Finale nixes North End cafe plan
But its wholesale dessert biz booms
By Donna Goodison / Turning the Tables | Friday, June 26, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
The economic downturn has been a boon for Finale Desserterie & Bakery’s wholesale business, but it’s prompted the Boston-based chain to shelve the opening of a planned North End location.
Finale had been slated to move into the former Martignetti Liquors building at Salem and Cross streets.
“Spending three quarters of a million dollars to open a new restaurant is a risk,” president and co-founder Paul Conforti said. “We decided that we’d rather stay with our three existing locations and focus on them rather than spreading ourselves too thin.”
Finale has locations at Boston’s Park Plaza, Brookline’s Coolidge Corner and Harvard Square in Cambridge. Its decision to back out of the North End follows the December closing of its Natick Collection desserterie after 15 months.
“When we arrived there, we had visions of the mall being an urban oasis in the suburbs, a place that was active at night,” Conforti said. “But when we realized that wasn’t going to happen, it made sense to exit sooner rather than later.”
But Finale is moving ahead on an expansion into Washington, D.C., through a joint venture with investor Gary Mendel, who’s actively seeking other investors and scouting locations for a first-quarter opening next year.
“D.C. is pretty recession-proof,” Conforti said. “The government is always running, so we’re excited about getting open down there.”
Other restaurants’ recessionary cutbacks, meanwhile, have helped Finale’s wholesale business grow considerably in the last year.
Some eateries have stopped making their own desserts so they can shrink their kitchen staffs, and Finale is filling their dessert orders at the 8,500-square-foot Allston pastry kitchen that it opened last year.
Finale’s wholesale revenue, which amounted to $50,000 in sales last year, will be well more than $1 million this year, according to Conforti.
Finale, meanwhile, is transferring the malt and wine license that it had for the planned North End location to Joe Bono, owner of nearby Al Dente on Salem Street.
Bono is creating a new 40-seat restaurant, tentatively called Spazzo, next door at 111 Salem St. in the space formerly occupied by Trani Ice Cream.
With a menu of sandwiches, pasta, pizza and salads, the contemporary Spazzo will be a more affordable takeout/sitdown option to Bono’s 16-year-old family Italian restaurant.
“It will be a couple of dollars cheaper,” Bono said. “We’re trying to get more affordable foods so people who live here can eat out more often.”
An August opening is planned.
The 34-seat Piattini Gelateria and Cafe will take over 224 Newbury St. in September as a sister location to the Piattini wine cafe that specializes in small plates next door.
“It will be reminiscent of a real Italian coffee shop, except we’re going to serve light bites,” owner Josephine Oliviero Megwa said.
The cafe will serve items such as egg white sandwiches and frittatas for breakfast, sandwiches and salads for lunch and an antipasto-driven menu for dinner. The artisanal gelato will made in Pennsylvania using raw Amish cow milk and seasonal fruits.
Nightclub czar Jack Gateman is taking over the former Zee Bar on Boston’s Tremont Street, but is said to be still refining his concept.
1 comments:
good information. thanks for providing it. keep it up.
Post a Comment