Liquor License Commission 02/18/26

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3-flash-preview from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The Commission approved one-day liquor license applications for a restaurant grand opening and a university event, and tabled a hearing regarding Great American Beer Hall.

0:23 Approval of Minutes — The Commission approved the minutes from the January 28, 2026 meeting.
1:24 WANDA One-Day License Application — Approved a one-day liquor license for a grand opening event on March 5, 2026, which will include beer samples.
11:29 Tufts University One-Day License Application — Approved a one-day license for a senior jazz night on February 20, 2026, at the Joyce Cummings Center.
14:02 Great American Beer Hall Hearing — Tabled the hearing until the next meeting because the petitioner was not present.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. The public meeting of the City of Medford Liquor License Commission for February 18th will come to order. We do have an agenda to follow. The first thing on the agenda is to approve the minutes from the Let's see, January 28th meeting sent to us by Daria. Thank you, Daria, for those. I had a chance to look over them. They looked all pretty good to me. Alan, did you have a chance to check them out?

[Allan Martorana]: I did. I looked at them also, read through them. Daria, thank you very much. Very concise, short and sweet. I love it. Um, I didn't have any issues with it. Um, uh, if Mr. Chairman, if you don't mind, I would just make a motion to accept the minutes of the January 28th, 2026, uh, license commission meeting minutes.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. So a motion to accept the minutes is in order. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. All those opposed hearing and seeing none minutes have been accepted. Okay, next item on the agenda. Do we have a representative from WANDA today?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes. Hello. My name is Elise Richards and I am the senior government affairs manager for WANDA.

[Robert Delafano]: Could you give us a brief description of why you want this, why you're applying for this one day license?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sure. So for those who are unfamiliar with Wonder, we are a new food technology company. And we're getting ready to open our Medford location on March 5th. And we are a one of a kind dining experience, a new kind of take on the restaurant industry. And so we're preparing for our grand opening event on March 5th. And at the event, we plan to incorporate samples of beer for eligible customers as they come in and try our new food at our new location. So that is why we are applying for the one day alcohol permit is to be able to distribute those beer samples.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. Do you eventually have a uh, intent to get a section 12 license to sell beer and wine or liquor?

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. Um, it's quite a, uh, looks like quite a unique, um, type of business. I know that you have like several different businesses in there from different famous chefs and things like that. How does that work? Like if somebody, say I called up and I wanted a place in order and I wanted a pizza or something and my wife wants Chinese food, you know, you could, from what I read, you could handle all of that. Is it like the Chinese restaurant has their own station in there and prepares the food and the pizza place has their own station and something like that?

[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, without complicating things, and it would be cool to also offer if anyone is interested, if you would like to take a tour of our kitchen, because the kitchen is very sophisticated as it relates to the technology we use to prepare the food. But basically, long story short is all the food is made fresh in our kitchen. It is like pre-packaged. in our commissary kitchen here in New Jersey and then shipped to each location to be finished in the store. So we basically are pulling ingredients from the kitchen in the store to be able to prepare different menu items, different items from the different menus we carry. So it's not like your traditional, if you think of it like a food hall, it's not set up in a way. Your traditional food hall is set up where there's like, exactly like you described, specific stations of restaurants. In our location, it's all one back of house kitchen that we just have all the different ingredients to be able to put together the menu items from all of our menus.

[Robert Delafano]: Wow, that's pretty good. Yeah, it's cool. They have some pretty good chefs to be able to do that, I'll tell you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it's a way to make that accessible and convenient for the everyday person, because not everyone has the time to make reservations two months out and spend hundreds of dollars if they want to try a barbeque steak, so yeah.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. Now, will you be serving food in there as well, or is it strictly to-go and delivery?

[SPEAKER_00]: So customers can come in and order. They can order to dine in. We do have seating in our restaurant. It's very minimal seating, but there is seating available. Or yes, they can order for pickup and to go. And at the grand opening event, we'll also be distributing samples of some of our menu items.

[Robert Delafano]: Very good. Sorry, I got off the track. You have some questions.

[Allan Martorana]: Yeah, no, at least. Thank you very much. It's a cool concept. I was just looking at the diagram. I take it where it says musician. That's just for the grand opening. You don't have musicians that are all the time. And you did answer the question. You're not going to move forward with the license. Mr. chairman, correct me if I'm if I'm incorrect, but you could apply come back to us for more than. 1, you can, I think you can have up to 30 day 1 day licenses. So, you know, if you, if you wanted to reinvent yourself, or whatever, 6 months from now, or try another concept. You know, you could always apply for another 1, but. But I get it now. I thank you for the explanation. Like I said, it's a pretty cool concept and I see a pickup window. Does that mean people can walk up or drive up? What exactly am I seeing in the diagram?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's like a shelving area inside the store where we place the pickup orders for people to come in and confirm their order and then grab it.

[Allan Martorana]: Okay. The way I was looking at it, I'm like, is that a street to the right of it? Can they pull up like a drive-thru or something? Okay. I got you. Yeah. Then the only thing I would have to say is I don't see a one-day insurance policy for the license.

[Allan Martorana]: Okay, cool. Cool. Okay, then I'm good. I don't have any other questions, Mr. Chairman.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. I also noticed on the drawing, too. I was trying to get my bearings here, but where it says musician in the X, it looks like there's a couple of doors there. I take it that station landing roadway and where the other couple of doors are, I guess it's going in the same direction as Route 16, correct?

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. What are all these colored lines for? Is that like a way that somebody walks around when they go in there? It's like yellow lines and blue-green lines and things like that?

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that it's just for the mock-up because there are no lines in the rest of my, well, there- I thought that's where everybody would be mingling.

[Robert Delafano]: All right. The another thing I found on page two of your application, one day celebratory event marking the official opening of the store. Activities will include a ribbon cutting, light BAC, and it stops there. What's a light BAC?

[Robert Delafano]: Oh, okay. Got it. Yeah. The rest of the word background music didn't come up.

[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, it fell off. And I did see, oh yeah, this is what Alan pointed out. The block that was checked was no for insurance instead of yes, but we do have insurance, right? Okay. And did they also sign it? Because on this copy it isn't signed.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay. Yeah, no, it's not signed on ours. If you could just send a copy over to Daria, will you be able to do that? Just so she'll have the signature on hand or on file. Since you're doing so on the same page right above it, the insurance question, just change that from no to yes. Yeah.

[Allan Martorana]: And then just initial it. Yeah. So it doesn't look like we did it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, please.

[Robert Delafano]: But everything else looks fine. I don't think I have any issues with this. It's great that you have that type of a concept coming in and we wish you the best of luck with it. I'm sure everything's going to be great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. Yes, we're very excited to join the Medford community. So really appreciate you all taking the time to review our application.

[Allan Martorana]: Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the one day license for wonder, uh, on what's the date here? Oh, March 5th, 2026.

[Robert Delafano]: All those against? Hearing and seeing none, the ayes have it. You're all set. You have your one-day license and best of luck.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. I'll be sure to share the grand opening invite with you all so we can see you all there. Thank you.

[Robert Delafano]: Tufts is next, right? We have a representative from Tufts University. Yes. Okay. Yes. Could you please state your name?

[MCM00001624_SPEAKER_00]: So we are requesting a license for February 20th. This is a senior jazz night, so just a small band. The location is the Joyce Cummings Center. We will have, we will be responding, picking all IDs and responding the guests. Tufts detail will also be on location. The only door that will be open to ensure that everybody is checked will be the door that's going into room 160. And What else can I add? The event is from 8 to 9.30 and we will have food in addition to a bar.

[Robert Delafano]: I looked over the application. Everything looked fine to me. The drawing was good. The insurance is good. Alan, do you have any questions?

[Allan Martorana]: Uh, no, I just when you say bar, do you mean all alcohol or just because I know you have checked off wine and wine in there is it just. Correct. Okay. Okay. I, you know, I, I, I hear bar and then I immediately jumped to. You know, spirits and everything. Okay. No, Mr. Chairman, I, I don't have any questions and and tops has a great track record and there's been. very, so many successful events there without incidents. You guys are very good to the community. I'm good with this. I'll make a motion. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve or accept the one-day license for Tufts Jazz Night for February 20th, 2026.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay, very good. I'll second that motion. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing and seeing none, the ayes have it. The license has been granted. You're all set.

[Robert Delafano]: All right. Have fun. Thanks. Bye-bye. Okay. I think that was the only two. Now we can start the hearing next.

[Robert Delafano]: Might be, yeah, from Gab. Do we have anybody here from Great American Bay Hall?

[SPEAKER_06]: They should have been in person though, because I see the letter said in person.

[SPEAKER_06]: And Brian did call last week. say that he wouldn't be able to attend, but if he could send somebody else in and told them yes.

[Robert Delafano]: One of the homeowners. And I think I had the time on that too. Maybe it was on the letter. I think it was like 115.

[Patrick Smith]: When I was helping my child, there were a couple of people in the chambers. Oh, there were? I'll take a walk over there.

[Daria Tejera]: We're just going to try to check out to see if anybody in the chambers supposed to be in here.

[Allan Martorana]: Yeah, because we were in the chambers last month, correct? So yeah, it could be some confusion.

[Unidentified]: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been my dream to be a co-author in this online book. Now, we always have these little writing sessions so that people get a chance to go ahead, take a step ahead, have a handle on it, talk to you on it, talk to you on it, talk to you on it. I'll let Brian know. I know Brian was going, he said that he won't be around this week, but he was going to send somebody else. Okay. He called me Thursday.

[Robert Delafano]: Do you have his number? Do you want to give him a call? Maybe he can hop on a Zoom? He's away with the kids. Okay.

[Patrick Smith]: I imagine we can. He's always been good. Yeah. He's always, he's worked very well with us every time I've gone down. Yeah. I had no issue with that.

[Robert Delafano]: Yeah. I mean, this is the first time nobody showed up with the procedures. So we don't have a problem with pushing it to the next month. Yeah.

[Patrick Smith]: It was delayed on my part too. We had a very busy week last week and I couldn't get down until last Thursday. And he didn't give it to Brian. I gave it to the manager on duty that night. So, Okay, was a little bit of a delay for me to give it to him.

[Robert Delafano]: Okay, so, uh, so what do we need to do? Just make a motion to table that hearing. Until next month, that'll work.

[Robert Delafano]: I'd 2nd, I'd 2nd, the motion. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing and seeing none, the ayes have it. The hearing will be tabled until next month. Officer Smith, I'm very sorry that you had to come.

[Patrick Smith]: I'm working anyway. I'm on shift. I do have, I couldn't send over the video that I received, the terrible video, but I have it on a thumb drive if I can give it to you now. I just need the flash drive back.

[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, will you be able to copy it in that computer? I can try that. Okay. And are we allowed to, we're probably not allowed to review what was in the police report when they're not here, correct? If we're going to table it till next week, I would say we can't even talk about it.

[Robert Delafano]: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we'll, uh, we'll do that and we'll, uh, we'll see what happens from that. Okay. So since we're all done and nothing else, Sarah, no. Okay. And make a motion to adjourn.