This Is Framingham

The former Old Station Steakhouse had changed hands and became Cafe Belo.  I never went to Cafe Belo but I think it was open for a year under that name.  I know they had problems with underage drinking so I’m not sure if that’s why they closed but I’m still hoping someday it will re-open as something like Ebenezer’s but something different would be fine too.  We have plenty of Brazilian buffets around here so another type of restaurant would be good to mix up the variety in downtown.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens!

It’s been a couple of weeks now, but the Shell Station at Sad Plaza on Franklin St.  Closed, got boarded up and is rumored to be demolished.  I can’t say I ever went there because they were a little on the pricey side, but it did add a little life to the plaza and the intersection.   I don’t know if technically it’s on the lot belonging to the plaza owner.   I’d like to think this would just make more of a case for a developer to take over the plaza with all this available space (which includes the bounty of empty shops behind the gas station) but we’ll see.  Only 4 more stores to close until it becomes completely vacant.

Today I stopped in at Sweet Boutique to say goodbye because they’re closing up shop at the end of the month. I didn’t go in there all the time but when I did, I ended up talking with Jean, the owner, or her daughter Michelle for a while and they are both such incredibly nice people.
When I walked in, Michelle’s husband who owns the Bedrock Comics next door, recognized me and cheerfully teased me that I finally got a new camera. I thought it was funny that he remembered how crummy my camera was over 5 years ago when I posted about his shop.
We had a nice talk about Framingham and what it’s like for small businesses in town. It’s not easy. I understand there are rules and everything, but from doing this blog and talking to a lot of small business owners, I hear a lot of anguish they get from the town with permits for signs and flags just to let people know they’re open. Framingham can be a really tough place to run a small business and compete with the big businesses, a lot of which are “exempt” from the same rules to hang the same types of signs. It can be really frustrating.
It’s not all town-related reasons that they’re closing. Online vendors and the fact that specialty candy is available even at places like Marshall’s and TJ Maxx have been slowly effecting business since they started 6 years ago.

Goodbye to a really nice small business and good luck to Jean and Michelle!

Game Universe on route 9 closed recently.  I didn’t go there much, but I did find it very useful to have a place in town where I could buy old game cartridges for my Atari 2600. 
I also liked that there was a place in town that brought together the gaming community in a similar way of how arcades did back in the day (like when Fun and Games was fun).

Their MySpace page doesn’t mention why they closed or if they have any plans of opening anywhere else.   It seems like they had a lot of fans so I’m sure they will be missed.

So according to the MWDN the RMV in Framingham is closing, which I think is terrible.  I just had surprisingly decent experiencethere in May and was grateful to the convenience of having this close by.  So this adds to the exodus of services that I used and were in walking distance of my house that were functioning when we first moved here only 5 years ago:  Friendly’s, Farmer’s Exchange, Fabric Place, White’s Hardware.  I never would have thought any of those places would be going anywhere considering how long they had been at their locations.   I don’t know if the building will be vacant because the article says they will still conduct driving tests in Framingham, I’m just not sure if it will be at this location.
Chalk up another bad move for Framingham
We need Wings Over Framingham to open and have something good to write about!!

Today we noticed that Bickford’s finally closed. I was never a fan but I know my Aunt and Uncle were so I’m “sad” for them. I actually thought it was okay when I was a student at FSC just for somewhere to go when it was open 24 hours a day but after it changed to Bickford’s Grille with limited hours it became useless as a culinary destination.
Of course I’m also sad for Framingham we’ve lost yet another business but hopefully something tasty will take over or at the very least won’t become another tax exempt operation.

I was walking by the Franklin St. Plaza, which I call “Sad Plaza” because of it’s occupied to vacant store fronts (not to mention lack of building maintenance in general) , and saw that O’Brien’s package store was closed and had a sign saying it was moving next door to where “Giant Gifts” used to be.  So it’s not so bad for people who like having a package store in the area since it’s just the next building over, but it does add yet another vacancy in this particular plaza.  As of now, there is just the Dunkin Donuts, St. Paul de Vincent thrift store, Maenzo’s Barber shop, and the time-warp laundromat that people say the machines eat up their coins.
I REALLY wish this plaza would liven up but even when the economy was good, I have heard the landlord of the plaza is rather difficult to deal with and likes having a “losing” property.