Middletown Design Review & Preservation Board Regular Meeting - April 10, 2026
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Middletown Design Review & Preservation Board Regular Meeting - April 10, 2026
The Design Review & Preservation Board met to consider a new drive-through coffee shop proposal, approve previous meeting minutes, and hear a board member's warning about fraudulent invoices targeting applicants. The board voted to accept the conceptual design of the Seven Brew establishment.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made for items on the agenda.
Discussion Items
- New Construction of Seven Brew Drive-Through (733 Washington Street / 35 Boston Road): Applicant attorney Richard D. Carella, franchise owner Rohan Kapoor, and engineer Josh Klein presented plans for a 510-square-foot retail beverage establishment. The drive-through-only concept features staff meeting customers at their cars, with a target service time of three and a half minutes. The building is prefabricated with a thin brick panel facade (shale brown and midnight black) and a signature blue illuminated canopy. The site includes a pylon sign (10 feet tall, similar to neighboring signage), employee-only parking, and a landscaping plan with evergreen screening along the southern property line and street trees along Boston Road and Washington Street. The applicant noted that the Zoning Board of Appeals approved variances for lot size (0.58 acres vs. required 1 acre) and signage the previous night. Board members discussed building colors, canopy illumination timing, tree placement to maintain visibility, and the absence of sidewalks on Boston Road.
- Board Member Fraud Warning: Board member Richard Pelletier alerted the commission to fraudulent invoices being sent to applicants. The invoices use City of Middletown logos and forged staff signatures, exploiting contact information from publicly available application forms. He suggested redacting email addresses from future public postings to curb the scam.
Key Outcomes
- The board approved the conceptual design of the Seven Brew drive-through (motion by member, seconded, vote 5-0 in favor) with the understanding that final colors, retaining wall design, and the landscaping plan be confirmed through staff coordination with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
- Minutes from the October 8, 2025 regular meeting were approved unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
He got a better offer somewhere else. Yeah. He's brilliant. Right, right. So we weren't there with her. Yeah, he's uh okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like all of your workers. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So they're going to see us like that. I'm sure it's a good idea. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yes, very simple. That's the only way you know they're paying attention. All right, good evening, everybody. I'd like to call this meeting to order at six oh two PM. Um item two. Public comments for items on the agenda. Is there any moment for public comments on the agenda? Not doing so. We'll step to old business. We have no old business here. Did I see, Merrick? So item four new business. Four point one. Request for a new construction, the five hundred and ten square foot retail beverage establishment located at seven three three Washington Street and thirty-five Boston Road in the MXC zone. Applicant agent Richard D. Corella, Esquire. I'm an attorney here in Middletown. And uh joining me this evening are the uh principal and the engineers for this new uh development at seven thirty-three Washington Street, which is a seven brew drive-through coffee place. Um it's a it's it's an interesting location, and I'm gonna go through that in a minute, but I'm gonna ask Rohan Kapoor to come on up and just briefly describe to you all what the concept is here. It's kind of new to our area, but coming across the state. Hi everyone, Rohan Kapoor, uh, one of the franchise owners for Seven Brew in Connecticut on Western Central Mass as well. Um I'll keep this really concise and pass it quickly over to the real professionals, but just to give you all uh a little bit of context about um Seven Brew brand started in Northwest Arkansas uh in 2021. Um since then it's been expanding uh as a franchise across the states now up to six hundred and eighty locations in thirty-nine states across the US. Um it is a bit of a uh unique and interesting concept. Um basically drive-through coffee drive-through only, beverage only business. We sell coffee shakes, teas, technically 20,000 different customizations is kind of what we'll say, but however you like your drinks, we we are sure to have them. We always tell our staff it's something we believe strongly in. People may see us as a coffee business on the surface on paper. We're really in the relationship business, and that kind of is through operations. When you drive into the drive-thru, staff will meet you at your car. They'll take your order. There is no kind of speaker box or menu box. We believe it's really important to create a relationship with the customers. So that model works really well, having our staff come out, take your order, order goes into the main 510 square foot building as Richard was saying.
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