Select Board airs concerns over Tavern restaurant plan

In a sometimes heated exchange, Select Board members raised concerns Tuesday about the status and financial plans for The Woods, the restaurant due to open at the Josiah Smith Tavern, a project that has been in the making for nearly two decades.

Jay Valenta, the president of the Friends of the Josiah Smith Tavern, and Brian Piccini, the CEO of the restaurant group developing The Woods, presented the current status and timeline for the Select Board. According to Piccini, they are targeting November 2026 for an opening date.

Select Board Chair Lise Revers raised concerns over a lack of construction plans and a budget. She also voiced a lack of confidence in Piccini’s financial ability to complete the building project, citing a Boston Business Journal story published earlier on Tuesday reporting that Piccini is selling both of the restaurant group’s Boston Chops steakhouse locations.

“I think this is a concern for the town because the reasons for that sale are unclear,” she said. “I have a responsibility to the town to safeguard this asset that we have and to work towards getting a restaurant in there.”

Piccini told the board that he is selling Boston Chops in order to focus on The Woods.

“I’m not selling restaurants because I’m in any financial position. I only have limited time and energy on this planet Earth and I want to put my energy into this project,” he said. “I did this so I can put more time and energy into the town.”

Thomas Palmer, a Select Board member who previously served on a working group tasked with determining use of both the tavern and the old library, said the Friends of the Josiah Smith Tavern were there to keep the town from getting involved in the restaurant management business and to protect the restaurateur from town politics. The Select Board designated The Friends of the Josiah Smith Tavern as the preferred custodian of the space in 2016.

“I just don’t know if you’re ever going to be confident until the doors open,” he said.

Revers said she wanted the financial information to ensure Piccini could meet the obligations of opening the restaurant.

When asked by Revers for Piccini’s financial information, Valenta said the group would not share it.

“We’re not obligated to do it, number one, and number two, it’s shared with us confidentially,” he said.

According to Valenta and fellow Friends member George Hanson, the Friends of Josiah Smith Tavern last reviewed Piccini’s financial records in January 2024. They did not disclose the nature of the process, but said that they remain confident in Piccini and his team’s ability to complete the project.

Revers raised concerns about how long the project is taking, a worry echoed by both Palmer and John McDonald.

“I’ve been working on this for 10 years. I’m very frustrated with the pace of progress on this,” Palmer said. “I’m more focused on how we focus on getting this to move faster.”

Revers has requested a budget, construction documents and a permitting schedule from Piccini.

Piccini and Valenta said the documents have been slow to arrive because this is a new venture for the town and there is no established process to follow when putting a restaurant into a historic, deed-restricted building. In addition, Historic New England has to approve every aspect of the designs because the organization holds a historic deed over the site.

“We are assuming it’s only going to take another month to get final approval and permits,” Piccini said. He added that construction plans were about halfway done.

There is no set budget because the construction plans have yet to be finalized, according to Valenta and Piccini.

“Updating the budget at this point without having the project scope confirmed is a little bit of putting the cart before the horse,” Valenta said.

McDonald also commented on the length of the project.

“The sooner you open up, the quicker the return will be,” he said. “It just seems to me that it’s taking way too long, and you’re unwilling to provide even some construction documents the Planning Board has asked for.”

Valenta said the documents are not ready to be produced because some critical items that will impact the design still need to be resolved with the Planning Board and Historic New England.

How did we get here?

What to do with the tavern has been a question for the town government for almost two decades. In 2007, according to the town website, the tavern’s exterior was rehabilitated and the town began to look for a new usage for both the tavern and the old library, which is now the Arts and Innovation Center. A restaurant was proposed for the tavern, but the necessary restoration funds were voted down at a special town meeting in 2009.

The Friends proposed its reuse plan in 2016. The tavern building would be subleased to the Weston Historical Society and the Weston Forest & Trail Association. The second-floor ballroom would be used as an event and meeting space, while the barn and the connector would be leased for use as a restaurant.

Three years after the proposal, the town voted to approve Community Preservation Act funds to go towards the restoration. The Josiah Smith Tavern opened as a rental space in August 2024. The restaurant build is the financial responsibility of the group moving into the space.

The Select Board plans to meet with Piccini and the Friends later in the year, but a date was not set.