The brick building at 959 Main Street went up in 1928 as a peacoat factory. Later it was a video store, then a reptile store. After the reptile store closed, squatters lived there, and the building was in such rough shape that Phil Frattaroli told Winchester News the whole interior had to be gutted. Frattaroli is co-owner and managing partner of Filmark Hospitality Group, which runs Lucia in downtown Winchester and Ducali in Boston's North End. He first toured the building in May 2022.
The café's website still reads "Coming Soon" above the line "Grand Opening October 2026."
On the same stretch of Main Street, the old muffler shop at 972 Main has a different problem. It has a buildable plan, and it got there by giving up the special permit that made it the first approved project in Winchester's new Main Street Mixed-use District.
Both addresses are on the stretch Frattaroli says is sometimes called "the North End of Winchester." Town Meeting gave the area new zoning in a single night. Two years on, neither has opened or broken ground. Each spent its time since in town hearings over details like operating hours, garage lane widths and whether a basement holds apartments or parking.
What 959 Main is meant to be
Frattaroli described a building with three jobs. It frees up storage space at Lucia's downtown. It brings together pasta-making that had been split between the North End and Winchester Lucia kitchens. And it puts a retail café on Main Street. "As a father of young kids, I'm always looking for a place where I can pick up some pizza and maybe pick up a bottle of wine and if it's at the same place, that's even better," he told Winchester News in 2024.
Boston magazine's August 2026 roundup describes the planned menu as close to the Boston café's: coffee, breakfast sandwiches, a Roman-style pizza of the day and piadini, which are Italian flatbread sandwiches. The Winchester location adds event space for Italian cooking classes. The kitchen will also run on electricity only. In 2024 Frattaroli said switching from gas to electric ovens was the hard part.
Here is how the opening date has moved:
- November 2024: Winchester News reported a hoped-for spring 2025 opening.
- December 2025: Boston.com listed a projected March 2026 opening. The Boston Globe put it in spring 2026.
- August 2026: Boston magazine listed it as "opening late 2026."
- Now: The café's own site points to an October 2026 grand opening.
Part of that delay ran through Town Hall.
Why a pizza café went before the Select Board three times
In November 2025, Sei Stelle LLC, doing business as Café Ducali, asked the Select Board for three licenses at 959 Main: common victualler, wine and malt beverages, and package store. Winchester News reported that Frattaroli asked for the package store license because it fits state rules better when customers pick up food and buy sealed beer or wine with it. "We think it's cleaner to do it this way," he said.
Several abutters objected to the proposed use and operating hours. The board continued the hearing to December 1 because the zoning and licensing interpretations didn't line up. The December 1 agenda marked the item "Continued," and the December 15 agenda listed it as "CONTINUED" again.
No 2026 decision on those licenses has been reported publicly. The licenses the board grants, and the hours attached to them, will shape what the building becomes day to day. A morning stop for espresso and a slice with a sealed bottle to take home fits the plan Frattaroli has described, and so does an evening schedule built around cooking classes. The license terms decide how much of each opens.
At 972 Main, the district's first project went "by right"
The zoning meant to bring more activity to this stretch is Article 7 at the fall 2024 Town Meeting. It created the Main Street Mixed-use District and changed the zoning map. Winchester News reported the vote as 130 to 11, with 4 abstentions, on November 7, 2024. Frattaroli bought 959 Main about two and a half years before that vote, and he told Winchester News the new district played no part in his decision.
"You can't force an idea into a square hole. You have to see what an area needs and then see what uses you can develop over time."
Sid Gehlot of Treetop Development was the first to test the district. In June 2025 he proposed a residential building at 972 Main. The first version asked for waivers to allow residential-only use, eight parking spaces where 14 were required, and 51 percent open space where 60 percent was required. In November 2025 the Planning Board approved a special permit for 13 units, with one affordable unit and a commercial space. Winchester News called it the first approved project in the district.
Then the design changed. In May 2026, the revised plans swapped overhanging balconies for recessed ones, which board member Brian Vernaglia called "a dramatic change." The redesign also moved the building closer to Main Street, cutting the setback from 6 feet to 4, and widened the Glenwood Avenue side setback from 10.2 feet to 11. Height dropped from 44.5 feet to 43, and the footprint shrank from 6,238 square feet to 6,000.
Through the summer, the debate narrowed to the parking garage. In August, Planning Board Chair Jack LeMenager told Winchester News that the applicant had satisfied the board "in all aspects of the proposal" except "the garage and the inadequate dimensions of travel lanes."
On September 8, the board approved Treetop Group's withdrawal of its special-permit plans, Winchester News reported. According to that account, the project now proceeds "by right" under the town's zoning bylaws, which means no special permit review. It still needs building code compliance, inspections and standard construction permits. The board also voted that the changes since the original permit were not significant, including using the basement for parking instead of living or office space. Vernaglia said, "The proposal is not the same as what was approved in the special permit. I'm OK with that."
One more step remains before construction. The same Winchester News story reported that a fire on the site in mid-April triggered environmental cleanup requirements from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the August discussion noted that demolition could turn up other issues.
The next hearings decide how the street gets reviewed
In both cases the zoning vote was the quick part. The time went into hearings about specifics: a package store license for sealed bottles, a 2-foot change in setback, the width of a garage lane. Those meetings decide when anything opens on north Main Street.
The process itself is on the agenda this fall. According to a town notice, the Planning Board has a public hearing on Tuesday, October 27, at 7 p.m. on zoning amendments. One of them would replace the Center Business District Review Subcommittee with design and historical reviews held at the same time. The same notice says Fall Town Meeting begins November 5. The proposal shows the town is looking at how many review steps a project goes through.
North Main Street came up at the Select Board in another way last fall. At the same November 2025 meeting as the Ducali hearing, members started discussing whether winter overnight parking rules still fit conditions downtown and on North Main Street. Once a café and 13 apartments open on this stretch, that discussion will matter here.
For the same kind of slow zoning story near the train station, see our look at why Winchester's headline median price misleads. Our Winchester community page covers the rest of town.
If you own on or near north Main Street and want to know how a by-right building or a new café license nearby could affect your property's value, The Encompass Group can go through what's on file with you, block by block. Schedule a consultation.
