DORO Marketplace expanding into Wethersfield after new Windsor Locks location opens
West Hartford-based DORO Marketplace, which is finalizing its move into Windsor Locks, is coming to Wethersfield, too, DORO Restaurant Group COO Scott Miller said.
“We recently signed a lease at 1301 Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield, formerly Chip’s Family Restaurant,” Miller wrote in a message to The Courant. “All of our concentration is currently on getting Windsor Locks up and running, but we should see build-out over there in the spring.”
The Chip’s location closed June 3, at the same day as the Southington location. At the time of the closures, Dina Bajko, owner of Chip’s Orange and Fairfield locations, wrote on Facebook “this decision is absolutely consistent with my brother George’s much larger strategic vision for the Chip’s brand.” No further explanation was given for the closures.
In the fall, when announcing DORO’s move into 2 National Drive in Windsor Locks, Miller said that expansion would be the first of many DORO locations expected in the near future.
“In West Hartford, we opened a few months into the pandemic. It took off quickly. We’re doing numbers we never dreamed of,” Miller said at that time. “We’re figuring out a strategy to grow from one to 10 to 20 to 30. We feel DORO Marketplace can be in every town and city willing to take a bet on us in Connecticut.”
Miller said the expansion would begin in Hartford County, then slowly spread outwards from that hub into more far-flung areas of the state.
The DORO menus in Windsor Locks and Wethersfield will be similar to that at West Hartford’s DORO, which is at 1253 New Britain Ave. It will offer breakfast favorites from 7 to 11 a.m., sandwiches, soups, salads and bowls from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., rotisserie chicken, baked goods and a variety of coffees and teas. It will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.
Other food establishments in the DORO chain are Treva, Àvert and Zohara restaurants in West Hartford and Artisanal Burger Company in Manchester.
DORO also owns DORO Catering & Events, which was honored on Monday night as the statewide Caterer of the Year by the Connecticut Restaurant Association.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
