Zoning board greenlights new restaurant at Revere site

The restaurant will be located on the main floor of the rolling mill, pictured at right. (Jay Turner photo)

The full version of this story appears in the August 22 print edition. ~

Opting for a wait-and-see approach to the parking dynamics at the soon-to-be-opened Paul Revere Heritage Site, the Canton Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously earlier this month to approve a site plan and special permit for Northern Spy — a new restaurant slated to open this fall in the historic Revere rolling mill building.

After voicing significant initial concerns at their July 25 hearing over the limited number of spaces in the main lot adjacent to the mill — a lot that would also be open to visitors of the new public park on site — ZBA members went out in the interim and walked the property, took a closer look at plans for additional parking, and returned on August 8 with a renewed confidence that it all could work. Their only caveat, which they included as a condition of the approval, was to require that employees of the restaurant park along Revere Street.

“In my mind the simplest thing, the most common-sense thing to do now, is only just to restrict employee parking to Revere Street and leave it alone,” said ZBA Chairman Greg Pando. “[We can] reserve the right to modify or amend in the future should there be a problem … then we can come back and put our heads together and address it.”

At the initial hearing, Town Administrator Charlie Aspinwall had appeared before the board and outlined a variety of on-street parking solutions, including spaces that could be created along Revere and Neponset streets as well as the new main roadway within the site, Revolution Way.

Victor Del Vecchio, former selectman and now chair of the Revere Heritage Commission, also addressed the parking concerns at the August 8 hearing, suggesting that there should be plenty of spaces when all improvements are completed — up to 200 in the immediate vicinity, he said — to accommodate the various public and private uses planned for the site. If any problems did arise, Del Vecchio said the town and its partners would be sure to promptly address them.

“We’ll just make it work, because there’s so much riding on this,” he said of the project, which has been billed not only as a future crown jewel in downtown Canton, but a regional tourist attraction centered on Paul Revere’s legacy as an industrial pioneer.

“We want to put the restaurant in as good a position as possible,” Del Vecchio added. “We want folks to come to the park and go to the restaurant … and we want it to succeed because ultimately, as you know, we want a museum in the [Revere] barn and that’s what we’re working toward … in addition to the beautiful seven acres of open parkland that we have down there now.”

Echoing Del Vecchio’s remarks about the park, Pando said he’s gained a new appreciation for the site since walking the grounds and “can hardly wait” for it to open so the public can get a closer look. “It’s breathtaking,” he said. “It’s absolutely breathtaking.”

Pando added that the restaurant, which will serve “comfort food” in a classic, New England-style setting with décor steeped in local history, is critical to the overall success of the project and the zoning board wants to see it succeed.

“As we’ve said before, Canton is a pro-business community and we’re always looking for new partners, and we’re very excited about this,” Pando said, adding that the board did not want to put up any unnecessary “roadblocks.”

Restaurateur Daniel Myers, who also owns Loyal Nine in Cambridge, said Northern Spy will utilize high-quality ingredients but offer classic faire in a relaxed setting. He added that it’s the kind of restaurant that a patron could attend on a daily basis — perhaps for a burger at the bar — with a target market that is “quite broad” …

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