West Hartford’s Citizen Chicken and Donuts closes

‘The concept was misunderstood’

Citizen Chicken and Donuts, which opened Feb. 7 at 625 New Park Ave. in West Hartford, has closed permanently effective Sept. 3.

Scott Kluger owns Citizen as well as Hartford Baking Company locations at 965 Farmington Ave. in West Hartford and 400 Hebron Ave. in Glastonbury and a soon-to-open location at 767 Farmington Ave. in Farmington. Kluger said that the cost of food and supplies, a shortage of staffing and lack of community response were the reasons for Citizen’s closure.

“I was super happy with the quality of the food, but I’m not sure the concept was understood. It was a donut shop that at 11 a.m. every day started frying chicken. People thought, oh, it’s fried chicken with a side of donuts,” Kluger said.

“Our competition is Popeye’s and KFC. We were trying to do something like that, but more upscale. But people aren’t coming in,” he said. “We could have kept going trying to get the community into this new concept, but more time is something we just don’t have. We had to make a tough choice.”

Kluger added that the spike in cost of food and restaurant supplies made keeping it open unsustainable.

“Expenses are at an

all-time high. Chicken wings used to be $1 a pound. Now it’s $4. Flour has gone up by 50%,” he said. “And everything is to-go now. Packaging is high and other supplies, gloves particularly. They used to be $22 a case in 2019. Now they’re $80 a case. Restaurants

go through a tremendous amount of gloves.”

Kluger, like most restaurateurs around the state, said he has had trouble getting and keeping staff. Many restaurateurs have been looking forward to the end of federally enhanced unemployment to spur job seekers. Kluger, however, isn’t sure that will happen right away.

“People are not reliant on jobs for money as much now. They’ve saved up their stimuluses, they haven’t been going out, so for now they don’t absolutely need to work,” he said. “Our existing stores are understaffed. We will take this staff to the other locations.”

The location at 625 New Park Ave. was the original location of the first Hartford Baking Company. That location closed in February when Citizen moved in.

Kluger said if the equipment fits and it can be arranged logistically, he might move the donut operation into one of the Hartford Baking Company stores.