Wellesley business buzz: Menu for new bakery Popovers pops up; Fewer retailers dinged for pricing errors; ‘Demystifying AI & ChatGPT’
The latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:
New bakery Popovers’ menu pops up
A bakery and bistro called Popovers at Church Square that plans to open in 2024 at 16 Church St., this year will seek Select Board approval for a common victualler license and traffic study waiver. We first reported about the planned 10-seat business in October, then followed with a piece reflecting on a long-ago restaurant in town called Popovers.
The latest development with Popovers, whose owners live in Natick, is that it has published its menu online. The menu contains a wide selection of unique items for breakfast and lunch. No pricing is shown yet on the current edition of the website.
As you might imagine, popovers lead the menu. According to the Popovers website, “Owners Carl Parisien and Morgan Schaffrath began developing the idea in their home kitchen using a commercial convection air oven. Slowly over time, and after literally hundreds, if not thousands, of popovers had been baked, our own proprietary recipe and batter mix was developed. Not all popovers are created equally. We can certainly attest to that.”
You’ll be able to get your fresh baked and buttered popover roll with a side condiment such as cheese, fruit, or maple syrup. Breakfast popover sandwiches are also on the menu that can include bacon, ham, sausages, etc. Other fun menu items include pigs in a popover, a blackened shrimp and pineapple po’ boy, Blackened Shrimp and Pineapple Po’Boy, and The Hail with Chicken Caesar.
Salads, homemade dressings, smoothies, and kids items are also on the menu, which appropriately does include some very Swellesley terms such as “artisan” and “gourmet elevated sandwiches.”
The sub-1,000 sq. ft shop will be open 6am-4pm Tuesday-Sunday, per the website. Hopefully we’ll get a better sense of an estimated opening at the Select Board meeting.
Fewer retailers dinged for pricing errors
According to the Wellesley’s annual report for fiscal year 2023, the town’s Weights and Measures Department “‘keeps the playing field level’ for both merchants and customers and acts as a consumer protection agency in the community.”
This in part entails inspecting weighing and measuring devices such as scales, gasoline dispensing meters, etc., in town each year—a total of 415 in Wellesley during fiscal year 2023.
The department issued 2 civil citations for pricing errors, overcharging, and faulty signage for a total penalty of $700. In the previous fiscal year, 8 civil citations were issued with fines totaling $1,900. The year before that, 11 were issued, with fines adding up to $5,700.
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Charles River Regional Chamber webinar: ‘Demystifying AI & ChatGPT’
Attend this webinar for a high-level overview of ChatGPT and AI led by Pouya Andalib, Co-Founder and Principal Architect of Evox365. The session will cover the different ChatGPT plans, practical applications for various industries, potential impact, prompt engineering, and implementation strategies – plus leave plenty of time for questions. The Charles River Regional Chamber serves business professionals who work/live in Needham, Newton, Watertown, Wellesley and the surrounding communities.
Title: Webinar: Demystifying AI & ChatGPT
Date: Tues. Jan. 9
Time: noon-1pm
Free for members, $15 for non-members