Another Beer Works community meeting tomorrow (Monday 10/7), 6 pm

[ron_newman]

A second meeting to discuss the Somerville Beer Works proposal will take place tomorrow (Monday, October 7) at 6 pm on-site at 240 Elm Street.

The Davis Action Group has posted notes from the September 23 meeting.

[Earlier discussions: Sept 25 | Sept 21 | Sept 13]

ETA 10/9: for notes on the meeting, see teko's comment below, and also this Somerville Patch article.

Comments

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

That's not a lot of time to finish this "terrifying hamburger" costume.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Also on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1nws6y/somerville_beer_works_community_meeting_tonight/

[thedonk.livejournal.com]

Can anyone who was there post an update/recap?
(I'm sorry I'm always the one asking this. Childcare issues prevent me from going to most evening meetings.)

[teko.livejournal.com]

I added a recap below :)

[ron_newman]

Chris Orchard from Somerville Patch was there, and posted this report.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Could some rational people please go and support Beer Works?

Also, best quote from reddit conversation:
"Bottom line is that a Solar-powered Shelter for Bulimic Parrots isn't going to foot the bill for a lease."

[teko.livejournal.com]

I was only there for part of the meeting (about 2/3 of it) but here's my quick summary:
- It was well-attended, with every seat taken and a few people standing in back.
- The owner of Beer Works gave a quick summary of their plans. The current plan is that Beer Works would take up the whole first floor, with an entrance on Chester Street. Crunch Gym would take the whole second floor. Dunkin' Donuts would move to the left of Beer Works, next to Buffalo Exchange.
- They displayed the new concept rendering of the building, which everyone agreed was a huge improvement over the one they showed before. The huge billboard on the corner was gone, replaced with big open bay windows. The second floor windows were opened up, the stonework and copper on the current building were retained, and the signage was classy and minimal. Alderman Gewirtz was visibly relieved, saying the older design was "yecch!"
- It was clarified that Beer Works would seek to close at 1am, that they'd serve food up until closing, would not host live music, and their menu featured plenty of vegetarian items. The owner was proud of the fact that they have a scratch kitchen and make all of their burgers and fries entirely in-house.
- One resident asked if there would be TVs, and the owner of Beer Works said that yes, they intend to have TVs showing local sports with the sound off. This seemed to really concern some of the older attendees, with one resident complaining that she didn't want any 'sports bars' in the area 'blaring sports at you', but she also admitted she'd never actually been in a sports bar. The owner of Beer Works made it clear that they're far from being a sports bar. The comparison was made between the way Foundry shows sports.
- One vocal attendee complained that this sort of venue offered nothing for older people and stated that they feared Davis Square was becoming an area catering mostly to young professionals and college students. The Beer Works owner replied that most of their customers range from 30-50. The resident also complained that Beer Works wouldn't fit in Davis Square, since everything else here is unique and local, which got a lot of giggles in the audience.
- The subject of parking was brought up, but the Beer Works owner said it honestly didn't concern him, given that their two most popular locations -- Salem and Fenway -- have no available parking, and this new location would be a few blocks from the Red Line. Alderman Gewirtz said that she'd been talking to the city about proposals to run shuttles between Alewife and Davis Square in the evenings, and also to utilize the very large underground parking lot at Harvard Vanguard, which is currently vacant in evenings.
- Alderman Gewirtz clarified that the alternate proposal of bringing in a Burger King, Massage Envy, etc wasn't off the table, but that nobody seemed to really want it. A small grocery store is eyeing the location but is concerned about load-in and the floor plan.

[ron_newman]

- Beer Works would take up the whole first floor, with an entrance on Chester Street. Crunch Gym would take the whole second floor

I'm pretty sure that Beer Works entrance would be on Elm Street. Also, Crunch Gym would take about 1/3 of the first floor (the back part) for free-weights. This way, Beer Works doesn't need to deal with the sounds of weight training above them. An employee of CVS talked about the noise he has to suffer from Boston Sports Club above him.

[teko.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK. The Beer Works entrance had been on Chester in the earlier rendering, and at one point the owner said something about 'keeping entrance traffic off of Elm', so I thought it was still around the corner.

[ron_newman]

I'm going to check with Rebekah Gewirtz on this, since we have different memories. Maybe we can get a copy of the façade picture and floor plans that were shown at the meeting?

[teko.livejournal.com]

That'd be ideal. I didn't get a good look at the floor plan rendering. It'd make more sense for the entrance to be on Elm or at the corner, so you're likely right.

[ron_newman]

The Somerville Patch article includes this photo, which appears to show only windows and no doors on Chester Street. (On the other hand, the photo also shows the Somerville Beer Works sign only on Chester, not on Elm.)

Everyone at the meeting liked this façade much better than the previous proposal.

[ron_newman]

- proposals to run shuttles between Alewife and Davis Square in the evenings

I heard that, too, and didn't understand it at all. Why would someone take a shuttle bus instead of the Red Line? If Beer Works closes at 1 am, its patrons can still catch an outbound train back to Alewife.

[teko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seemed sort of goofy to me, too. The only thing I can think is that a free shuttle would be more attractive than paying a Red Line fare if you're parking at Alewife, but that's sort of splitting hairs. I think opening up the Harvard Vanguard lot would be good, but this is a beer venue we're talking about, so it'd make more sense to focus on the nearby T.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Yeah, $7 parking plus $4 round trip per person is a bit of money for such a short T trip.

A shuttle bus would be expensive for the city. And it would take longer than the T even when there's no traffic, and would take *much* longer when Route 16 and the Alewife roadways have their typical evening jam.

Maybe the city or local businesses could give out free round trip CharlieTickets to customers instead. Or work to improve frequencies on the existing T bus routes to Davis.

[ron_newman]

The interested grocer now owns the Winthrop Marketplace, and would probably create a similar store in Davis Square. I'd actually prefer this over Beer Works, if it's financially feasible.

[teko.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see them open a location here, definitely.

[ron_newman]

I'll add that the crowd this time around was respectful and polite, and was neither solidly against Beer Works nor solidly for it.

Carol Dempkowski said that she had been "misquoted" by the reporter who said that she had called the Beer Works menu "terrifying". However, nobody got to ask her for any more clarification, as she had to scoot out to attend an Alderman-at-Large candidates' forum across town at 7.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

If I remember from the first meeting, she didn't call the menu terrifying. She was pointing at the architectural drawing, which looked like the building was covered in white plastic and mirrors...it was terrifying. The new look is much, much better.

[emannths.livejournal.com]

- The subject of parking was brought up

Other than an empty space, isn't any successful business going to have approximately the same parking issues? I don't get why this is relevant. If anything, I'd think the presence of alcohol would decrease the demand for parking relative to other potential businesses (e.g., retail or grocery).

[teko.livejournal.com]

The rep. from Beer Works said essentially the same thing, that parking will be an issue for any potential businesses in the Square, and that it's really the city's problem, not his. He said something to the tune of, "I can't magically make parking appear." As he said, given that only one of his Beer Works restaurants has any parking available at all anyway, it's not something he's really concerned about.