Wellesley Business Buzz: Restaurants operating outside & inside now; new business gives a hoot about education; Jesamondo Salon & Spa installs new safety system

June 27, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Wellesley restaurants operating outside & inside now

The state gave restaurants the go-ahead to reopen indoor dining on June 22 as long as they follow a set of rules. Numerous Wellesley restaurants are responding, with some offering dining both inside and outside as they look to make up for time lost during the pandemic.

Cafe Mangal in Wellesley Square has been offering takeout, recently added socially distanced indoor dining and is readying for outdoor dining on Monday, June 29, behind the restaurant at the edge of Wellesley Town Hall green. Lunch will be served outdoors 11am-4pm.

cafe mangal outdoors — Cafe Mangal outdoors (courtesy photo)

Among restaurants offering or readying indoor dining are Linden Square tenants such as Qdoba and CPK, which plans to begin at 5pm on Saturday, June 27 using contactless payments via its app (takeout’s still available, too). The Local in Wellesley Hills is among other restaurants in town that has begun offering dine-in service again.

New business gives a hoot about education

Wise Education, Wellesley

Founded by Wellesley residents, Wise Education (www.hellowise.com) is “the first online tutoring program just for elementary school students.” With this spring’s academic disruption, research suggests students will return to school this fall 7-12 months behind. Wise offers a simple, practical solution to get elementary children back on track. Live, 1-on-1 online classes from state-certified teachers, all with master’s degrees. Wise teachers assess each student, develop and deliver a highly personalized curriculum, engaging elementary students, filling any academic gaps and getting them excited to learn online.

Jesamondo Salon & Spa installs new safety system

Jesamondo, Matt Traiger Here’s an excerpt from our post about Jesamondo‘s safety protocols:

“…Inside, signs at the reception desk encourage social distancing, offer masks for sale, and inform customers that due to a “contactless payment system” they encourage the use of Venmo for tips. The hairdressers are donned in masks, gloves, goggles, and smocks, ensuring one more layer of protection.

Most importantly of all, however, is a brand-new hidden HVAC bio-defense system called the Synexis Microbial Reduction System. You can’t see the salon-safety system, because it’s tucked into air vents in the ceiling. The devices use humidity and oxygen to deliver safe levels of dry hydrogen peroxide into the air. Proven to be effective against both surface and airborne contaminants such as viruses (including COVID-19, E. Coli, Staph, Norovirus, H1N1, Listeria, C.Diff), bacteria and mold, thirteen of the devices have been installed. It’s a system that has been scientifically proven and used for many years by professional athletic team, stadiums, and hospitals. Jesamondo is one of two salons in Massachusetts to install Synexis, and the only nail salon and day spa in Massachusetts to use it.”

See the entire post here.

Wellesley Business Buzz: Fastachi closing Church Street shop; Night Shift Brewing & Level99 immersive gaming venue headed to Natick Mall; restaurants reopen indoor dining

June 23, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley, Mass., and nearby business news:

Fastachi closing Church Street shop

Disappointing news on the Wellesley retail front: Fastachi, the nuts and chocolates shop that opened in Church Square in late 2017, is closing its Wellesley location this month. The physical store has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, though Fastachi was still operating online.

Fastachi brought to Wellesley exactly what people craved. Not another (fill in the blank) business, but something different. It tasted and smelled great, too, and the shop was artfully designed, with an assortment of nutcrackers among its decor.

Fastachi’s Susan Etyemezian says “Fastachi will not be re-opening its Wellesley location. And it is primarily due to COVID-19. Our Watertown location is open with reduced hours – https://www.fastachi.com/locations. We are accepting online orders for in-store pick-up.”

Fastachi, Wellesley

Night Shift Brewing & Level99 immersive gaming venue headed to Natick Mall

Our sister publication, Natick Report, broke the story that Night Shift Brewing is joining forces with engineering firm Box Fort on a new immersive gaming entertainment space called Level99 at Natick Mall in early 2021 in part of what used to be Sears.

The venue will include a taproom and 43 small gaming rooms for groups to take on physical and mental challenges. Will be converting video game mechanisms into more of a location-based adventure. Sounds like something different and fun.

Level99 Natick Mall — Level99 presented its vision of new entertainment venue at Natick Mall during recent Natick Planning Board meeting

Wellesley restaurants reopen indoor dining

With the state giving the go-ahead for restaurants to begin offering indoor dining as of this week, a number of Wellesley eateries are going for it.

Among the first we’ve noticed doing so are Smith & Wollensky, which also is offering outdoor dining at the front and back of its Washington Street restaurant, and Cafe Mangal, which is also seeking to offer outdoor dining on the town hall green. Cafe Mangal says its dining room opens Wednesday, 11am-4pm. We understand that Singh’s is also offering dining indoors and outdoors.

Meanwhile, across the town line, Natick is going al fresco in a big way soon.

Got tips on business openings, closings or whatever, feel free to email us here: [email protected]

Also email us if you’re interested in sponsoring our weekly Wellesley Business Buzz roundup.

Cafe Mangal aims to offer meals on Wellesley Town Hall green

June 20, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The town has urged businesses to propose creative options for new or expanded offerings as the state reopens during its COVID-19 recovery, and Cafe Mangal‘s bid is to offer dining on the nearby Town Hall green. The rear of the Cafe Mangal building faces toward the open space.

The green, which figures to be quieter this summer without the usual Wednesday night concerts, would give the restaurant (and maybe others?) more space than they have on the sidewalks in front of their locations or indoors, now that Phase 2, Part 2 of the state’s reopening plan will allow for indoor dining beginning next week.

The Natural Resources Commission discussed the issue at its meeting this week and ultimately voted to give Director Brandon Schmitt the go-ahead to craft a permit allowing Cafe Mangal to use the space temporarily. But not without reservations from some members about taking away what’s become more crowded and limited open space during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initial proposal involved putting up 10 tables and 20 chairs in a roughly 1,500-square foot space in the Town Hall “bowl” behind the restaurant. The proposed hours are from 10AM-5PM. More details need to be worked out before this goes forward, however.

Alta Strada and other Wellesley restaurants have already been given the town’s blessing to extend their dining premises to outdoors space.

Nearby, Natick too has been helping restaurants recover by allowing new or expanded outdoor dining to proceed.

Wellesley Business Buzz: Merchants want your input; Alta Strada latest to get outdoor dining OK; Painting Place back in action

June 17, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our round-up of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Local merchants want your input

As Wellesley merchants reopen or offer expanded services (e.g., outdoor dining) they’re seeking input from the public about how you’re feeling about shopping at stores and eating out again. They’ve released this short survey and it would be a big help to them if you could fill it out. As a Thank You, your name will be entered into a drawing to win an online music mini-camp from Bach to Rock worth up to $225.

Wellesley Square July Jubilation

Separately, don’t miss out on the weekly Wellesley Square Live zoom conference from 9-10am every Friday. Merchants and the public are welcome to join the conversation. The Swellesley Report regularly gives a quick news update, too!

More restaurants offering outdoor dining

Add Alta Strada to the list of restaurants Wellesley has approved for outdoor dining. Daily patio seatings will take place 4-8pm 7 days a week beginning this Thursday.

Others on the list include the likes of Juniper, Maugus, Papa Razzi, Singh’s, and Smith & Wollensky. Contact restaurants directly for info on hours, reservations, and other protocols, as this plans are still unfolding in some cases.

Alta Strada tables

The Painting Place is back in action

Among those Wellesley businesses excited to get back in action is The Painting Place, which is offering indoor and outdoor options, plus summer workshops for kids.

Got tips on business openings, closings or whatever, feel free to email us here: [email protected]

Natick’s Lookout Farm makes great use of picturesque space for outdoor dining

June 14, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

To the extent I’m a regular anywhere, I’m one at Lookout Farm in South Natick. In recent years I’ve run around the orchard on Thursday nights with a group that congregates after in the Taproom. And our neighborhood has quarterly-or-so meet-ups at the country-chic spot, sometimes entertained by a neighbor’s band.

So when the COVID-19 crisis hit, Lookout Farm was one of those places I missed. It wasn’t clear when we’d have a chance to visit again given that social distancing rules marked a temporary end to dine-in services (their curbside market shop is up and running).

Now farm management has faced head-on the challenges of running its Taproom and other venues profitably. All it took was a spare field that the farm just happened to have, and a little creative thinking to get The Lookout up and running. The new open-air dining venue sits further back on its 180-acre property than the Taproom. Dozens of picnic tables have been plunked down in a mown field that now serves as the dining room, and what a beautiful dining room it is. Surrounded by up-and-coming summer crops, there’s a view of the iconic red barn. Across the field are rows and rows of over 50,000 espaliered fruit trees over which grape vines are trained on seemingly endless arbors.

lookout farm outdoor dining Natick town officials quickly approved the outdoor-dining plan, and The Lookout opened on Friday, June 12. We decided to let them work out any kinks that day, and reserved a spot online for our family of four on Saturday, June 13. The reservation system is handled through OpenTable, and works pretty well, though it’s hard to get a view at a glance of which time slots are available (the farm’s website says The Lookout is open Thursday-Sunday, but that’s not entirely clear in the online reservation system. Note: The schedule has since changed since we posted this review, as shown below.).

While I’d been to the farm many times, I still couldn’t quite visualize what we were in for. Though I had prepared enough to know that we’d need to wear masks, tables would be separated more than usual, we’d need to order our food and drinks via our phones once we got there, and that there was some sort of walking path for taking a post-dinner constitutional.

Lookout farm the lookout — Digging into the steak tips

We drove past the Taproom parking lot and followed signs to a grassy parking area. The Lookout staff, operating at friendliness as high-peak as the June strawberries available at the farm’s market shop right now, gave us a quick rundown of the rules and directed us to a check-in kiosk. We were then escorted to a reddish picnic table under a white tent. A good dinner crowd had already convened, with a mix of friend groups, families, and some familiar faces to us. The tables, including some small, rather romantic-looking set-ups, look out over the farmland. Some tables have umbrellas. All are spread across a large area with wide paths in between tables. The set-up works well during nice weather, and the tented area should still be fun even in a bit of drizzle.

Our server handed us paper menus to help us avoid scrolling hell on our phone, which we’d use to make our selections and put in our contact and payment info. That all worked smoothly, and I was ready to place our order when one of our boys learned his brother would not be sharing his fries. I wasn’t able to backtrack at that point and add anything to our order, so had to put that order through and do a new order for the fries. That turned out to be no big deal.

Our drinks, including tasty Super Yellow American Pilsner ($7), and a bottled Raspberry Lime Rickey, arrived first. The farm is known for is excellent cider selection, and our neighbors, seated a few tables away, raved about their choice of strawberry.

Shortly after our drinks came, our meals arrived, each in individual brown boxes accompanied by disposable plastic utensils.

Welcome new menu

We divided and conquered the menu, which has been orchestrated by executive chef Jason Gorman. The menu has been greatly expanded beyond the flatbreads, cheese plate and chicken tenders that Taproom patrons have come to know, a welcome change.

One of our sons was satisfied with his hearty Impossible Burger ($16) . Our other son made incredibly quick work of a juicy Honey Butter Fried Chicken Sandwich, a good deal for $15 considering its fresh brioche bun and 2 layers of chicken. Having just finished a 12-mile run, he probably could have wolfed down another one or two. My wife predictably went for the lobster roll ($22), her first of what will be many in the coming months. Big spender that I am, I chose the $22 stout grilled beef tips, which had just the right amount of flavor and tenderness. Broccolini made for a nice side, but I foisted the potato salad onto my wife due to my mayo aversion. She gave it thumbs up. The overall bill was a tad hefty, especially with two orders of $7 fries, but we, and probably other diners heading back out to restaurants, are willing enough to tolerate slightly higher prices as these local businesses look to make up for lost time.

The new COVID-19 era dining experience didn’t feel entirely unusual, though not having a server swing by every so often to ask if things were OK or if we wanted another drink takes some getting used to. Up-selling is a thing in the restaurant business, a time-honored way of increasing the total of the tab. My wife commented that under normal circumstances she probably would have ordered a beer when the food order arrived. But the food gets sent out by a runner, and the runner ran away, as was her job. The waitstaff doesn’t make regular appearances, because part of the point of this exercise is to remain distance. Not wanting to send me back to my phone to place a beer order when my food was piping hot and in front of me, she shrugged and decided ordering the beer wasn’t worth the trouble.

We get that things are going to be different out there in restaurant world and have already been thinking of ways to better communicate what it is that we’d like. No surprise that things aren’t exactly what they used to be.

Lookout farm the lookout

Roaming the orchards

After dinner, we took the staff’s suggestion to take a 1/2 mile stroll in the orchards. In hindsight we’d wished we’d known about the option to order a beverage from the nearby kiosk to take with us on our walk. Learn from our mistake. Good people, know that you’re actually allowed to roam the fruit orchids with drink in hand. It’s almost like we aren’t in Massachusetts anymore. The walking paths are widely spaced and one-way, a la grocery store aisles, and we stopped to chat briefly with friends walking in the opposite direction. The grapevines overhead, the brick path underfoot, blue sky above, and a gentle breeze coming up from across the fields made the night feel something close to magical. For months now we’ve been doing take-out once a week and counting that as “special.” You know what’s really special? Not cleaning up after take-out night. True I didn’t have to cook it, but take-out night isn’t effortless. Spare us dinnertime effort once a week, tell me I don’t have to lift a finger to clean up the kitchen, and I’m happy for days and days.

“I thought the physical set-up was good,” my neighbor texted the next morning. “Tables far apart and open air. I felt safe…wow, I give then a ton of credit for making a go of this and pulling it off. And the french fries were excellent!”

Down the road we can foresee the farm adding some outdoor entertainment, making this an even livelier venue.. For now, The Lookout should be a popular place to take a break from home cooking, and should help the farm sell a few more cider donuts, strawberries, and other curbside pickup items as we phase toward the new normal.

The Lookout

Tuesday – Friday Lunch Menu 12:00pm – 3pm | Dinner Menu 3-8:30pm

Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm – 8:30pm Full Menu All Day.

Last seating 7:15 | Kitchen closes at 7:45pm | Last call 8pm | Walking Path Closes 8pm.

Feast & Fettle offers elegant at-home dining for Wellesley residents

June 12, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

No need to make a reservation or wait for a table.

Feast & Fettle’s Executive Chef Maggie is here to help you enjoy the ultimate fine dining experience — right at home.

After years of providing meals to busy families through her meal delivery service, Feast & Fettle, Chef Maggie has launched a new collection of menus called F&F Select.

Seared Maple Leaf Duck Breast with sweet potato puree, butter poached hakurei turnips & cherry-port sauce

Available for delivery on Fridays, F&F Select menus include upscale, prix fixe courses designed to be enjoyed at home. The menu changes biweekly and consists of several options to build your own prix fixe dinner.

Each item also comes with Maggie’s specific plating instructions, so you can serve your dishes in a true high-end fashion.

Delivery is free and the order deadline is every Tuesday at noon, for delivery the upcoming Friday. The service is available in Wellesley and all its surrounding towns (Weston, Wayland, Newton, Needham, Natick, Brookline), as well as all of Rhode Island.

View the FAQ page to learn more about F&F select and place your order now.

Feast & Fettle Select — Raw Sea Scallops Crudo with White Miso & Citrus Sauce

Wellesley businesses reopening, expanding services this week

June 8, 2020 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

The mystery surrounding when part one of phase 2 of the Massachusetts reopening plan has been solved: It officially is Monday, June 8. While plenty of questions remain, what’s clear is that Wellesley retailers as of Monday can open their doors and offer browsing for a limited number of socially distanced customers, and restaurants can begin offering sit-down dining outside.

Wellesley’s retailers have partnered with the town and Health Department to prep with the protective gear needed to help provide a safe environment under COVID-19 rules. Sanitizing stations can be seen in Linden Square, which also has brightly painted merchandise pick-up spots in its parking lots. A sampling of other action:

Wellesley Square merchants such as Comina, reopening its store to customers on June 9, are pledging safe environments for shoppers.
The Painting Place in Wellesley Hills will be back in action on June 8, with outdoor seating and limited indoor access.
Isabel Harvey in Wellesley Square says both its Wellesley and Nantucket stores open at 10am on Monday.
Wellesley Toy Shop is back in action, too, open 10am-6pm Monday-Saturday, 11am-5pm Sunday.
Caffe Nero is open 8am-5pm seven days a week

caffe nero reopens

Meanwhile, the town has made available an application that restaurants can fill out to get permission to offer outdoor dining, possibly beyond where they usually do. The town says it is open to creative options, and the Board of Selectmen plans to discuss and vote on a temporary outdoor dining permitting plan at its June 8 meeting.

Papa Razzi, Alta Strada, Café Mangal, Smith & Wollensky were the first four restaurants to submit applications, according to Wellesley Executive Director Meghan Jop, and Juniper was expected not to be far behind.

Fiorella’s Remon Karian also told us late last week that the Italian eatery is seeking permission to add tables on the sidewalk. Fiorella’s has already been providing curbside pick-up and no-contact delivery.

Fiorella's 2020 — Fiorella’s, and its new sign

Nearby, Smith & Wollensky hopes to expand beyond its sidewalk seating with tables in the parking lot behind the building. The restaurant, which has been completely closed in Wellesley during the health crisis, will begin offering outdoor dining on June 10. It will also provide take-out and curbside pick-up.

Got reopening news to share? Feel free to let us know: [email protected]