WHITMAN – There’s a time for everything, and the Rosen family have decided that McGuiggan’s Pub and it’s The Patio at McGuiggans’ annex eatery have reached the time to change under new ownership.
Patrons of the Pub and The Patio eatery across the street – as well as the rest of Whitman – learned of that change in a Facebook post from Danielle Rosen DaPonte.
“That was the buzz on Facebook last night,” Select Board member Justin Evans said on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
“It is with very mixed emotions that we announce our decision to sell McGuiggan’s Pub and The Patio at McGuiggan’s,” the post read. “After almost 15 years in business, our family feels that the timing is right for us to start our new adventures, which include the start of a new family and retirement.”
Evans said many Whitman residents discussing the sale on social media seemed shocked by the news.
“It did shock a lot of people,” Richard Rosen said Thursday, Aug, 29. “The time has come. I mean, it’s been 15 years – it’s [done] extremely well for a restaurant.”
He said most restaurants don’t survive their first five or six years in business.
“I don’t think people gave me 15 minutes, never mind 15 years, and then when I opened The Patio five years ago … and, you know, we’ve gone through a lot. We went through a pandemic.”
The restaurant business was among the hardest hit by the pandemic lock-down and recovery.
“I’m very proud of the fact that, during that pandemic, we had to close The Patio, but we kept 13 people on payroll, just to do take-out the entire pandemic,” he said.
Rosen said the time has now come to prepare for changes his family is facing. His wife wants to retire to enjoy their three grandchildren, and she had been the restaurants’ accountant. His daughter, Danielle, who runs both restaurants, just had a child and wants to “get her life back.”
“Life changes,” he said.
While Rosen himself has no retirement plans – he is in the real estate business – and is certain he’ll “find something to do” even as he steps back a little to enjoy more travel and family time.
The Patio will become Martini’s – a sister business to the Martini’s in Plymouth – and the Pub will be rebranded.
“The Pub needed to be rebranded and it really wasn’t something I wanted to do at this time,” he said. “Again, 15 years is a long time and it’s a very tough business.”
He said the menu needed to be changed and upgraded a little, he said of the changes that were needed.
“The time was right, and I found one person to buy both restaurants,” he said.
The Select Board will hold two public hearings during its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 17. One is in connection with Indian River Associates for the transfer of Common Victualler All Alcohol Liquor License on the premises located at 552 Washington St., Whitman, from The Patio at McGuiggan’s LLC, dba The Patio at McGuiggan’s, to Indian River Associates, Inc., dba the Patio at Martini’s.
The other is in connection with the application of Lone Wolf Partners, Inc., for the transfer of the Common Victualler All Alcohol Liquor License on the premises located at 546 Washington St., Whitman, from McGuiggan’s LLC dba McGuiggan’s Pub, to Lone Wolf Partners, Inc., dba The Alibi Tavern.
Rosen said the 70 employees, quite a few part-time workers, of the McGuiggan’s establishments will be kept on by the new owners if they wish to stay.
The license transfer paperwork was submitted on Monday, Aug. 26 following a staff meeting with employees.
“It was very emotional,” Rosen said. “It was very sad for some, but we made sure with the negotiations with the buyers that all the employees that want to stay, will stay.”
Transferring a liquor license to new owners can be a complicated, with all the paperwork and public hearing process, Rosen said, adding the family wanted the announcement to come on their terms, not on “rumors and hearsay and innuendo.”
So, DaPonte wrote the announcement the family posted on Facebook.
“We are incredibly grateful to our staff and customers who made these past 15 years a wonderful experience,” DaPonte stated in her Facebook post. “We truly feel that the members of our staff and loyal clientele are like family, and that is what we will miss the most from these restaurants!
“We are pleased to share that the new owners plan to keep as many members of the current staff that wish to be part of their new restaurant,” she wrote. “These staff members have become like family to many of our customers and it brings us joy to know that feeling will continue as part of the new restaurants!”
Rosen feels he and his family have a lot to look back on with pride.
“I like to think I helped to transform Whitman Center to a – believe it or not – a destination point,” he said. “I can go into the pub at any given time, and I’ll know 85 percent of the people in there. I can go into The Patio and I won’t know 90 percent of the people who are in there. People are coming from everywhere to come to that restaurant.”
He said that throughout his life before opening the eateries, the sidewalks rolled up after 5 p.m.
“It’s just the opposite now,” he said. “If anyone doubts it, go through the center on a Monday night at 7 o’clock and there virtually won’t be a car in the center – we’re closed on Mondays. When we’re open, the center is busy.”
The restaurant’s sponsorship of the annual 5K road race has also meant $75,000 in donations (100 percent of race proceeds) – half to the Whitman Food Pantry and the other half divided among other local veterans groups sports teams, and a few state-wide nonprofit programs.
Rosen added that McGuiggan’s gift cards will be redeemable for a year.
“You always see when restaurants close, there’s outrage because the gift cards aren’t any good,” he said. “I needed to make sure that the buyers will accept our gift cards,”