This Is Framingham

One of the nice things about working in a restaurant is the ample access to food.   I work at the 400 Plus Restaurant, and on the off hours we sometimes get creative and invent new dishes.
Today the owner and his son came up with something they call “Nachos Italiano”.  It’s fried wedges of flour tortillas, topped with meat-tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and diced cherry peppers.  This creation was so good they decided to make it a special appetizer that you can ask for.  I highly recommend it.

The 400 Plus is at 430 Franklin St.  Stop by and check them out!

After I posted about the new lights coming on Union Ave. these camera-looking things appeared.  There seems to be debate about the newly installed equipment.  I’m not sure if these are detectors to help regulate the light changes or as one person suggested, cameras to get your license plate. how long does ivermectin toxicity last in cats   The town would have to be anticipating enough problems at this light enough to have cameras to identify cars breeze through red lights, etc.. can you overdose ivermectin   I’m guessing they are detectors of some sort, but those are usually in the pavement and these do look an awful lot like cameras.  Hmmm…

I noticed recently that there are new traffic lights getting put in on Union Ave. where it intersects with Franklin St.  Normally I’m not for putting in more traffic lights (it seems to take so long to get anywhere because of them) but I think this intersection needs it because of the drivers coming out of Franklin taking a left onto Union.  It’s just always a mess and then drivers end up pulling out into the middle of the road to see if they can take a left but hold up traffic because once they get out in the middle of the road they see they can’t or they don’t care and just do it because  traffic coming is so strong no one will stop for them and they don’t want to wait until the road is clear.
It’s weird, I’ve never found myself at that intersection trying to take a left but enough people do that I think this light will help things out.  Plus it doesn’t look bad with the black paint and gold “topper” at the top of the pole.

As you may know, I was a huge fan of the old Shopper’s World and I was appointed “the person” by the Framingham Historical Society to find a paint/sign business to donate their services (in exchange for mentioning their great work on the Historical Society’s publication for the event and their name next to the finished product on display, as well and plugs on my blogs) repaint the old signs for an upcoming exhibit.

So far my conversations with local painting/sign business has not been successful but if anyone runs a business or know of someone who does and would be willing to make such a barter, please let me know. ???? ???????
We are not looking to perfectly restore it with neon lights but just take the old paint off and put nice new paint on. betfinal casino

Thanks for any tips! I can be reached at michelle@thisisframingham.com

The signs in their current state:

So I’ve picked up waitressing while I’m looking for permanent work and after the first week, everything hurt: Feet, knees, hips and back.  I was dreading the dinner shift one day when I thought “Panza MUST have something”. One of the few luxuries of living downtown is that I didn’t have to get in the car and go to the mall or somewhere to look for quality shoes.
Ethan and I walked down there and I asked one of the store clerks what she recommended for waitressing.  She brought several shoes and cheerfully got different sizes when I requested.  I found these clogs called “Klogs”.

I tried them on but they were a little too loose.  The nice lady helping me fitted them with a different insole and they were prefect.  I was so happy  about my new super-awesome (and comfy!) shoes, it was such a relief to come home at night and not be in pain.  Thank you Panza for you great selection, friendly help and for just being there 🙂

I didn’t get to take a picture yesterday of the whole building so I’m just using an old photo taken of the old car dealership  in front of Walgreen’s on rt. 135.  Thanks to a tip from a nice reader, I found out that in this building, but to the right (and just cut out of this picture) is where a restaurant called “Wings Over Framingham” will be probably sometime in April.  I walked up to the window yesterday and saw they have some tables and chairs and a menu posted inside. ???? ?????

I know Framingham already has the awesome Chicken Bone less than a mile from here and on the same street, but I’m happy to see this moving in.  Ethan was thinking maybe Framingham will become the Buffalo Wing capital of Metrowest! onecard fawry

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.