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South End restaurant cited and chided for piling chairs in front of an emergency exit
By adamg on Tue, 01/26/2010 - 4:57pm
Aquitane, 569 Tremont St., received a citation from police on Oct. 29 because workers cleaning up after a party piled eight chairs in front of a rear exit. Boston Licensing Board members today told the restaurant not to let it happen again.
Board member Michael Connolly noted Boston did not have a single fire-related death in 2009 and he would do everything he can to keep that record going in the new year: "When we hear you have blocked egress and you have eight dinner-table chairs blocking egress, that's a real issue for us. ... This is not something we look at lightly."
A restaurant manager told the board workers should have brought the chairs to the basement immediately and that they were told not to do it again. The board will decide at a meeting Thursday what to do about the violation. The board could simply "file" the citation, which essentially means nothing happens or put the restaurant on probation for several months.
The reason police even noticed the violation was because a restaurant valet ignored a police order to move a double-parked car that was blocking traffic on Tremont Street that night. Sgt. Robert Mulvey told the board he initially told the valet to move the car around 6:30 p.m. When he returned around 9 p.m., the car was still there. He said he issued a citation for that, then went inside to conduct a "premises inspection," which is when he found the piled-up chairs.
A restaurant lawyer told the board the valet, actually employed by Universal Valet, was fired that night for the infraction.
Universal also provides valet services at Cafeteria on Newbury Street, which also had to explain to the board why a car was double-parked in its valet area on Nov. 5. In that case, restaurant officials said they had actually shut down valet service that night because they'd run out of off-street parking, but that some guy then just pulled up and left his car double-parked while he went inside.
Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski said maybe it's time for restaurants that have "Valet Parking" signs to buy "No Valet Parking" signs for times like that.
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Comments
not their only problem
I went there once on a date and her white wine was served room temperature(!) The food was beyond bland :-|
Are there limitations on valet parking?
Because as any city resident who has tried to go into the Back Bay or South End on a weekend night knows, valets are constantly double-parking and taking up all available spaces, and I rarely if ever see any enforcement (I was actually surprised police issued a citation in this case). This is not a new problem, to be sure, but does the city have a cap or limit on the amount of places that can offer valet, or on the number of spaces valet services are allowed to use?
Good question, dunno
They are supposed to find off-street spaces for cars - one of the issues with Cafeteria is that the valet eventually moved the double-parked car to a newly opened space across the street on Newbury, which is a no-no.
how about the churches on Tremont?
There's a Baptist church on Tremont where all the patrons feel it's OK to double-park pretty much all of the time- and during popular services, the double parking will be SOLID for a good block or two on either side of the church. They cover the bike lane, and even better, right next door is the fire station. Awesome, no? I have yet to figure out why they're not incessantly ticketed (and towed.)
Maybe in addition to "Saving", Jesus can "Remind To Take Public Transit."
In the Back Bay, I
In the Back Bay, I consistently see Newbury Street valets parking cars in resident spaces several blocks away from Newbury Street. They monitor the cars just in case meter maids approach and then they move the cars out of those spaces. You see them running back and forth all the time on weekend nights.
Hooray!
Yippee!
Aquitaine is far from the worst violator on Tremont Street. Sibling Rivalry is unrivaled in its abuse of the privilege of valet service. They simply won't hire enough valets to do the work. Meanwhile, cars and buses end up backed-up all the way down Tremont Street into Bay Village.
The BeeHive does an excellent job.
Actually, the Beehive and
Actually, the Beehive and Aquitane share a valet company. Maybe it just depends on the particular valet on duty.
Valets
I used to be a valet in the South End (I actually worked at Aquitaine quite often in college). The accounts that are run by Exclusive (Aquitaine, Hamersley's, BCA/Beehive) all have their own lot behind the cathedral. Parking on the street was a HUGE no-no when I was there. I'm surprised the valet left the car double parked. Leaving cars on the street used to cause all kinds of problems, even for a few minutes.