Five restaurants closing, or not opening at all, in Swansea

Several liquor licenses could become available

SWANSEA – In February, the Board of Selectmen agonized choosing between an established market restaurant and an emerging Mexican pub both eager for the town's one remaining liquor license.

“Apologies,” Selectman Steven Kitchin said. “We don’t have two.”

The other 17 all-alcohol restaurant licenses were all committed and in use.

Not anymore.

Pretty soon, there could be up to five available.

CASA CANCUN

Casa Cancun, which won that last available license and was slated to renovate and open at the long-vacant, run-down Burger King near the Target Plaza, has pulled out.

“My client regrets that it will not be able to go forward with this project and locate a restaurant in Swansea,” reads a Sept. 6 letter from the lawyer of Jose Antonio Santillan, who told selectmen he was looking to open his fourth family Mexican restaurant in Massachusetts.

For seven months the license and state approval had been hanging with selectmen wringing their hands after being told it might open in three.

KENT'S

Then on Sunday, Sept. 16, popular Kent’s Restaurant at Route 6 near Bushee Road closed suddenly.

“Established 1983, where friends meet,” the Kent’s sign on a post has read for decades at a casual eatery known for soups, seafood and family dinners.

The day it closed, “I heard it was packed,” said one town official who did not want to be named.

Now, cardboard signs taped on picture windows facing the rumpled parking lot at 1675 G.A.R. Highway read: “Closed. No entry. Police take notice.”

According to the town accountant's office, the business is up to date on its taxes that in fiscal 2018 were just over $11,000. The 3,400-square-foot interior includes a dining room and two lounges. Chairs turned on top of the tables could be seen through the windows two weeks after Kent's was last open.

The longtime owner, Donna Leonard, who lives next door at 60 Old Farm River Road, declined to return a phone call or come to the door. A young man answering said Leonard did not plan to talk about closing Kent’s.

But there is already interest in the property.

“We are in talks with the owner of Kent’s. We are interested,” said David Gorman, owner of two Tiverton family restaurants.

"It’s very far down the road,” Gorman said, adding that his family could buy the property for a third restaurant “if everything goes well.”

Gorman, the general manager, his brother, Jim Gorman, the head chef, and their parents opened Sakonnet River Grille at 524 Main Road three years ago, and have operated Four Corners Grille for 20 years.

Three days after Kent's closed, attorney David Baker filed an attachment for $25,000 to the Kent’s Inc. liquor license in Fall River District Court. He filed it on behalf of Edward I. Pettine Inc. Both that accounting firm and Baker’s law office are located at 10 North Main St., Fall River.

Thomas Pettine called Donna Leonard “a wonderful woman” and said she’d been a client of their accounting firm. He said she’d been talking about selling the restaurant “for years.”

He referred comments about the circumstances of the attachment to Baker. Baker did not return phone calls.

RUBY TUESDAY, UNWINED

At the town administrator’s office, Janet Helley manages the various alcohol licenses for the Board of Selectmen, which has authority to issue and revoke them.

Selectmen are expected to question several alcohol license holders about their plans during one of the upcoming meetings, probably in October, Healey said.

The fee for a full liquor license is $1,000, and the annual renewals are coming up in November.

At the lagging Swansea Mall, with stores vacant, Sears long gone and nearby Toys ‘R’ Us bankrupt and closed, two other all-alcohol restaurant licenses have gone months without use.

Ruby Tuesday, a chain restaurant, made the Swansea location one of three it closed in the region, the other two in Rhode Island. It closed Aug. 27, Helley said.

UnWined, A Wine Bistro, officially closed June 1, but has not been open since March, Sandra Watkinson, the manager, told the Board of Selectman when questioned briefly at its Aug. 14 meeting.

Watkinson said the bistro had been open for eight years but was victimized by heavy floods and damages from the nor'easter in early March to the premises at the mall entry, opposite Ruby Tuesday.

“At this point we are looking around town of Swansea for another location,” Watkinson told selectmen.

“You are actively looking for another location?” Chairman Derek Heim followed up.

“We are,” the manager said.

Heim told the manager the board expected to move forward quickly upon receiving their business plan.

"I have several people who are interested in a license," Helley told The Herald News.

She did not say if the Noons family that owns the Harvest Market on Route 6 and competed for the license with the Mexican restaurant proposal was one of them. That family has produced agricultural products in Swansea for several generations.

When Selectman Christopher Carreiro asked Watkinson if UnWined was looking to transfer the liquor license for a fee, she said no.

Selectmen directed her to present them with a business plan in 60 days during the five-minute discussion.

According to Town Counsel Arthur Frank, these licenses are “not a possession of interest,” but a privilege under the state law.

When a restaurant with a liquor license is sold, most banks regard such sales as an asset purchase that can include the license, Frank said.

A transfer of a liquor license after a sale, he said, would require approval by the selectmen and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

Frank stressed that the Board of Selectmen “wants the licenses to be used.”

He noted there has been preliminary discussion about establishing an “economic development overlay district” where adding designated liquor licenses could spur development. Fall River used such a method for an arts overlay district when Frank was corporation counsel under former Mayor Robert Correia.

Regarding the prospects of several licenses becoming available in a short period, Frank said, “I see that as currency to jump start an area.”

Frank was perplexed by Kent’s closing. “The parking lot was always mobbed,” Frank said. “Restaurants don’t just close in the middle of the night.”

UMI JAPANESE STEAK HOUSE

Joanne and Danny Tai, owners of Umi Japanese Steak House on GAR Highway, have announced that they are closing their business. Their last day open will be Nov. 19.

The Tais have had talks with a few potential new owners, including one considering a breakfast restaurant, but have not made any decisions. Umi Japanese Steak House has one of Swansea’s 17 all-alcohol licenses.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.