LYNN — Downtown diners got served some tough news Tuesday: Revolution Pie + Pint closed on Central Avenue and D’Amici’s announced it is closing its Sutton Street cafe on Friday.
But the bad news may not be permanent, said the establishment’s owners and managers.
Joe Torretta, who owns the property where the downtown D’Amici’s is located, plans to have a new tenant serving cafe-style food or lunch and dinner in slightly more than a month.
Worcester-based Grid Hospitality Vice President Steve Carter said the company could have a restaurant replacement ready to open in Revolution’s 23 Central Ave. pizza and beverage location by late summer or fall.
“We’ve already started discussions on reopening with a similar concept,” Carter said.
But the news in black and white posted on both businesses Tuesday was stark.
“Dear customers, This location is permanently closing on Friday, March 1st,” read one of several signs posted on D’Amici’s windows and door. “Thank you for the past 6 years.”
The sign announcing Revolution’s closing concluded with, “We thank you for your patronage.”
The closings subtract two places to eat downtown from a list that includes Rossetti Restaurant and RF O’Sullivan’s, Blue Ox and Land of a Thousand Hills.
Carter said Brew on the Grid, the coffee and pastry shop sharing Revolution’s first-floor space, will stay open. Carter said Revolution closed after failing to hit business sales projections despite what he described as “a great product and personnel.”
“We were ultimately trying to break even,” he said.
D’Amici’s will continue to operate its bakery production at Sutton and Liberty streets where 25 bakers, pastry decorators and chefs work, said owner Sandrine Coyer.
The Reading resident and her husband bought D’Amici’s, including the downtown cafe and locations in Reading, Melrose and the original bakery at 500 Eastern Ave., in December 2017 from founder Torretta and his wife, Sarah.
Closing the downtown cafe grew out of the Coyers’ decision to begin serving breakfast at the Melrose D’Amici’s and consolidate baked goods sales in Lynn at the Eastern Avenue location.
“It’s a well-known location with customers’ sons and daughters now coming and shopping,” Coyer said.
Although the Coyers own D’Amici’s the business, the Torrettas own the property the Lynn bakeries operate on. Joe Torretta said he has three prospective restaurant or cafe tenants interested in the Sutton Street space. He declined to identify them until negotiations for a tenant are completed, but said one proposal is oriented around a cafe similar to the existing D’Amici’s, while two other proposals involve lunch-dinner restaurants.
Torretta hopes to select a tenant in three weeks.
“I’m committed to Lynn. Lynn has been good to us,” he said.
