Mezcal restaurant to move to former 99 Pub
WORCESTER — After nearly a decade on Major Taylor Boulevard, downtown restaurant Mezcal Tequila Cantina is moving to a new location.
Next year the restaurant will move to 11 East Central St., former home of the Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub.
The restaurant’s lease at 30 Major Taylor Blvd. ends in March, Michael Covino, president of Niche Hospitality Group said on Thursday, during a meeting of the city License Commission. Niche Hospitality Group operates the Mezcal Tequila Cantina, along with the Fix Burger Bar and Bocado Tapas Wine Bar.
Bocado Tapas Wine Bar expanded its site in July when Covino purchased the 2,500 square-foot building next to the restaurant on Winter Street.
During the Licensing Commission meeting, Covino said the Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub is already undergoing “deep renovation(s)” and that Mezcal should be ready to open there by April 1.
With financial help also coming from donors, the Willoughbys equipped the kitchen with new merchandise, and carved out an outdoor area in front of the diner with a grant from local foundation ReImagine North of Main. The names of the donors and previous owners are placed on plaques on the front side of the bar and the diner’s five booths.
After months of “scrubbing all the grease out” and rearranging the kitchen to be in the back of the diner and adding a fresh coat of paint to the ceiling among other changes, the Willoughbys opened the doors to the diner in October 2021.
“I wanted to create the restaurant that I wanted to eat at,” said Willoughby. “It was to take on the classic diner dishes and elevate them with better ingredients, better preparation, making everything in-house as much as possible, making my own corned beef, using really good bacon, ham, sausage, great dairy, local eggs.”
When asked to describe their take on diner food, Willoughby did so in the best way they know — by cooking.
They prepared what they called Baby Thyme Potatoes, a more elegant take on home fries, using baby potatoes which they boil, deep-fry them in sunflower oil and season with kosher salt and thyme. While the classic home fries are still on the menu, Willoughby said patrons have enjoyed the thymeseasoned potatoes as a side to the classic Moran Square breakfast with two eggs, meat and toast.
“I try to be simplistic in my playing style here,” said Willoughby, “implementing color wherever possible, but just try to make the food look good, appetizing.
“People eat with their eyes first.” Aside from the work that Willoughby puts into their culinary career, they also have a background in music, earning a degree in music education from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2010.
Artistic, political take
That is evident in the diner, where Willoughby intertwined the aesthetics and semantics of the diner’s interior with a deep artistic and often also political take.
They decorated the walls with vinyl records of artists across all genres, such as indie folk band Bon Iver and rapper Mac Miller among others, while atop the frame of the front door, they have placed plastic figurines of former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senior Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Outside the diner, Willoughby unfurls every day a Pride flag, a symbol of LGBT pride and LGBT social movements, which has “Everyone is welcome here” written on it.
Willoughby said great support comes from the queer community, with whom they identify since assuming they/them pronouns earlier this year and changing their first name from Adam to Ember.
“We’re here to spread love and do it through food and community,” said Willoughby. “This has made me feel more comfortable in my own skin and being my authentic self and understanding myself better.”
Willoughby took complete ownership of the business in August, after separating from their former wife, who was the owner since the beginning.
However, the building itself is still the property of Fossa, who said he’s looking to find someone else to run the diner.
He hinted at already being in talks with possible options who would look to reopen the diner as early as end of January.
A career police officer in Fitchburg for 32 years, Fossa was often a customer of the diner since childhood. Willoughby said Fossa continues to stop by for breakfast as the closing date approaches.
“I was open to (Willoughby’s) passion, who embarked on a really nice trip in 2021,” said Fossa. “I’m excited for whatever will come next.”