The latest Wellesley, MA business news:

Blank Street Coffee slogging through grease trap approval process

As we reported in March, Blank Street Coffee is looking to open a 22-seat shop in Wellesley Square later this year at 61A Central St. in a space formerly occupied by a lighting shop.

One hang-up for the retailer is that it’s looking to gain town approval without installing an expensive external grease trap typically required to avoid any potential clogging of public sewage systems (read more about grease traps in the town’s Sewer Service Connection Procedures & Specifications document). Property manager Linear Retail has explained that putting in an external grease trap at this location is tricky because of the terrain, but also notes that Blank Street mainly serves coffee; its pastries/sandwiches are prepared off-site and heated on site, so don’t produce the sort of grease that cooking on site would. Linear is arguing that an external grease trap would be overkill and that two hydromechanical grease interceptors installed internally should do the trick.

Grease trap requirements are one reason that restaurants look to set up shop at locations that already have a grease trap.

Linear’s team appeared before the Board of Public Works in May with quite the marketing pitch on this subject, and encouraged the Board to consider new rules for allowing just internal grease interceptors in light of retail trends—this includes more demand for fast casual restaurants and coffee shops than for dry goods retail stores.

But the Public Works and Health Departments have their rules, so are sorting out whether Linear’s approach might be acceptable. That May discussion lasted about an hour, and Linear was back for about a half-hour session at the July 14 meeting (see start of Wellesley Media recording). This time around, after further research into the subject, Linear came with a proposal for running a pilot with the two internal interceptors, with suggested reporting requirements to determine if the approach would work.

A decision will ultimately come through the town engineer, so Linear may not need to return for another Board of Public Works meeting as the issue is discussed off-line. The Health Department will still need to weigh in, ensuring that the set-up with satisfy town and state rules.