note from last night's Sacco's/Flatbread meeting

[ron_newman]

I went to last night's neighborhood meeting on the subject of Sacco's Bowl-Haven and Flatbread Company. The meeting took place in Sacco's (noisy) pool hall, and lasted about an hour. On hand were JP Sacco (co-owner of Bowl-Haven), John Meehan (Flatbread co-founder), Peter Quinn (architect), Rich DiGirolamo (lawyer) and Rebekah Gewirtz (Ward 6 alderman).

Meehan proposes to convert the pool hall into a pizza restaurant seating about 125. He would keep the rightmost 10 of the current 15 bowling lanes. The leftmost 5 lanes would become a bar seating about 28 people, plus food preparation and storage areas. They will apply for a full liquor license, which could be either an existing unused license or one of several newly authorized by the state legislature in a home-rule petition. They promise to close by midnight each day, and not to request a 2 am closing in the future.

This use of an existing building is allowed as of right in the Central Business District zone. It still needs to go before the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals because the new use requires 6 more parking spaces than the (grandfathered) existing use. Since the building covers nearly 100% of its lot area, there is no possibility of providing such parking on site. The liquor license requires a public hearing before the Licensing Commission.

Flatbread would lease the building from Sacco for 20 years, with an option to buy after (or within?) the first 5 years. They'd like to finish the permitting process by September and then spend about three months in construction, ideally keeping some of the bowling lanes open while construction occurs. (They don't know yet whether that will actually be feasible.) They will uncover existing skylights and add new ones, build either a 'green roof' or a white reflective one, and meet LEED standards. They may replace the current semi-opaque front window glass with transparent glass, but otherwise won't change the façade.

All beers will be on tap, none in bottles. They expect 80% of their revenue to come from food, 20% from alcohol. (They apparently didn't figure bowling revenue into these percentages.) Their existing restaurants are family-friendly and this one will be so as well. They card everyone who looks under 40, and they've only twice been cited at any of their locations for underage serving, both times in 'sting' operations. All profits from Tuesday night business are donated to a local charity. They expect to provide about 45 jobs, most of them to local Somerville residents.

Some residents at the meeting expressed concern about 'too many restaurants' in Davis Square, raising the spectre of rodent infestation. Others raised concern about deliveries (there is no loading dock, but they'll try to have just one delivery each day), trash (will be stored in the building, no external dumpster), and parking.

John Meehan gave out his e-mail address ( Johnm@flatbreadcompany.com ) and business phone (603-926-9401) for anyone who has further questions. They are tentatively going before the Planning Board on Thursday 6/25, but it's possible this will be deferred.

If you'd like to try their food, their nearest existing restaurant to Somerville is on Route 62 in Bedford, at the Burlington line.

Comments

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it's not a burrito place!

I happen to like their food. Sometimes the service can be a bit slow, but the two times we had problems (our server just seemed to vanish) the managers were quite responsive.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I work down the street from the location on Route 62. I like the food...I hate going at lunchtime though because it is so packed due to all the office parks nearby.

[jennyelfenmass.livejournal.com]

I agree, the food is tasty, and that place is crowded at noon.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

They're trying for LEED certification and a green or white roof? Holy cow. That's great to see happening. (I'd expect it'll end up a white roof, given the fact that it's retrofitting an existing structure, but that's still better than more urban heat island.)

[ron_newman]

They want to meet the LEED standards, but not actually pay for certification which they think would not be a good use of money. A green roof is possible if they determine that it can support the weight of plantings, but a white one is more likely.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Unofficially meeting the LEED standards is a great idea, and I hope it catches on. The certification itself is a big waste of money. For the Cambridge library expansion, I think the certification is going to cost $100,000, *not* including any of the actual energy-saving features which they were including anyway.

[smammy]

$100K for certification seems like way too much, but I would worry about non-certified buildings claiming the have met the standard "unofficially".

Second green roof ideas

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Just read an article about white roofs (Fast Company magazine? I forget) and the energy savings are huge for something so simple.

[sshugars.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Ron for your detailed recap. It was a really interesting meeting, but I was in the back so I had a hard time hearing everything. One point I thought was particularly interesting - I believe John said that if at any point they decided to leave the space (whether while leasing or after buying) Flatbread would pay to restore the 5 lanes they are taking over.

[ron_newman]

Yep, I forgot to mention that. Though I don't know how they could really be held to that promise if they buy the building outright.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update, Ron!

I fully support this project and think that it is the better of the several possibilities (closing altogether, a community center, etc).

I think that Flatbread will be a good addition to the neighborhood and to Bowl-haven (which is a neighborhood treasure, in my opinion).

[ron_newman]

I agree. Don't know if all the other neighbors do, however.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

faceless somerville neighbors only ever want the status quo (and only if it is very very quiet and they never know its there). we should call davis square nimby-ville!

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

Flatbread came to Amesbury a little after I was in high school. My family loves the Flatbread there, and they seem to be good citizens. I believe some charity/organization my sister was in raised some money (probably on one of those Tuesdays) there.

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

Awesome! A friend of mine lives near the one in Amesbury, and always talks about how much he likes it. That'd be great to have one in Davis, *and* without losing the bowling too!

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Davis needs a really good pizza place. Hopefully they deliver too.

[progressnerd.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would hate to see the number of bowling lanes reduced by 1/3. It gets pretty crowded in there at times, especially on weekend nights, and it would become even harder to get a lane. I would hope that at least the remaining lanes would be renovated. When I visited the Flatbread Company in Portland, ME, I did love the pizza.

[ron_newman]

I understand, but I think the realistic choice here is between losing 5 of the lanes and losing all of them. The Sacco family really does want to get out of the bowling business, and other potential buyers might gut or even demolish the building.