New Hayes Square Restaurant Will Feature Wood-Fired Oven, Craft Beer

[UPDATE Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. To correct address]

A new restaurant may be opening this fall in Hayes Square.

Business partners John Paine and Michael Cooney announced at Tuesday night’s Charlestown Neighborhood Council meeting that they are looking to open the business at 5-7 Moulton St., next to McCarthy Bros. Liquors.

Rich McCarthy introduced the pair at the meeting and said he owned both the liquor store and the vacant building next to it, which formerly housed Tuttles Cleaners. McCarthy will be leasing the space to the new restaraunteurs.

With about 65 seats, the new restaurant will offer American cuisine, craft beer and wine, with food cooked in a wood-fired oven, Paine said. He called the location “not expensive and not cheap” and said they hoped to include items from local farms, artisanal cheeses and organic wines among the restaurant’s offerings.

“We are just starting to submit the plans now,” Paine said, adding that the pair wanted to appear before the Neighborhood Council now because the council would not be meeting again until September.

The project will not include major exterior renovations but it will involve some interior work, such as the addition of handicapped-accessible bathrooms, and some zoning changes, Paine said.

When asked the name of their venture, Cooney said it was so far “undisclosed,” joking he hadn’t even told his mother the name yet.

On the alcohol side, the restaurant will feature about 24 draft beer lines as well as imported wines, with a focus on quality as well as affordability, Cooney noted.

He said the goal was to make a place where people could enjoy a “certain level of quality without paying $50 apiece to come in and have a bite to eat.”

The restaurant will tentatively be open seven days per week for lunch and dinner, until 11 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday, Paine said.

He said they hoped to open by November.

The CNC Basic Services Committee will be scheduling a public meeting on the project in the near future to provide the community with an opportunity to ask questions.