Bureaucratic bungle forces Allston roast-beef place, Egleston Dominican restaurant to shut down

THURSDAY UPDATE: The Licensing Board voted to let the two restaurants re-open. However, it set Roast Beast's closing time at 7 p.m. - owners had asked for midnight.

The Boston Licensing Board ordered Roast Beast on Comm. Ave. and the Millennium Restaurant and Grill on Washington Street to shut today because they don't have licenses to serve food.

Owners of both restaurants told the board they opened after the city's Inspectional Services Department told them they could open as soon as they passed health inspections. Roast Beast opened last month; Millennium six months ago. Wrong: Restaurants also need a "common victualer's" license, which only the Boston Licensing Board doles out, Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer told them.

In both cases, the shutdown could be short - the board votes tomorrow morning on their requests for a common victualer's license. Ferrer told the owners of Millennium to think of today as a vacation day.

However, the issue could be more complicated for Roast Beast because, unlike Millennium, it has not met with the local civic association, which the board normally requires before approving a license. Representatives from both the mayor's office and district City Councilor Mark Ciommo said Allston Civic Association President Paul Berkeley indicated he would have no problems with the 7 p.m. closing originally proposed by Roast Beast. However, restaurant attorney Richard Lawton - whose wife and son are actually running the place - said the family wants the right to stay open until midnight, for the odd summer night when business is good enough to support that.

Lawton apologized for not having met with the civic association. As a South Shore resident, he said he was caught completely unawares by Boston restaurant rules and regulations, and that his wife took an ISD worker at his word that a health inspection was all she needed to open.

As in Boston, communities on the South Shore and the rest of the state require restaurants to obtain food-serving licenses. Unlike, Boston, however, the rest of the state's cities and towns do not have a licensing board appointed by the governor that operates independently from the city.