Inside Massachusetts Commerce: Leadership, News, and Industry Trends

On today’s program, we speak with the president and cofounder of Harpoon, Dan Kenary, about the business climate in Massachusetts.    We are also joined by the managing editor of the Boston Business Journal, Don Seiffert, to discuss this week’s headlines. Jon Chesto of The Boston Globe, Chesto Means Business , talks about multiple business headlines. And finally, Rachel Blumenthal, the food editor for Boston Magazine,  reveals the top 50 restaurants.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carragan, a weekly round up in discussion
of the top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, everybody. It is Sunday, October the twenty sixth,
the last Sunday of October.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yeah, I'm Kim.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Carrigan, Joe short sleep here with me, Joe. If this
is the twenty sixth, Right, in two months, Christmas will
already be in the gray view of mirror.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I was just thinking about Halloween. You know, I'm a
thirty first Okay, you're already at Christmas.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks you living. You tell me, if you tell me
that you've started your Christmas shopping, I'm telling you, we're
stopping this show right now.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
You want to know what I did yesterday? I actually
went on Amazon and ordered something for some of the grandchildren.
I actually did. It was just an idea that came
to me, you know, and look at they don't listen
to this program, but the six year old loves to
tell jokes. So I'm like, God, that's okay, easy boom

(01:03):
all the way.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, good for you. I am good. I will be shopping,
you know, I'll be telling you about that for the
next two months obviously, and probably most of it in
the last two weeks. So I'll be envious of you
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Point this is the last show in October. Next week
it's November and blah blah.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Blah, crazy. It's crazy, all right, friends, Well, listen, we
got a good show for you today. Looking forward to this.
You know, there's been a lot of question about the
competitiveness of Massachusetts, especially since COVID Joe. I really, I
really feel like that's when it really started to be
an issue. And of course a lot of this is
related to the fact that the cost of living here

(01:44):
is so expensive. I mean, the taxes are high, the
housing is high, there's a shortage of housing. And what's
happening is that businesses that are in this state are
leaving and other businesses are not coming in. So our
governor has decided it's time to try to put together
a group of individuals who are successful business people to

(02:06):
try to help come up with some ideas to lure
people into the state. And we are going to have
one of the co chairs of that committee joining us
Harpoon Breweries, of course, co founder Dan Canary Love Dan Canary.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Great guy. We interviewed him multiple times when you and
I were doing the Bloomberg Show some years ago, and
I remember I actually had the opportunity to walk him
out of the building. I came away, what a great guy.
I mean, what he's talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
He does, and he's built we all know obviously Harpoon.
He has built an unbelievably successful business there. So we're
going to be anxious to chat with him and find
out what he's going to try to do and how
he's going to try to steer this committee. Managing editor
of the Boston Business Journal, Don Seifert's going to be
with us. He's going to talk all business headlines. Of course,
we're going to talk about a hotel in the area

(02:53):
that's closing, which means layoffs, a terrible time of year
for that to be happening, a fast growing AI lab
over there in Cambridge, the question becomes why are they
growing so much faster than maybe others, And the almost
near death of the Watertown Mall. It seems that it
has been resurrected thanks to a big fat buy. So

(03:16):
Don's going to tell us all about that.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, that was gonna be lab Space. Remember every day. Yes, Oh,
it was gonna be lab space. Guess what, not so
much anymore? Not so who needs it? Yeah? Who does? Also,
John Chesnell, the Boston Globe is going to be a
long CHESTO means business. He's got a bunch of different heads.
I've look. I go, John, you are a busy guy.
What do you want to talk about? Anyway, we got
a headline here from Ropes and Gray opening a Milan

(03:38):
office to capitalize on private equity growth. Let's say they're
talking about the slowdown of you know, the government shutdown.
Of course it's affecting many small businesses in this state,
and of course Senator Markey is pretty concerned about that,
and Chester will talk about that. And also there's a
you know, a company out there in Waltham, d device

(04:00):
startup led by a former Boston scientific execs, looks to
triple its workforce in Waltham. I mean, that's a little
piece of good news and a climate that doesn't look
all that great. And then right, and then this is
up Kim's alley, and I was I'm reading I'm reading
this and I keep thinking to Kim, it's the top
fifty restaurants in Boston we're gonna be talking with the

(04:22):
food editor. That would be one Rachel Blumenthal. So, Kim,
I went through the top fifty restaurants. Yes, how many
of you been to? Have you seen them? Have you
seen them?

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yes? I have some of them for you. I've been there, yeah,
Grill twenty three, Yes, been there. Now there's I got
to tell you there's some new ones, but there are
some on there that are are you know, tried and true,
which is really great that Boston magazine sort of looks

(04:55):
at everything, you know, they look at the whole scope,
which I think is awesome. I think it's real honor
to be on his list for sure.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, Kim, And as promised, we want to welcome to
the program Dan Canary. Now he is the president and
co founder of Harpoon, right, we all know Harpoon. I
was looking it up, you know. And Dan's actual title,
you know, is the president of a Barrel one Collective.
Now that's a Boston based craft beer company. Was formed

(05:23):
just a little over a year ago, a little less
than year ago rather, and it was part of a
merger between Mass Bay Brewing Company, which is Harpoon's parent,
and Finest Kind Brewing headquartered in the Harpoon Brewery location
in Boston Seaport District and is the largest craft beer
producer in New England. The company's portfolio includes fifteen brands

(05:43):
and nine brewery and tap room locations across four states.
So Dan is a busy guy. Kim and I know
him from our Bloomberg days. And the reason we're we're
having Dan on the program today is I was looking
at an article written by John Cesto headline in the Globe.
Heally taps business leaders for new council on improving Massachusetts competitiveness.
And who is going to be the co founder of

(06:05):
that committee? Well that's one, Dan Canary. Dan, welcome to
the program. Tell us about this position.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Well, you know, I was honored, certainly to be asked
by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to do this with
Mark Nunteley, who I've only heard great things about. And
you know, I've been involved for really now decades in
local business issues. I was the longest serving chair of AIM,
the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, and on the board and

(06:33):
executive committee for twenty years. So I care about this.
I care about the Commonwealth. I care about the business
climate or competitiveness. So it's just kind of fit. And
I think I was joking with you. You know. Ralph Crowley,
my old friend from Worcester, coined the term that I
had a well earned demotion this summer, right stepped aside
and he gave up my CEO role to become president

(06:56):
here at Sarah one, so giving me a little less
responsible ability and to take on wonderful challenges like this.
So it all kind of came together at the right
time for me personally, and I hope professionally.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, you certainly seem like the right guy for the job, Dan,
So congratulations to you. I want to ask you, this
is a this is a big hill to climb because
you know, this is something that has been worked on
and worked on in this state and we don't seem
to be getting anywhere. So let's talk a little bit
about what you see as some of the issues that

(07:28):
might be keeping Massachusetts from being as competitive as it
should be.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Well, you know, Kim, I having the long view, I
would I challenge you just a little bit. For those
of us old enough to remember the seventies and eighties,
things were a lot worse. You know, when the Massachusetts
Miracle the Ducacas years blew up and Taxachusetts was a
widely known name for the state. The business time it

(07:53):
was awful and unemployment was approaching double digits a set.
So I think we actually in the last you know,
thirty five years, have done a number of quite good things,
cutting taxes and cutting some regulations. But having said that,
you're right, there's more to do. And I applaud you know,
Governor Healy for kind of taking the lead on this

(08:13):
and trying to bring a group together that can make
some recommendations to further improve things here, because even though
we've accomplished a lot, we can't rest in our laurels,
you know. And there are you know, signs right now
that life sciences is challenged, et cetera, et cetera, and
real estate issues that we want to make sure that
we are being as competitive as we could possibly be

(08:34):
to not only attract new business, but I care deeply that,
you know, you don't want to give away the store
just to bring new folks in. You've got to take
care of the people who are here too. I've been
going to started the business forty years ago here, and
so I kind of know what it's like to start
and grow a business in Massachusetts and the challenges you face,
and so let's look at everything to make it as
easy as possible for people to stay here and grow here.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, let's try to drill down here if we could.
Dan Can, you're obviously the co chair of this committee.
What do you think the governor wants to hear from you?
I mean, you know, she's a pretty smart woman. She
knows what's going on, right, But what if you want
to hear from you?

Speaker 4 (09:08):
I think that she would like to hear from us.
You know that we've done kind of a deep dive
across the board on challenges faced by the business community
in Massachusetts. Taxes and senates to attract and retain businesses,
workforce development, and regulations, like what are some of the
challenges faced by the business community that's that's slowing us

(09:29):
down from doing more here? And what recommendations can we
present to her the legislature that say like, Okay, here's
some low hanging fruit, here's some more challenging issues, here's
stuff we think we can maybe get done quickly, and
here's stuff that's going to take some more time to
build some consensus. And I you know, it's a real
cross section the group. We've not had our first meeting

(09:51):
yet and so this is just me speaking, right, but
I'm hoping we can we can solicit a lot of
smart ideas from people that kind of know ways we
can make things better. And I'm a big believer that
you know the Look, what is that saying about? You know,
you you use your hammer on the nail that's sticking up.
If there are things that we're doing that other states

(10:13):
aren't doing that put us at a disadvantage, you know,
those to me are things that we want to look at.
Like if there are you know, regulations or or fees
or taxes or whatever that where we stand out in
an uncompetitive, unattractive way, well let's let's look at those.
Is there another way to try to do that?

Speaker 3 (10:32):
To bring up are are there?

Speaker 5 (10:35):
Dan?

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Is there something obvious there that you see?

Speaker 4 (10:37):
You know, Joe, I won't comment on any specifics right now.
I certainly know from my time with AIM you know
that there were some issues that we were trying to
address over the years, and so I'm sure the committee
will well, we'll take a look at those. And if
you talk to different business owners, they'll all give you
they'll all give you different answers on what should be
on that list.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, it seems, you know, we talk to a lot
of people here on the show, Dan, and one of
the besides taxes, the number one issue it seems in
the state certainly to retain talent and to lure it
in would be housing. You know, it's it is so
difficult to find a home that's reasonably priced, and businesses

(11:21):
don't want to try to bring their employees into that.
That has to be an issue you guys are going
to try to address.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
One hundred percent. You know, clearly, it's something you hear
from everybody, and you know, the governor, to their credit,
you know, they have more than ninety thousand new units
have been kind of either come on line or approved
for development, which is an increase. So again, we've got
a huge way to go. As I say to people too,
it's like and I have four kids, three of them
are in the Boston area, and it's like, you're like, shoot,

(11:48):
can they afford to stay here? And this is a
personal and a business issue. And our employees, you know
here at the brewery in Boston, you know, are commuting
from a long ways away because they can't afford to
live closest. So I hear you, and I think transfer
tation potentially a piece of bent less regulation. Progress isn't mad,
but you know, with our strong town form of government,
that progress is a battle and it's got to be

(12:11):
a multi pronged approach to kind of solving this relatively
intractable problem. And you know we're not alone in it.
You know there's big swaths of the country that are
facing the same issue. But that'll clearly can be something
that we'll be trying to talk about.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Well, Dan, you know you're the expert on beer. Where
is the beer business in this business climate question? And
I'm looking at an article that you reference it. You
remember your referenced to Ralph Crowley in an article on
the BBJ, and you say, we're almost in I wouldn't
call it a depression. I'd call it a recession in
the beer industry, the overall pie is shrinking, the mass

(12:48):
is challenging. Let's talk a little bit about your industry.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Yeah, Joe, I think we can almost use the dreaded
D word with craft beer depression because it is. The
headwinds in craft beer are very very strong right now.
You know, we went from one hundred breweries forty years
ago at almost ten thousand now, and the pie is
getting smaller, so you can imagine, you know, a shrinking
pie getting cut into smaller pieces makes it very very challenging.

(13:13):
And the headwinds on beer, you know, you have the
health concerns that I think have been overhyped about alcohol
but driving down overall consumption. You have the Hispanic consumers
kind of under siege across the country, not going out
as much, et cetera, et cetera, driving down beer sales.
And then you have the Hemp World THC kind of
cutting into the classic beer industry. So yeah, it's a

(13:35):
very challenging business. And so but that's kind of separate
from what the Competitive Council is going to be talking about.
I think for us, you know, we offerate a manufacturing
facility in Boston. There aren't many of us left unfortunately,
right and so we look around. We have breweries now
in New Hampshire and Vermont as well, and you just
kind of look across the board and try to say, Okay,

(13:56):
what are some Massachusetts only challenges that we're fac So
I can certainly bring that experience, you know, into the Council.
But it's you know that Kim talked about housing, transportation.
There are lots of challenges we face just living in
a high cost part of the country, and there's there's
not a ton that can necessarily be done about that overnight,

(14:17):
but there might be things on the regulatory side that
we could look at that could happen sooner.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Dan, let me ask you about the millionaire's tax. Do
you think that has an impact on our competitiveness?

Speaker 4 (14:27):
You know, Kim, any changes to taxes, you know, have
an impact on competitiveness. And I think you've got to
look at the rest of the you know, the market
here in the Northeast and and see where do we
fall now versus other states in the region, And so
you know, you probably I don't think there are any
businesses saying, oh wow, now I want to relocate to

(14:49):
Massachusetts because there's a millionaires tax. The taxes just went up,
and you know, we've talked about this over the years.
A challenge with the tax code is in an awful
lot of businesses are organized as partnersh Ship's LLCs and
s course, and we faced this for years at Harpum.
When people raise the personal rates, they dramatically increase business
taxes because so many businesses are organized that way, and

(15:11):
it's a real challenge to try to almost decouple, if
you will, personal from business taxes because I think a
lot of the folks thought there were going after just
you know, individual millionaires and not going after sole proprietorship, partnership,
small mom and pop operations that don't want to be
double tax so organized in a way that they're taxed

(15:31):
at the individual rate and that's not good for business.
That's I'm sure something that we'll be talking about. Sure,
Like physical stability, you know, having a state that has
the resources that just do what it wants to do.
That's also an important piece of this roads bridges, you know, infrastructure,
et cetera. Not crumbling. That's really important. So it'll be
something I'm sure we'll be talking about, all right.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
He's Dan Canary is the a co founder of OURPOON
and he's the co chair of the Governor's New Business
Competitiveness Account. Coming up, we're going to be talking with
the managing editor of the Boston Business Journal. That would
be one Don Seifert. You're listening to the New England
Business Report.

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Speaker 2 (18:34):
Welcome back every one of the New England Business Report.
Let's talk business headlines from this past week, joining us
as Don Seifert, He's managing editor at the Boston Business Journal.
Always appreciate you don being on. We really do thank
you guys over there at the Boston Business Journal for
being a part of the show on a regular basis.
We had quite the week. We're going to start with

(18:55):
the story and I sort of laughed about but it's
there's a lot more to it than maybe what meets
the eye, and that's that the Watertile mall. You know,
it was on its last leg being a mall. It
was about to go away, was dying a slow death
to become lab space, and now we hear it maybe
getting a second chance as a mall.

Speaker 9 (19:16):
Yeah, that's right. It was purchased by Alexandria, which is
actually one of the biggest lab developers in the Boston area.
Spased in California, but you know they've developed labs all
over Kendall Square and outside of Kendall Square, and so
that's their specialty. So they bought it, i think for
one hundred and thirty million a couple of years ago,

(19:37):
in twenty twenty one, and then you know, and their
plan was turned into labs. And as people have probably
heard by now, labs are not doing as well as
have real estate. They you know, everybody kind of pivoted
from offices to labs in during the pandemic because biotechs
are doing well and now there is a lot of

(19:59):
too much lab space, and so Alexandria, I guess, decided that,
you know, to punt its plans on uh turning the
Watertown Mall into labs. And it was bought by National Development,
a local firm which does not develop labs, and as
far as we know, they are going to keep it.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
As them all now. And do we know anything about
potential tenants there.

Speaker 9 (20:22):
Uh no, I mean, you know it's got you know,
it's got a Best Buy and a Target. It's as
you said, I mean, you know, it's hit hard times recently.
You know, we don't have any that many details from
National Soup yet, but I do know that Watertown has
been you know, kind of building a lot of residential
housing in the last few years, and they've been trying

(20:45):
to revitalize you know, elsewhere Watertown Square they just rezoned
to try to attract more more people there and just
pedestrians foot traffic. So I'm wondering if National Development sees
that actually, maybe the mall is not such a bad
idea after all, long run that you know, now that
there's more people in Watertown that that the mall might

(21:05):
actually not do as badly as it was looking a
few years ago. I guess that's the speculation on my part,
but that's I don't know, that's what it seems like
might be happening.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah, well, everyone expects that the lab space maybe perhaps
would you know, start to rebirth or start to come back.
But given what's going on with the federal cuts and
things like this, I don't think there's any sign of
life there is there done now?

Speaker 9 (21:27):
I mean, the biotech industry is not doing well. I mean,
you know, I think you know, every year overall employment
in biotech, you know, in R and D has grown,
except for this past year it actually actually went down slightly,
which kind of raised a lot of a lot of
alarms in the local biotech industry. So so yeah, I

(21:48):
don't see lab space kind of coming back real soon.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Crazy part about that too, is it's such an investment
to turn something into lab space that's maybe not being used,
which is is pretty tough. Let's take a another headline
this week. You know, there were a lot of headlines
this week, unfortunately about layoffs, and there's no good time
of year for a layoff, but certainly this time of year,
as we go into the holiday season, it's a terrible time.

(22:12):
We've got a hotel that's not going to survive and
the result may be sixty layoffs.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Right.

Speaker 9 (22:18):
Yeah, the Westford Readency in and Conference Center, it's up
it's off of Route four ninety five, kind of northwest
of the city in Westford, and it turns out it's
going to close before the end of the year. They've
got sixty employees there, they're all going to be laid off.
Apparently this was revealed in a filing with the state

(22:38):
just just recently, and our I can say, are there
has been a lot of interest in this story. Just
on our website it had thousands of people are reading it.
I mean, I'm not sure exactly what the reason is,
but i mean, you know, hotels is another sector that
it's not doing great. I mean, it's it's you know,

(22:59):
it's kind of improved a lot since COVID obviously, you know,
COVID shut down all hotels and they've been struggling since then,
and they're still actually in the Boston area not quite
up to where they were in twenty nineteen. I think
occupancy rates before the pandemic were it was eighty two percent.
Uh yeah, occupancy rate it felled to like a quarter

(23:19):
twenty five percent during the pandemic and has now as
of last year, risen back up to seventy seven percent,
but still, you know, shy of where it was pre pandemic.
So I'm not sure if you know. The company didn't
say why they're closing it, so, but you can speculate
that hotels are not doing as well as they used
to be and and so that may be a big.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Part of it. Talking with Don Seifert, he of course
is the managing editor of the Boston Business Journal, about
this week's headlines. Moving beyond the hotel laying off sixty workers,
there's another headline on the BBJ, why the whole world
is watching one fast growing Cambridge lab AI firm. Tell

(24:04):
us about this.

Speaker 9 (24:05):
Don, Yeah, this is an interesting company. It's a company
that was just launched earlier this year in March by
Flagship Pioneering. The Flagship is known for biotracks all over
the Boston area. But this is actually not a biotech
company per se. It's an AI company and they are

(24:25):
building you know what they call it is a super
intelligence platform. Basically, they want to automate labs, and it's gotten,
as they said, a ton of attention. I mean when
they launched in March, it actually the New York Times
covered it, which is unusual. And we just actually reported
recently that they actually bought, they signed for the biggest

(24:48):
lab lease in the Boston area in the third quarter.
It was a two hundred and thirty five thousand square
feet in West Cambridge. So there's a lot of hope
for this company. As I said, you know, it's not
you know, they're not developing drugs, but they are trying
to create a new kind of lab will speed up
scientific discovery.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Well, how do you automate lab space?

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Don I don't know, that's what they're trying to figure out.

Speaker 9 (25:17):
I mean that New York Times story did have kind
of like a little I mean, it's you know, it's
part robots working alongside human scientists, a lot of a
lot of like sifting through scientific data and just you know,
recognizing trends. So I don't understand exactly how it works yet,
but something involving AI and robots, I can say.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
And you say, and that your headline on the BBJ
why the whole world is watching and you talk about
the New York Times. I mean, so you know, here
we are at this Cambridge location, but the suggestion being
that this is being watched worldwide probably implemented everywhere, right, Yeah.

Speaker 9 (25:51):
I mean, I mean, you know, everybody knows that this
is kind of the center of drug research and discovery.
So it's no wonder that a company like this would,
uh would be situated in Cambridge. But uh, but yeah,
I mean if if this, you know, what they're trying
to do is really up end the way that scientific
discovery in drug development is done. And if they're successful

(26:12):
in doing it, and Flagship has a pretty good record
as far as biotechs go, but if they're successful in
this area, then that's going to be a huge deal
that that's going to change the way, you know, the
way drugs are developed everywhere.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
Well, it sounds like layoffs too, you know what I mean,
if if yeah.

Speaker 9 (26:27):
That's that's true.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
This is one of those examples of AI that could
be taking people's jobs.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Finally, let's talk a little bit about Eastern Bank. They're
dealing with apparently some criticism from an activist investor, so
first of letus who this investor is and what exactly
does that mean.

Speaker 9 (26:47):
Well, activists and investor, I mean they're uh, you know,
they're not actually all that common in the banking industry.
Activist investors are pretty common in like biotech in or
technology companies. They you know, they're basically shareholders that that
start making noise saying like, hey, we we believe that
this company is going in the wrong direction. They should
sell off some part of it or do something different

(27:09):
in in uh in what they're doing. So uh So
Eastern Bank, you know that they've been on a tear
over the last five years. They've actually made three pretty
large acquisitions. I think Cambridge Trust is the most recent one.
But uh, but they've got they've they've you know, they
they've grown substantially over the last few years. And this

(27:32):
investor named hold Co Asset Management. They're known for buying
up shares in certain companies and agitating for change, and
they apparently are going to do that with Eastern Bank. Now.
You know, usually these are you know, it kind of
forms a little bit of a proxy battle, uh that
they could go on for months or longer than that. Uh,

(27:52):
you know, where where the investor tries to convince other
shareholders to back them and their plan. So we don't
know exactly where this is going yet, but you know,
their criticism was Eastern Bank has made too many acquisitions
in recent years. Now these three banks that they bought
is too many and they should slow down and just
you know, concentrate on buying back shares or raising their

(28:13):
share price to reward their shareholders.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Very interesting. All right, some good stories this week, don
thank you so very much. Still coming your way right
here on the New England Business Report. Joe and I
are going to share some of the headlines that caught
our attention this week, and then Rachel Rachel Blumenthal, she's
going to be our guest. She's the food editor at
Boston Magazine and they're talking the fifty best restaurants in Boston.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.

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working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked odd to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
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you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

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Speaker 8 (30:40):
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the above firms are independent and not affiliating.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
And welcome back to the New England Business Report on
this Sunday morning, October the twenty sixth. Well, this is
a spot on the program where we take a look
at other business headlines that captured the attention of Kim
and myself. This is a headline, Kim, I'm sure you
saw it was actually in the Globe. Cambridge is raising
its commercial property tax rate by wait for it, then

(31:16):
The Globe says that's not a typo. An article written
by Spencer Buell, it says a city council over a
week ago voted to raise the city's commercial property tax
rate by a startling twenty two percent, a move that
will hit many smaller businesses hard and put new pressure
on wealthy on a wealthy city accustomed to boom times,

(31:37):
causing them to rethink their generous spending and who has
to pay for it. I mean, that is that is unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
It really is unbelievable. And I mean, these small businesses
like they're not getting hit left and right right, and
then that that kind of thing happens, and a lot
of them are in those spots, and it's just sort
of a nightmare. So I'm there's a lot of people
who hoped that was a typo, but unfortunately it was not.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, that's right. And so and later in the program,
we're gonna be talking with Rachel Blumenthal and we're gonna
be talking about the top fifty restaurants in Boston. Of
course I thought of that because I obviously I thought
of that, and I always think of Kim, But so Kim,
this one too. This is another headline in the business
category having to do with food. October National Pizza Month.

(32:25):
And here are seventeen standout slices around Boston, uh, seventeen
of them. And I think I have been to only two.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Okay, so what were the two and what did you think?

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Well, Santarpio's, I've been there that, you know, you know,
very good. And then I you know, there's one called Joe's,
but have been haven't been to that one. But there's
actually you have and you don't know. There's actually a
Papa Ginos that made the list out in Marlboro. Now,
I've been to a Papaginos, but I don't know if
I bend of that one.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, absolutely, you know. I got to tell you, are
you a big pizza person?

Speaker 10 (32:58):
Do you?

Speaker 11 (32:58):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Nowhere, I'm forty right, who amongst this doesn't? So what
is it that you like about pizza? I mean, what's
it going to have?

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Let's see? You know, I like the meats, you know,
I hate to say it. I like pepperoni. I like
the sausage, I like the onion. You know. Yeah, I'm
all about the bad stuff for you.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
You know, listen, if you're gonna eat pizza, you may
as well go for it, right.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Well, yeah, but they say ninety four percent of Americans
eat pizza at least once a month.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Oh, I'm sure that's true. I think if you were
to ask people, most people, if you said what's your
favorite food, they would say pizza. I think most pizza
people would say that. I'm one of those freaks who
doesn't love red sauce. So I like a white pizza.
I know, Joe, I see you looking at me going on,
what is wrong with her?

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Don't ask him out on a Sunday?

Speaker 2 (33:45):
You know an American?

Speaker 5 (33:46):
I know?

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Okay, So what do you water? When you do you order?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Well? So, oh do you want to know? Because you're
you're gonna the same way my kids don't want to everybody.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Else people drive off the road at this point. Go ahead,
describe this.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
I like. I like chicken and broccoli on my bes.
I know, I know. I'm sorry. Let me ask you this.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Do you like a good beer with your pizza?

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Oh? Sure, okay, and I'm all about the bad stuff, Kim.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know what you Okay, Well, you're gonna love this.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Then.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Sam Adams has released its Extreme Beer. It has thirty
percent alcohol volume. Now normal beer has five percent.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Yeah, it's gonna say so.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
It's called utopia and that's where you go when you
drink this. It's got it. It's the twenty five edition.
They release one every two years, and essentially, Joe for
all intents and purposes. This is almost like a whiskey
if you're really being you know, honest. But let me

(34:57):
tell you how much it costs. You want to talk
a about extreme. It's a bottle of it, a small bottle.
Two hundred and fifty dollars for a bottle for a.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Bottle, well only only I don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Who's all right, Kim?

Speaker 3 (35:15):
You know we've been talking about business headlines, right, Uh, Well,
there's a guy that knows a thing or two about
business headlines, and that would be one John Chesto or
the Boston Globe. Chesto means business and I'm I don't
know if he ever sleeps. I mean, Johnny, are you
getting any rest over it? Every time I turn on?

Speaker 4 (35:31):
You've got a lot.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Not a lot.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
I do get some, but just enough to gaggle back
at bad It's the next day.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Yeah, all right, John Chesto. Of course, let's start with
a story, that Kim and I selected here. This one
is out of your bold types column. Ropes and Gray
opens Milan office to capitalize on private equity growth. Tell
us about that well.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
So, Ropes and Gray is a like legacy Boston company,
one of our biggest law firms. Now they've become international.
They have a New York office it's essentially the same
size as the Boston office, and they are expanding in
Europe because of their private equity work. Now, many people

(36:16):
don't realize that Boston has as big roots in the
private equity space. Some of the biggest players in private equity.
Bank Capital is probably the most well known advents and
other really well known one. But we have many private
equity companies here and Ropes and Gray serves a lot
of them. So they need to do deals in Europe.

(36:36):
They need people on the ground, so they're rolling up
some offices in Europe to expand and keep pace with
what their private equity clients are saying they want, which
is basically, you know, they want to have lawyers over
in Europe so they can go after buying smaller companies.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Will this be the only European in location? Are you
get rumors that they may be in other places too.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
Well, it's a good question. So they they have been.
They actually have been in London and Dublin for a bit,
but they they haven't been on continental Europe until now.
They opened one an office in Paris as well as
the Milan office or Paris office opened a little earlier.
Will they go for another one. I wouldn't be surprised,

(37:25):
but you know, between Milan and Paris, I think they've
got kind of know Europe covered, you know, maybe you know,
I I had a guest. You know, the next place
might be Germany because that's such a financial center. They
maybe we see them go there, but I think, you know,
there they may be set for a while.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
Our guest is a John chest Chesto means business of
the Boston Globe. Another headline, John, with your name on it.
A federal small business program remains in the lurch amid
showdown between Senators Markey and Ernst. We're all kind of
feeling that paying here in Massachusetts, right. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:02):
So what's interesting about this is it's actually not connected
to the federal government shutdown. It's a program that expired
on September thirtieth because of a showdown between Senator Marquee
and Senator Urns. Senator ERNs is from Iowa and she
wants to reform the program, and Senator Marquee is not

(38:22):
opposed to reforming the program, but wants to take a
more deliberate approach to reforming and doesn't want to do
it under the gun. He would like to just give
a one year extensions to the program. Essentially, the sbi
R program which stands for Small Business Innovation Research. It's
funnels four billion dollars or more every year to small
businesses to help ramp up their technology and either make

(38:47):
it commercial or make it useful in in a defense setting.
And it's really to help get startups and have a
bridge to the federal contracting ecosystem. In Massachusetts is one
of the biggest participants, and you know, we have some

(39:08):
of the some of the companies here are some of
the biggest users of the program. And that's one reason
why Marky is being cautious because Senator Ernest wants to
block out the most active users. I think she worries
that they are sort of you know, they have an
unfair advantage and so it's harder for upstart companies to

(39:30):
get in So what we've seen now since the program
expired is a lot of lobbying on both sides, particularly
against Senator Marky, you know, to try to get him
to break free of his position, and Senator Earns to
try to get her to break free of her position
and get this program going again. It's really just because

(39:52):
September thirtieth is a common end date because at the
end of the federal fiscal year. It's sort of happening
at the same time while you have these broader shutdown
discussions happening, but it's not directly connected to those shutdown discussions.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Let's take a look at another headline if we could,
and that's med device startup led by former Boston scientific
exec looks to triple its workforce in Waltham, John This
seems to be happening at a time when first off,
we're seeing, you know, a lot of pharma having trouble
and secondly, at a time we're seeing layoffs all across

(40:29):
the board. This is this is good news.

Speaker 5 (40:32):
Yeah, it's encouraging the companies called AVS and they have
a device that basically uses this pulse that's emitted through
a cather system to treat calcified arteries. Uh, and they're
what I've I've sort of followed them since they're almost
their inception because what makes it. I've sort of followed
Boston Scientific, one of our biggest companies, and I've been

(40:55):
interested in sort of the mafia of Boston Scientific, the
the the alums that go on and do things, you know,
that sort of spin off into their own companies. And
I see ABS one of those companies. You know, there
are a number of former Boston Scientific executives that are
in charge of this company, and so it's been really

(41:15):
interesting to watch. They're basically, you know, they just set
up it's kind of a combination manufacturing and office site.
That also is interesting because they want to do the
manufacturing in house here in Massachusetts. And you know, they've
got about thirty people there now. By the end of
the next year, they hope to have one hundred. You know,

(41:36):
it's a good news story because, like you said that,
the healthcare like scientist sectors, are struggling in a lot
of ways, but there are some elements of that are
pieces of that sector. I think medtech is doing a
little bit better, and I think you know where we'll
see this this could be a success story for Massachusetts.

(41:58):
That's it. I wouldn't be surprised if a big medtech
company comes along and gobbles them up. There. Their biggest
competitor was gobbled up by Johnson and Johnson, So you know,
I wouldn't you know, you might see maybe even Boston
Scientific knocks on the door at some point.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yeah, john another headline with your name on Adhale administration
steps up effort to spur more nuclear power in the state.
That's somewhat shocking.

Speaker 10 (42:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (42:27):
So we've seen the political approach to nuclear power changed
dramatically over the last ten years, especially as our offshore
winds dreams have been halted. We need more electricity for
our grid, and we need it to be low or
no carbon mission electricity, and that's where nuclear power can

(42:50):
come in. It used to be kind of, I guess
you'd say, a target of environmentalists. Now the environmentalists have
largely but not all of them, have come around to
embrace it. What the Healthy administration is trying to do
is that they are trying to analyze what it would
take to get small modular reactors. These are maybe a

(43:11):
third of size of your conventional nuclear reactors. Going here
in Massachusetts, it'll be We'll never going to see a
big reactor like the one in Plymouth called Pilgrim that
shut down about seven or eight years ago. We're not
going to see one of those again. But maybe if
there's a way to get some of these smaller reactors built,
you know, over the next five years, where you know,

(43:32):
the Healey administration wants to get Massachusetts poised for that.
The other thing that the Healey administration is trying to
do is remove and this is through legislation, is to
remove requirement and state law that to get a one
of these reactors built you would need to have a
statewide referendum. This is done in a number of These
requirements were put place in a number of states in

(43:54):
the eighties as sort of a backlash to the rise
of nuclear power, and it makes it hard to get
investors for obvious reasons. So they want to get that
off the books so that you know, you you don't
have to take it to a statewide vote to get
one of these reactors built.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
All right, here's John Chesto or the Boston Globe. Chesto
means business and thank you for joining us on the
New England Business Report up next we're going to be
talking about the top of fifty restaurants in Boston. How
many is Kim bend to? Well, you know we'll answer
that question straight ahead.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w RKO six point eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Back a little love.

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Speaker 7 (45:38):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff. Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what? Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

(45:59):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three four

(46:22):
two ten thirty. Well check us out online at Marshallwealth
dot Com, Marshall with two els, Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 8 (46:29):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or LINCL Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer member FINRA, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
The New England Business Report on w RKO is brought
to you in part by SUPERU of New England Supero
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Speaker 2 (46:51):
All right, so Joe, welcome back. And in the break
I was thinking about this. Now We've been talking about
teasing this throughout the entire show, and that's this idea
of the fifty best restaurants in the Boston area. You know,
Boston is a great foody city.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
By the way, it really is also a great job
to have. Imagine being food editor of Boston Magazine. I
mean that feels like Christmas Morning every day.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Every single day, I have a feeling, well, she's with
us right now. It's so great to have Rachel Blumenthal
with us. And Rachel, this is a cool list to
put together and people wait for this fifty best restaurants
in Boston every year.

Speaker 10 (47:31):
Yes, well, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to
talk about Boston Magazine's top Restaurants list. I'm so excited
that our twenty twenty five version is out now.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Absolutely, So let's talk first off, before we get into
the grid of you know, the nitty gritty, how do
you guys make these decisions? Each year. Are you lucky
enough to go around and eat in all fifty? How
do you do it?

Speaker 10 (47:52):
That's such a good question. It is it is a
lot of eating. For me. It's it's really a year
and a year round in death. I'm eating and tasting
and testing and eating some more. And for the rest
of the Boston Magazine editorial team kind of, you know,
bring them in a little bit later in the process,
but we're all thinking about food all the time, you know,

(48:12):
and then as we get closer to the issue, whereas
we're debating and we're revisiting, and it's it's really hard
narrowing it down, but yep, somebody's.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Going to do it.

Speaker 10 (48:21):
So that involves a lot of restaurants.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
At the office.

Speaker 11 (48:25):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
I don't know how how you get through it. Rachel,
All right, well, you know I was looking at your
top fifty there. Let's let's let's do the top five
if you can, you know, get take us through one
through five.

Speaker 10 (48:36):
Ooh, all right, Well number one is Sarma. I mean,
I think a lot of people know and love Sarma.
It's one of the toughest reservations in town. Right although
I will recommend waiting in mine for a bar seat
if you can't make a reservation.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Where is it?

Speaker 10 (48:52):
Sarma is in Summerville. It's kind of near that new
Gilman Square tea stuff on the Green Line extension, like
a little bit north of Union Square. And Sarma is incredible.
So one of the reasons Sarma is Number one is
I think it perfectly exemplifies the trend in Boston dining today,
this idea that special occasion dining doesn't have to be

(49:15):
traditionally white tablecloth fancy. You know, you go in, it's loud,
it's energetic, the servers are dressed casually. You're dressed casually,
and it's just like little plates of delicious food appearing
one after the other. And it's a little bit chaotic,
but in the best way possible. And I think that's
what a lot of us are looking for, you know,
special occasion dining now not necessarily that white tablecloth, fancy,

(49:37):
old school style.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
All right.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Number two, I have been in that restaurant many times
and I've never sat at a table. I want you
to know, I've never gotten a table.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
I know, never gotten the table. Folk.

Speaker 11 (49:52):
First off, you know what they don't care is apparently,
can you help a table.

Speaker 10 (50:04):
You know, I don't think I've had a table there
in a while either.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Wave what this is?

Speaker 3 (50:11):
All right, let's go and keep going, all right.

Speaker 10 (50:14):
Number two ni Unie is in back Bay. Beautiful sushi
omakase Japanese restaurant, but also these really funky fusion cook dishes.
It's such a cool spot. I think that in our
blurb here we mentioned a cocktail made with fish sauce,
like you're getting some weird stuff here. Weird in the
best way.

Speaker 5 (50:32):
Of course.

Speaker 10 (50:34):
I was there a few months ago and I got
this carrot dish that made me rethink what carrots could
taste like. It was I've never had such tender carrots,
and it had finger lime and goji berry. It was
a vegetable dish and it was super exciting. And then
they know.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
You were there? Did they know? The food editor from
Boston Magazine was there eating the carrots.

Speaker 10 (50:54):
You know, it's a small town, and I've been doing
this for a while, so I can't necessarily hide, you know,
I don't walk in. I've heard I've heard that happens
with some of these fancy of spots. It's a little
bit weird, right.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
All right?

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Number three, what's Number three.

Speaker 10 (51:15):
Number three Mooncuster. So Mooncuster another back bay. We actually
have a lot of back bay on this year's list.
Mooncuster is this kind of seafood focused tasting menu chef
Carl Dooley. He's a pop chef alb Actually she puts
together these really unexpected flavor combinations swordfish, a dobo with

(51:36):
pickled peppers and nectary, like what even what is that?
Everything he does is amazing, and these little hints of
spice that you wouldn't really expect at such an upscale
tasting menu sort of spot. And then downstairs he has
kind of this offshoot casual bar called Moon Bar, and
the flavors get even bigger down there. So if you
can't get a reservation upstairs, or if you don't want
to pay for the whole multi course extravaganza, it's really

(51:59):
fun to go downstairs to Moon Bar for a much
more casual meal.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
Cool. Great.

Speaker 10 (52:04):
Number four, Okay, number four is barv Laha. This is
one of the newer spots on the list. Actually I
think it was. It's about two years old now. So
Barvlaha is hyper regional Greek. It's an ode to the
nomadic black people. And there's a lot of freshwater fish
on the menu. You might find rainbow trout or smoked eel.

(52:25):
I think there was frog on the menu at one point.
And it just fees oh in these big beautiful roast
like lamb leg and you just it's such a party.
You sit around with a big group at a big
communal table, if you get that awesome table right by
the open kitchen, and share these giant platters of lamb,
and it's just it's incredible. And then the cocktails are
more they're kind of modern Greek flavors and they just

(52:47):
add a really fun stin to it.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Where is that located. I'm not even familiar with that restaurant.

Speaker 10 (52:54):
Oh, that one's in Brookline and it's from the same
people behind Kaya, which is the top entry on our
Top Off New Restaurants list this year, which is kind
of auxiliary to our Top Restaurants list. Yeah, so that
one's in Brookline and kind of the Washington Square area.
Number five is Comfort Kitchen in Dorchester. So Comfort Kitchen

(53:15):
has been really buzzy since opening about three years ago.
It tells stories of the African diaspora through you know,
this really interesting collection of flavors and dishes, just got
everything there is just so delicious. I think right now
they have this raised goat ragu on the menu that
comes with cassava beauty, which are kind of like like

(53:35):
ricotta yochi. Basically, they've had this coconut based fish chowder,
this Stirk Duck, just really delicious, bold flavors in what
used to be this historic comfort station in Dorchester. It's
a really cool spot.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Yeah, you know, Rachel, how important is it? You know,
we go through the list and you've got all of
these really funky, fun sort of the way of the
future when it's to dining here in Boston on the list,
but you also have some of the tried and true.
How important is it that you include those like the
Grill twenty threes of the world.

Speaker 10 (54:10):
Of course, that's such a good question. Yeah, you know,
at Boston Magazine, we're always trying to find the balance
between what's hot and new and exciting, but what is
old and tried and true. You know, we also have
our yearly July Best of Boston issue where we can
kind of dig into those those main stays and a
lot of categories. Yeah, for the top fifty restaurants lists.

(54:30):
We're definitely trying to highlight a little bit of both.
So we do have We have Real twenty three on
this year's list. We have Mitts Strawl, you know, decades old,
beautiful French Mediterranean in the South End. What else do
we have that's pretty old on here?

Speaker 6 (54:46):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (54:46):
Toro? Of course, Toro's such a game changer. It's about
twenty years old now, Delicious Pappas. Yeah, we definitely have
a few. I would say the list.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
At this point is, you know, kind of a restaurant
like that.

Speaker 10 (55:01):
Yeah, Rose thirty four, they just open their fifth location
in Kenmore Square. Kind of this cool full circle moment
because they used to be partnered with Island Creek Oyster Bar,
which was in that same location.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Talking with Rachel Bloomenthalogy is, of course the food editor
for Boston Magazine. We're talking about the top fifty restaurants
in Boston. You know, COVID, as you know, devastated the
restaurant industry and the restaurant business across the state. How
has the business of restaurants in Boston changed since COVID
has gone away?

Speaker 10 (55:32):
Of course, you know, it's so hard. I think that
labor is still recovering, Like there are labor shortages for sure.
A lot of restaurants have never really fully recovered their schedules.
Some of these really late night places aren't open as
late anymore. People have cut lunch service or a few
weekdays of service. And everything's getting more expensive, you know,

(55:53):
food prices, all of the costs involved in running a
restaurant more expensive, more difficult, sharp small margins everywhere.

Speaker 5 (56:01):
So I think it's harder.

Speaker 10 (56:02):
To open small, locally owned independent spots. We're seeing a
lot of kind of these deep pocketed out of town
chains coming in. It's harder and harder for the local indies.
So anything that makes it these days, you know, you
know it's going to be good because it's so hard
for them to keep going.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Yeah, how do you think that Boston compares to some
of the other big foodie cities.

Speaker 10 (56:24):
Well, you know, I just I love Boston dining, and
I really hope the Boston Magazine and Top Restaurant list
shows people what we have to offer. You know, we
do have great seafood, we do have great Italian that
everyone knows about, but we have so much more too,
And I hope people take lists like this as kind
of a jumping off point to explore the scene and
discover that we have great high Vietnamese Korean. We have
a little bit of everything, and I think we can

(56:45):
compare to other cities, and I just hope that we
get more tourists coming in and checking out what we
really have to offer.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Rachel Bloomenthal, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
All Right, Kim, time to talk about next week's program.
You'll hear his commercials on the New England Business Support
all the time. We're talking about the CEO of the
Subaru of New England, one Ernie Bach. He'll be our
guest to talk about the automobile industry as we enter
the final quarter of the year. That's the New England
Buiness Report. Art on Sunday mornings right here on w

(57:18):
r KO, The Voice of Austin AM six eighty