Doyle Murphy/New York Daily News
Sean Beard, 26, waits on a customer on Thursday at the Chocolate Room, three days before the popular Park Slope sweet shop closes down for a move up the street.
A popular Park Slope chocolate shop’s move next week is being described as bittersweet, to say the least.
The Chocolate Room, a wine bar and sweet shack offering up mesquite-flavored candy bars and almond chunky bon bons, will close its doors Sunday after nearly a decade on Fifth Avenue and open at a new location one block north.
“We’re trying to move forward, and get this business closed and then open,” co-owner Naomi Josepher told the News.
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She and Jon Payson opened their combination cafe and retail business in 2005 near St. Marks Place and quickly became a Brooklyn favorite. Just two weeks ago, the city’s tourism agency highlighted the shop as a must-see in Park Slope.
But a rent increase of nearly six times their current lease has forced Josepher and Payson to abandon their storefront and scramble to open a new space, they said.
Doyle Murphy/New York daily News
The Chocolate Room, a popular 5th Avenue sweet shop, will move to a new Park Slope location after Sunday.
“We were forced out of this shop,” Josepher said. “Of course, it was frustrating and disappointing.”
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They spent more than a year searching for a new spot. Real estate prices have soared in northern Park Slope nabes as developers remake the area next to the Barclays Center.
Payson said they looked at commercial spaces as far away as Crown Heights and Windsor Terrace, before a neighbor offered them a bigger space just a short walk across St. Marks Avenue, at 51 5th Ave., from their current location.
“Rents have gone crazy around here, so if you find a rent that’s reasonable, you’re lucky,” Payson said.
The duo plan to open a pop-up shop in an empty space next to their old 5th Ave. home to get them through the holiday while they begin a $ 200,000 renovation on the new space.
They hope to retain 18 employees until work at the new space is completed some time in March, Payson said.
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