Regional Business Roundup: Cafe Assisi, Patriot Place Expansion and More

Wrentham

Cafe Assisi: A Wrentham Mainstay for a Decade

Derek DiBiase has run the Assisi Café in Wrentham for about a decade, but he said he’s been working in the restaurant business for a lot longer.

“I grew up in an Italian family,” he said. “A lot of our great experience together took place around the dinner table. It was like a community kitchen, all my friends would come over.”

Foxborough

Kraft Group Presents Plans to Expand Patriot Place
Summary:
Expressing a desire to expand its business opportunities at Patriot Place, Kraft Group representatives unveiled plans to the planning board Thursday to add a second hotel, “quick-serve” restaurant and a “daily needs” retailer adjacent to Route 1 complex's North Marketplace.
Dan Krantz, the Kraft Group’s director of site development, briefed the board Thursday on plans to develop an approximately 4,500 square foot "quick-serve restaurant," a 14,000 to 16,000 square foot “daily needs retailer," and a 125 to 150-room hotel in the parking lot adjacent to Route 1 just south of the existing Renaissance Hotel. The quick-serve restaurant won't require a liquor license.
The plan, according to Foxborough Town Planner Sharon Wason, would reduce game day parking by roughly 900 spaces but the company’s traffic monitoring plan submitted in December “indicates that it should not be an issue.”
The purpose of the meeting was to give the town advanced notice of the Kraft Group’s intent to file site plan approval documents for the three proposed buildings adjacent to Patriot Place's North Marketplace.
Wason said the Kraft Group will “complete leasing arrangements, finalize designs and plans and return to the planning board for site plan approval within a 30 to 60 day window.”
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Mansfield

 Art and Soul Tattoo Offers a History in Ink

Summary: Anna Michener started the Art and Soul Tattoo shop three years ago, but she said her love of art has gone on a lot longer than that.
“I’ve always drawn my whole life,” she said. “There are a lot of artists in the family, so I was always encouraged.”
She said she started her tattoo career at the Altered Images shop in Cumberland, Rhode Island, but she said the work was less than creative.
“I apprenticed at the bottom,” she said. “You clean toilets, go on coffee runs and do all the things that aren’t the glamorous parts of the job you don’t see on TV.”
She said she practiced all the time on whatever she could find, which was usually an orange or a grapefruit.
“Every apprenticeship is different,” she said. “It depends on the person, basically however much you impress your teacher will help get you get to the next phase.”
She said she also sometimes did her early work on some extremely good friends.
“They’re still good friends, so that’s a good sign,” she said.



Easton

 

Summary:
Governor Deval Patrick and the Mashpee Womponoag Tribe reportedly close to finalizing an agreement for a $500 million casino 10 miles from Easton on the intersection of Route 140 and Route 24 in Taunton.
Patrick said Thursday that his administration has reached an agreement-in-principle on a revised casino compact with the Mashpee Womponoag tribe, according to the Boston Herald.


Norton

Barrowsville Station in Norton a Family Tradition

Albert Brazao has had a long time in the food industry, even before he was born you might say. Brazao said his father was his inspiration, as he was a chef all of Brazao’s life and beyond.

He took over the Barrowsville Station in 2007, after moving in and changing around what was at the time strictly a liquor store.

“I drove around the neighborhood and I thought that if we put in food it would attract a lot more people,” Brazao said. “When we bought this place in May of 2007, a year later the kitchen was open and ready to go.”

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Attleboro

Colonel Blackinton Inn: A Taste of History in Attleboro

Summary: The Colonel Blackinton Inn has stood in Attleboro for more than 150 years, and owner Antony Canova said he wants the long-standing icon to continue. The Attleboro treasure serves as a place to stay overnight, or just to stop by for a good meal.

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Seekonk-Swansea

Fruitland in Seekonk a Local Tradition

Summary: Dave Foster of Quality Fruitland in Seekonk said he is the fourth generation of his family to run the shop for more than 56 years.

“My great grandfather and grandfather opened it in 1957,” he said.

Foster said the main difference between his shop and a chain market would have to be the local connections. He said they buy as much as they can locally, as the seasons allow.

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