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Gene’s Restaurant future in limbo as downtown staple up for sale<\/p>\n![\"Ken](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gene.jpg\")
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Local candy-maker Chocolate Barr\u2019s newest expansion has inspired a little bit of nostalgia for Derek Barr.<\/p>\n
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Located at 658 Erie St, the popular retailer\u2019s soon-to-be-opened factory will be housed in the same building where Barr\u2019s dad worked at the former Coca-Cola bottling plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt had a lot of nice, fun memories for me from my youth, and we\u2019re just excited to be kind of moving this into the next stage,\u201d said Barr, who owns the candy company with his wife Jacqueline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got my first hockey stick as a kid here at a Christmas party. It t was very, very close-knit group of people that worked at Coca-Cola at the time,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond those warm childhood memories, the decision to purchase the site was also a long time coming for the 23-year-old business. After moving from their former location on Ontario Street to George Street in 2014, it did not take them long to realize they needed more space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe very quickly ran out of production space. Shat that means is, it became very difficult for us to be able to maintain our level of our capacity of making the candies and chocolates for customers in the space that we were in,\u201d Barr said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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While Barr is never one to complain and looks at challenges as \u201can opportunity to do something,\u201d the limitations of their current space meant they had to limit what products they produced during the holiday season, which is their busiest time of year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a need to focus on their core four or five items during that busy time, the company had to perform what Barr described as a \u201cchocolate triage,\u201d but that meant other popular items, such as their toffees, did not get made.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo a lot of stuff that people love our store for, we have to make sacrifices, and so we end up having stuff that doesn\u2019t get brought out because we\u2019ve run out of time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Barr\u2019s had been actively looking for a place to expand for about a year, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just very fortunate to find this place,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good, solid building. It needs some work to get it up and going to what we need it for, but it has the bones for what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n
While their downtown location will still be used for some of their finer detail work, such as their popular chocolate truffles, the production of the \u201cheavy stuff,\u201d such as their mintie bars, will move to the new factory. They will also have a small store at the new location for those who are unable to find parking downtown.<\/p>\n
They are aiming to be open in mid-October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy contractor will probably kick me in the shin when he sees me next, but that is really what we\u2019re shooting for, so we can get in here and we can start ramping up for Christmas,\u201d Barr said.<\/p>\n
watwood@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Gene’s Restaurant future in limbo as downtown staple up for sale<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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