The Woods Weston

Weston’s highly anticipated new restaurant, The Woods, is making significant progress with opening projected for early 2026. Located in the historic Josiah Smith Tavern, The Woods will offer a unique dining experience with a strong focus on sustainability, celebrating Weston’s rich history and natural surroundings.

The Woods’ owner, Brian Piccini, was on hand for Celebrate Weston on Saturday, May 17 to meet residents, answer questions and present new renderings of the restaurant (attached). Brian and his staff also handed out individual tree saplings to local families to promote the restaurant’s sustainability mission. “We are committed to bringing a vibrant and welcoming restaurant to our community,” said Brian Piccini, Weston resident and owner of Boston Urban Hospitality. “Our goal is to offer a unique dining experience that not only celebrates the town’s history but also incorporates elements of the surrounding nature, all while serving delicious, sustainably-sourced farm-and-sea-to-table cuisine.”

The Town issued the final liquor license to Urban Hospitality (BUH) in March, and BUH is fully engaged finalizing design and construction documents to obtain required approvals from Town and community boards. In addition, Historic New England, who holds a historic deed restriction on the JST, must approve modifications to the building.

Further details regarding The Woods’ official opening date, special events, and menu will be shared in the coming months. In the meantime, the community is invited to follow The Woods for ongoing updates and sneak peeks.

The Friends of Josiah Smith Tavern is excited to announce that the State Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) has issued final approval of the liquor license for the Josiah Smith Tavern.

Boston Urban Hospitality remains committed to opening a restaurant in the Tavern and is looking forward to beginning construction this year and opening the restaurant in 2026.

Recent events: On March 6, the Golden Ball Tavern and the Josiah Smith Tavern sponsored a presentation “Taverns in the News: 1775” by Dr. Joseph Adelman in the Josiah Smith Tavern Ballroom. Attendees enjoyed libations provided by the Winter Hill Brewery in the original Tap Room after the talk. Thank you to the Golden Ball Tavern for this first of its kind collaboration between the two Weston taverns.

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.

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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”

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.