New Common Victualler License for "Table Four"

Transcript (~9 min @ 10:24)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 10:14 Cal Finocchiaro: Uh, for tonight, we have three items on our agenda. First agenda item is ID number 2 0 2 5 dash 8 4 0. New common T license for Table four. Um, I know we have the owners here tonight with us, so if you wanna approach the table and, um, tell us a little bit about yourself and the business

▶ 10:39 Speaker 3: Council, council members. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your consideration. Uh, we appreciate the opportunity to present. Um, we're hopefully opening a 20 seat, uh, wine bar on, uh, 1 69 West Emerson, a European inspired wine bar with, uh, charcuterie, uh, wines, non-alcoholic beverages as well. And, um, meant to be a neighborhood place where people can gather, uh, share thoughts, create memories, and, um, hopefully come back for, uh, and do the same. Um, time and time. Uh, my wife was a, it was a lifelong dream of hers and, um, after my 27 years in the restaurant industry, uh, it's now her time to, uh, uh, be successful in that. So hopefully, um, yeah, hopefully, uh, you will allow us to do that. Um, does anybody have any questions for us?

▶ 11:55 Speaker 4: Yep. On discussion? Yes. Council Park?

▶ 11:57 Speaker 1: Yes. Thank you. Uh, councilor. Um, so thank you for taking the initiative of starting this business in, in, in my ward, uh, or collectively some of our, uh, ward three, uh, council members here. Um, I think, uh, I've actually met both of you, um, earlier last year when you had a soft open and it was certainly a nice and charming place. Okay. Uh, we look forward to, to hopefully it being a, a great business. So, so one of the questions I had was, uh, the actual, um, provision in terms of food that you'll be providing, is it a full kitchen or is it just a limited amount of on the menu? Is it just things that cannot be cooked, let's say in deep fryer? Or, or can you expand on the menu? Yeah,

▶ 12:45 Speaker 2: We don't have a full kitchen. The space is really small. Um, it's mostly cold foods, charcuterie boards, vegetable plates, breads, pastries, and small bites like that.

▶ 13:01 Speaker 1: Okay. So no oven wear or anything? Right.

▶ 13:04 Speaker 2: We have a small oven to heat bread, um, and Christine's, but, uh, no big oven, no fryer.

▶ 13:13 Speaker 1: Okay. That's good to hear. Some of the constituents I had spoken to had expressed concerns about what type of, um, you know, cooking facilities you're using and it could, it pose a potential, you know, a fire hazard, but certainly I will relay that over to them.

▶ 13:27 Speaker 3: Yeah. There, there was simply no room for, if you have a full kitchen, uh, where cooking equipment, you need to have a fire suppression system. And there was simply no room for that. Um, we are, we're, it's small as it is, uh, which is part of, part of the concept. Excellent. Yeah. Later, maybe later on after we get our feet wet, um, in, in corporation with the health department where we might, uh, do soups, uh, warm stuff. But that will be on a crockpot or from a crockpot. Uh, yeah.

▶ 14:05 Speaker 1: Very good. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 14:06 Cal Finocchiaro: Um, before I move ahead, are there any voting members that have a question before I move to additional non-voting members? Okay, great. So, councilor Karen, she's next.

▶ 14:17 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you so much for being here tonight. First, I just wanted to say that I was a regular at Charlie's Kitchen back in my days when I was, um, spending time in Harvard Square. So really excited, um, to have a new place to go in my adulthood. Um, I also wanted to say that something that I really appreciated was when we had our home for the holidays, you actually like opened up and were a part of the community even before your actual, um, space was available to the public. So if that's a glimmer of how you're gonna be involved in the community, I think that's really exciting as well. Um, the question I have for you is, I think a lot of people are really excited, um, and it is a smaller space. So I'm curious just how you're thinking about reservations and customers perhaps waiting outside and just thinking about sort of those logistics.

▶ 15:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, so, uh, that's a really, uh, difficult decision to make. Um, myself, our family, if we go out somewhere, I will not go on a Friday or Saturday if I don't have a reservation. 'cause I do not stand in line waiting for food. Um, so, but on the other hand, if you do make reservations, there's a time limit to how long someone can sit at a table. Um, and that kind of in cringes on the idea that we're a place where you can hang out and doesn't matter if it's for an hour or two. Um, and on Friday we had an open house, uh, and for invited, invited people only. Um, and it turned out that people stayed for a very long time, which is great. Um, to answer your question, uh, most likely a few tables that are going to be reservation only and a specific, um, message on our website to please call the restaurant in case you don't see something as a reservation. Um, definitely we don't want a line out the door, uh, which someone who comes in for a glass of wine or a piece of cheese and some, some bread, I don't think they're gonna stand there. Wait for an hour and a half. Um, that's more for like, you know, fast food or, you know, a six pack of, uh, you know, what's the famous beer in, in Boston where people three blocks long? Um, we don't know. That's a fast line. This is gonna be very slow moving line. So I think people will, will leave. Uh, But that's, that's one of the big challenges that we have. And, uh, as as we get our feet wet, we're gonna figure it out. Yeah. 'cause we certainly ev anybody that's interested in coming, we definitely want to keep them as a customer. And that starts by, that even starts before they walk in the door.

▶ 17:20 Speaker 5: Absolutely. Thank you. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness on that. Counselor Williams.

▶ 17:26 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Um, I had the pleasure of stopping in a little while ago, and I just wanted to say that I find the concept phenomenal. I love the Dutch influence throughout, and I'm hoping that you'll have a lot of Dutch cheeses as well on your charcuterie board. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Wonderful.

▶ 17:42 Speaker 3: It's gonna be a, a selection of, you know, ongoing. Um, like when we go through a piece or a a, a wheel well a wheel, we move on to the next kind.

▶ 17:55 Ryan Williams: Very cool. Yes. I'm, I live close to the neighborhood, like council park, so I'm really looking forward to coming in. I'm not a voting member tonight, otherwise I would motion. But, um mm-hmm. I wanted to say thank you very much and I look forward to seeing you very soon. Frequently. Thank

▶ 18:09 Speaker 4: You. Thank you. Thank

▶ 18:12 Cal Finocchiaro: All right. What is the will of the committee?

▶ 18:14 Devin Romanul: I'd like to make a motion to place on file Second, Or recommend, recommend motion to recommend. My apologies.

▶ 18:23 Cal Finocchiaro: That's all right. You have a motion on the floor, uh, recommend by council Remodel, seconded by Councilor Freeman. President Freeman. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. And I just wanna say a few words. I'm really excited about, um, this unique spot that's coming into Melrose. I think we have a lot of different restaurants, but this is so unique with the wine and the charcuterie only. I think it's gonna be a really special little place. And, um, excited to see. I know this is something you've been wanting to do for a long time, so, um, excited for you guys. Thank you.

▶ 18:57 Speaker 3: Thank you. Good evening. All right. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks.

▶ 19:01 Cal Finocchiaro: Oh, and this is going to, uh, move to the city council meeting agenda, but you don't have to be there for that.

▶ 19:06 Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.