Aux Delices specialty foods to open in former Arcudi's space

Aux Delices, a specialty food store with three locations in lower Fairfield County, will soon have a fourth outlet in Westport -- the Post Road East space recently occupied by Arcudi's Restaurant.

"We've been looking around Westport for years," said Debora Ponzek, who opened the first Aux Delices in Greenwich's Riverside section with her husband Greg Addonizio in 1995. "We're looking forward to it."

The married Greenwich couple, both formally trained chefs, opened a second store in Greenwich in 2000 and a third shop in Darien in 2004. All three stores offer a variety of specialty foods and baked goods made by Aux Delices, as well as about a dozen seats for patrons to eat take-out items.

The couple also owns a commercial building in Stamford that houses offices and a 5,000-square-foot kitchen used for cooking classes and baking.

Unlike the other Aux Delices stores, the slightly larger Westport site -- expected to open in May -- will have about 35 seats separated from the shopping area and a liquor license, Ponzek said.

"Since we do have more seating and a liquor license, we might do some kind of small brunch menu," she said. "What we do now is take-out."

Ponzek said the 1,769-square-foot Westport store may employ as many as a dozen workers.

The couple entered into a 10-year lease with options for the space at 1035 Post Road East, according to Bayberry Property Management, a Westport property management firm that represented the landlord, 997 Post Road East LLC, in the lease transaction.

Joseph Arcudi, Westport's first selectman from 1993 to 1997 after serving 24 years on the Representative Town Meeting, ran Arcudi's Restaurant at the Post Road East venue from 1973 to 1994. Arcudi, who rejoined the RTM last year, then ran a restaurant in Norwalk from 1998 to 2008 before returning to the same Westport location and operating it there from April 2009 to October 2011.

Aux Delices is a good fit for the former Arcudi's space, which attracted the interest of many food establishments, including several franchises, said Ciara Connolly, associate director of leasing and sales with Bayberry Property Management.

"We had huge interest in this space," she said.