Restaurateur's North County Empire Ends; Jae's Inn Set to Close
 A sign thanking customers was posted on the front door Tuesday. |
Workers were informed on Tuesday that the restaurant, 11-room inn and spa will be shuttered and a sign announcing the closure was posted on the front door.
A call to Chung has not yet been returned.
Chung, a former North Adams resident who found success with several Asian eateries in the Boston area, purchased the former Twin Sisters Inn in 1994. It was opened as Jae's Inn in 2002 but the restaurant was briefly moved to the former Le Jardin in Williamstown in 2006. After a falling out with his partners, the Williamstown location, purchased in 2004, was foreclosed on and put up for auction in the spring. Mezze Group partners Nancy Thomas and William "Bo" Peabody bought the restaurant and small inn for $575,000.
It was the same story for his attempts to keep the historic Miss Adams Diner open on Park Street in Adams. He purchased it in 1998 and leased it out to several operators, including as a short-lived seafood restaurant. This past October it was sold in a foreclosure auction to Paul and Jennifer Segala for $85,000.Chung also bought the Colonial Shopping Plaza in Williamstown for $725,000 in 2001 and remortgaged the property for $1.1 million in 2007. A foreclosure was filed with the Land Court in October on the property by mortgageholder Cathay Bank.
The restaurant reopened in the North Adams location in summer 2008 but flirted with foreclosure earlier in the year.
In June, North Adams filed an instrument of taking that showed Chung owed the city $30,551.78 in back taxes, fees and expenses for 2008.
The sign on the door of the inn thanked patrons for their support and advised them that gift certificates would be honored by Jae's Spice in Pittsfield. Chung is leasing the North Street location from owners Lawrence M. Rosenthal and Joyce S. Bernstein, who were forced to close the original Spice in March 2008 after it incurred losses of more than $1.2 million.
