SOUTH DEERFIELD — Fast-casual bakery cafe Au Bon Pain will close its two locations at the Yankee Candle Village flagship store in South Deerfield at the end of business Tuesday.
And locally owned Hillside Pizza will take over the Au Bon Pain in-store cafe as of Wednesday, Jan. 9, said Jamie Hargraves, associate manager for communications for Newell Brands, the parent company of Yankee Candle.
“Hillside Pizza is a local, family-run business that has built a strong and trusted reputation in the Pioneer Valley for the past 19 years,” she stated. “Hillside uses locally sourced, locally grown products whenever possible which helps support nearby farms and small businesses. They promote sustainability by supporting organic agriculture methods using only natural and organic ingredients in all of their products.”
Hillside Pizza Café will be open during Yankee Candle Village store hours and will serve pizza, wraps, salads, soups, coffee and baked goods.
Craig White, an owner of Hillside Pizza , differed most comments to Yankee Candle, but said he was approached because of Hillside Pizza’s involvement in the community. White is also a founder of the I.N.S.P.i.R.E. School for Autism, a Brattleboro, Vermont, school for students with autism ages 7 to 22 from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.
“We’ve been able to hire many of those students and have them employed with us,” White said. “That’s something we hope to continue.”
Hillside has locations in Hadley, Bernardston and near Yankee Candle on Greenfield Road in South Deerfield.
Besides the in-store cafe, Au Bon Pain will also close its restaurant in the former Chandler’s restaurant space, also on the Yankee Candle Village property. Au Bon Pain took over from Chandler’s in 2017.
The old Chandler’s will be vacant, at least in the short term as Yankee Candle evaluates opportunities, according to employees there Monday.
Longtime Chandler’s customers were distressed in 2017 at the loss of a full-service sit-down restaurant and its replacement with a fast-casual concept like Au Bon Pain.
Chandler’s Restaurant at Yankee Candle in South Deerfield to be replaced with Au Bon Pain
Based in Boston, Au Bon Pain has 20 Massachusetts locations, but none of the others are in Western Massachusetts.
Michael J. Kittredge II, the founder of Yankee Candle, started Chandler’s in 1995 as he expanded and developed Yankee Candle Village. into one of the region’s top tourist attractions.Today, it welcome about a million visitors annually.
Kittredge founded Yankee Candle in his parents’ garage in South Hadley in 1969. He sold 90 percent of his shares in the company in 1998 for an estimated $400 million.
His son, Michael J. Kittredge III, is president of Kringle Candle Co., which is headquartered in Bernardston with a store in MGM Springfield.