Beer and wine bar proposed for former Irene’s Flowers location

Jun 16, 2021

A pair of business owners hope to bring a wine bar with lighter fare food to the old Irene’s House of Flowers location at 196 Main Street. 

Michael and Connie Kjelgaard of Scarlet Rose LLC said they hope the business will be similar to 1620 Wine Bar in Plymouth Center. 

“The food menu is very limited — we’re not going to have a full kitchen, there’s no grill,” Michael Kjelgaard told the Board of Selectmen during the meeting on June 15. 

He said the bar would serve wine along with a tapas-style food menu, beer, coffee and tea. It would close around 9 p.m., in addition to being closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Inside Kjelgaard plans to have seating for 45 and an outdoor patio will provide additional cafe-style seating. 

The vision is to create “a place to meet your friends, enjoy some music and have a drink,” Kjelgaard said. 

Selectmen Jim Munise and Judith Whiteside expressed concern that the conversion of the flower shop’s delivery area into a patio for outdoor seating might result in delivery trucks blocking traffic on Center Street.

But, overall, the board seemed receptive to the plans. 

“We’re trying to make Main Street a destination area, rather than a drive-through area and this would be another nice piece,” Selectman Alan Slavin said, noting that a wine bar could convince people to “stay downtown.”

The Kjelgaards said they hope to open in fall 2021 — “but construction’s slow,” Michael noted.