Framingham Downtown Story Tour Highlights the People Behind the Businesses

The Metropolitian Area Planning Council, along with the MetroWest Regional Collaborative and the Framingham Downtown Renaissance, hosted a downtown Framingham small business story tour on Thursday morning.

More than 50 business and town leaders took part in the two-hour event. The large group was broken into four smaller groups. Each group toured and learned about four small businesses in downtown Framingham.

Among the businesses were Urbano’s Furniture, Brandolini Shoe Repair, Tropical Cafe, Neca’s Bakery, Anastasia’s Grill and La Case del Chicharron.

The goal of the day was to connect these leaders with the people behind the businesses downtown, said Holli Andrews, executive director of the Framingham Downtown Reniassance.

During the tour, participants were asked to keep an “eye on things that could be done better downtown.”

Two ideas that came from the tour was more signage for parking and better marketing of the offerings available downtown.

After the tour, a BBQ with hamburgers and hotdogs was served thanks to the Deluxe Depot Diner, which is still undergoing renovations and hopes to open after Labor Day.