Bittersweet News: Le Rouge Chocolate Shop Is Closing

Le Rouge — the great chocolate-and-more shop tucked in the lower level of 190 Main Street, just past Avery Street — has been a Westport mainstay for nearly 12 years.

Sadly, this is their last holiday season. The store is closing in February (after one final Valentine’s Day). Fortunately, they’ll continue online.

Owner Aarti Khosla writes this valentine to Westport:

When I first opened Le Rouge Handmade Chocolates in 2014, I thought I was simply opening a chocolate shop.

I didn’t know I was opening a chapter of my life that would shape me in ways I could never have imagined.

Aarti Khosla has given a lot of love, to many local causes. 

I didn’t know I would meet families who would become friends.

I didn’t know I would watch children grow up through chocolate: tiny hands reaching for truffles, then returning years later as teenagers asking for the same ones, and even learning how to make chocolate and work with me.

I didn’t know how many stories, celebrations, and quiet moments people would invite me into.

And I certainly didn’t know that Westport — this beautiful, creative, generous little town of ours — would become a home for my heritage, my craft, and my heart.

From the first days, Westport embraced Le Rouge with a warmth that still astonishes me. You welcomed the flavors of my culture — saffron, cardamom, rose, chili — into your homes and your holidays.

 

A few of Aarti Khosla’s Le Rouge creations.

You made my chocolates part of your traditions: birth announcements, graduations, engagements, 99th birthdays…

You trusted me with your milestones. The memories you have given me are treasures that I will carry for the rest of my life.

Over the years, many of you asked why I wasn’t always in the shop. I never hid it, but I never fully explained it either.

For 5 years before COVID, my husband’s job brought us to Switzerland, and I commuted back and forth constantly.

Then 4 years ago, after selling our home here, I began living 2 hours away (on a good traffic day). I tried to be in Westport as often as possible. But I was also trying to hold together two lives, in two different places.

Le Rouge has always felt like my child. And like any mother, I gave it everything. Even when it meant being exhausted, stretched thin, and constantly in motion.

This year, when I turned 60, I realized something important: I needed to start giving myself the same love and care I pour into every handmade piece of chocolate.

And so today, with a full heart, I want to share that this Christmas will be our last holiday season at 190 Main Street. We will continue in this space until February 2026: one final Valentine’s Day together.

Quite a chocolate cake!

Closing the storefront is bittersweet. It is also gentle, and right for this moment in my life.

This is not an ending; it is a transition. Le Rouge is not going anywhere.

Our newly refreshed website will continue to bring chocolates — handmade with love, artistry and global flavors — right to your doorstep. Corporate gifting, seasonal collections, custom creations… everything you know us for will continue.

The only thing changing is the place where you pick it up.

So to everyone who ever stepped inside my shop, told me a story, shared a memory, brought a friend, introduced a child or grandchild, recommended me to a neighbor, or simply picked up a box of chocolates “just because”: Thank you!

Thank you for giving me a place in this town’s story. Thank you for letting Le Rouge become part of your story. Thank you for the love, loyalty and warmth you have shown me for more than a decade.

I am at the store, creating chocolate magic every day until the 24th of this month.

Stop in, say hello, come taste a truffle or two, share your life moments and add to my treasure chest of beautiful memories.

With all my gratitude and all my heart,
Aarti