May 2024 Update

The trees and flowers are blooming and it is time for an update.  The month of May brings many events to the Josiah Smith Tavern.  Please join us for all of them!

Saturday, May 11th

  • Garden Cleanup 10 am-noon.  Please come, with or without garden gloves, meet friends and help tidy up our beautiful gardens.  Brothers Marketplace will supply food and beverages.
  • Spring Fling & Car Wash 10 am-2 pm.  This is hosted by Weston High School with lots of fun activities on the Town Green.  Get your car washed by Weston students in the Josiah Smith Tavern parking lot!  All money raised goes to Camp No Limits, a summer camp for kids with limb loss and differences.

CELEBRATE WESTON!
Saturday, May 18th, 11 am-3 pm

  • Brian Piccini, Weston resident and chosen restaurateur, is delighted to participate in Celebrate Weston!  He and his team members will be at the Josiah Smith Tavern to meet and greet, with a temporary courtyard patio set up serving libations.
  • Weston Historical Society on the 1st floor of the JST has two openings:  “Weston Then and Now” an exhibit of historic and contemporary photographs of the Town Center showing changes over time, including outstanding images by photographer Nicole Mordecai.  And “The Jones Family at Home” an exhibit of furniture, decorative arts, and photographs belonging to three generations of the Jones family, who occupied what is now the Josiah Smith Tavern until 1950.

Wednesday, May 22nd, 7:30 pm

  • Weston Historical Society Book Club Join WHS and Eric Schultz for a discussion of his book King Philip’s War: A History and Legacy of America’s Forgotten Conflict, which he co-authored with Michael Touglas.

Regarding the restaurant, Brian Piccini says this:  “All of the build out progress is still on paper or in the planning process.  We are busy working with Historic New England finalizing their application and review process. We’ve started our construction bid documents.  We’ve hired our full design team of architects and engineers.  They are working together to make sure our use and all the equipment, fixtures, and furnishings needed are suitable for the building and its current MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) systems”

January 2024 Update

The Friends of Josiah Smith Tavern have remained on task during the holidays!  We put out a request for restaurant proposals in the fall and had flood of submissions.  The week before Thanksgiving we used the beautiful Reading Room at the Arts and Innovation Center to interview and view presentations by several outstanding candidates.

Our board selected Boston Urban Hospitality, owned by Weston resident Brian Piccini!  Brian has a stellar reputation in the culinary world and his restaurants have become the anchors of their communities.  You may have already enjoyed one of his signature establishments: Deuxave in Back Bay,  dbar in Dorchester or Boston Chops in Downtown Crossing and the South End.

To learn more, please attend the presentation by the Friends of the Josiah Smith Tavern and Brian Piccini, at the Weston Select Board Zoom meeting on Tuesday, January 9th.  It is on the agenda for 8 pm.

The Weston Community League hosted a Friendsgiving in November.  It was the first time the Ballroom was used for its original intent in decades!  The lights were aglow and decorations spectacular.  Many in attendance clearly enjoyed putting on their finest and bringing their best dishes to share.  The food was overflowing and festivities lasted into the night.  My husband, driving by on his way home from work, looked up from the road and seeing all the second floor windows lit, said “it looked like Fezziwig’s party from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.”  Let’s hope this was the first of many.

And this in from Pam Fox, President of the Weston Historical Society :

We just finished moving our file cabinets, document boxes, and books to Rooms 103 and 104, which we plan to use as a reading room and place for our volunteer work on Tuesday mornings. Rooms 101 and 102 are going to be used for exhibits. For now, we are leaving the Jones family exhibit up, as we don’t have the manpower to do the move plus a new exhibit.

Michael Cooper, who is building our bookshelves, will be finishing up. Michael constructed the shelves as a volunteer, with Weston Historical Society paying for materials. They had to be custom made because there are so many vents, windows, pipes, etc. to avoid.

There is still a lot of work to do, so no timetable for having the JST rooms open for our regular work hours or events.

November 2023 Update

Activity at the Josiah Smith Tavern continues to hum!

Weston Historical Society hosted a Community Open House on October 14 and again on November 5th for viewing of “History Under One Roof: The Evolution of the Josiah Smith Tavern.” Over the next month they will be dismantling the exhibit. They expect to find places within the tavern for some of the exhibit panels.  Bookcases for their new Reading Room and Archives are being custom made by a volunteer and painted by members of the WHS board. The actual move into the JST will take place after the bookcases are finished.

Weston Forest and Trail were first to settle into their new space at the JST this past summer.  They celebrated on October 14th with a fun outdoor, evening friend raiser with a food truck, live music and lots of laughter.

A dedicated group of volunteers did a fall garden cleanup the following Saturday in October.  It was a great gathering as our ages spanned from high school to octogenarian, with all enjoying several beautiful hours outdoors. Brothers Marketplace donated a delicious spread of fresh fruit, pastries and coffee to keep everyone going.  Many thanks to (in alphabetical order) Hailey & Riley-Kate Andrasco, Arya Bhargava, Cindy Buzby, Sophia Chuyah, Pamela Hao, Pam Fox (& daughter-in-law, Zahra Moradi and grandson, Joseph Moradi), John McDonald, Pam Swain, Lynn Urich Smith and Aimee Wang.  Outdoor Pride keeps the grounds in excellent shape most of the year and appreciated us saving them a week of work.

October garden cleanup volunteers at the JST garden.

Weston businesses have been generous in their donations to help with garden cleanup in the lull before we get a restaurant tenant.  A huge thanks to:

The second tenant into the Josiah Smith Tavern is Weston Community League.  They barely got settled in but wasted no time to put the space to good use! Please join for the Friendsgiving they are hosting this coming Thursday, November 16th at 6:30 pm in the Ballroom of the JST.  It is $20 for Community League members and $30 for non-members.  They will supply the wine but everyone gets to bring something according to the first initial of their last name:

  • A-J bring Appetizer or Salad
  • K-P bring Main Entree Dish
  • Q-Z bring Vegetable, Side Dish or Dessert

 

 

As a final note, the board of the Friends of Josiah Smith Tavern met in early November to review the submitted restaurant proposals.  Interviews with candidates are scheduled for this week.

 

September 2023 Update

The Weston Community League and Weston Forest & Trails have moved into the Josiah Smith Tavern!  The Weston Historical Society will be in soon.  It is wonderful to have the Josiah Smith Tavern back in active use.

We’re happy to report that there has been significant interest by qualified restaurant groups/operators in the Josiah Smith Tavern.  We’ve conducted over 20 tours in the last 3 months with many of those groups coming back for a 2nd or 3rd visit.  On Sept 22, we distributed the Request for Proposal with a deadline of Friday, Oct 20th. It’s not too late for a qualified group to contact us for a tour and to engage in the proposal submission process. For any questions, please contact:

In the lull before the restaurant tenant is established, Weston businesses have contributed to help with upkeep of the gardens.  Hearty thanks to the generosity of:

  • Brothers Marketplace
  • Florentine Frames
  • Personal Cleaners and Tailors
  • Weston Automotive

The Friends of Josiah Smith Tavern is conducting another Garden Cleanup on Saturday, October 21st (rain date is Sunday the 22nd) from 11 am to 1 pm.  A picnic lunch will be provided by Brothers Marketplace.  Please RSVP to Leslie Vensel if you are able to join us.

We will keep updates coming!