Hospitality

The Cannabis Control Commission will soon have a new liaison to policymakers on Beacon Hill and local leaders in communities around the state.

Vittorio Ettore's Medford restaurant, Bistro 5, was "basically 100 percent empty" at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday when a city official happened to stop in and suggested he needed a patio.

The Worcester Art Museum on Wednesday said it will reopen to visitors on Oct. 7, following a lengthy closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rapscallion Brewery, which has rented an old barn building on a farm in Sturbridge since 2013, has completed its long search for a permanent space where it can begin canning and distributing its beer. Rapscallion is due to move to Spencer by the end of the year.

Atlantic Medicinal Partners opened its first recreational marijuana dispensary in Fitchburg on Friday. The dispensary is locally owned and vertically integrated.

When restaurants in Massachusetts were cleared to open for serving patrons on-site but not yet indoors, Worcester officials changed zoning regulations to allow for outdoor dining where it wasn't previously allowed. Now, the city administration is looking to make such changes permanent.

Atlantic Medicinal Partners of Woburn officially opened its new Fitchburg marijuana dispensary at noon on Friday, the company announced, where it will serve both recreational and medicinal customers.

Alfresco dining has become an important part of the restaurant industry in Massachusetts, having "dramatically increased" when state government prohibited indoor dining to slow the spread of the coronavirus, analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank said.

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is seeking applicants for two open seats on the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, the AG’s office announced on Wednesday.

Popular downtown Worcester restaurant Armsby Abbey will not reopen on Tuesday, as its owners Alec Lopez and Sherri Sadowski had previously hoped when they announced a summer shutdown in June.