New London - The popular Chaplin's restaurant on Bank Street has closed down, but don't be surprised if it makes a comeback under different ownership sometime next year.

That's the word from city restaurateur Jack Chaplin, who just opened another eatery, Daddy Jack's, just down the street from his first New London restaurant and decided to close his original business to reduce the stress of his work life.

"It boiled down to me not wanting to run two restaurants," Chaplin said this week. "I had to do what was good for me."

Chaplin said it is difficult to run a restaurant on the six-burner stove he had at Chaplin's.

"You get your brains beat in by the end of the night, and by the end of the week - forget it," Chaplin said.

A message on the Chaplin's restaurant answering machine says the 5-year-old business is closing for renovations during the months of November and December, and the owner said he has been in discussion with his landlord about making repairs.

Early next year Chaplin expects his nephew, 31-year-old Joshua Romano Morosi, a graduate of a culinary academy in Hartford who has worked at Chaplin's for four out of the five years it has been open, to take over ownership and bring the restaurant back in a new form.

"He wants to take a shot at it," Chaplin said. "He might alter the concept a little bit."

Chaplin closed his original 35-seat restaurant a little over a week ago, having opened Daddy Jack's a few days earlier. The new, nearly 100-seat place features pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven as well as pastas and salads, and Chaplin said he is working hard to come up with a formula New London will embrace.

With a 22-seat bar, Chaplin said he felt he could afford to hire a real staff, including a "dream team" of local chefs to help him out in the kitchen. Chaplin plans to cook two to three nights a week, giving him time to work on the menu, develop connections to local farms and produce his well received "Cooking with the Blues" videos he posts on YouTube.

Some of his ideas for Daddy Jack's include adding a raw bar, instituting a Sunday, family-style Italian dinner and kicking off in the spring and summer a low-priced lobster dinner special.

"It's going to take us some time to get the complete concept," Chaplin said. "My goal is to always keep my hand in the cooking side of it."

Chaplin said he appreciates the support of patrons as they deal with the loss of his original restaurant and begin to embrace the new ideas percolating through Daddy Jack's.

"I can't believe the business we're already doing," he said. "When it hits, it's almost like a tsunami."

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow