New owner plans to re-open Vintage
Hopes are that long-dormant restaurant will share in Market Square success
WOONSOCKET — A Massachusetts businessman has reached an agreement with Freedom National Bank to purchase the long-shuttered Vintage Restaurant, a prime location in an epicenter of the city’s nightlife economy.
Nicholas Markopoulos said the only thing holding up the sale is the issuance of a liquor license by the city – which was supposed to happen Monday. It didn’t due to a paperwork snafu, but the matter is on track for resolution at the Sept. 4 meeting of the City Council, Markopoulos and city officials say.
The president of Worcester-based Alpha Restaurant Equipment and Supplies, Markopoulos said he aims to resurrect the Vintage as a restaurant, but he won’t be running it. He says he’s already reached an agreement to put it in the hands of Angelo Petropoulos, a chef “with a great resume” who’s been associated with several establishments in Central Massachusetts and Greater Boston.
In addition to running his restaurant equipment business, Markopoulos said he is a real estate investor who has been slowly amassing an assortment of properties, mainly in Worcester and Woonsocket. Before approaching Freedom National Bank about Vintage, he said he acquired nearly 50
units of residential real estate here during the last two years.
“I’ve had my eye on the Vintage restaurant for a couple of years,” Markopoulos told The Call on Wednesday. “It’s a beautiful building – somebody put a lot of work into it. I’m shocked that it hadn’t been sold earlier.”
While he wouldn’t disclose the sale price, Markopoulos said he bought the building primarily as a real estate investment and because “the price was right.” The clincher, though, was Petropoulos, who looked at the building and decided it was a place where he could run a successful restaurant.
“What really convinced me was Angelo,” said Markopoulos. “I actually brought him to look at it. He likes the building. And the price was right.”
Markopoulos said Petropoulos is a schooled chef who’s been previously associated with a number of well-reviewed restaurants in Massachusetts, including a fine-dining spot in Boston’s “The W” hotel that’s focused on Italian-American fare. Markopoulos said Petropoulos is known for launching new restaurants and is still working in the Boston area. He declined to be more specific, however, saying he doesn’t want to jeopardize Petropoulos’ current employment arrangements.
“I think I’ve got the right guy,” he said, adding that Petropoulos has scoped out the local market and has a feel for the city’s blue-collar price points.
Markopoulos said the plan is to reopen the site as a going restaurant quickly – possibly as early as November. He said the restaurant is in fairly good condition, but it will require an interior makeover and some sprucing up on the outside.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Petropoulos said.
Petropoulos said his concept for the restaurant will be casual, fine dining, with a focus on Italian-American cuisine, and a few Greek specialties on the menu.
“It’s still early,” he said, “but it’s going to be casual dining, an Italian-American restaurant. The menu is going to include some Greek specialties, but that’s not the main concept. It’s going to have a nice bar concept and we are aware of the town, we respect the town and prices are going to be where they’re supposed to be.”
Located at 2 South Main St., the Vintage occupies one of the major corner parcels of Market Square – already a mecca for the weekend dine-out crowd. River Falls Restaurant and Ye Old English Fish & Chips – among the city’s most popular restaurants – share the turf.
Vintage was built as a restaurant and had operated under several different owners since the structure was erected in 2005. The original owners were a group of investors who ran a popular seasonal restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard known as The Wharf, and they turned to the city in hopes of developing a year-round restaurant clientele.
They had planned to refurbish the now-defunct Bravo Restaurant, which had operated for years in Market Square. But when the original buyers began shoring up the site, they concluded that it was structurally unsound. They decided to raze the Bravo and start from scratch.
The structure that became Vintage was purposefully designed to function as a modern restaurant with a look that mimics the region’s mill-influenced architectural heritage. Local architect Dan Peloquin worked on the design with the original investors.
The first restaurant in the new real estate turned out to be temporary, but some of the original investors hung onto the real estate under the corporate name USR Realty, which had continued to own it until 2016, according to the assessor’s database.
The property last operated as a going restaurant – Vintage – more than four years ago, when it was under the management of the proprietors of Federal Hill’s Blue Grotto, which closed around the same time.
The property fell into foreclosure and had been controlled by Smithfield-based Freedom National Bank since August 2016.
With roughly 6,300 square feet of floor space, the brick and glass building is situated on a parcel of roughly 2,430 square feet –a package the city currently assessed at a value of $395,400.
The sale of the parcel was brokered by Bruce Burlingame of the Century 21 Crossroads, 329 Park Ave.
“It’s quite a place,” said Burlingame. “And it’s got a lot of potential.”