On a recent afternoon, home-grown entrepreneur Danny Warren could be found in the central hall of Warren’s Harborview, screwing feet onto restaurant tables. He and his crew were getting the restaurant ready for its debut event, now only weeks away.

“It’s going good,” said Warren “A lot of struggles to get to this point, but it’s all worked out.”

The project — a pavilion, restaurant, ice-cream stand and marina along the downtown waterfront — first broke ground in March 2022. 

Now, the Harborview is weeks away from having customers walking through its doors for the first time. 

On Monday, Sept. 9, the Harborview will host 200 people for a retirement celebration for Alan Slavin, a four-term member of the Select Board and long-time town official. Click here for more information about the celebration. 

However, the celebration will not fully kick-off the Harborview’s operations. The facility won’t be fully operational until its grand opening the first or second week of October, with exact dates to be determined. 

“I can’t wait to see the people here enjoying it,” said Warren. 

Warren and the Harborview team have big plans for its operations throughout the year. 

Starting in January, the Harborview will be open Monday through Thursday as a convention center, and it will reopen as a restaurant on the weekends. Warren said the restaurant will bring in visiting chefs, from across the country and from the local area, during these dead-of-winter months. 

Come March, April and May, the Harborview will be available for booking by wedding parties on the weekends. It won’t be open to the general public on weekends when it’s used as a wedding venue, said Warren: “When a family leases this place, it’s their place for those three days.”

There will be outdoor entertainment during the summer months, with well-known names brought to the Wareham area, said Warren. 

Throughout it all, the restaurant will operate at a high level of quality, but at a price-point where people will be able to afford to come, said Warren, who added that he’s planning a kind of honors card for the restaurant, similar to what was used in Fisher’s up in Middleboro. 

The Harborview is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment to make its operations possible, from a foam disinfectant system to wash bathrooms and the kitchen to a high-end kitchen range to a steam-cleaner for dishes that uses minimal water. Warren is working with chef Jack Texeira to helm the kitchen. The two met when Texeira was 9; Warren said his life’s desire was to be a master chef, and he achieved it. 

All those pieces of equipment are in place, or will soon be. The only thing the Harborview needs now are people walking through its doors. 

“It’s going to be something that this area really needs,” said Warren.