EASTHAMPTON - Residents can once again get their coffee and newspaper, as well as a six-pack, at the historic building at 44 Pleasant St. that housed a family-owned variety store and package store for decades.

Pleasant Variety opened quietly last week, but owner Rick Varady, 42, said the customers who remember the old variety store are excited to see the shelves stocked again.

Varady, of Turners Falls, grew up in Easthampton and used to visit the variety store before he went to school at Notre Dame-Immaculate Conception School across the street.

"Already, a couple people have come in that I haven't seen in 20 years," he said Monday afternoon while working behind the counter of his newly-painted store.

Varady said he had recently sold a convenience store he owned in Greenfield and was looking for a new business opportunity when a friend mentioned that the Pleasant Street shop had been vacant for the last three and half years. "Being from Easthampton, I thought it would be nice to try to open up another store here," he said, adding that he enjoys the feel of the friendly neighborhood store. "I like the person-to-person exchange, the conversations," he said.

He rents the space from Larry Pontbriant and his daughter, Michelle Pontbriant. Their family owned and operated Pleasant Street Variety and Pleasant Street Package Store, which both occupied the building until 2008.

The package store had been in the family for 78 years, Larry Pontbriant said, since his father opened shop just after prohibition ended in the 1930s. His late wife, Gertrude Pontbriant, ran the variety store from 1982 until her death in 2001, when Michelle Pontbriant took over.

"I'm very happy that there is someone who is willing to attempt to open another variety store there," said Larry Pontbriant, 83, when reached Monday at his home on Loudville Road. "I'm hopeful that it is going to succeed."

The new incarnation of Pleasant Variety will sell the same range of products the two shops sold before closing, Varady said, but from one store front. In addition to the normal convenience store products, including food, cigarettes and lottery tickets, the shop will sell beer and wine.

Varady said his beer and wine license was approved by Easthampton's Licensing Board and the state, and just needs the signatures of the local board's members before he can begin selling alcohol. He expects to have lottery available in a month or two.

When the beer and wine is on the shelves, he will be open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For now, he said, nights are slow and he usually closes around 7 p.m.

Rebecca Everett can be reached at reverett@gazettenet.com.