New Wellesley restaurant with Cottage ties seeks licenses
An outfit called Door No. 7 on Monday at the Wellesley Board of Selectmen meeting will make its bid for a license to sell food and alcohol at 165 Linden St., in a currently papered over 4,400 sq. ft. space between Jos. A. Bank and Unleashed by Petco. Our information on this is still a bit sketchy, but here’s what we know:
Linden Square property manager Federal Realty has been plotting to add more destinations to the retail area, which recently celebrated the opening of the Sweetgreen restaurant, and already includes chain restaurants such as Qdoba and California Pizza Kitchen.
The town tells us that John Wolfe of The Cottage, which recently refreshed its look and menu after more than 10 years of serving up meals in Wellesley, is behind Door No. 7. The restaurant will be on the opposite side of Linden Street from The Cottage.
It wouldn’t be unprecedented for The Cottage team to have two restaurants in the same community. It already does in Newburyport.
We reached out to The Cottage’s management group as well as Federal Realty for more info. We haven’t heard back from Federal Realty and Wolfe Management tells us it’s not ready to share anything about this state secret even though Door No. 7 is on the BoS agenda on Monday.
We have seen Federal Realty refer to an entity called Chef’s Table at that same Linden Square space, so we’ll figure on getting clarification on Monday night and will update this post once we do. We have seen The Cottage use that term, Chef’s Table, in the past.
Wellesley’s overall restaurant scene is undergoing a makeover, with steakhouse Smith & Wollensky expected in mid-May to open its doors on Washington Street where Blue Ginger once operated.
NOTE: The restaurant was originally referred to as No. 7 West on the Board of Selectmen agenda and we originally referred to it as that in this post, but updated it on 3/12 once the owners made their BoS presentation under the name Door No. 7. No. 7 West refers to the LLC behind the business.
