Update: Plaza Restaurant Plans Hinge on Bickford's Grille Alcohol License Outcome

UPDATE: The license board was notified that Bickford's received its revocation letter on Wednesday, Powers said this morning, and the company therefore has five busines days, or until April 27, to file an appeal.

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A restaurateur from Framingham plans to go ahead with an agreement to move a Brazilian steakhouse into the by the end of the year, but those plans could be delayed or possibly halted by the last week to revoke the alcohol license assigned to Bickford's Grille, whose owner had planned to transfer the permit to the new restaurant.

That beer and wine license is now available on a first-come, first-serve basis to any applicant, Town Clerk and chair of the Board of License Commissioners Joe Powers said. As of late Wednesday afternoon, he said, no establishment had submitted a request for the permit, which reverted back to the town upon revocation on April 12. Nor had the board received word that Bickford's filed an appeal. Only if the state authority with alcohol oversight tells Braintree to halt the process will Braintree be required to hold the license pending such an appeal, Powers said.

Basel Al-Nammari, who owns a Melting Pot franchise in Framingham and plans to open a Rodizio Grill at the plaza, said Bickford's Grille regional manager Linda Milley is working with a lawyer on an appeal of the board's action, to be filed with the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. Milley did not respond to requests for comment.

The appeals process could take several months, though Al-Nammari said he is not worried about the delay and countered the criticism by some town officials that another alcohol license would end up at the plaza. Nine alcohol licenses are currently in use there.

"We're not going to open tomorrow," Al-Nammari said. "We're creating more jobs, we're paying more taxes, we're helping the economy."

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier, also a member of the license board, grew particularly frustrated at the meeting last week. He said having so many licenses at the plaza poses a public safety risk and questioned why more small businesses do not have the permits. Milley told board members that she had come to an agreement to sell Bickford's license to Al-Nammari and a business partner for $50,000.

In response to the concerns Frazier expressed, which have been ongoing in Braintree for some time, Mayor Joseph Sullivan said he will file state legislation by the end of the month that would provide the town with four to six more licenses to be used only in geographic areas home to more local businesses, such as the squares and Weymouth Landing.

Judy Tullius, manager of the South Shore Plaza, said that her company has come to an agreement with Al-Nammari, contingent on his obtaining the license. She said Rodizio would be a great addition to the mall. "We are very excited about the potential."

Al-Nammari moved to Massachusetts in 2006 from Cincinnati, where his family had long been in the restaurant industry. That year he also opened his Melting Pot franchise on the Framingham/Natick line. Al-Nammari's partner, Rene Torres, is also a restaurateur, with two Melting Pots in Boston and Providence.

"I fell in love with the [Rodizio] concept," Al-Nammari said, after the idea came to him by way of a friend last year and he visited locations in Colorado and Utah.

Through a combination of brokers and searching Craigslist, Al-Nammari said, he discovered that Bickford's Grille was looking to offload its alcohol license, which lined up with his preference of Braintree and the plaza as a high-traffic area.

Bickford's Grille without providing timely notice to the board – the basis for the members' decision to take back its license.

Milley said at last week's hearing that the restaurant closed permanently, after several decades at the Union Street location and after trying different iterations, because it was not profitable. The Brockton-based company came to an agreement with its landlord to cancel its lease, she said, leaving it with eight locations in Massachusetts and New Hamphire.