The Swiss Chalet in Chatham is temporarily closing and looking to move to another location in Chatham.
Swiss Chalet Chief Operating Officer Ron Simard said the dining room on Keil Drive just north of Richmond Street is much larger than they need for the future and they are looking to downsize the dining and kitchen spaces.
Simard said Swiss Chalet leases the current space and is in the process of finding another location.
"This is just temporary, it's not a permanent closure," said Simard.
Current owner Tom Uz said his restaurant will close on March 13, 2022, but it's not clear if he'll return or another owner will operate the new restaurant.
"It hasn't been decided yet. Tom was at the end of his franchise agreement. He made the decision he wanted to close down that site," Simard said. "With the pandemic smaller spaces are probably better for the future. So, the decision was to not renew there and we are going to check out a new site and we'll see if Tom is interested or if someone else might be interested."
Simard said nothing has been finalized and there is no preferred location for the new restaurant, but because of their delivery service they want to be as centralized as possible.
"It is going to be based on what's available and the restaurant sizing will be important as well. Chatham has been very good to Swiss and we're disappointed we couldn't find anything sooner to stay open," he said. "We are going to come back as strong as we've been and provide the same great product everybody has come to enjoy at Swiss."
He's also confident customers will return when the new store opens.
"We enjoy Chatham, it's a great market and we don't want to be out of the market for too long," said Simard.