'Perfect Coffee' Cafe Plans to Open in Reading
Perfecto’s Caffe resolved their building foundation issue and will move to south Main Street.
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Perfecto’s Caffe is still brewing plans to move to south Main Street in Reading.
Two town boards approved revised plans for the site, just north of eCars, in March, according to Town Staff Planner Jessie Wilson. At issue, Wilson told Patch: the foundation on which the existing building, a former tux shop, sits. The business owner elected to replace rather than modify and reuse the existing foundation, Wilson said, necessitating another review by two boards, planning and conservation.
The next step: applying for a building permit, according to the town staff planner and Max Gabriello who, with his brother Andrea, started the business, which now has seven stores.
Gabriello declined to offer a timetable for the rest of the work.
The brothers have been working with the town for a long time, he said. “We want to open” there. The business received initial approval for the project from the Community Planning and Development Commission in October of 2009 and from the Conservation Commission in June, 2010, according to a Patch article from last year.
Now they have to finalize and submit plans for the café to the building inspector.
Max Gabriello and his brother started Perfecto’s Caffe in 1992, Gabriello told Patch, in Andover. Some of the customers in the Andover store are from Reading, he said, explaining why they wanted to open here. The brothers own three stores, in Andover, Tewksbury and Kennebunk, Maine, he said, and franchise two, in Peabody and North Andover.
The Gabriellos have been in the baking business for many years, Gabriello said. Their parents came from Italy, he said, and they followed a family tradition. He always wanted, he said, to be self-employed.
Max Gabriello came up with the business name because, he said, their idea is to serve a perfect product – perfecto -- including a wide selection of coffees. Caffe, in Italian -- along with hand-made baked goods, gourmet wraps and fresh salads, with perfect service.
The cafes seat about 25 customers, Gabriello said, and are generally open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Razzel
8:11 am on Friday, June 1, 2012
This should be a good test of the kinder gentler Town of Reading. Perfecto hoping to avoid Rejecto!!
Good Luck
Fred Chalmers
2:43 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
Can't wait. Much easier to drive through Reading center than through Andover center. Too bad they didn't grab the old Lew's Mobil site in North Reading.
Concerned Momma
8:56 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
No kidding, Fred. NR seriously needs something like that. Hopefully the rumored buyer who did an awesome job on Ryers will do something equally awesome with Lew's.
Jack Khas
3:26 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
Proposed building is beyond ugly
M
3:44 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
Jack, I respectfully disagree that the proposed bldg is "beyond ugly". How can you really tell from a line drawing. I don't work for them & have never been to one, but based on the images on their site:
(e.g., here :
http://www.perfectoscaffe.com/index.php?link=about )
It looks OK. Moreover I've driven by their locales in Peabody & Tewksbury & they seem to fit in well enough. ANYTHING is better than the burned out tux store that's been burned out for the last 10 years. Moreover, I like the fact that I can get there from my part of town without having to get too close to Reading Downton, AND there's parking. We need a "quick lunch" alternative to the sub shops & fast food (yes, I know Bagel world is an alternative but I do not even have patience for their parking lot & drive thru, never mind waiting in the lines)
M
7:07 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
fyI i believe the problem with the perfectos/tux shop site is not the town of Reading as much as it is the fact that the site apparently had some buried/perhaps leaking oil tanks (apparently was once a gas station years ago), and the environmental review & cleanup issues both at local & state level have contributed to the delay.
Jack Khas
12:56 pm on Saturday, June 2, 2012
Paul get informed. Every time they dug a new hole they found a buried waste tank. Hey but maybe we should eliminate all those silly regulations that prevent a private tax paying business from doing those sort of things. Ecars site owner spent Time cleaning up the site before they ever came around looking for permits.
Richard W. Kendall
4:08 pm on Saturday, June 2, 2012
Congratulations to the Gabriello's on their new venture in Reading. It's encouraging to get that eye sore of a property renovated.
John Carpenter
7:30 am on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Yes, the Perfecto Cafe project is a great opportunity for Reading's commissions and inspectors to show their improvements in customer service. I look forward to the Grand Opening of this promising new business!