Door's about to swing open for buying alcohol in town

(GLOBE FILE PHOTO)

Care to wet your whistle?

Lincoln is on track to shed its dry status this spring, when the first restaurant in town to serve alcoholic beverages expects to open on Lincoln Road. And there are plans in the works for a wine and cheese shop nearby.

After a year of working through government approvals, Madison's Restaurant is awaiting final state Alcohol Beverages Control Commission review of its application to serve beer and wine in its Mall at Lincoln Station space. The person who wants to open the cheese shop across Lincoln Road will be asking Town Meeting next month to approve a full liquor license, which includes spirits.

Lincoln is not the only area community recently dropping its ban on alcohol sales. Last summer, the Omni Foods supermarket in Weston became the town's first purveyor of alcoholic beverages, after gaining a license to sell wine. And restoration plans for a Weston landmark, the historic Josiah Smith Tavern, include a proposal for an alcohol sales license, but a town official said it could be several years before it opens.

With Lincoln making the transition, there are fewer than a dozen dry towns remaining in the state, most of them clustered in Western Massachusetts and on Martha's Vineyard.

In Lincoln, Madison's is planning to serve a contemporary American menu, according to owner Sam Cannarozzi, 52, of Acton, a 20-year restaurant veteran who also owns Serafina in Concord.

"We want to create a place where the community feels welcomed and they think of it more as gathering place to meet socially, talk, than just a place just to eat," Cannarozzi said.

Town Meeting voted in March 2006 to authorize selectmen to seek legislative approval of the beer and wine license. Since then it has been moving through the various necessary approvals.

Cannarozzi said he wouldn't try to expand Madison's license to a full liquor license until he could demonstrate that the restaurant is a positive addition to the town.

"We're taking baby steps here. I'm very, very happy with what the town has allowed, and at some point down the road we may seek to see if we can expand that to a full liquor license," he said. "It's my feeling that once the town sees everything going smoothly and that it is an asset to the town - I believe once we reach that point they will entertain the notion for maybe going to a full liquor license."

The new wine and cheese shop would be in the ground floor of 144-146 Lincoln Road. The building is owned by Thomas R. Blakely, a local real estate broker and former restaurateur who said he got the idea, in part, from a survey asking residents what they'd like to see in town.

"A lot of them checked off 'wine and cheese shop,' " Blakely said.

Blakely held a gathering last month at the shop's proposed location, serving pairings of wine and cheese to visitors.

A country wine and cheese shop sounds like a simple concept, but in a small community like Lincoln, it has to be done just right, Blakely said.

"The population is so light you need to have something the people are going to support or you're going to go out of business," Blakely said. "This is not a congested area like Cambridge or Waltham, where you have such a population that your margin for error is great."

Blakely said he wants to bring in a "fabulous array of artisan cheeses" and quality wine and spirits, and has teamed with a professional cheese purveyor, Robert Aguilera, 32, of Brookline. Aguilera would help run the day-to-day operations of the store and find the best cheeses, he said.

All that assumes the shop can obtain the alcohol license, a process that could extend into next year.

As the next step, Blakely is to make a presentation to selectmen on his Town Meeting petition article, which would have the board start the process of gaining legislative approval for a full retail liquor license. If it clears Beacon Hill, the proposal would go back before Lincoln voters and then selectmen. The license's last hurdle would be the state ABCC, which runs background checks on applicants before giving final approval.

Town officials said talk of ending Lincoln's ban on alcohol sales has been going on for a while.

"The idea of a wine and cheese shop has its origins in a community planning session held about 10 years ago," said Town Administrator Timothy S. Higgins. "It's a use that seemed attractive to the townspeople."

Higgins added, however, that Blakely's desire to sell liquor as well as beer and wine takes things a step further.

"It remains to be seen whether the voters will think it a good idea," he said.

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.