Truffles to Open Indoor Dining Area

Truffles Bakery and Kitchen, the popular Farmington center eatery that makes gorgeous baked goods and does lunch takeout and catering, is planning to expand.

The business, which currently operates out of a small storefront on Brickwalk Lane in Farmington center, received permission Tuesday from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission to expand into the building behind its current space and open up a second-floor dining area.

Truffles plans to move its bakery to 5 Brickwalk Lane, directly behind its current building and walk food over to its current store, where it will continue to sell takeout meals and baked goods from display cases. The dining area will be half a level up from the store. Patrons will have the option of eating on the outdoor patio or inside in a dining room that seats about 24.

The change will give the owners the option of expanding their hours and offerings.

“We would be able to offer pancakes and homefries on the weekends and we talked about the possibility of staying open for dinner some nights of the week,” said owner Shannon Walton.

While the commission was generally supportive of the business expansion, commissioner Barbara Brenneman refused the project her support because the new restaurant will not be handicap accessible.

The American Disability Act requires business owners invest just 20 percent of the cost of a project to make their building handicap accessible during a renovation. But the project manager told the commission the renovations would include little more than painting and some wiring and that making the building accessible would be costly and cause the building to lose space that is used for their food cases. 

“We would love nothing more than to be able to …have dining for the disabled and restaurant access… but in the existing building where we are there’s not a way to make it accessible,” Walton said.

While they could place a table in the street-level shop and not in the main dining area, she said, the concern would then be that the bathroom is not accessible.

“I’ve talked to people who say when they go into restaurants they find out ‘great, I have a table but I can’t use the restroom,’” Walton said. “If we put a table in there I would be afraid they’d feel disrespected if they found they had a table but couldn’t use the restroom. It would be a constant source of discontent.”

Chairman Phil Dunn agreed with her.

“This is an old structure and somewhat small. You’re not adding to the property and I feel this doesn’t require ADA. This is a difficult part of town and I wouldn’t want to drive business out by making them feel they can’t use what space is available.”

The commission approved the proposal, with Brenneman opposing.