Darien Dry Cleaners owners say goodbye to their long-standing storefront
DARIEN — Though he hadn’t set foot inside the place in nearly a decade, former Darien Dry Cleaners owner Truong Tran still remembered every detail of the store he ran for 35 years.
As he walked through the back room on a recent tour, he pointed out where the old washing machines used to sit, which clothing pickup racks were original to his store, where utility equipment like the boiler had been replaced and the spot where the family dog Lucky used to greet customers every day for 18 years.
It was his first time in the building since he sold his dry cleaning business in 2014. It will also likely be one of the last times he and his family visit in their old storefront before it is demolished.
Over the decades, the Darien Dry Cleaners has gone by several names, first as the Darien Laundrette and now Darien Cleaners and Tailors. Its storefront, the last-standing business on its Boston Post Road block, will soon be torn down to make way for the upcoming Corbin District development.
Truong Tran and his wife Minh Tran worked every day for three decades, transforming the laundromat into a full dry cleaning service. Running a dry cleaning business is not an easy task. The husband and wife team worked tirelessly in the store seven days a week, even on Sundays when the store was closed.
Virginia Tran, Truong and Minh’s daughter, discovered the entire block was being demolished when she received a call to empty her security deposit box at the bank, also set to be leveled. She connected with current owner MJ Chae, who took over the business in 2020, to confirm the news.
“I was really sad, and then I got into this whole mode of being nostalgic, so that same day, I went home and I asked my dad about it,” Virginia Tran said. “I started going through the photos, and I came here to talk to MJ and I shared the photos with MJ.”
While the actual age of the laundry business is unknown, a vintage blackand-white photo of the block Chae found in Town Hall showed a florist, a shoe salon and an electrical appliance store next to the Darien Laundrette. The only business remaining from that photo is the cleaners.
“This shop has been here for decades and decades,” Virginia Tran said. “There have been so many changes to the other stores here, but this is the only one that’s always been a fixture.”
Truong Tran purchased the Darien Laundrette in 1980 with his father, who was looking for a new business venture in the U.S. after running a coffee shop in Vietnam.
“I said ‘Oh, that’s a good one for my father and me,’” he said. “After a few years, he retired and I took over the whole thing.”
Truong Tran said his favorite part of running the cleaners was the customers, all of whom he said were “very friendly people.”
Virginia Tran said her mother knew everybody, already getting each customer’s order ready the moment she saw their car pull into the driveway.
“By the time they stepped foot into the door, she had their order,” she said. “There was a huge relationship with the community and the people in town and my mom because she was there for so long.”
According to her daughter, Minh Tran remembered all the details about her regular customers, taking note of their personal lives like when one of her regular customers’ sons, Topher Grace, scored a breakout television role.
“I remember my mom telling me before the show came out,” she said. “She was like, ‘Oh, Mrs. Grace’s son is in a show. It’s called ‘That 70s Show.’ It’s going to come out soon.”
The customers were kind in return, becoming “a part of our family as well,” Virginia Tran said. Some customers even brought her and her brothers Christmas presents every year.
Today, some of their longstanding clients still come into the shop, even one customer Virginia Tran said had been coming for decades.
“She was here this morning,” Virginia Tran told her father. “MJ said a lot of customers still come here.”
“She’s still coming here?” Truong Tran asked. “Wow… she’d come when I started the business.”
“I was really lucky,” Chae said about purchasing the business. “A lot of customers kept telling me this store is very old, told a lot of stories. I heard about (Virginia Tran’s) mom Minh. So I’m very proud of being an owner of this store.”
Beyond their relationship with the town, the Darien Dry Cleaner was truly a family business, a place where Truong and Minh Tran raised their three children, Henry, Tommy and Virginia.
“They grew up inside,” Truong Tran said. “Henry and Tommy would play inside. My wife would pretend to work, and they’d ride bicycles out front.”
Family photo albums are filled with decades of memories in the store — Truong and Minh Tran as proud first-time parents holding their newborn son Henry, Virginia as a young child playing with her brother in front of the washing machines, Lucky the shih tzu perched on the counter.
“Seeing my parents run the store, I mean, they really showed me what hard work and dedication means,” Virginia Tran said. “It says a lot about their marriage, that they were able to still get along after all these years being with each other every single day at work and then every single day at home too. It’s a testament to their marriage and dedication to each other and to the family, not only the business and the community.”
As Virginia Tran looked through her own childhood photos, her 3-yearold daughter Penny wandered through her family’s old store, guided by her grandfather. Penny was particularly transfixed by the “rollercoaster” garment conveyor.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Virginia Tran said, watching her daughter. “I’m glad at least she was able to see it and we can have pictures of her here before they tear it down.”
Truong Tran sold the business in 2014 after his wife was diagnosed with late-stage kidney cancer and died in 2015. Family, friends and community members raised more than $26,000 for her treatment over GoFundMe.
“By myself, I cannot handle (it),” he said. “Too much work for me.”
He had known the building was set to come down, notified when Baywater Properties, the developers behind the Corbin District, purchased the property in 2013.
Chae purchased the business in 2020, where she worked under a previous owner as a seamstress. It was a dream of hers to have her own store after working in tailoring for 30 years.
“I (was) always thinking about having my own business, of course,” she said. “I was looking for a good store before and then the previous owner, she asked me ‘Why don’t you take over?’”
Since then, Chae has put her own stamp on the business with a tailoring display in the front of the store and a box of spools of thread creating a rainbow along the walls. Her husband helps her around the store, she said.
There are still reminders of the Tran family in the business today. Truong Tran spotted a chair he purchased in Chinatown that he sat in to file paperwork, one Chae still uses on her lunch breaks. Chae pointed out the original hanger the Tran family used to use that she keeps on display in the back as a small tribute. The open and close sign in the window remains the same as when the Trans owned the business.
While the block will be demolished, Darien Dry Cleaners & Tailoring is set to move into a new space on Corbin Drive as part of the Corbin District. Chae said she is excited to welcome the store’s longtime customers once the business is settled in.
“Everybody already knows we are moving, and I don’t worry about that,” Chae said. “As long as my health is good, I’m going to run this business forever.”