The Willow Rest, an eccentric and historic roadside inn along the busy backside of Cape Ann, has failed as a family-run, pump, paper and gourmet pizza place but could reopen as the city's seventh Dunkin' Donuts.
Christine Rafter, whose family in 2004 acquired the Riverdale property at the confusing intersection of Holly and Washington streets, said yesterday talks were ongoing with the Braga family.
The Bragas already operate all nine of the chain donut shops on the Cape as well as the Azorean Restaurant & Bar across from the commuter rail station.
Rafter said she was aware that rumors were rife that Dunkin' franchiser and entrepreneur Deo Braga was about to turn the "Willows" as it is known colloquially to patrons from Lanesville, Bay View, Annisquam and Riverdale into a new bead in the family's franchise necklace.
But Rafter said, "No decision has been made" to sell or lease to the Bragas or anyone else. "I know what they're saying on line, but Dunkin' Donuts' coming is not a fact," she said.
Deo Braga's son, Cliff, said negotiations were in the "looking stage." But he also said the family would need a longterm lease to convert the Willows into a Dunkin' Donuts.
Rafter said others have inquired about the half acre which served as a waystation on the original horse and wagon trail between the original settlement, near Grant Circle, and the first satellite in Annisquam. Over the centuries, Willow Rest has remained in use for resting and meeting more or less over the Cape's entire history.
A bowling alley was added briefly in the middle of the last century. The gas pump, the only fill-up on the backside of the Cape between Rockport and Route 128, was also added last century.
The Riverdale Post Office and a glass company share the broad intersection; school buses stop on the Holly Street side of a city-owned concrete road divider. The intersection tends to bedevil driving visitors and attracts parked cars.
Just south of the Willows stands the 1679 Josselyn-Wharf House.
Rafter, whose husband William was elected mayor in 1991 and served one term, said the future of the Willows was uncertain. "Anything's possible," said Rafter. The property was acquired in 2004 for $795,000 from Chet Ernest, who had operated the Willow Rest casually.
The Rafters brought ambition and expansion.
With the retired mayor holding force in a booth, and the business now expanded to include dishes made by Heidi Robinson, the longtime chef for the former Grange Gourmet just down the street, and brick oven pizzas, the Rafters' version of the Willow Rest enjoyed a brief foray as a place to meet.
It benefited from the demise of the gourmet Grange, sold and converted to condos.
Robinson has moved on, too.
"She was the architect of those wonderful soups and pastries," said Barbara Lambert, who operates the 17th-century Riggs House, a Vine Street bed and breakfast, just around the corner from the Willow Rest.
The Rafters also acquired a take-out beer and wine license, but sold it this spring to Ned Hand, who brought it to Ned's Groceria, which opened on lower Washington Street.
But Rafter said the heyday didn't last. "We kept it open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. (even during the winter) but we couldn't keep it going, we couldn't make a go of it," she said.
The Willows "closed for the season" after Labor Day.
"The fact is that people miss it," she said. "We can't keep putting thousands into it every year" was another fact Rafter cited.
The Rafters live in the apartment upstairs.
Jackie Hardy, who holds the Ward 4 seat on the City Council, said she has "traffic concerns" about the intersection, which seems to open like a bay from a river to northbound traffic on Washington Street.
She also said she would miss the Willow Rest as a "neighborhood business," which was one of only two stops along Washington Street north of Riverdale Mills to "meet and greet and mug up." The other is the Grind in Lanesville, which bakes and brews.
"It will be sad to see the Rafters go," but Hardy said she would welcome Dunkin' Donuts as a "new business" in her ward and hope it does well.
Her view was not shared by Joe Grace, who lives about a half a mile from the Willows on Holly Street. Grace has been fighting a losing battle against the proliferation of what he claims is illegal parking along the inside of the barrier separating Washington from Holly streets.
"Parking there now is bad enough," said Grace, whose father was mayor at the time of the completion of the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge when horses and cars were parked outside the Willow Rest Variety Store as it was known then when trolleys were still running up and down Washington Street to Lanesville.
"Trying to increase parking is absolute insanity," said Grace.
He said he expected neighbors to object with him to the replacement of the Willows with a franchise shop. "People from Lanesville and Rockport don't care, they can park and get their donuts and move on."
Building inspector William Sanborn said the Bragas might be able to adapt the property into a Dunkin' Donuts with minimal need for additional permitting.
Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.
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