Wellesley restaurant news: Blank Street coffee shop buddies up with black & blue Steak and Crab to solve grease trap challenge

Blank Street coffee shop seek to open by year-end in Wellesley Square but as is sometimes the case for restaurants opening in town, they’ve been challenged with meeting the town’s grease trap requirements designed to keep the pipes from getting clogged.

Property manager Linear Retail reps have appeared at multiple Board of Public Works meetings pleading their case for double internal grease traps rather than a pricier and more involved external one, as is the norm. Blank Street won’t be cooking food at 61A Central St. (across from the recently shuttered Starbucks), but will be serving matchas, lattes, and other beverages.

Imagine this: For the price of a few coffees and for way less than the price of a grease trap you could make a tax-deductible donation to Swellesley to support our work. 

The town had considered allowing a pilot of the internal systems but Department of Public Works Director Dave Cohen said at the Board of Public Works meeting on Oct. 20 that “we were not able to come to a conclusion that offered some kind of waiver to our normal requirement” (see Wellesley Media recording about 9 minutes in).

So Blank Street is going with Plan B: They’re connecting to Central Street restaurant black & blue Steak and Crab‘s external grease trap.

“That wasn’t necessarily the outcome they were hoping for, but they felt like they needed to move forward. They’re really looking to get that café open for the Christmas season,” Cohen said. The business couldn’t wait while the town tried to work through some details regarding a sampling system that might get it “to a comfort level,” he said.

Separately, Blank Street just got the Design Review Board’s blessing on its signage and minor construction.