Bess Eaton
New England coffee shop chain in the United States
Bess Eaton or Bess Eaton Management LLC is a small chain of coffee shops based in Rhode Island and Connecticut, serving doughnuts, bagels, and muffins. It started in 1953, grew to over 50 shops throughout southern New England, was sold to other chains following bankruptcy in 2004. The chain reopened in 2011 under new ownership. As of 2026, there is one location in Westerly, Rhode Island.
History
The Bess Eaton Donut Flour Company was founded in 1953 by Angelo (Bangy) Gencarelli Jr. and was known for its coffee and hand-cut donuts. The corporate headquarters were located in Westerly, Rhode Island, with up to 56 retail shops spread between Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. At one time, it was Rhode Island's seventh largest private employer of 750 workers and 650 workers at the chain's sale. Throughout the chain's 50-year history, the company was privately held by the Gencarelli family. In the last year of operations, the firm was focusing on wholesale business and non-store locations to boost profits, but ultimately was sold to Tim Hortons of Canada.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bess Eaton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.