New Landing Restaurant Gets Liquor License

Trio, a new Braintree restaurant featuring "upscale breakfast" as well as lunch and dinner, received all-alcohol and food licenses Tuesday.

The 67-seat restaurant, being developed by Four Square owners Marko Fani and state Sen. Robert Hedlund, will be located across the street from Four Square in a space formerly occupied by a hair salon in Weymouth Landing.

Hedlund and Fani have been trying to get approvals for their new restaurant for the better part of a year. They originally sought approval last August from the Board of License Commissioners for an 87-seat establishment with an outdoor seating area.

The Planning Board nixed the idea of the outdoor seating, citing traffic safety concerns. License board members approved Trio's licenses based on a new, slightly-scaled down plan.

The owners may return to the board in the future to request outdoor seating approval.

"There's a lot of empty storefronts and this is a significant investment on our part," Hedlund said. "We think that the two places will accommodate each other."

This may not be the end of the road for Trio. A developer has proposed building a four-story residential and business complex in the Landing that would run directly through the restaurant's building.

Unlike El Sarape, which developer Josh Katzen said at a public meeting last November could be built around, the future home of Trio is under agreement to be torn down, Hedlund said.

Attorney James Baldassini, told the board that the development is not "definite" and said his clients will return to town officials if they need to change plans.

As a result, Hedlund said he could not provide a timetable for opening Trio. He said he had originally planned to be open by now.

No regular all-alcohol restaurant licenses were available in Braintree. The license granted to Trio is the first provided by the town out of a batch of special licenses approved by state lawmakers for restaurants in Braintree with 75 seats or less.

Trio's operating hours will be Sunday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Fani, currently the manager of record at Four Square, was approved Tuesday as the manager at Trio as well. He said he will focus on Trio and likely promote an existing employee at Four Square to a management role.