#activateBOS: Recap of Liquor Licenses for the week of 9.21.16 (Hearing 9.21.16 & 9.22.16)

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New Business:

This September, 25 new liquor licenses became available for restaurants in the city of Boston- 5 unrestricted licenses which restaurants can sell or pledge to banks for capital and 20 restricted licenses, which must be returned to the board if the restaurant ever moves out of Boston or shuts down.

On Wednesday, 9.21:

• Cent’ Anni Corporation dba Victoria’s Diner located at 1024 Massachusetts Avenue (Roxbury) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• BUH2 Inc located at 52 Temple Pl in Boston (Downtown Boston) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Commonwealth Hospitality, LLC dba Taqueria located at 2297 Dorchester Avenue (Lower Mills, Dorchester) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Ravello, LLC dba Molinaris located at 789 Adams St (Dorchester) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• American Multi-Cinema, Inc dba AMC South Bay Center which will be located at 25 District Avenue (Dorchester) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Monument 251, LLC dba Monument located at 251 Main St (Charlestown) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Cabana Restaurant, LLC dba Cabana Grill located at 254 Bennington St (East Boston) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• 1318, Inc, dba “The Best Little Restaurant” located at 13–13A Hudson St (Boston) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Hot Eastern, Inc dba Hot Eastern located at 40 Harrison Avenue (Boston) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Joy Luck, Inc dba Joy Luck Restaurant located at 702 Washington St (Boston) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.
• Evy Tea, LLC located at 253 Amory St (Jamaica Plain) applied for a Common Victualler 7 Day Alcohol License.

On Thursday, 9.22, the board once again deferred on decisions regarding liquor license applications.

Old Business:

Since the board deferred again this week and has not made any decisions on applications from last week, there’s no old business to update.

Thoughts on This Week’s Applications:

The fight for liquor licenses continues! We were excited to see two Dorchester restaurants and one Roxbury restaurant in this week’s lineup, vying for one of the coveted licenses. We did notice a few interesting things that we wanted to note:

Victoria’s Diner in Roxbury is one of those landmarks in Boston that everyone knows of, whether you’ve gone there after prom in your High School days or visited when you had a bad hangover and needed some grub in the middle of the night. Victoria’s Diner drew the support of both Tito Jackson and Michelle Wu (both Boston City Councilors). We’d love to see this longstanding restaurant that’s become so ingrained in the Boston community obtain a liquor license to take their business to the next level.

AMC South Bay Center is a part of the “rejuvenation” that’s taking place in the South Bay area of Dorchester. Besides concerns about gentrification and rising property prices, the construction of AMC isn’t projected to be finished until 2017. On top of that, is a liquor license really essential to a movie theater’s operation? It may be a nice amenity to have but people go to the movie theater to see movies, not to drink cocktails.

Taqueria, a forthcoming restaurant located in Lower Mills, was also an applicant this week for a liquor license. We learned that the co-owner/ partner Brian O’Donnell already operates a few other restaurants in the city, including the Lower Mills Tavern. The Lower Mills Tavern is located right down the street from where Taqueria will open and is currently operating with a restricted liquor license- O’Donnell and his crew also have an unrestricted liquor license for a cocktail bar in the Southend. Furthermore, Taqueria hasn’t even finished construction yet- meanwhile there are already operating restaurants trying to obtain a liquor license

Why Should We Care If Owners/ Partners Already Have A Liquor License?

The whole problem with how Boston liquor licenses work is that it operates under a cap- so far, none of the 25 total liquor licenses have been dolled out but there’s only 25 for all of Boston. That’s no where near enough. This causes a longstanding disparity in the distribution of liquor licenses around the city.

As we all know, obtaining a liquor license can really help boost the revenue of a restaurant and increase their customer base. The Licensing Board should prioritize small and independent restaurant owners first when it comes to giving out liquor licenses because these are usually the owners who really need the licenses the most to increase the equity of their business.

Why should restaurant owners who already operate multiple locations and have already obtained one of the coveted liquor licenses be able to get another liquor license before other owners who have never had one? That doesn’t seem fair at all, right? If an owner has different locations and is operating with a liquor license at one of those locations, obtaining an additional liquor license will not make or break their business- but for small/ indepedent restaurant owners, it could. In Taqueria’s case, the owners already have one extremely popular restaurant with a restricted liquor license, within walking distance of Taqueria’s location and have an unrestricted license (unrestricted licenses can be sold of upwards of $350,000 and can be pledged to banks for loans, adding a lot of equity to the business). We’re not saying that Taqueria shouldn’t get a license- we’d love to see this restaurant get one! However, there are other small restaurant and independent owners who need a license more.

If an owner has different locations and is operating with a liquor license at one of those locations, obtaining an additional liquor license will not make or break their business- but for small/ indepedent restaurant owners, it could.

The projected operating date should also determine whether or not an applicant recieves a liquor license. Priority should really go to restaurants that are either close to opening or have already been operating. AMC South Bay Center is a perfect example of this- the theater won’t open until 2017 and is already applying for a liquor license that isn’t essential to their business- why on earth should one of the limited 25 licenses go to them? Hopefully, the board shares our line of thinking.

As noted in weeks past, there is an amendment to language that was put before the state to include Boston in the Governor’s previous bill to lift the cap on the number of liquor licenses available to perspective restaurant owners in the state.

We encourage all of you to reach out to your city and state reps in order to encourage them to vote to lift the cap on the regulatory number of licenses within the city.

To find your city councilors: https://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/councillors/

To find your state representatives: https://malegislature.gov/People/CityList