EASTHAMPTON — The Tavern on the Hill has officially closed after being the city’s most scenic dining destination for years, sold to a buyer planning to renovate the property into luxury condominiums.
The property located at 100 Mountain Road was put up for sale last fall by husband-wife owners Amy and Lawrence “Larry” Guyette, priced at $995,000. However, the property was officially sold last week for nearly half that amount, $475,000.
The broker for the sale, Paul Gallagher of Gallagher Real Estate, said the price drop is a sign of the times.
“Bars and restaurants are struggling tremendously,” Gallagher said, a trend that has become particularly relevant since the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.
The buyers, business partners Kevin Perrier and Volkan Polatol, plan to renovate the property into “high-end” condominiums, according to Gallagher. Polatol said in an interview Tuesday that is the plan, but purchasing the property was the first step and no plans are set in stone. He said there is not much more to say at this time.
Polatol and Perrier have collaborated on multiple business ventures, including the cannabis manufacturer Wemelco Industries, which includes three dispensaries in the area — Dreamer, Honey and the Oz Club — multiple housing developments, and more.
Gallagher said he reached out to multiple “major players” of the restaurant industry in the area to see if there was any interest in keeping a restaurant at the property, looking over Easthampton, but didn’t get any bites. Transforming the property into housing will bring in new tax revenue and new homes, two things the city needs, he said.
“It’s a long-term picture,” Gallagher said about the property. “It has already changed before and this is the next change for the property. In the future, who knows what’s next.”
The building has sat on the property for more than a century.
Amy Guyette declined to comment on the sale this week, but previously told the Gazette that she and her husband had been running the business for more than a decade.
Amy Guyette previously said that the main reason for closing was that Larry, who is the head chef, has osteoporosis. She said the couple hoped a restaurant would stay on the property, but that they ultimately could not control what a buyer would do.
Before the Guyette’s changed the restaurant’s name to “Tavern on the Hill,” the business was known as “Harvest Valley.” In the 1920s, the building was called The Green Candle Inn as a spot to stay the night for those traveling on the dirt road that ran over Mount Tom. The building then became a sandwich shop in the 1940s called The Old Mill that utilized the building’s wooden windmill to generate power.
Amy Guyette said the couple tried to keep the restaurant casual, while providing quality food, well-known for barbeque. Support from the community had been overwhelming since they announced the restaurant would be closing, she added.
Gallagher said the Guyettes are “wonderful, hardworking” people who dedicated more than two decades to the restaurant.
