CHESTERFIELD — Before the sun rises over the hills or the early bird sets out to get its worm, Greg Monette’s alarm clock ushers in the day at 4:30 a.m. Breakfast has to be ready for 7.
Brush out coals and add more wood to the brick oven. Check.
Put in a fresh round of muffins and breads. Check.
Prepare the day’s soup. Check.
This has been the owner’s to-do list for seven years. He doesn’t leave the place until 9:30 at night. That’s 15 hours a day, four days a week, every week.
“It’s always been a labor of love,” said Monette, as he industriously moved about the kitchen one day last week after a lunch rush. “It’s always been long hours.”
In between stoking coals in the oven, Monette took a few minutes to say “hi” to customers who walked in. Every single person who came through the door over the course of an hour he knew by name.
Monette described the 432 Main Road business, which features a bakery cafe and event space, as his baby. But it’s time for the father of two to prioritize his actual children. That’s why he’s put the business on the market for $550,000.
“I’m just looking to prioritize my family over my career,” he said. “I need to take more care of myself and my family. It’s just a really hard industry.”
Monette said two or three buyers have expressed interest so far.
Monette bought the old Chesterfield General Store property in 2019 after about 30 years working in restaurants throughout the Pioneer Valley. His experience included Green Street Cafe and Packard’s in Northampton, Class A Cafe in Amherst and a stint as executive chef at Chandler’s at Yankee Candle in Deerfield.
“It all culminated here and opening this place and doing the things I really enjoy doing, and we’re basically looking for someone who is kinda like-minded that wants to build upon what we’ve done here,” he said.
He believes continuing an owner-operator model is the way to go.
Monette opened the store in the thickets of a global pandemic. The rural shop welcomes between 50 to 300 people a day, depending on the weather. At lunchtime, work trucks fill the gravel parking lot.
The space is a pillar of the Chesterfield community, arguably on par with the Chesterfield Gorge and the Russell Memorial Park. Everyone in town knows the place.
“If it’s a sunny weekend, a Saturday in the summer or fall, it’s insane. It’s actually insane,” he said. “Easily, 300 people come through here.”
There isn’t a product in sight that he hasn’t made from scratch, including fresh bialys for breakfast sandwiches, sourdough and pizzas. All of these come out of his brick oven grill, which he built into the side of the building, that “caramelizes” the breads and gives them a distinct flavor.
Seven years ago, Monette gutted and rebuilt the space, updating the electrical system, installing new plumbing and bringing parts of the building up to code. He also designed the kitchen around his own experience working in restaurants.
“Working in a restaurant for so long, I could finally create my own kitchen around me,” he said.
Monette poured more than $350,000 into renovations, startup costs and the first year of figuring out the business, he said. The money came from several sources, including his 401(k) from Yankee Candle, a home equity line of credit and a Small Business Administration-backed loan through Common Capital.
Monette did as much of the work himself as he could, working alongside the contractors and handling groundwork and carpentry.
He and his wife also kept costs down by repurposing materials and shopping at auctions and IKEA. His intention was to make the atmosphere like that of a European cafe.
A roughly 30-foot sign from the old Chesterfield General Store remains on the building. Monette said it had been hand-carved and painted years ago. Rather than replace it, he repainted it.
“It’s just so recognizable and that someone had really put a lot of work into just this one sign years ago,” he said.
Over time, Monette has had to pivot from his original vision. The restaurant initially tried to be a convenience store, cafe and sit-down restaurant all at once.
That did not last.
“In the beginning we tried to be the convenience store and the cafe and sit-down dinner and blah blah blah,” Monette said. “And the first thing to go was the convenience store because that’s not why people were coming here.”
Instead, Monette said, the business found its niche by leaning into what made it different.
The hilltowns, he said, have maintained businesses distinct from the big-box stores and franchises found elsewhere. He pointed to Cummington Supply as an example of the kind of independent local business that gives the area its character.
“We filled a niche that didn’t exist before,” he said.
For the next owner, Monette said, the key will be maintaining that sense of identity rather than trying to please everyone.
“Stay true to yourself. You can’t please everybody,” he said.
He also advises prospective owners to learn how to fix equipment themselves, shop around for supplies and build a strong team around the business. Currently, he works alongside five other local staff members.
“Just have a passion for food, meeting people, and being part of a community,” he said.
He hopes whoever takes over understands that owning the restaurant means becoming part of the community around it. For Monette, that community has been the reward for seven years of long days.
“I think we’ve earned a lot of respect from people in doing things the way we’ve done it,” he said. “We’ve accomplished things that most restaurants our size have not accomplished.”
