Alex Newman, a former server at Le Pain Quotidien, ate lunch at the Yorkville location of the popular Belgian bakery last week, and says that the lineups were snaking out the door. The next day, he was suprised to hear that the business was closed.

“I was quite shocked. It thought it was doing quite well." says Newman.

Up on Eglinton, Rose Marinuzzi, chef at Seven Numbers restaurant, goes to the uptown location of Le Pain Quotidien most weekday mornings for breakfast. She showed up this morning to find the doors locked.

“One staff, the very sexy guy, he was crying. I almost cried with him too. It’s Christmas time," Marinuzzi says.

The franchise was brought to Toronto in April 2008 by Belgian baker Alain Coumont and financed by Torontonians Phil Herman, Sandy Druck and Matthieu Devaux. Devaux parted ways with the company in March of 2009.

Newman says that about two months after the Yorkville location opened, management started to tighten the purse strings. Staff meals, which were once unrestricted, became monitored and documented.

“That’s when I thought it might be struggling. Staff talk, and who knows what’s accurate and what’s not, but from direct observation, that’s what I saw.”

The duration of the closure is currently unknown.

Calls to Druck and Herman were not immediately returned.