Date: Fri 06-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Duchess-Sand-Hill-Plaza

Full Text:

with photos: Duchess Closes Its Sand Hill Restaurant Abruptly

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

Newtown's first and only fast-food franchise restaurant closed its doors for

good Wednesday, November 27. The owners are planning a move to Danbury.

Without any notice, Duchess Restaurant, like many other businesses in the Sand

Hill Plaza, moved out in search of greener pastures. Restaurant owner Vipin

and Veena Malhotra of Monroe said they simply weren't doing enough business.

"We didn't have a drive-thru and we just weren't doing the kind of business we

had hoped to do," explained Mrs Malhotra Wednesday.

The Duchess is now headed to Mill Plain Road in Danbury where it will move in

to former mainstay, Moffa's Roadside, the well-known hot dog stand, this

spring.

The Malhotras, who opened the Duchess in 1990, said their new Sand Hill Plaza

landlord, the Hettenski Group of Hartford, had raised the rent to a point

where they could no longer to stay at the Newtown location.

"They just kept sending us bill after bill. Everybody's moving out," Mrs

Molhotra said. "We had been thinking of moving for some time."

The number of vacant storefronts at Sand Hill Plaza has increased over the

past year. The much-traveled Superstar Sports store, owned by Ray Tompkins,

closed its doors in the plaza two months ago, as did Priced Right, which moved

to Brookfield. Picaso's Restaurant, as well as others, have also moved out.

The Hettenski Group, the management firm in charge of leasing the space within

the plaza, was apparently unaware of the Duchess move until after the tenants

were out.

"We're trying to track him down," said Amy Jaffe-Balzach, a spokesperson for

the Hettenski Group. "We were negotiating with him in good faith about

possibly reducing his rent, but he left in the middle of the night last

Wednesday."

A peek through the window of the former restaurant reveals the Malhotras did

more than leave, they literally cleared out. Every booth is gone, as is the

front counter, the grill, the fry-o-lator and even the kitchen sink.

Mrs Molhotra said, after six years, she and her husband will miss Newtown.

"We had a lot of regular customers. We'll miss them," she said. "We invested a

lot of money in that place."