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Fenwick Hospitality’s latest Princeton restaurant slated to open in early December

Fenwick Hospitality, the company that owns Agricola, the Dinky Bar, and Cargot Brasserie will be opening a fourth restaurant in downtown Princeton in early December if all goes as planned, owner Jim Nawn told the Princeton Council Monday night.

Officials voted to transfer the liquor license from the former Main Street Bistro at the Princeton Shopping Center to the new restaurant at 277 Witherspoon Street that will be called Two Sevens.

The new restaurant, located near the AvalonBay complex, will feature food from Central and South America. The 281 and 277 Witherspoon Street project includes the redevelopment of a former medical building and new construction of mixed use office and retail building on the site of the former Princeton Medical Center in Princeton.

5 Comments

  1. Can someone explain why there are a limited number of liquor licenses in general? It seems they are exceedingly expensive (limited supply and great demand), and I’m not sure why they are limited? Is it a residual of Prohibition thinking? The limit on licenses seem to lead to things like: developer purchases a long-time favorite restaurant, puts a limited amount of work into “renovations” and then claim they can’t make a profit…and voila…they transfer the liquor license to a new, higher-end restaurant endeavor. Say what you want about Main Street, it had a loyal following, great food, wonderful staff, and was fairly priced for the Princeton market. But I guess that liquor license was far more important…a shame.

    1. I think it had to do with the relative populations of towns after prohibition ended in 1933. That’s why New Brunswick has many establishments with liquor licenses and Plainsboro has . . . one. Trenton has plenty, and Princeton’s supply seems limited.

      I am pretty sure a municipality can issue more, but those who own the limited number of existing licenses usually don’t think that’s a good idea (because it diminishes the value of theirs). Kind of like the supply of NYC Taxi Medallions before Uber.

      1. Actually the number of liquor licenses in each municipality is based on the population. West Windsor gained at least one license after the last census because of the population increase there. It’s an archaic system.

  2. Maybe I’m geographically challenged but I don’t think of Avalon Bay – former site of, among other things, a morgue – as downtown Princeton.

  3. This is the restaurant group Princeton deserves- overpriced, inhospitable, stingy, arrogant, impersonal, and bland. Also utterly inauthentic. What a waste and a disappointment. I’ll stick to Mistral any day. Should the pharmaceutical sales expense accounts ever dry up and the day trippers stay home, these corporate hellholes will go out of business (cross fingers).

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