The McLadden’s restaurants in Simsbury, West Hartford and Northampton, Mass. and West Hartford’s Noble & Co. have been sold to Massachusetts-based Bean Restaurant Group.
Bean’s partners, the Picknelly, Vann and Yee families, announced in a statement that they had purchased the Irish-inspired gastropubs and the former “speakeasy” style restaurant and bar, intending to “refurbish all the restaurants and take a fresh look at their menus and entertainment.”
Bean Restaurant Group currently owns and operates The Student Prince Cafe and Fort Restaurant in Springfield, Johnny’s Roadside Diner in Hadley, Johnny’s Tavern in Amherst and five restaurants in South Hadley: Johnny’s Bar & Grille, Johnny’s Tap Room, IYA Sushi & Noodle Kitchen, Halfway House Lounge and The Boathouse.
West Hartford has “some tremendous eateries there,” Bean’s Peter Picknelly said in a phone interview Monday. “We’re hoping to just complement what is already a great restaurant town.”
McLadden’s longtime owner Michael Ladden will stay on board as the restaurant group’s director of beverage development and registered cicerone.
“He’s a very knowledgeable guy,” Picknelly said. “He’s a great addition to help all the restaurants.”
The McLadden’s gastropubs will retain their Irish theme — “we’re just sprucing them up, we’ll be changing the menu slightly,” Picknelly said — but Noble & Co. on LaSalle Road, which closed several weeks ago, is being renovated into a new eatery called Union Kitchen.
“It’ll be an open kitchen concept. We like the name Union because it’s for everybody, it’s for date night, it’s for families, it’s for business meetings,” Picknelly said. “It’s a very eclectic group of customers we’re expecting.” The group has hired the same designers they used for the 2014 renovation and reopening of the Student Prince.
Union Kitchen’s menu will feature “all the favorites of the Yee family restaurants,” he said, and the team has ideas for exotic cocktails. The restaurant group is shooting for an October 15 opening, with plans for outdoor seating in the spring and summer months.
At the McLadden’s locations, the group is looking to add more entertainment, Picknelly said, drawing on the connections of the Yee family, which owned and operated the former Hu Ke Lau in Chicopee for more than five decades.
“[We want to] offer more than just a dining and spirits experience.”
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