In his 25th year of operating Sweet Basil, Dave Becker remains passionate about the restaurant that catalyzed Needham’s once modest restaurant scene.
“I love what I’m doing,” he said. “My whole life I’ve never done anything else. I started washing dishes and all that. And then the salad guy gets fired, and then I’m the chef.”
The Great Plain Avenue restaurant remains as busy as ever, but residents have noticed the absence of outdoor dining this summer for the first time since the town began allowing restaurants to provide that option during the pandemic.
The town has an eight-page multistep process to apply for an outdoor dining permit, with final approval voted on by the Select Board. Six downtown restaurants have completed that process this year and have their outdoor setups in place, but Sweet Basil is still in process. Four restaurants were approved in February — French Press, Little Spoon, Hearth and The James. Masala Art and the Farmhouse were approved in April.
Becker has a simple explanation for why Sweet Basil is still in process. He was late.
Perhaps the cumulative effort of running Sweet Basil and two other restaurants (Juniper in Wellesley and Sweet Basil on Moody Street in Waltham), compounded by the tremendous challenge of surviving the pandemic, has left him a bit weary.
“In all fairness to the town of Needham, they warned me,” Becker said. “They told me, ‘The summer’s going to come faster than you know,’ and it usually takes a few weeks to get on their docket. And if it’s full, then they push you to the next one.
“So it’s all my own doing. These are all self-inflicted wounds.”
It wasn’t for lack of information. “The town has conducted extensive outreach to restaurants since zoning for outdoor dining was approved in 2021, including a hands-on push this past winter in the runup to the expiration of emergency legislative allowances in April,” said Amy Haelsen, director of communications and community engagement. The town manager’s office also provides considerable support.
“I don’t have as much fight left in me as I used to,” Becker admitted. “But I still love it and I want to do it as well as I can until the universe tells me I can’t do it anymore. Whether it’s from age or finances, or just red tape or whatever it is.”
Becker appeared before the Design Review Board on June 10 via Zoom and received its approval. On June 18, he presented to the Planning Board, which voted to approve the addition of 11 year-round outdoor seats and a parking waiver for additional parklet seats.
The final approval could come July 30, when he goes before the Select Board. If he is approved, Becker said it will require at least a week, maybe two, to install his outdoor setup that would occupy three public parking spots in front of his restaurant.
Somewhat ironically, Becker said although outdoor dining has its rewards, it’s not significant to his bottom line. “I really love outdoor dining. I like to eat outside myself,” he said. “But it won’t increase the business. When it’s nice outside, the same number of people show up. They just eat outside instead.”
He does have concerns, however, about not offering outdoor dining. “I want to have a cool restaurant, and I want the people of Needham to love Sweet Basil still, you know what I mean? So if they want to sit outside, I want to facilitate that. I mean, if they want a helicopter pad and a bocce ball court, I would facilitate that too.”
“The funniest move ever would be, instead of doing tables out there, set up a little sand pit within the jersey barriers, make it enclosed and do, like, a bocce ball tournament while people wait,” he said, his quirky humor on full display.
Then there’s the cost of adding the outdoor service — the filing fees and professional service costs associated with going through the compliance process, the roughly $10,000 for outdoor furniture, and the strain on his resources once the service is in place.
“The thing is, we have a little tiny kitchen,” he said. “And so it’s kind of hard for us to put out the same quality of food if we’re overwhelmed out front.
“We’ll have more people complaining that the service isn’t good and the food took awhile. I’d rather have an awesome product and do less business than just be trampled every night and putting out lackluster food.”
Still, he is effusive in his praise for the way two restaurants in town approach outdoor dining. “I would say that The James is like the high bar of beautiful outdoor dining. And The James probably will be busier because of their beautiful patio.
“And the Farmhouse’s patio is really beautiful. You feel like you’re in another country.”
In earlier years, missing the filing deadline might have caused alarm, but no more. The many near-death operational experiences during COVID inured Becker to disappointment. “Every step of the way, there’s some new obstacles. So, I’m just kind of rolling with the punches on this.”
“Thanks to COVID, I’ve rehearsed my close-down speech so many times that I don’t feel that way about closing. My ego isn’t attached to the success of the restaurant anymore. Which is healthy, you know?”
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