Protection & License Committee — 2026-09-03
Attendance
Jason Chen ; Bradley Freeman ; Elizabeth Kowal ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul
Agenda
Minutes
Protection & License Committee Thursday, September 3, 2026, 7:15 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 William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Officio Member Cal Finocchiaro Chair Meeting was called to order by Chair Finocchiaro at 7:15 PM Non-voting Councilor Christoper Park was also in attendance Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jason Chen Vice Chair Present Elizabeth Kowal At-Large Present John Obremski Ward 2 Present Devin Romanul Ward 7 Present William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Present Officio Member Cal Finocchiaro Chair Present II. MINUTES APPROVAL A. Protection & License Committee Meeting June 29, 2026 7:00 PM Motion to Approve the mintues by unanimous consent without reading made by Chair Finocchiaro All were in favor and motion passed RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Devin Romanul, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None III. PUBLIC COMMENT 1 When: Sep 3, 2026 07:15 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Topic: Protection & License Committee Meeting Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android: https://cityofmelrose-org.zoom.us/j/97144838666?pwd=lyhGQBOfjvHz9d8GFBnG4JgKfLwLFt.1 Passcode:758278 Webinar ID: 971 4483 8666 Motion to Open public comment made by Chair Finocchiaro at 7:16 PM There were no comments on the floor or via Zoom Motion to Close public comment made by Chair Finocchiaro at 7:17 PM IV. LICENSES
A. (ID # 2026-1632): New Common Victualler License for Slurp Noodle Restaurant Harry Kongnakorn presented his concept for an Asian steam noodle restaurant featuring flavors from Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand, noting he already operates restaurants in other locations. Motion to Place on File made by Councilor Romanul Seconded by Councilor Chen All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: Place on File (to City Council) AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Devin Romanul, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None 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 Councilor Finocchiaro at 7:19 PM All were in favor and meeting was adjourned 2
Transcript
▶ 0:01 It's pretty easy. Welcome and good evening. The time is now 7:15 on Thursday, September 3rd. This is a meeting of the Protection License Committee. I'm Councilor Finocchiaro, the chair. Joining me tonight are voting members. Let's see, Councilor Romanul, Councilor Bremsky, Councilor Kowal, and President Freeman, and also with us, our non-voting member is Councilor Park. Oh, and sorry, Vice Chair Chen. Sorry, I missed you. Did you skip the seat? This takes the place of an attendance roll call and provides notice of the quorum for the record. In accordance with the Open Meeting Law, this meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel, MMTV, as well as live-streamed on MMTV's website.
▶ 0:50 It will be available for future viewing through the City of Melrose's website meeting portal. At this time, if there are no objections, and with unanimous consent, I will approve the minutes from our last meeting on June 29th, 2026. Seeing no objections, those minutes are approved. All right. So we are moving on to the public comment portion of the meeting. This is the 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 will open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now open. Do we have anyone here to speak? Do we have anybody online? Nobody online. Okay. At this time, if there are objections to unanimous consent, I will close public
▶ 1:37 comment. All right. Seeing no objections, public comment is now closed. All right. We have one item on our agenda tonight. It is ID number 2026-1632, new common victualer license for Slurp Noodle Restaurant. So welcome. Yep, come on up. Yep, come right up to the table. Yes. Thank you for being here tonight, and just informally, if you just want to tell us a little bit about the restaurant, and then the councils will ask questions if they have them. All right? Hi, my name is Harry Konekon. Yeah. Sorry. So, our concept of the Slurp Noodle is Asian street noodle that bring three different flavors from three country- Mm. ... from like Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand. Mm. Yeah. We're going to serve
▶ 2:42 Asian street noodle from, like ramen from Japan, and pho from Vietnamese, and Thai street noodle. Yeah, so I already have two restaurant in mainland. Yeah, and going to bring up another one in Melrose and another one in the Marlborough also. Yes. Great. Excellent. Sounds great. Awesome. Does anybody have any questions? Councilor Romanul? Not so much a question, I'll just say, appreciate the bravery and confidence it takes to open a small business. I'm grateful for your investment in our city, and looking forward to checking it out. So, with that, I'll make a motion to place on file. Motion to place on file. Second. Motion to place on file made by Councilor Romanul, seconded by Vice Chair Chen.
▶ 3:36 All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. That motion passes. And I just want to say, I'm very excited about Slurp Noodle. My son is very excited, my youngest. He loves any kind of noodle, and I love that you have all different types, like you said, Vietnamese and from Japan. So it's going to be a great addition to our downtown and to Melrose. I think everyone's going to love it. So thank you for being here tonight. This is going to go to full council. You don't need to go to full council, as I mentioned outside. But you're welcome to come if you'd like. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we've now reached the end of our meeting. A motion by unanimous consent to adjourn. Seeing no objections, we are adjourned.