Anthony's to share menu with assisted-living group

Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant in Boston has embarked upon a unique relationship with the Aurum Network, a Burlington-based group of 63 independently owned nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Massachusetts.

Residents of Aurum Network facilities will be served Anthony's Pier 4 menu items such as lobster bisque and broiled scrod. The arrangement follows an Aurum patient satisfaction survey that revealed meals are vital in ensuring patient satisfaction and well-being.

Anthony's Pier 4 chefs instructed seven Aurum chefs on dish preparations, and an Aurum nutritionist also learned how to adjust ingredients to meet patient's special dietary needs.

Evenings during which the Aurum facilities will serve the menu items will be dubbed "Anthony's Pier 4 Nights."

Staples Inc. launched its first international e-commerce sites on April 25 in Canada.

The Framingham-based office product retailer and service provider will use the sites as a test model as it looks to begin a rollout of similar web sites in its other international markets--the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal--sometime next year.

Staples opened its first Canadian retail store in Toronto in 1991. It now has 154 stores under the Staples, Business Depot and Bureau En Gros names and expects to increase that count to 176 by year's end.

Staples' Canadian web sites contain local inventory and country-specific content in both English- and French-language versions. The English versions, which include British spellings such as "favourite" aisles, can be accessed online at http://www.staples.ca and by clicking on http://www.businessdepot.com. The French version is http://www.bureauengros.com.

"This is the first time Canadians can place orders through Staples over the Internet," Staples spokeswoman Shannon Lapierre said.

Staples launched its American web site, http://www.staples.com, in 1998. In March, it reported fiscal 1999 sales of $94.3 million and a net loss of $16.4 million.

Owners Kim Moore and Paul Conforti are scouting a second location for Finale, a dessert-only restaurant in Boston's Park Square that actually always has served lunch and subsequently added light dinners after its July 1998 opening.

"We are looking for a second location, and we intend to have it open before the end of the year," Moore said. "Harvard Square would be ideal, but we're certainly not married to Harvard Square. There are plenty of other great locations in Cambridge for Finale."

Patrons typically visit Finale for pastry chef Nicole Coady's desserts after dinner at another restaurant, shopping or a trip to the movies or theater.

"They've done some other sort of main activity, and then they join us for dessert," Moore said.

According to Moore, servers at other restaurants will encourage their diners to move to Finale for dessert when there's a long line of other patrons waiting to be seated. That way, Moore said, the restaurants can turn over their tables and sell the $30 entree instead of the $8 dessert.

"It's really a symbiotic relationship we have with the restaurants around us," Moore said. "No one's losing sales."

Chris Kimball and other editors of the Brookline-based Cook's Illustrated magazine will be among the editorial content contributors to the Amazon Kitchen.

Launched last week by online retailer Amazon.com Inc., the Amazon Kitchen sells kitchen products in addition to providing product reviews, chef profiles, cooking tips and recipes. The site can be accessed at http://www.amazon.com/kitchen.

The new Tage Inn in Somerville's Sullivan Square area has started welcoming guests. The 148-room hotel is the third operated by the Tagliente family's Andover-based Tage Corp., which also has Tage Inns in Andover and Milford, 14 Burger King franchises and the Gold Fork restaurant in Franklin.

Boston celebrity chef Todd English--of Olives, Figs, Miramar and Onda fame--has signed a five-year agreement with Westwood-based ShopLink.com Inc.

English will be the consulting chef to the online provider of groceries, household goods and services. He'll develop gourmet prepared meals that will be sold via the ShopLink.com web site, where his recipes and culinary tips also will appear. English also will participate in ShopLink's customer loyalty program by hosting VIP dinners at his restaurants.

A 1,500-square-foot Rand McNally Map & Travel Store has opened at the Prudential Center in Boston. It's the company's second location in Boston and 30th nationwide. According to Rand McNally & Co. officials, the company's 84 State St. location in Boston has recorded the highest sales increases among the chain for the past two years.

Target Corp. will open four new Massachusetts stores on Oct. 8. Two 137,000-square-foot Target Greatland stores will open in Everett and Woburn; a 125,000-square-foot Target will open in Milford; and a 107,000-square-foot Target will open in Saugus.

The openings will bring the number of Target stores in the Greater Boston area to seven.

DONNA L. GOODISON, retail reporter for the Boston Business Journal, can be reached by e-mail at DGoodison@amcity.com.

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