skin-care and hair-care products,” according to their land-use application filed in Town Hall.

“The Bar Method is known for having these luxurious, very spa-like locker rooms,” Lara Meehan, a co-owner of the Darien franchise, told the Planning & Zoning Commission in January.

“We would like to build on a community that’s sort of already here in Darien,” said Anna Trepanier, the other co-owner.  “Bar Method studios in similar places have built great communities.”

The Planning & Zoning Commission approved plans for the studio on Feb. 2, a month after a Jan. 5 public hearing where they heard from Trepanier, Meehan, and local Attorney Walter Gleason.

Meehan and Trepanier have been teaching in a New York City Bar Method studio for the past three years.

The description of the 2,500-square-foot space in documents filed with the Planning & Zoning Department shows the business taking up about half of the rentable space on the first floor, with the exercise studio itself taking up half of the Bar Method’s space.

The studio will have a ballet barre along one wall, large windows facing the Post Road and Sedgwick Avenue, exercise mats and 2- and 5-pound weights for use in classes.

At the public hearing, P&Z Commission member Richard Cunningham said he was concerned about how plans for only 15 minutes between classes would affect parking.

“You’re giving a very small window for people to arrive and a very small window for people to leave, and there’s going to be overlap,” he said at the January meeting. If people are showering, their cars will be there as the cars of customers arrive for the next class, he said.

Trepanier said she and Meehan expected a handful of people to stay after class and “have a 10-minute coffee with their friends,” or buy a shirt on their way out.

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The Bar Method Darien can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.

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Meehan said there are only a few showers in the locker room. “In our experience, the people who do tend to stay and use the facilities are people who are there in the early morning and the evening,” she said. Essentially commuters, which do form the bulk of clients at some Bar Method locations, she said.

But she and Trepanier don’t think most Darien clients will be commuters, and when commuters use the studios, they’re likely to do so when the parking lot is barely in use, Gleason said.

The 25,000-square-foot, three-story commercial building had one 2,850-square-foot space unoccupied as of early January. The building, owned by Hawthorne Realty LLC, is on the market for a buyer, a commission member said. The land is owned by Darien Fire Department.

Under the terms of the P&Z approval, classes will be limited to 28, including two instructors, from 6 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to closing time at 8 p.m. (Burgers, Shakes & Fries opens at 11:30 a.m.) From 12:15 to 2:30, the restaurant’s busiest time, the class size will be limited to 20, including two instructors.

The chain

The Bar Method was founded by Burr Leonard and her former husband, Carl Diehl in 2000.

The couple had previously started a franchise of the London-based Lotte Berk Method Studios, with the first one opening in Greenwich in 1992, according to the company website. By 1999, the couple opened three more studios — in Darien, New Canaan and Westport.

The next year, the couple ended their licensing agreement with Lotte Berk Method and in 2001 opened the first Bar Method studio in San Francisco. They now have franchises across the country, including on in Fairfield and another just past Greenwich, in Rye Brook, N.Y.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article co-owner Lara Meehan was incorrectly called “Laura.”