More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.
The Natick Select Board this week will consider a beer and wine license for Frescafe, which offers breakfast and lunch at its Rte. 135 restaurant. Natick Police have given their blessing for the license.
Frescafe earlier this summer got permission to offer outdoor dining.
The Bagel Table, a local chain that serves New York-style bagels and a variety of other food and drinks, is next up at the corner retail space at 9 South Main St., across from Natick Common. This is the spot vacated in June by Common Cafe & Kitchen, a victim of the pandemic shutdown.
The Bagel Table has locations in Ashland, Brighton and Chestnut Hill, with the Natick shop slated to open in September. A Wayland shop, originally planned for this past spring, is now set to open in October.
The eatery offers not just bagels, crispy outside and chewy inside, and schmears. Its menu includes assorted sandwiches and bakery goods, as well as salads, and hot and cold drinks. Its different locations offer a different mix of items and services.
The area could certainly use a new bagel option. Wellesley Square’s Bruegger’s Bagels has been closed since early in the pandemic, and has declined to say whether its “temporary” closing is permanent.
The Bagel Table got its start in pop-up locations in 2015, and opened its first standalone store in Chestnut Hill in 2018.
Its Natick shop will reside next door to Sweetwaters Cafe, which is hiring. If you want to work there, you’ll need to answer questions on the app like “Demonstrate Your Salesmanship By Promoting Yourself To Us.” In other words, you’re gonna need to up-sell.
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More Natick establishments have plans to offer food and alcohol outside, pending Select Board approval next week.
While Dah-Mee in Natick Center has already begun offering outdoor dining, it’s looking to expand its territory into the public space Natick has carved out, and start offering booze outside.
Separately, VFW Post #1274 wants in on outdoor dining and alcohol, too.
These two would be joining a growing list of restaurants taking advantage of Natick’s more generous rules intended to help out local businesses.
Our round-up of the latest Natick, Mass., business news:
Got tips on business openings, closings or whatever, feel free to email us here: natickreport@gmail.com
Mexicali Cantina Grill on Rte. 135 in Natick is up next to seek Select Board approval for serving food and drinks outside.
The outdoor dining area will be both on the grass in front of the restaurant and in the two parallel parking spaces to the side of the building. The proposal will permit space for up to 32 diners at 8 tables placed 6 feet apart, according to the application.
Lookout Farm looks to be asking for additional outdoor opportunities as well.
Mexicali is ready to go if Select Board says yes
Sur la Table, the high-end cookware shop in the Natick Mall and other locations, has filed for bankruptcy. The Natick store is open for now, but if you want to get the last of the goods, you’d better get in there soon. In a phone call to the Route 9 shop, a rep couldn’t give me an exact closing date, but said they would remain in the mall “until everything sells.”
That will likely translate into an August or September time period. We’ll dearly miss the place that provided us with kitchen things from slotted serving spoons that never bent, to Le Creuset cast iron pots, to dishtowels. So many dishtowels.
Sur La Table has other nearby locations at The Mall at Chestnut Hill; Copley Place in Boston; and the Burlington Mall.
Neiman Marcus, another Natick Mall tenant, has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. No word yet on the status of its Natick store, which a voice recording says is “open by appointment only”.
Other big name retailers that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that have Natick Mall stores include Brooks Brothers (“temporarily closed” according to a voice recording); J. Crew (they’re open at the mall); and DavidsTea, which Boston Eater reported will close all 42 of its United States stores (an internet search says the location is “temporarily closed”).
Uni-T, which describes itself as a combined art gallery, T-shirt and gift shop, has closed the Natick Mall shop it started in 2012 and is planning to open later this summer on Court Street in Natick Center. Multitalented owner Eujin Kim Neilan features her own illustrated children’s books, hand-printed T-shirts and other creations, plus those of other local artists. Dance, music and book readings are among the sorts of events Uni-T has held in the past.
The business has humble roots, with Eujin starting in a home studio, branching out to farmers’ markets, and going from there. Sounds like a perfect fit for Natick’s artsy center.
Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea is another Natick Center spot slated to open up soon in the former Renew storefront, across from Natick Common. The coffeehouse’s website says they “celebrate classic café fare alongside globally influenced coffees and teas in an environment that is both classic and friendly.”
Sweetwater has about 40 locations throughout the United States.
With the growing list of Natick businesses, particularly restaurants, closing shop as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy for rumors to get started about who’s next.
Such speculation had started to swirl online about Java’s, the North Main Street eatery that’s been serving up breakfast and lunch fare for a couple of decades.
In fact, that speculation inspired me to swing by this morning to take a picture and see if maybe there was an updated note on the door (I knew I’d seen one a while back). The place sure looked closed, and the note on door was the same one I’d seen before, citing only that the shop would be closed as of March 20.
I couldn’t find any sign of the business on social media, and it doesn’t have a website. The phone number I called was disconnected.
But the owners have squelched such silly talk via social media (they do have a Facebook page, as it turns out):
“Hello to all of our loyal customers, hope you’re all staying safe during this time! It’s come to our attention that there are rumors going around that we’re going out of business, and I would like to state here and now that those rumors are false. If that were the case we would’ve updated you on this page and this page only. Please do not listen to any outside sources as they are giving false information. We are currently shooting for opening back up in September and we thank you for being patient during these times.”
