Business Roundup: Mexican restaurant opens doors; old Post Office becomes workshare Outpost; Mauro’s Market updates look

Above: Three Southborough businesses with news worth sharing. (photos by Beth Melo)

I can’t always get to everything right when it happens. With three newsworthy items on businesses in Southborough, it’s time for another roundup.

New Restaurant & Tequila Bar at White’s Corner

Say hola to a new restaurant at White’s Corner.

Earlier this month, ¡Hola! Restaurante & Tequila Bar opened its doors. The opening was covered by Southborough Wicked Local. Based on the interview with owner Roberto Leon, you can expect authentic, traditional cuisine:

“We are a scratch kitchen. Everything is made in house,” he said. “My mom was here last week in the kitchen training the staff on the recipes.”

His mother, Maria Leon, grew up in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, known for mariachi bands, food and the town of Tequila.

For the full story, click here. As for the quality of the food – I haven’t eaten there yet. But I’ve gotten positive emails from people who have. It’s not been on platforms like Yelp long enough to generate many reviews. But what I found posted was mostly, heartily enthusiastic.

Old Post Office becomes Outpost

The new owners of the old downtown post office are making use of the building by inviting others to work with them.

In addition to operating his law practice in the building, resident Justin Kelsey and his partner Michael Paonessa are marketing it as a workshare space. Their main target is collaborative law professionals. But, they say it is also available to other professionals/practitioners.

The Collaborative Outpost is at 9 Main Street, the corner of Main and School streets. The 1964 brick building may not carry the romance of an old Fire Station. Still, I think many preservationists in town will appreciate the effort to make use of this little piece of Southborough history rather than replacing it with something generic. So kudos to the new owners.

You can learn more about the business here.

Mauro’s Market’s changes (plans and status)

Another downtown, throwback building is Mauro’s Market. The building appears to date back to 1905 when it was Ward’s Variety Store. It had been owned and run by the Mauro family until they sold it to Vinod Patel in 2013.

If you had shopped there in recent years, you know the rundown interior was badly in need of fixing. This summer it got a revamp, both interior and exterior. That included windows. (Apparently, the market did have storefront windows in the past. But they’d been covered up for eons.)

It’s clear at a glance that the work is incomplete. (True on the inside, too. But it is a vast improvement there. Especially the new floors.) I wondered why there is a delay on finishing, so stopped by to speak to the owner.

I learned that, sadly, the Patels have been dealing with a family emergency. Spending time with a loved one with severe health issues has been keeping them from focusing on the renovations now. But, owner Vinod Patel tells me that they hope to finish the last “10%” quickly.

Some readers may have noted changes previewed in a past comment by David Parry (as architect on the project). That included a planned name change to Vinny’s Downtown Liquor and Market. Patel tells me that name change isn’t being pursued at this time.

In the store’s interior, Mauro’s name is prominently featured. But a reference to liquor in the name would be consistent with a shift in focus made clear by signage on the building. Under the previous owners, a sign marketed meats. (You can still buy meat from the Mauro family. It’s now sold at Mauro’s Cafe next door.) Banners hung on the market now tout liquor sales. (Though, you can also still buy grocery convenience items and snacks.)

Some of the other changes that Parry referred to appear to be premature. Patel does plan to replace paneling to the right of the door with windows with a photo behind them. But the specific design of that photo is still up in the air. You can see a before and more after shots of the store by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Updated (9/28/17 4:14 pm): Looking back at the story, I worried that it made Mauro’s Market appear to only sell liquor. So I inserted clarification that convenience grocery items and snacks are also still for sale.