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Needham Bank, Wellesley
Write Ahead, Wellesley

Truly’s makes its big move next door

February 3, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Truly’s this Friday officially opens at its new space next door at 39 Grove St., where it’s expanding beyond its dozens of flavors of frozen yogurt and ice cream with baked goods and Peet’s coffee. So ignore those single digit temperatures, and prove your true love for cold treats—or warm ones.

We dropped by an open house on Thursday night where attendees enjoyed free goodies and shared well wishes with the Marcus family, which owns and operates Truly’s. In addition to serving Peet’s, much to the delight of those who miss the coffee shop that closed in 2021, Truly’s is partnering with Revival Cafe & Kitchen and Flourhouse Bakery for its baked goods.

The new Truly’s space isn’t all that much bigger than the longtime space at 35 Grove St., Steve Marcus says, but it’s configured to give patrons more room to queue up and for more employees to operate behind the counters (often those employees are local students). The former main Truly’s space will now be used by the business as a commissary.

Truly’s, which has been in town since 1989, is on the Select Board agenda next week in hopes of securing approval to open earlier to serve coffee and baked goods.

truly's
Truly’s Jeff Marcus (behind the counter) shares a laugh with Gary Goldman, Truly’s previous longtime owner (photo courtesy of Beth Sullivan Woods)

 

truly's

truly's

truly's

truly's
Wall decor includes memories shared by Truly’s patrons

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Filed Under: Business, Restaurants

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Linden Square, Wellesley
 
EXPLO, Wellesley

Friday is letters to the editor day in Wellesley

February 3, 2023 by admin

The Swellesley Report accepts letters to the editor. Letters must be of general local community interest and must be signed. Community shout-outs are also accepted and encouraged. For example, a non-profit may thank an organization for a donation received.

See this week’s letters to the editor, which touch on the upcoming March 7 Town Election:

Find out who has:

  • “…been honored and gratified” to have served Wellesley
  • which candidate has the “strong support” of a Wellesley voter
  • and who vows to to “focus on excellent education for all Wellesley students”

The next deadline to submit a letter to the editor is Wednesday, Feb. 8, noon.

Please review detailed guidelines for letters to the editor here.

Filed Under: 2023 Town Election, Business

Page Waterman, Wellesley
London Harness, Wellesley
Wellesley Lacrosse

Business Buzz: PopUpBagels’ Wellesley sale back on; State settles with auto dealer’s parent; Alta Strada is back

February 2, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

PopUpBagels plans pop-up sale… might it stay?

PopUpBagels(Update: 8am on 2/3):  PopUpBagels worked things out with the Wellesley Health Dept. and its sale is back on, via its website, at noon on Friday, 2/3.

(Update: 12pm on 2/2): A Redding, Conn., bagel maker dubbed PopUpBagels was planning to do a 1-day pop-up at Capt. Marden’s on Linden St., in Wellesley on Saturday, Feb. 11, but now say it’s pre-ordering slated for Feb. 2 has been postponed until further notice as it sorts things out with the town. A town official indicated that once some permitting paperwork is taken care of, the sale could take place without much delay.

Look for updates on the PopUpBagels Instagram account and website.

Their standard pricing appears to be $38 for a dozen bagels and 2 schmears based on sales in other communities. So yeah, at least twice that of say, a Bruegger’s (Bruegger’s bailed from Wellesley in 2020, leaving a bagel hole in town.)

PopUpBagels Founder Adam Goldberg says “We chose Wellesley because they chose us.  Several of your residents have had our bagels while passing through Connecticut and have repeatedly reached out to us to come set up there for a day or more.”

The business planned to bake its bagels on site at Capt. Marden’s… and could be enticed to set up shop in town on a more permanent basis.

“Yes, we are seriously considering Wellesley as a permanent location for us.  But please understand that we are not your every day bagel shop.  We do not make sandwiches or salads or sell single bagels.  All of our bagels are made fresh to order and sold only by the dozen paired with weekly creative schmears…” Goldberg says.

PopUpBagels has some well-known investors, and has grabbed the attention of The New York Times and others.

 

State settles with Wellesley auto dealer’s parent over deceptive & discriminatory pricing

From the Office of the Attorney General:

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced that her office has reached a $350,000 settlement with Hometown Auto Framingham, Inc. to resolve allegations that the company engaged in the unfair, deceptive and discriminatory pricing of “add-on” products sold to Black and Hispanic consumers.  

The assurance of discontinuance, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that Hometown Auto, which operates two car dealerships located in Wellesley [editor’s note: Wellesley Mazda on Rte. 9] and Danvers, charged Black and Hispanic consumers higher prices for “add-on” products in comparison to white consumers. “Add-on” products are extra goods or services sold to a consumer who purchases or leases a car; these include products like guaranteed asset protection (GAP) products, paint protection products, tire and wheel protection products and remote starters.  

“Consumers need to know that their race or ethnicity will have absolutely no effect on the type of service they receive from Massachusetts auto dealerships or the prices they will be charged,” said AG Campbell. “My office is committed to protecting consumers from predatory and discriminatory practices that stand in the way of upward mobility, and we will continue our advocacy to ensure all consumers are being charged for services equally and fairly.”  

Read entire press release.

Alta Strada is back to cooking up Italian classics

Alta Strada in Wellesley Square has welcomed back customers after a brief closure for kitchen and dining room upgrades.

For more on over 50 Wellesley restaurants, check out our Where to Eat page.

Or maybe shake things up a bit and discover Where to Eat in Natick.

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Filed Under: Business, Restaurants

Sara Campbell, Wellesley

Before you dump that box of Pokémon cards at the Wellesley Give & Take…

January 27, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

One result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the forced homebody time it brought about is that more people found themselves revisiting their long-forgotten sports cards and other memorabilia, or developed a new interest in collecting items through various online options. Locally, Thomas Picher, “just looking for something to do” during the pandemic, improbably gained a fascination in old coins and stamps, and even renewed a short-lived interest in Pokémon cards that he had as a kid.

Now the 20-year-old is morphing his pandemic-borne hobbies into a business opportunity by helping others assess the value of their treasures.

“It’s not necessarily the value that gets me excited. It’s the unknown that the next thing I find could be something extremely rare or really old,” he says.

Thanks, Gramps

Thomas Picher
Thomas Picher

Picher was given hundreds of old coins and a big stamp collection by his grandfather in 2020, plus he was shown bins of cards from his dad and uncle. The current UMass Dartmouth sophomore then began to dig in. “For the next few months I was completely focused on that. I bought books and catalogs to figure out what we had, to learn the prices,” he says.

There were unsurprisingly no Pokémon cards in his grandfather’s collection (they emerged in Japan in the mid-1990s, in the United States in the early 2000s), but wrestler/podcaster/Youtube star Logan Paul sparked fresh interest in Pokémon cards, in part by forking over millions for a super rare one. The buzz returned Picher’s attention to the market for trading cards bearing images of Pikachu and the gang.

Picher’s father, Tom, says the value of Pokémon cards caught them by surprise. While many people might hesitate before getting rid of baseball cards, understanding they might have some value, kids—or their parents—would be more likely to just throw away Pokémon cards, he says.

For those of you who have fallen out of the trading cards loop, or who were never in it to begin with, a lot has changed from the days of flipping cards against walls and sticking them in between bicycle tire spokes. The market has had its serious ups and down, but has been booming of late. Dramatic openings of card packages are live-streamed. Topps is still a leader among card makers, but Panini and others are popular, too. Trading card grading services like PSA help collectors find out what their items are “worth,” and enable trusted buying and selling of these valuables.

Picher has been a quick study in the value of cards and other collectibles, and along with his father, has sent in cards to be graded.

Researching the value and history of cards, coins, and stamps is a mix of paper-based and online research for Picher. So while the web does provide fast access to some information, and enables transactions through services such as eBay and craiglist, the hobby itself also allows Picher a screen-time break.

Picher was excited to tell me about “a really good magnifying glass” he recently acquired that allows him to zoom in on details that the naked eye would not see on coins and stamps. “There are a lot of little things you wouldn’t realize are there…erosion of a stamp, little differences in printing that can make a big difference in their value,” he says.

Sharing his knowledge

Picher continues to learn about collectibles from home as well as by taking it on the road. He’s hit yard sales and has the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility’s Give & Take area on his list. He and his dad attended a massive card show in Atlantic City, with collections worth millions on display.

Through word of mouth and other means, Picher has begun appraising the value of others’ collections.

He described visiting a couple in Wayland who had been collecting all sorts of things for 50 years. “It’s good to meet with people face to face to discuss their collections,” he says. “Their house was filled.”

Picher wisely isn’t aiming to fill his parents’ house, so keeps a balance between buying and selling. “I’m not really focused on building my collection,” he says, adding that he’ll target items that he finds particularly meaningful or unique, maybe a LeBron James rookie card, or anything to do with Yankees Hall-of-Famer Derek Jeter.

Picher’s friends include past card collectors, but none of them are doing anything like he is. “They think it’s cool, but they’re not into it themselves,” he says.

If you’re tempted to learn more about this hobby or are curious about how much your stuff might be worth, Picher is available to help.

For starters, he suggests identifying your most likely valuable items. With sports cards, this often means star players and those same players as rookies. With Pokémon cards, since they are newer, condition isn’t as much of a differentiator as it can be with sports cards, but there were fewer Pokémon cards produced at the start, so those earlier editions, and special holographic cards can be worth more. With stamps and coins, usually the older the better; pre-1964 U.S. quarters and some other coins were made from silver, so they’re worth something extra right away.

If you’re interested in having Picher assess your collection, you can text him at 617 659 2686. Send photos of a few items to start and describe what you’re interested in knowing. And if you’ve got a 1999 1st Edition Holographic Charizard Pokémon card, by all means, don’t hesitate to ping him.

(You can also check out his eBay store.)


Got a unique story to share? Let us know at theswellesleyreport@gmail.com


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Filed Under: Business

Live music coming to Wellesley’s Lockheart Restaurant

January 26, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

There are numerous unique things about the Lockheart Restaurant, from its southwestern theme to its location next to the Wellesley Square fire station. Now add live acoustic music on Friday nights to that list, with plans to start on Feb. 3, from 8-11pm.

Regular live music at a Wellesley restaurants—now there’s something you don’t hear often.  Those seeking live music locally will instead typically head to places like Morse Tavern in Natick or Horse Thieves Tavern in Dedham.

According to the town, Lockheart is the only restaurant with an entertainment license that includes acoustic music. Establishments must include the type of entertainment they are providing or intend to provide throughout the calendar year. The basic license is required for any background music and/or for any televisions, and there have been no recent changes to entertainment license rules in town.

Lockheart, which opened in July and operates its restaurant upstairs and downstairs at 102 Central St., will offer the music downstairs. There’s room for a few dozen patrons in that space.

Among those most excited is resident Patrick Hayden, who promotes performances by Wellesley musicians like himself through Wellesley Rocks! He’s coordinating the Lockheart music lineup with Dr. Shira Doron, a Wellesley resident and musical performer.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Hayden says. He expects live music at Lockheart will bring friends and family to the establishment, expanding the restaurant’s reach. Lockheart owner Derek Brady said in a statement that the music will give diners a chance to extend their evenings at Lockheart, which has a bar downstairs.

Hayden recalls working with J.P. Licks for months about 10 years ago to bring live music to its Central Street venue. Unfortunately, an early open mic event drew too big of a crowd—including the fire marshal—and was shut down shortly after the series began. Since then, Hayden and others have worked hard to expose the public to many local musicians through outdoor concerts in town.

Other examples of restaurants offering live music are few and far between. Bertucci’s got permission a few years back, when it was here, but may never have followed through on it.

(We’ve reached out to a few restaurants in town to ask if they have any plans or have considered live music, and will update this post if we learn anything more worth noting.)

Up first at Lockheart will be Connect 4 and friends.

Lockheart restaurant


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Filed Under: Business, Music

Deland, Gibson, Wellesley
Rick Cram, leader

Business buzz: Nantucket wine bar to boast Wasik’s cheeses; Needham Bank has new Wellesley branch manager; Thanks to new sponsor Beacon Hill Athletic Clubs

January 22, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Nantucket wine bar to boast Wasik’s cheeses

This should make Wellesley’s island set feel at home when away from home over the summer. The Nantucket Current reports that a new wine bar on Broad Street in that community will be dubbed Ethos, and feature “an array of cheeses (sourced predominantly from the Massachusetts based Wasik’s Cheese Shop).”

Needham Bank has new Wellesley branch manager

Needham Bank has appointed Maria Ramos as its new branch manager for the 458 Washington St. location in Wellesley. She previously served as
manager of the bank’s Mission Hill location, where she worked since it opened in 2020.

Ramos brings over 15 years of banking experience to her new role, and was a branch manager for Santander Bank prior to joining Needham Bank.  She is fluent in Spanish.

Maria Ramos_CMYK
Maria Ramos

 

Thanks to new sponsor Beacon Hill Athletic Clubs

Beacon Hill Athletic Clubs (161 Linden St., Wellesley) is free in January. Use the code SWELLESLEY upon sign-up.

The gym offers state-of-the-art weight training and cardiovascular equipment and an extensive group exercise program. Membership plans are flexible and provide access to gyms in 7 locations.

We’re excited to have Beacon Hill Athletic Clubs as a new advertising partner.

Beacon Hill Athletic Club, Wellesley

Filed Under: Business

Wellesley business buzz: Board business liaison phased out; Help ID top business leaders of color; Hospital taps new president

January 20, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Board business liaison phased out

During a Jan. 19 meeting at the Wellesley Police Station, the Wellesley Select Board eliminated the Business Liaison position, an assignment that currently partners Select Board member Beth Sullivan Woods with Wellesley’s business community as a whole. Over the past approximately 20 years, a liaison from the Board has served as a point person between the town’s businesses and Town Hall staff.

Demian Wendrow, president of the Wellesley Square Merchants Association and owner of London Harness, during Citizens Speak said, “We strongly oppose getting rid of the position of liaison for the merchants.” He likened such a move to taking away a line of direct communication between the town and over 100 businesses in Wellesley Square, Linden Square, and other areas of town, particularly as merchants come out of the challenges of COVID.

Board members against eliminating the Business Liaison position agreed with Wendrow that to do so would signal a loss of support from the Town.

Board members in favor of eliminating the position cited the leadership of Town staff and said that all five Select Board members were available to listen to comments and concerns and lend support at any time.

The Board voted 3-2 to eliminate the Business Liaison position with Lise Olney, Tom Ulfelder, and Colette Aufranc voting to eliminate the liaison position and Ann-Mara Lanza and Beth Sullivan Woods voting to keep the liaison.

Help identify the most influential Business Leaders of Color

The Charles River Regional Chamber is partnering with Colette Phillips Communications and Get Konnected! to compile the

50 Most Influential Business Leaders of Color list for 2023.  It will recognize leaders and emerging talent within Greater Boston’s western suburbs, including Wellesley.

You can nominate candidates between now and Feb. 6. The list will be published this spring, and an event will be held to celebrate the honorees.

2023 BPOC Email Header

Hospital taps new leader

Ellen Moloney newton-wellesley
Ellen Moloney

Newton-Wellesley Hospital has named Ellen Moloney as its next president and chief operating officer, effective March 1. She succeeds Dr. Errol Norwitz. She’s actually held the COO role for the past 8 years. She will become the hospital’s first woman president.

Moloney joined Newton-Wellesley in 1997, and her accomplishments include the development and significant expansions of cancer, breast imaging, and ambulatory care services, as well as the implementation of the hospital’s electronic medical record system.

Moloney previously served as the hospital’s Director of Clinical Ancillary Services and as Senior Vice President for Outpatient Services.

 

 

 


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