Artfully Chocolate is closing its Logan Circle location on Saturday, owner Eric Nelson announced in a Thursday email to subscribers.

As a result, Nelson, a former Del Ray Business Association president, said his stores on Mt. Vernon Avenue and in the Carlyle area of Old Town will be “expanding their offerings in the coming months to fill various voids left by closing the D.C. location,” he wrote.

Nelson said new classes will be offered in 2012 at Artfully Gifts and Chocolate in Carlyle. The classes will be listed on the Artfully Chocolate website at a later date.

Nelson encouraged D.C. customers to visit the two Alexandria stores. He wrote that the 14th Street store closing was the result of many factors but that the loyalty of the customer base “was never in doubt.”

The store closing comes just five months after Nelson was honored with the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership’s Best Small Business of the Year award.