Beloved Chunky Monkey ice cream shop in Norris won’t reopen next season
The Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Shop in Norris has closed permanently, the owner of the business says. It ended its seasonal run on Sept. 4, and will not be reopened in March, she said. The building and property it sits on, in- cluding the barber shop in the rear, are listed for sale. The property owner does not operate the ice cream shop. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The locally famous Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Shop on Andersonville Highway in Norris will not reopen for a new season next spring, business owner Angela “Angie” Litton said last week.
“I’m ready to move on; I’m tired and I’m exhausted,” Litton told The Courier News.
She said she had a buyer for the business lined up in mid-September, but the deal fell through because she does not own the building the shop operates in; she just leases it.
Litton contends that the prospective buyer of her business was unable to obtain a lease on the building to allow the Chunky Monkey to continue in the same location.
She said that she had operated the Chunky Monkey for nearly 13 years as a “single mother of two” since taking over another ice cream shop in the same location, 139 Little Senator Circle.
She said her lease on the building is set to expire on Jan. 7, but that she wants to retire and does not want to renew the lease and reopen the business next year herself.
While the Chunky Monkey originally was open year-round, a few years ago Litton began closing in the fall and reopening the next March. This year, the business closed for the season on Sept. 4.
The property owners, Mansour and Lisa Tavangaran, said they would be open to leasing the building to another operator, but that anyone wanting to lease it would have to submit an application and pass a credit check.
“I told the landlord I was going to sell the shop, and I made a deal to do so,” Litton said. “The landlord was supposed to bring a lease for the new owner to sign on Friday, Sept. 13, but he showed up with no lease. Then on Monday, Sept. 16, I found that my buyer had backed out.”
On that Monday morning, the landlord put a “for sale” sign in front of the building, Litton said.
“The community knew the building was for sale before I did,” she said, referring to reports on social media on the morning of Sept. 16 showing the for sale sign.
But the property had actually been listed for sale since Dec. 3, 2023, according to the listing agency, Realty Executives. The asking price for the property, which includes a separate barber shop building behind the Chunky Monkey, is $695,000.
The Tavangarans told The Courier News that they met with the prospective buyer, but that he did not want to move forward with applying for the lease.
“We have not refused anybody,” Mansour Tavangaran said. “They [the Chunky Monkey business owner] don’t own the property. They asked us to talk to someone who might be interested. We met with him and said we would have to do a credit check.
“We are honoring her lease,” Mansour Tavangaran said. “In December, she would have to tell us whether she is going to continue the lease.”
Litton said that the equipment she owns in the building and the Chunky Monkey name are still for sale, but anyone purchasing them would need to find another place to operate the restaurant.”
Litton said she’s not interested in continuing the business in a new location.
“I am really sad for my community,” she said. “But I just don’t have it in me to start over.”
Lisa Tavangaran, whose maiden name was Stooksbury, said her family operated the Little Senator Restaurant in the Chunky Monkey building for years. It was empty for several years after that business closed, before Litton started the ice cream shop.
“This is a family restaurant we have had forever,” she said of the location. “My mother and sister ran it.”
As for the Futternutternanner, one of the Chunky Monkey’s most-popular specialty shakes, people might want to try to making one at home in the blender. It contains vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, hot fudge and fresh banana.
Good luck.