Cedric Hosy says he never wanted to leave East Main Street. Months after a fire tore through the building next to his French bakery, Chocolatine, the owner says his shop's departure from its longtime Denville home was not his decision — and that he fought to reopen there before learning someone else was taking the space.
Hosy told Daily Voice that “the bakery's departure was not voluntary,” pushing back on any suggestion that Chocolatine simply moved on. According to Hosy, the bakery disputed the lease termination and wanted to reopen at its former location after the fire displaced it. Daily Voice reports that the former Chocolatine space is now being taken over by Nick Conforti, a former partner at neighboring Cafe Crevier who also owns Angeloni's Pizzeria.
The trouble traces back to a fire that broke out at Cafe Crevier just before 1 a.m. in early June, with flames and smoke spreading into Chocolatine next door, according to the same report. Accounts of the fire's exact start time differ: SILive.com reported it was called in just before 1 a.m. on June 2, while NJ.com reported the three-alarm blaze was first reported just after midnight. Both Chocolatine and Cafe Crevier announced they would remain closed until further notice in the fire's aftermath.
Fire Left Lasting Damage Next Door
The Cafe Crevier building itself bore the worst of it. Per DailyRecord.com, the building sustained heavy interior damage, structural damage and a partial roof collapse. No one was injured, the outlet reported, though Cafe Crevier and neighboring businesses closed while authorities investigated and owners assessed the damage.
The Morris County Prosecutor's Office turned the investigation over to its Arson/Environmental Crimes Unit, according to Parsippany Focus. No cause has been publicly identified in the months since.
A Pizzeria Owner Moves Into the Bakery's Old Spot
Conforti's role adds another layer to the Main Street shuffle. He's a former partner at Cafe Crevier and the owner of Angeloni's Pizzeria, a family-owned restaurant known for its Thinny Thin pizza with locations in Caldwell and Sparta, per the Daily Voice report. The pizzeria has built a sizable following, with more than 35,000 Instagram followers and an 8.8 rating from Dave Portnoy's One Bite review platform — a score that edged out the 8.5 Portnoy gave Cafe Crevier's own Thinny Thin pizza back in May 2024, according to PMQ.
Neither the property's landlords nor Conforti provided a response included in Hosy's statement, and the lease-dispute claims and circumstances surrounding Chocolatine's departure have not been independently verified beyond Hosy's account.
Chocolatine's Roots and What Remains Open
Chocolatine built its name on French pastry before any of this happened. The bakery opened its first Denville location in 2023 after baking croissants wholesale since 2020, according to Patch. Hosy, a native of France, brings more than 20 years of food and beverage industry experience to the business, having trained in baking and pastry arts in Lyon and worked in France, Australia and Switzerland before settling in the United States, per his shop bio cited by Daily Voice.
Chocolatine has operated locations in both Denville and Morris Plains, and its Morris Plains shop at 690 Speedwell Ave. appears to remain open even as the Denville storefront's future stays unresolved. The bakery previously told New Jersey Monthly it hopes to keep expanding and open more shops.
For Hosy, the ordeal has been more than a business setback. He said building Chocolatine and serving the Denville community for years had been deeply painful to lose, and he thanked everyone who continues to support the bakery as it navigates what comes next.
