West Hartford Business Buzz June 9: Openings, Closings and Other News

People in West Hartford love to be "in the know" about happenings in town, especially the openings — and closings — of local businesses. We hear things all the time, and some of them turn into big stories. But sometimes we don't have enough news to write an entire story, even though the information is definitely newsworthy. For a while we ran a "Visions for Vacancies" feature on Sundays, but it was getting to be difficult to find vacancies every week.

Every Sunday we'll highlight the business stories you may have missed during the past week, and give you the scoop on the other news you may not have heard about. And if you have tips about businesses opening or closing, please include them in the comments or send an email to ronni.newton@patch.com.

• Harvest Country Store is "like nothing that's been here," said co-owner Ian Halpern. The store had a soft opening on April 5 in the long-vacant 7-Eleven space at 161 Oakwood Ave., right across from the entrance to Kennedy Park. Halpern said that he and co-owner (and former college buddy) Neeraj Gupta and Gupta's wife Jen spent a year and a half renovating the space. They have a fair trade organic coffee bar in place, and Halpern said that all coffees and syrups are GMO-free. The pastries come from the kitchen at Billings Forge, and the ice cream is locally made in Manchester. More details in an upcoming feature story.
• Halpern and Gupta own another business in West Hartford, Harvest Wine and Spirits at 842 Farmington Ave., which opened about three years ago. Halpern said that the shop is the highest-rated business in its category in the area on Yelp. One of the main attractions of the package store is its "beer cave" – a walk-in refrigerator with an excellent selection of craft beers.
• We've been monitoring plans for the arrival of Pepe's Pizza ever since the iconic New Haven pizzeria announced plans for a West Hartford location last November. Patch took a peek inside the construction site this week, and found out they are hiring!
• West Hartford-based Northstar Wealth Partners was one of six area businesses, and the only one from West Hartford, honored as a Business Champion by MetroHartford Alliance and the Hartford Business Journal last week. Businesses from 61 area towns are considered for the honors. Northstar Wealth Partners' award was in the category of revenue.
• For the fourth year in a row, BlumShapiro volunteers spent time working with students at Webster Hill Elementary School as part of Junior Achievement's "In A Day" program. The volunteers taught students about work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy.