Tuscan Kitchen Expanding to Massachusetts

Less than three years after opening Tuscan Kitchen on Main Street in Salem, owner Joe Faro is working on an expansion into Massachusetts.

If approved, Faro's second location will take over the first floor of an existing plaza park in Burlington, Mass.

To house the Tuscan experience, a 4,800 square foot addition to the New England Executive Park building is included in the plan.

According to Burlington Planning Director Kristin Kassner, the building is directly adjacent to the Burlington Mall.

"The restaurant itself is actually probably similar in size (to Salem)," she said.

The second location would also have a Tuscan Market component. Unlike Salem, the market being proposed is much smaller, and is packaged in with the restaurant rather than set up in a campus format.

"The market component is a little bit unique for Burlington," Kassner said. "We've kind of been going through a restaurant boom of sorts over the past couple of years here in Burlington, probably starting in 2006, 2007. I think we've permitted a restaurant every single meeting we've had."

Kassner said that the town's corporate residents often say that Burlington is lacking function space.

Much like in Salem, the second restaurant proposal includes a function space, in this case one that includes 481 seats. There will also be 30 interior seats and 32 exterior patio seats for the marketplace.

The total square footage comes out to just under 14,000.

The proposal was just opened up with Burlington, according to Kassner. It was heard by Burlington Planning Board members during a meeting on June 6.

Kassner deferred questions on the project's timeline to Faro, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

She said that she doesn't exepct a long turnaround for the proposal to be approved, and that her town didn't see any big issues with the project.

Kassner said that the executive park was built throughout the 1980's. She said that the biggest challenge for Burlington has been to introduce pedestrian amenities and sidewalks through the introduciton of pathways and trails. Pushes for zoning to allow for amenities in each executive park have also been made in the last couple of years.

Faro opened Tuscan Kitchen in November 2010. According to the Eagle Tribune, he purchased the former Devito's restaurant and six other nearby properties for $3.9 million.

Stephen DeVito died in a motorcycle accident in 2008. Salem's Tuscan Market held its grand opening last fall.