The Village of Webster’s newest restaurant — Cobblestone on Main — will be opening soon, and I know I’m not the only one excited about it.
Judging from the conversations I’ve been hearing from friends and on social media, a lot of people have been keeping an eye on the historic cobblestone building at 109 West Main St. as it’s been renovated over the last many months. The main rumors I heard swirling around was that it was going to be a brewpub, or maybe a high-end restaurant. Turns out, it’s neither — but a little of both.
When The Cobblestone on Main opens several weeks from now, patrons will find a comfortable, reasonably-priced restaurant for those looking for a hearty lunch or dinner, and a dozen taps behind the long bar, hosting several local and regional brews.
The Cobblestone is the culmination of a dream for Dan Bresnahan and his daughter Sarah, who will be teaming up to run the new establishment. Together with Dan’s wife Lynne, the Bresnahans, who are long-time Webster residents, are excited to bring their family-run restaurant to the village they call home.
Their journey began a little over a year ago, when Dan and Sarah happened to drive by the historic old cobblestone. Greg Chambery, owner of The Maplewood nursing home, owned that building as well and had already begun renovations. It got them thinking about their longtime dream of opening a restaurant.
“We had seen what was happening on the east side of the building with the new porch and roof line,” Dan said. “I said to Sarah, if we’re thinking of doing this, that’s the kind of place we need to find.”
It turned out that Sarah had grown up with Chambery’s daughter. Fate clearly had a plan for them. So last January, Dan met with Chambery and a deal was struck.
And then Covid hit.
Chambery had made significant improvements to the outside of the building, but had stripped the inside down to studs and bare stone. There was an amazing amount of work to do before the Bresnahans could open their doors to the public. But thanks to the pandemic, they couldn’t even begin their renovations until July.
Instead of getting discouraged, they chose to look on the bright side.
“That time period from early spring till July really provided us with the opportunity to think through logistics for such an old building,” Dan said. “What are all the things we needed to do to accommodate the public?”
When the pandemic didn’t relent over the summer, they had to keep moving their projected opening date back beyond the holidays and into the new year. Still, that was OK, Sarah explained.
“As horrible as the timing of it was, I feel like waiting and doing it the right way and taking our time to think through systems and processes to keep people safe” was important, she said. “It’s something we needed to think about anyway. It made us think through keeping things clean and doing it the right way.”
The current plan is to finally open the first week of March.
When everything is in place, Cobblestone on Main will feature a large main dining room door, with booths along the wall, several high-top tables in the middle and a farm table in the front window. Towards the back of the building is a second, smaller dining room with more farm tables, and in the basement, two more dining rooms which can double as private party rooms. Come this spring, they hope to add a fenced-in patio for outside dining.
In a nod to the building’s early-19th century history, the Bresnahans tried to emulate as much of the original structure as they could, including leaving some exposed beams. The decor is rustic and weathered, or as Dan characterized it, “homey.”
“Rather than taking it and making it into an industrial-themed restaurant which I think a lot of people are going towards, it’s a cobblestone building that feels very homey,” he said. “So (we’re) bringing that to the inside and making you feel like you’re going home to have dinner rather than feel like you’re going out to a restaurant.”
The menu will feature American classics with locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible. And even though there’s a bar, Dan said, the focus will always be on the food and the experience.
The Webster community is clearly looking forward to welcoming Cobblestone on Main to the village. That was especially illustrated during the holidays when they promoted gift certificates.
Dan remembered,
A week or so before Christmas we posted that we would have gift certificates available because we had a number of people inquire. We didn’t even have a jar of pickles in the place. I said to Sarah, I kind of feel guilty selling a gift card. But we put it on Facebook and the community support blew us away. It was a regular flow of people coming in, saying, “Hey we want to help.”
They ended up selling 115 gift cards in the week before Christmas.
“We love this community … and now we’re starting our first business here,” Dan said. “I didn’t want to do it anywhere else.”
“We wanted to be part of the community and give back and participate in community events,” Lynne added. “The support has been wonderful and we appreciate everything. And we can’t wait to give back to them what we have to offer.”
Read more about Cobblestone on Main on their Facebook page.
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