Beer-drinking off-duty cop and pals help get Newbury Street bar in trouble
A Boston cop who just didn't want to leave Daisy Buchanan's at closing time on June 3 - and who ordered a round of beers for himself and two friends nearly an hour later - earned the restaurant a trip to the Boston Licensing Board today, because two on-duty police detectives spotted the trio drinking their beers.
Owner Joseph Cimino apologized to the licensing board this morning. He said he realizes he should have kicked the trio out at 2, but that he felt "a little uncomfortable" because at least one, whom he said he knew, was a cop.
Cimino said the three came in a few minutes before the bar's legal closing time of 2 a.m. and asked if there was enough time for a drink. Cimino said sure and the three sidled up to the bar for Bud Lights. And then stayed and nursed their beers as workers cleaned up the place until almost 2:50 a.m., when Cimino decided to call it a night: He told everybody "it's all over," instructed the bartender to "wrap it up" - and then left.
Instead of leaving when he did, however, the off-duty cop asked for another round of beers, telling the bartender, "Joe wouldn't mind," Cimino said. About five minutes after that, detectives William Gallagher and Robert Mulvey, on routine patrol of Back Bay restaurants and clubs with liquor licenses, looked inside just as the bartender was handing them the beers. They then saw the three take drinks from the bottles, at which point they entered and issued a citation for letting patrons consume alcohol after closing time.
Cimino did not identify the cop; neither did Gallagher, who gave a report on the incident to the board.
Separately, Cimino also apologized to the bar for operating a four-table patio outside without a board license. Cimino said one of his staffers was supposed to apply for a permit for the patio last year, but never did, which he didn't realize until he got a citation.
The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take on the two issues.
Comments
The bar, blah blah blah
When is the hearing for the LEO's who didn't enforce the law being held? Never?
It'll be right after he mans up
And pays for the trouble he caused.
So, what is the law exactly?
So, what is the law exactly? If they had been drinking at 2:50 but had been served at 1:59, would that be legal? Is the issue the serving of a drink after 2?
Might be both
Board member Suzanne Ianella said customers "shouldn't be served after 2." But as we learned from the Haven incident, they shouldn't even have a beer in their hands after closing time. Guess we'll find out on Thursday to see how lenient the board is willing to be when it's nearly an hour past closing time and the bartender is handing out fresh beers.
Someone should
ask the board what a bigger problem is; serving three off duty, sober BPD officers, or Daisys dumping 150 inebriated patrons onto the street, all at once at 2am.
If I was a local resident, I know which one is more an issue.
Because one at a time would
Because one at a time would be so much better.
Yup
Easier to police, easier to confront, easier on noise and belligerence.
Not sure why you're against it, but dumping 150 drunk, rowdy assholes into the streets at once and leaving them to fend for themselves for the next 45 min until the area clears is not fun for residents.
The key is to fix this social problem, by allow people to filter out gingerly, and to support more late night places that sit and serve food and drinks in better atmospheres through the night; allowing other options than packed to the brim swill houses and bars.
Create an adult centered nightlife, and people will follow. Right now most places turn from eateries to straight up college bars after 7pm because they have so little time to make their money back for the night.
Clear out the tables, pack people in, turn of the kitchen and charge and arm and a leg for drinks. Then kick them all out at 1am. It's the Boston way, and it sucks.
From what I understand
I've been working at a bar in Boston for the past 5 years and from what I understand 2:30 a.m. is the absolute cut-off limit for the consumption of alcohol inside in establishment. We are able to have a shift drink at the end of the night but are always told that as of 2:30 a.m. all drinks need to be out of your hands and be done with. We had inspectors come by once at 2:37 a.m. and wrote us a citation because a few staffers had beers in the their hands.
City regulations allow for
City regulations allow for 'shift drinks?' I think not.
How about a 4AM closing time like a real city?
"World Class" cities don't have back woods closing times.
I agree, but maybe you'd be surprised at the closing times in
some bonafide world class cities. Even in London for example, most pubs [bars] close well before 2AM [and the underground, i.e. subway, shuts down at around 12:30-1AM.] Some clubs stay open late, many others do not due to local zoning.
Closing time in Los Angeles is 2AM, when bars must close if still open, and clubs stop serving alcohol at 2AM.
Just 2 examples. NYC is actually one of the relatively rare cities in the western world that truly is a 24 hr city.
London has an extensive Night
London has an extensive Night Bus network. (Most Americans probably didn't fully understand the Knight Bus joke in Harry Potter.)
LA has plenty of 24-hour bus routes.
Boston is one of the rare cities that has zero 24-hour transit service.
Take the bus in LA?
Hahahaha
People who can afford a car do not take the bus home from anywhere.
LA has the last laugh
LA bus weekday ridership: 1,142,800
Boston overall weekday ridership: 1,299,900
LA has almost as many people riding the bus as Boston has using all modes of the MBTA.
Arguably it should be higher since LA is a much bigger city, but still, it's strong.
Oh right
LA overall weekday ridership would have to include their fabulous subway system of 362K. That totally blows the MBTA away with its 1500k vs our 1300k, especially considering the LA pop of almost 4 million. So popular a public transit system. Ours is used by about twice the population of our city, and theirs used by a third the population of the city. Yup, that's the last laugh.
Well
502.7 sq miles vs 89.6 sq miles
Something tells me Boston's daily population fluctuates a lot more when you count commuters/greater metro area residents into the equation, because Boston proper is quite small land wise.
502 sq miles in MA would be stretch Boston out past 128 a bit and include everything inside of it (which is a good representation of the MBTA's area of service). We might even beat LA proper for density when considering that.
IOW it's not fair to count ridership on the MBTA that serves the whole metro region, against just the city's population within it's boarders. Boston just never swallowed up it's metro neighbors.
LA's borders are wacky
All about water politics, or so I'm told.
Anyway, as anon pointed out, what's the population in the MBTA service area? I would guess about 2 million.
LA is also building new subways faster than we ever could imagine. So they're catching up quick.
I think it's silly to deride bus ridership in LA when it nearly matches our total ridership.
Also, most importantly, "Last Laugh, LA" is a pretty cool alliteration.
California-wide closing time is 2am
So that limits LA and SF. One of the rare instances where Albany actually does the right thing in comparison.
Montreal's closing time is 3am, and it has night buses until morning.
Madrid goes until... dawn. And also has night buses running between 2am - 6am when the Metro is closed.
Sadly
The further back woods you go, the less likely you are to find a closing time.
Amen
I don't have any exact stats (obviously), but having lived in cities w/4am closing times (NYC and Chicago), as well as Boston, I'd say having a later "last call" doesn't necessarily make people drink more/cause more problems.
I'd argue that in NYC for example, it leads to a more orderly, staggered end of the night for most people. Some still go out at 9 and are done by 2, others go out at 11 and stay out until 4, but it eliminates the sh*t show that occurs every Fri/Sat night in Faniuel Hall/Boylston st/Fenway area where everyone is forced out into the street at the same time. If bars were allowed to stay open later, I'd bet that a lot of those people would leave at 2, or 2:15, 2:30, etc...and others would leave at 4. If you then had a few late night food places, people could then go get something to eat and catch the first T home at 5.
That and...
If people in this state weren't so afraid of alcohol then perhaps we could have a sprinkling of low key, walkable, neighborhood bars that could exist without the huge pressure to come up with revenue to pay for the extremely expensive license -- the money for which goes into some lucky bastard's pocket. This, instead of a much more sensible system of paying for the necessary public services (police, emergency response) through licensing fees.
What can you do? The evils of Puritanism live on.
Amen
I don't have any exact stats (obviously), but having lived in cities w/4am closing times (NYC and Chicago), as well as Boston, I'd say having a later "last call" doesn't necessarily make people drink more/cause more problems.
I'd argue that in NYC for example, it leads to a more orderly, staggered end of the night for most people. Some still go out at 9 and are done by 2, others go out at 11 and stay out until 4, but it eliminates the sh*t show that occurs every Fri/Sat night in Faniuel Hall/Boylston st/Fenway area where everyone is forced out into the street at the same time. If bars were allowed to stay open later, I'd bet that a lot of those people would leave at 2, or 2:15, 2:30, etc...and others would leave at 4. If you then had a few late night food places, people could then go get something to eat and catch the first T home at 5.
Trust me - by 2:00 AM your
Trust me - by 2:00 AM your friendly bar staff have had about as much of you as they can take.
Speaking...
...from experience? (as the annoying ranting patron alone and bitter at the end of the bar, not the friendly bar staff).
Unless "Archie's Place" exists somewhere in town.
Stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place
If you defy the off duty cop, you end up on the [censored] list.
If you obey the off duty cop, you risk getting in trouble immediately.
Not an easy choice.
Here is how it works
A bar can serve until 1:59:59 - it must be finished by 2:29:59
Very few bars serve that late and try to get people to leave right at 2 AM