Watertown Company Wins Travel Award

The company recently received accolades from National Geographic.

A Watertown-based travel company has won a major accolade for its recent spotlight in National Geographic. Thomson Family Adventures recently received recognition from the magazine for the company's "Wonders of Turkey: A Smithsonian Family Adventure," according to a press release. The recognition was in National Geographic's "50 Tours of a Lifetime."  In 2012, Thomson Family Adventures and Smithsonian Journeys created a package of family tours designed to expose families to cultures, including the Turkey tour, according to the press release. The tour took travelers through bazaars and crumbling ruins in Turkey among other locations.  "This is a trip that has it all, from fun family activities like sailing, swimming, snorkeling, and hiking…

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Boston College Hockey Team Stops by Watertown Restaurant

The Eagles and their coach Jerry York stopped by for some Italian fare with a modern twist.

Watertown Karate Studio Has a Family Atmosphere

Craig's Kempo Karate Academy recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary.

  A decade ago, Craig Craig looked around for a new career after an injury prevented him from continuing to work as a paramedic, so he turned to one of his passions – karate. He and his wife Anita looked around and found a commercial space on School Street in Watertown and opened their studio. They ran it with the philosophy that they would treat pupils like family, and it worked. Last month Craig’s Kempo Karate Academy celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a dinner at the Helenic Cultural Center which attracted over 200 people. Craig said he has had 100s of students, an often runs into them around Watertown and Belmont, where he now lives. Along with the students he works with at Craig’s Kempo Karate Academy, he also runs afterschool …

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Does Main Street in Watertown Need Changes, Upgrades?

Residents at the Comprehensive Plan Workshop considered this question last week.

  What would you change about Watertown's Main Street? That is one of the areas which residents commented about during last week's Comprehensive Plan Workshop. Some said the street is too sleepy, especially toward the west end, and most agreed that traffic is a problem on the thoroughfare. The street should have more enticing stores, people said, including boutique clothing stores, an ice cream shop, more high-end restaurants and coffee shops. Parking can be hard to find in near the businesses close to Watertown Square, residents said.  The street is not pedestrian friendly and it is tough to bicycle along Main Street, people told consultants working for the town to put together the plan. The street should have more trees and landscaping, …

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Two Watertown Pharmaceutical Companies Hit the Stock Exchange This Week

Enanta and Tetraphase pharmaceuticals are now trading on the NASDAQ.

  Two Watertown drug developers went public this week when they joined the NASDAQ stock exchange. Enanta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ symbol - ENTA) and Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (TTPH) are now trading publicly, according to an article on xconomy.com. Enanta, which developed a drug for hepatitis C in collaboration with Novartis and AbbVie, sold 4 million shares at $14 apiece to raise $56 million, according to the report. Tetraphase raised $75 million by selling 10.7 million shares at $7 a share, the report said. The company is working on antibiotics to treat multi-drug resistant bacteria infections. To read the entire xconomy.com article, click here. 

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Upper Crust Pizzeria Reopens in Watertown

After closing for a few months, the gourmet pizza place on Main Street is back.

  The Upper Crust Pizzeria in Watertown closed its doors in November, but instead of a permanent shuttering it turns out to be a temporary hiatus. The gourmet pizza restaurant in Watertown Square reopened last week, according to a piece on the food blog Boston Restaurant Talk. A posting on the Upper Crust Facebook page announced the reopening of the Watertown location:  Doors at our Watertown location open under new ownership at 11 a.m. today for delivery and take-out. Beginning Thursday, March 21, we will be serving lunch and dinner in the restaurant. Call now: (617) 923-6060 Watertown's location of Upper Crust shut down along with several others during the chain's legal and financial difficulties. The Watertown locale, however, was …

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Hess Closing Its Gas Stations

The company will instead focus on oil production and exploration.

Hess has announced it's closing its gas stations and will focus on “exploration and production,” according to media sources on Monday. Recently, Elliott Management, one of the company’s largest shareholders, "accused the board of ‘poor oversight,’ and said that the company’s management was responsible for more than a ‘decade of failures,’” reported the Associated Press. Hess will close its gas stations, including the station on North Beacon Street in Watertown, and focus on other parts of the business, including oil exploration and production. Many of the stations are owned by Hess rather than franchises, reported AP.

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Boston Biomedical May Have Buyer for Watertown Property, But Financial Woes Persist

The financially strapped non-profit biotech group is selling its headquarters on Grove Street

Boston Biomedical Research Institute may have found a buyer for its property on Grove Street, but the sale may not solve the non-profit biotech group's financial problems. Tufts Health Plan has put down a deposit of $200,000 on the property, which sits next to the Tufts' headquarters on Mt. Auburn Street, according to a report in the Boston Business Journal. The institute was founded in 1968 and moved to Watertown in 1999. Recently, however, BBRI announced it was closing.  In 1999, BBRI purchased bought 1.3-acre property for $2.3 million, a purchase that was financed with $17 million in bond sales underwritten by Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, the Boston Business Journal reports. BBRI still owes $12.4 million on those bonds, …

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Watertown is Home to Some of the Best Places to Work in America

Tufts Health Plan and athenahealth make list of top companies for which to work.

There must be something in the water, because a national survey ranked two Watertown companies among the top 150 places to work in the nation.  Watertown businesses Tufts Health Plan and athenahealth joined 11 other Massachusetts companies on the list of best businesses to work for compiled by WorkplaceDynamics of Exton, Pa., according to a report in the Boston Globe. The rankings come weeks after Fortune Magazine named Watertown-based Bright Horizons as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."  Th factors considered in WorkplaceDynamics' rankings include the organization’s leadership, direction, and connection to its employees, Doug Claffey, chief executive of WorkplaceDynamics told the Globe. Some of the keys to employee happiness, …

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