A Weston developer plans to renovate the shuttered Silvermine Market in New Canaan and turn it into a French-inspired bistro with live piano music.
Courtesy Pavel Jansa
NEW CANAAN — A Weston developer has bought the shuttered Silvermine Market, built circa 1885 and serving as an icehouse at one point, with plans to reopen it as a French-inspired bistro offering live classical piano music in the evening.
Owner Pavel Jansa said while the old structure is in poor shape, he will “keep the tradition” of the historic building’s exterior and wants to make the interior bright and airy, but with a “vintage” look.
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“I think it will collapse because it was so poorly maintained in the past,” he said about the old market’s condition. “They were not doing anything for years.”
Jansa said he hopes to open sometime in the fall but noted he just started the process of submitting the necessary applications to the town’s Building and Planning and Zoning departments.
He recently purchased the roughly half-acre property at 1032 Silvermine Road for about $1 million, he said. The parcel sits in New Canaan with a small portion in Norwalk, straddling the town line.
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The Silvermine neighborhood includes parts of three towns: New Canaan, Norwalk and Wilton and is laid out “in the shape of a “rough oval along the Silvermine River,” according to the Silvermine Community Association website. The old mill town is known as an artist’s colony since 1908, but no silver was ever mined in the area, the website states.
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As for the former Silvermine Market, Jansa plans to “completely rebuild it,” he said, adding it will occupy the same footprint “but inside it will feel bigger than it was.”
He also wants to install an antique “Brunswick Bar” or a replica of the ornate oak and mahogany bars made in the 1880s to early 1900s, known for elaborate backsplash with Corinthian columns.
His wife, Dana Jansa, said they will be sensitive to ensure the building’s exterior blends in with the neighborhood.
“He’s fully aware of the community and how important that market was for many, many years,” Dana Jansa said.
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He does not want to make “a huge splash” with renovations to the structure’s exterior and “doesn’t want to put something in there that doesn’t fit,” she said of her husband’s plans.
The couple has not yet chosen a moniker for the new eatery, although they will keep “Silvermine” as part of the eventual brand name.
This is Jansa’s first restaurant — his career has been in the home building field. He said he is getting guidance from friends who own restaurants.
Jansa said he never thought he’d be in the restaurant business, but because of this location, “it’s somewhat unique.”
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Besides lacking a name, the couple also does not have a specific menu in mind as yet. They are looking for the right chef, Jansa noted.
The plan so far is to serve coffee, pastry and doughnuts in the morning, plus lunch and dinner with the added attraction of live, soft piano music on some evenings.
Music will be a big part of the new restaurant’s offering Jansa and his wife said. Both of their sons, Jackson, 12 and Eric, 15 are accomplished pianists who study at the Suzuki Music Schools in Westport.
“I think that he wouldn’t have ventured into this type of an investment if it wouldn’t have been for the piano,” said Dana Jansa.
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Longtime Silvermine area resident Frank Whitman said that the former Silvermine Market is important in the neighborhood as a central spot to grab a bite.
It was family owned for several decades by the Guthrie family when it was “strictly a food store and butcher shop,” Whitman said.
Over the years, “it has morphed” into prepared foods to-go and then added seating, he said. “Then all of a sudden, there was no groceries to buy” and it became a deli and sit-down eatery.
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“It has really changed over the years as the character of Silvermine has changed,” he said.
Editor’s note: Frank Whitman is a former columnist for Hearst Media CT.
Dining and Cooking