where's the beef................. gonna go??????
Last roundup: Hilltop in Braintree to close; Famed eatery will make way for Toyota dealership
The Hilltop in Braintree opened in 1991. (LISA BUL/The Patriot Ledger)
By RICK COLLINS
The Patriot Ledger
BRAINTREE - The Hilltop Steak House is about to serve up its last slab of beef in Braintree.
The owners of the popular restaurant have agreed to sell the business to the Tufankjian family, who plan to move their Toyota dealership from Bridge Street in Weymouth to the Grossman Drive site.
Hilltop’s landmark Saugus location - the one with the roadside neon cactus and fiberglass cows - is not part of the deal.
‘‘The new Toyota dealership ... represents a significant improvement as compared to the 42-year-old existing restaurant building,’’ said Frank Marinelli, the Tufankjians’ attorney.
The Hilltop Steak House on Route 1 in Saugus was well known in 1991 when founder Frank Giuffrida bought the lease of the former La Biftheque restaurant in Braintree. The site had also been a Valle’s Steak House.
The Tufankjians and the owners of the Hilltop, High County Investors, shook hands on the deal in December. It is contingent on approval of permits for the new dealership.
The site is off Route 3 and Union Street, in what was once a Grossman’s lumber yard and is now the Marketplace.
Hilltop restaurant officials could not be reached to comment on the sale.
Marinelli said the Tufankjians want to raze the existing restaurant and build a 44,000 square-foot, two-story showroom on the 4-acre site. The building would include 16,000 square feet of sales space and a 22,000 square-foot service area with 37 bays.
Underneath would be a basement large enough to store 215 cars.
Another 144 new and used cars would be parked outside.
If the proposal wins town approval, Marinelli said the Weymouth property would probably be used for auto inventory storage, not sales.
The Braintree zoning board of appeals has already signed off on the plan.