Natick cuts restaurants & clubs a 50% break on liquor license fees

November 20, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

While a two to three thousand dollar license fee cut might not make or break Natick restaurants and clubs, the town’s Select Board voted unanimously to cut liquor license fees in half in an effort to support establishments beleaguered during the COVID-19 pandemic as we head into indoor dining season.

Board member Michael Hickey stated that despite the creativity exhibited by local restaurants in terms of outdoor dining expansions and investments in tents and heat lamps, that he’s very concerned about their outlook: “We’ve got a tough patch ahead.” If nothing else, he said, the fee cuts show “moral support,” and who knows, maybe could help save a part-time job or two.

The town has taken a number of steps this year to help Natick businesses during the pandemic, from helping restaurants offer expanded outdoor dining to offering a microenterprise grant program to very small businesses.

In slashing liquor license fees, which must be renewed annually, Natick follows in the path of other communities, including Needham, that have also cut fees in half for what are known as S12 establishments, which also includes hotels and venues such as TCAN. The cuts will not extend to businesses such as package stores.

The cuts are estimated to cost the town $65K in revenue, and Natick decided not to raise any other fees in light of the current economy.

Outdoor dining for Eli's and The Dolphin — Eli’s and Dolphin’s outdoor dining set-up

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Natick’s Fresh City location is permanently, not temporarily, closed

November 18, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The writing wasn’t exactly on the walls, or doors, at Fresh City’s Natick location on Rte. 9 East, but the restaurant sure looked closed.

I wasn’t buying “temporarily,” when I noticed the same sign there over the weekend that I’d seen over the summer.

I feel like some sort of meaningful message used to be in the big white space under Fresh City on this sign, too.

While I’ve been a career brown bagger, when I did venture out for lunch while working for IDG in Framingham, Fresh City was my go-to place. Nice roomy booths, and a varied menu that seemed to satisfy whoever I was meeting. Plus, I played basketball a few times with one of their founders, so felt a sort of “in” there.

But the official word from Fresh City is that this location is permanently, not temporarily, closed now.

We received this message this week from Fresh City via Facebook:

“Unfortunately the Natick restaurant has become a victim of Covid. We couldn’t come to an agreement with the landlord on a rent structure that would allow us to stay open. At the same time we have pivoted our business to refrigerated, heat & eat meals delivered directly to our customers homes. Please check us out at freshcitykitchen.com.”

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Natick mulls alcohol license fee cuts in light of pandemic

November 12, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Natick Select Board is readying for its annual review of business license fees, which currently include everything from $2 for fortune tellers to several thousand dollars for restaurants and other establishments selling booze. Discussion, originally slated for this week, is now slated for the Select Board’s Nov. 18 meeting.

While this generally might not be the stuff of great public interest, what makes the 2021 license fee review noteworthy is that the town is considering whether to slash fees 25% or 50% in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit restaurants and bars hard.

morse tavern tent — Will Morse Tavern & other Natick businesses get a fee break?

Natick has taken a broad look at how much other communities charge for fees vs. what Natick charges. It has taken a look at what more than two dozen other communities have done in the way of cutting fees in light of economic realities. Some communities, like Framingham, have not decreased licensing fees. Others such as Needham have cut fees in half for businesses that sell alcohol for consumption on premises.

Natick has laid out in a spreadsheet (embedded below) what license cuts might look like revenue-wise for the town. If it cut license fees in half for what are known as Section 12 businesses, its revenue would be estimated to fall from about $130K to $65K for the year from this source.

Some might argue that’s a small price to pay to help support local restaurants, especially as we head into the indoor-dining-only season.

The fee review isn’t all about restaurants and bars. Fees for package stores, dealerships, and other businesses are also under review.

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Natick’s top restaurants

November 6, 2020 by Deborah Brown 1 Comment

Happy weekend, Natick.

Natick boasts many choices of restaurants where you can find a variety of eateries, from fancy to homey to chains. From Natick Center to the route 9 area there are dozens of take-out options, dine-in spots, places with outdoor seating and heat lamps, and more. Most recently we’ve checked out recent arrivals Café Yafa located off Route 9 (westbound) at 6A Wethersfield Road, and Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea in Natick Center.

Natick’s top restaurants

Here’s our list of Natick’s top restaurants, along with our musings of the food scene here in town.

Natick restaurant visit: Café Yafa

November 5, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

In Arabic, Yafa means beautiful or pretty and is often used as a girl’s name. So it makes sense that the owner of Natick’s newest eatery named his first restaurant Café Yafa. The 25-seat dine-in or take-out spot is clearly Mo Alghool’s baby, its homemade Mediterranean specialties his pride.

Open since early October at 6A Wethersfield Rd. (off Rte. 9 west), in the same strip mall as Kumon and Well Come Asian Market, Mo says things started off a bit slow but that he’s been getting more customers every day. Those looking for healthy and delicious Mediterranean favorites such as falafel wraps; avocado hummus platters; chicken, beef, or lamb shawarma; baba ganoush, stuffed grape leaves; tabbouleh, fattoush, and chickpea salad will appreciate this addition to the area’s restaurant scene. Mo’s cheesy fries have also been popular menu items. He believes in serving healthy foods, but fries just hit the spot sometimes, right?

We tried out the baba ganoush and found that the eggplant dip was made smoky with the perfect amount of paprika, and flavorful with the addition of tahini and a squeeze of lemon. Scooped up and eaten with whole-wheat pita, it made the perfect lunch accompaniment. The leftovers were even better the next day after the flavors got serious and married overnight in the fridge when no one was looking.

The chicken kebab sandwich, wrapped in pita with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, garlic sauce, and hummus was delicious and filling.

You can also stop in for breakfast to grab a cup of coffee and try out Café Yafa’s homemade muffins — pistachio; double chocolate; red velvet chocolate; blueberry, and more. Or try a savory manakish, and make Mediterranean eating a part of the most important meal of the day.

yafa food — Party sampler tray (photo courtesy of Café Yafa)

BUSINESS: Café Yafa
LOCATION: 6A Wethersfield Rd., Natick

HOURS:
Mon. – Sat.: 7am – 9pm
Sun.: 8am – 8pm

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