Stonington And Westerly Town Officials Confirm Bess Eaton Will Return

Well, it’s officially official.

Both the towns of Westerly and Stonington confirm that Bess Eaton is back and will open in the coming weeks at the shop's original locations at the corner of High and Oak streets in Westerly and the West Broad Street location in downtown Pawcatuck.

David Liguori of Westerly – who has not returned calls for comment – applied for retail, holidays, victualer and extended hours victualer license (for which he paid $360) on Feb. 8 with the Town of Westerly. The application will be heard and presumably approved by the town’s Licensing Board this Thursday morning at its regular meeting.

And in Stonington, Town Planner Keith Brynes said a request late last month to permit the replacement of Tim Hortons signage in downtown Pawcatuck with the Bess Eaton signs (which Brynes said “look just like” the original) was approved administratively since there were no other zoning changes.

A sign confirmed the family-owned and regionally famous doughnut and bake shop is returning on High Street in Westerly and West Broad Street in downtown Pawcatuck is literally just down the block from the old Gencarelli house kitchen where Angelo “Bangy” Gencarelli and his wife Burnie started the business of creating doughnuts in the late 1940’s.

In 1952 the family opened their first shop then called Southern Maid and over the years built the business so that by the late 1990’s nearly 50 Bess Eaton shops would be found in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts and become an institution. It is unclear what other Bess Eaton locations in New London County area might open though one has already been licensed for another Rhode Island location; South Kingstown.

But in 2004, under the ownership and direction of son Louis A. Gencarelli the business went bankrupt in a high profile federal action played out on front pages from Boston to New York and one that led to a international bidding war with Wendy’s subsidiary Canada-based Tim Hortons beating out Dunkin’ Donuts and others to purchase the business started in a Westerly kitchen for $41.6 million.

All the Tim Hortons shops closed earlier this year, leaving vacant doughnut shops across three states. But in late January, Liguori of 1 Hamilton Road in Westerly filed incorporation papers with the RI Secretary of State for Bess Eaton Management LLC. It is unclear what, if any, relationship Liguroi’s corporation has with Gencarelli.