For nearly four years, the brick depot beside the Newton Centre Green Line stop sat dark, its windows empty since its last tenant, Deluxe Town Diner, closed. Then in June, every local outlet ran some version of the same story: Lockheart, the Wellesley taco-and-margarita spot, had been cleared to take over the old train station at 70 Union Street. If you read that news and mentally booked a July dinner there, you were reading half the story.
The half that got left out is this: winning over Newton's Board of License Commissioners and winning over the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission are two separate approvals, run by two separate governments, on two separate timelines. On June 16, Newton's license board voted 3-0 to approve Lockheart's liquor, common victualler, and entertainment licenses for the Union Street address. That vote made the headlines. It did not make the restaurant open.
What the June Vote Actually Approved
At the hearing, attorney Carolyn Conway described the concept to the board: a family-oriented American bistro with a southwestern flair and an affordable menu, modeled directly on the Wellesley original. The kitchen would run until at least 10 p.m. nightly, with a proposed 1 a.m. closing time meant less for a typical Tuesday and more for occasions like a World Cup match or a late West Coast baseball game. The applicants agreed to close the patio by 10 p.m. regardless.
Mark Hicklin, the proposed manager of record and a 50 percent owner of the Wellesley Lockheart, told the board he'd run that location for four years without a single violation on the books. That track record is likely why the vote was unanimous and fast. The building itself was set up to seat 86 people inside and another 9 on a seasonal patio, tucked into the historic station shell next to the Green and the T stop.
None of that required anything from Boston. It only required Newton to say yes, and Newton said yes in a single meeting.
The Eight Weeks Nobody Reported
Here's the part that never made it into a headline. Reporting from Fig City News in mid-August found that, eight weeks after Newton's board voted, the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission's own roster of active Newton licenses still showed nothing issued to Union Depot LLC, the entity doing business as Lockheart. Same address. Same unanimous local yes. Still, on paper, no license to actually pour a margarita.
When Fig City News asked the applicants' attorney what was going on, the answer was about as vague as a wait can get:
"Awaiting ABCC approval and will open within 'a matter of days' once it comes through: 'a few weeks hopefully.'"
That is the gap between a town saying yes and a state saying yes, and it's the reason a building that looked done in June was still sitting behind glass in late summer. A local license board can hold a hearing, hear a track record, and vote in one sitting. A state commission works through its own backlog on its own clock, and nobody sends a press release when your paperwork finally clears the pile.
What You'll Actually Find If You Walk In Now
As of mid-September, the depot is serving. This is Lockheart's second location, joining the original that opened on Central Street in Wellesley back in 2022 and built its following on tacos, cocktails, and a rotating calendar of live music, open mic nights, and trivia.
The Newton Centre menu leans into the same southwestern-with-a-twist identity: lobster guacamole, Texas dry-rub wings, and a taco lineup that runs from straightforward carnitas to tuna poke and Korean Brussels sprouts. There are bowls, salads, and larger plates like veggie enchiladas, plus margaritas on that seasonal patio the license board spent so much time discussing. It's the kind of menu that reads like a bistro trying to be a few different restaurants at once, which tracks with Conway's description at the hearing.
If you walked past the depot in July assuming it was still working through a formality, you weren't wrong to assume that. You just had the wrong government in mind.
Why the Four Months Matter More Than the Menu
The reason this timeline is worth knowing isn't really about tacos. It's that the next time a village storefront in Newton Centre changes hands and a permit gets filed, the same two-clock system will run again. A unanimous city vote is necessary, but it has never been sufficient. Anyone tracking what's coming to Union Street or Beacon Street should expect the same lag between "the town approved it" and "you can get a table," because that lag isn't specific to Lockheart. It's built into how a Massachusetts liquor license actually gets issued, one government at a time.
That's worth remembering the next time a familiar name pops up in a permit filing on a corner you walk past every day. The town's yes starts the clock. It doesn't stop it.
The Fall Dates That Don't Need ABCC Approval
With the depot finally sorted, the rest of the Newton Centre calendar this fall runs on a much simpler kind of permission, the kind that comes from the parks department instead of the state.
- Newton Harvest Fair, Newton Centre Green and the Langley Road parking lot. Saturday, October 17 brings a kiddie carnival and food trucks from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, October 18 is the full festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more than 100 crafters and vendors, two live music stages, a GreenExpo booth, and free pumpkin decorating courtesy of Wegmans Chestnut Hill while supplies last.
- Newton Farmers' Market, Saturdays through October 31, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Newton North High School on Lowell Avenue. This is the last month to catch it before it goes dormant for winter.
- Newton's Halloween Party, Saturday, October 24, in Newton Highlands. Activities run 2 to 5:30 p.m., followed by an outdoor movie at 6:30 p.m.
None of these dates are waiting on a state commission. They're locked the moment the parks department publishes them, which is exactly why they've held steady while a liquor license worked its way through Boston all summer.
If the depot's slow reopening taught Newton Centre anything this year, it's that a "coming soon" sign means exactly that and nothing more, right up until it doesn't. The Morgan Franklin Group spends its days paying attention to these kinds of details across Newton, Wellesley, and Boston's core neighborhoods, not because a restaurant opening changes a home's value overnight, but because knowing a neighborhood this well is what makes the rest of the advice worth trusting. If you're thinking about what a Newton or Wellesley move looks like for you, book a personalized market consultation and we'll walk through it village by village.
