Protection & License Committee — 2026-01-20
Attendance
Jason Chen ; Bradley Freeman ; Elizabeth Kowal ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul
Agenda
Minutes
Protection & License Committee Tuesday, January 20, 2026, 6:50 PM City Council Chamber, 1st Floor 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 MINUTES I. CALL TO ORDER Jason Chen Vice Chair Elizabeth Kowal John Obremski Devin Romanul Brad Freeman President, Ex Officio Member Cal Finocchiaro Chair Meeting was called to order by Chair Finocchiaro at 6:50 PM Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jason Chen Vice Chair Present Elizabeth Kowal At-Large Present John Obremski Ward 2 Absent Devin Romanul Ward 7 Present William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Present Officio Member Cal Finocchiaro Chair Present Non-voting members also in attendance: Manjula Karamcheti Christopher Park Ryan Williams Kimberly Vandiver II. MINUTES APPROVAL A. Protection & License Meeting November 17, 2025 7:25 PM Motion to Approve the minutes by unanimous consent without reading made by Chair Finocchiaro. RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, Devin Romanul, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None ABSENT: John Obremski 1 III. PUBLIC COMMENT When: Jan 20, 2026 06:50 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Topic: Protection & License Meeting Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android: https://cityofmelrose-org.zoom.us/j/95331852026?pwd=v0tkdTjEGOes0s0AF67eHG0agIs8B4.1 Passcode:828534 Webinar ID: 953 3185 2026 Motion to Open public comment made by Chair Finocchiaro at 6:51 PM There were no comments on the floor or via Zoom Motion to Close public comment made by Chair Finocchiaro at 6:51 PM IV. LICENSES
A. (ID # 2025-840): New Common Victualler License for "Table Four" Motion to Recommend to full council made by Councilor Romanul Seconded by Councilor Freeman All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, Devin Romanul, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None ABSENT: John Obremski Discussion: -Councilor Park asked what they will be serving in terms of food, will they have a full kitchen? There is not a full kitchen and the food will be charcuterie boards, pastries, breads, vegetables, cold foods. Some of his constituents had concerns about fire hazards with a full kitchen. -Councilor Karamcheti appreciated them opening the space for Home for the Holidays. She asked how they will handle seating, reservations and waiting in line. They will have a few tables for reservations and a few tables open for patrons to call the restaurant for realtime seating and try to avoid people waiting outside in line. -Councilor Williams thinks the concept is phenomenal and likes the Dutch influence. He asked if they will have Dutch cheeses, and yes they will.
B. (ID # 2025-842): Motor Vehicle Class I and II Renewals for 2026 (Second Round) Motion to Recommend to full council made by President Freeman Seconded by Councilor Romanul All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council 2 AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, Devin Romanul, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None ABSENT: John Obremski
C. (ID # 2025-843): Common Victualler Renewals for 2026 ( Second Round ) Motion to Recommend to full council made by President Freeman Seconded by Councilor Romanul All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, Devin Romanul, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None ABSENT: John Obremski V. ADJOURNMENT The City of Melrose does not discriminate based on disability and is committed to hosting accessible meetings and events. Individuals with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication, written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures, in order to access the programs and activities of the City of Melrose or to attend meetings, should contactthe City’s ADA Coordinator, Polina Latta platta@cityofmelrose.org. Motion to Adjourn by unanimous consent made by Chair Finocchiaro at 7:01 PM Meeting was adjourned. 3
Transcript
▶ 8:37 Cal Finocchiaro: Get out. Get out. Welcome and good evening. The time is 6:50 PM on Tuesday, January 20th. This is the Meeting of Protection and License Committee. I'm councilor fro the chair. Joining me tonight are voting members, vice Chair Chen, councilor Ryan, councilor Kowal, uh, president and President Freeman. Uh, also our non-voting members, counselor Williams, councilor Park, councilor Chetty, and Councilor Van Devin. This takes the place of attendance roll call and provides notice of the quorum for the record in accordance with Open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel M mt B as well as live streamed on MTV's website. Be available for future viewing through the City
▶ 9:25 Cal Finocchiaro: of Melrose website meeting portal. At this time, if there are no objections, and with unanimous consent, I'll approve the minutes from our last meeting on November 17th, 2025. Seeing no objections, those minutes are approved. We are moving on to the public comment portion of the meeting. This is a time where any member of the public may speak in person or remotely at this time. If there are no objections and with unanimous consent, I'll open the floor for public comment. Is there anyone here to speak in public comment? Anyone online? No. One online. Okay. At this time, um, since we don't have any, any anyone online or in the chamber to speak, I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment, seeing no objections,
▶ 10:10 Cal Finocchiaro: public comment is now closed. 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 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,
▶ 11:15 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? Yep. On discussion? Yes. Council Park? 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.
▶ 12:21 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, 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. Okay. So no oven wear or anything? Right. We have a small oven to heat bread, um, and Christine's, but, uh, no big oven, no fryer. Okay. That's good to hear. Some of the constituents I had spoken
▶ 13:16 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. 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. Very good. Thank you. Thank you.
▶ 14:07 Manjula Karamcheti: 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. 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
▶ 14:52 Manjula Karamcheti: 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. 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
▶ 15:48 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,
▶ 16:48 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. Absolutely. Thank you. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness on that. Counselor 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.
▶ 17:34 Ryan Williams: 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. 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. 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 You. Thank you. Thank you. All right. What is the will of the committee? I'd like to make a motion to place on file
▶ 18:16 Cal Finocchiaro: Second, Or recommend, recommend motion to recommend. My apologies. 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. Thank you. Good evening. All right. Congratulations.
▶ 18:59 Cal Finocchiaro: Thank you. Thanks. Oh, and this is going to, uh, move to the city council meeting agenda, but you don't have to be there for that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, um, we are moving on to our second agenda item, uh, ID number 2025 dash 8 42, motor vehicle class one and two renewals for 2026 second round. What is the will of the committee You recommend to place on file? Second, We have a motion to, uh, placed on file will council, uh, president Freeman seconded by council. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That motion carries. We'll move to the next full council meeting, and our final agenda item is ID 20 25 8 4 3 common renewals for 2026 second round. What is the will of the committee?
▶ 19:59 Motion to recommend place On file? Second, We have a motion to place on file by President Freeman, seconded by Council Roman. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. This motion carries. We'll move to the next full council meeting. We have now reached the end of our meeting. I'll motion by unanimous consent to adjourn. Seeing no objections, we are adjourned. Thank You, little lady. Seven o'clock. Okay. Nice. Good evening, everyone. It's Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 7:00 PM This is the meeting of the Legal and Legislative Committee. I'm Counselor Carm Chaney, the vice chair filling in for Counselor Aldine, who is the chair. Uh, tonight. Joining us on our committee are Counselor Rio Councilor Kowal, councilor Van Devin,